I have been questioning my faith lately

austinhirsch1999

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As of lately I have been questioning the validity of Christianity lately. I do accept Jesus as my lord and savior, however I don’t agree with the Bible on all things. Like premarital abstinence and gay relationships or how the earth has existed for only 6,000 years.


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MoreCoffee

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As of lately I have been questioning the validity of Christianity lately. I do accept Jesus as my lord and savior, however I don’t agree with the Bible on all things. Like premarital abstinence and gay relationships or how the earth has existed for only 6,000 years.


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The holy scriptures are intended to help Christians live godly lives and as such they ought to be read as encouragement to do and say good things. But it takes time and experience to learn the lessons in the holy scriptures. Don't be discouraged when somethings in the scriptures do not make sense right now. Give yourself time and freedom to learn and grow into a better understanding of what the scriptures are teaching on matters like premarital abstinence and gay relationships. Sometimes people may try to rush you into taking a stand that suits their views but don't let them do that to you. Take you own time, pray, and wait for life and experience as well as the Holy Spirit to give you wisdom in the matters you raised. And don't be pushed into any theory of the Earth's age based solely upon somebody's opinion about what Genesis "really means" and how the ages of the patriarchs and other things proves that the earth can only be a few thousand years old.

God be with you, and take courage. Faith in Jesus Christ does make good sense it's just the half baked theories of some people that make it look like Christians need to believe very stupid things.
 

faramir.pete

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It is not unusual for people to struggle with things in the bible, indeed sometimes through that struggle you may come to realise that you have been misunderstanding precisely what is in the bible and what actually is not.

Wrestling with these ideas does not mean you are in danger of losing your faith, far from it , in my opinion, this shows you are ready to take the step of exploring exactly what was meant by whatever passage or passages are giving you cause to doubt.

I pray that the Holy Spirit will open the truth of the word to your heart and that you will find the truly loving God behind the words.


Pete from Peterborough UK
 

Imalive

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As of lately I have been questioning the validity of Christianity lately. I do accept Jesus as my lord and savior, however I don’t agree with the Bible on all things. Like premarital abstinence and gay relationships or how the earth has existed for only 6,000 years.


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That is just one theory. GAP theory says the earth is much older and it's a recreation. There are theistic evolutionists. It's not important for salvation, so I'm like: who cares how old the earth is? Get to know Jesus personally and have a relationship with Him. Far more important.
 

Stravinsk

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As of lately I have been questioning the validity of Christianity lately. I do accept Jesus as my lord and savior, however I don’t agree with the Bible on all things. Like premarital abstinence and gay relationships or how the earth has existed for only 6,000 years.


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Is there an implied question in there somewhere that I am missing sir?
 

Lamb

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As of lately I have been questioning the validity of Christianity lately. I do accept Jesus as my lord and savior, however I don’t agree with the Bible on all things. Like premarital abstinence and gay relationships or how the earth has existed for only 6,000 years.


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What do you believe about the Savior? Maybe instead of talking about the things you don't like about scripture we can talk about the things that you affirm and most of us agree on?
 

Albion

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As of lately I have been questioning the validity of Christianity lately. I do accept Jesus as my lord and savior, however I don’t agree with the Bible on all things. Like premarital abstinence and gay relationships or how the earth has existed for only 6,000 years.
I don't see why what you mentioned should cause you to question Christianity, Austin. The issues named are not seen in the same way by all denominations. Far from it.
 

Josiah

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[MENTION=406]austinhirsch1999[/MENTION]


As of lately I have been questioning the validity of Christianity lately. I do accept Jesus as my lord and savior


Then you ARE a Christian! And I rejoice in that!


It is normal (and often healthy) to wonder, to ask questions, even doubt. And I often think the "problems" people have with "the details" is that they disagree with the SPIN they've heard - not with Christianity, not with the Gospel, not with faith/trust/reliance of Christ as Savior.


You are invited to begin threads on the 3 issues you raised"
+ Premarital abstinence
+ Gay relationships
+ 6,000 year old Earth
You'll find CHRISTIANS on all sides of those, indeed you'll find conservative "Bible believing" Christians on all sides of those issues. Many (including me) would have passionate opinions but these are opinions among Christians.


Stick around...... DISCUSS....... share, question, LISTEN, dialogue...... this is an opinionated (and at times passionate) site but very "tolerant" open and real. You may not "resolve" issues (probably not, lol) BUT we can discuss. And I'd be QUICK to embrace you as a brother in Christ and THANK YOU for being honest.




- Josiah
 

tango

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As of lately I have been questioning the validity of Christianity lately. I do accept Jesus as my lord and savior, however I don’t agree with the Bible on all things. Like premarital abstinence and gay relationships or how the earth has existed for only 6,000 years.


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There are all sorts of theories about the origins of the earth that result in a wide range of ages of the earth, that all ultimately begin with "In the beginning God created..." It's not strictly necessary to believe that you can add up the ages of everybody in the Bible and calculate the time the first wriggling things wriggled in the sea.

If you look at the dietary requirements imposed on the Jews it seems largely arbitrary but actually makes a lot of sense. In a time when the Jews didn't have modern day refrigeration it makes sense to avoid pork, shrimp etc. Even today many people choose to abstain from such things for health reasons, if not for reasons of keeping kosher.

In the same way it makes sense to restrict sexual activity to within marriage. Sure, it's arguably more fun from a secular perspective to not get caught up in all that fuddy-duddy nonsense from a bygone age but the statistics on the prevalence of STDs shows one immediate reason why sex with one partner for life makes a lot of sense. Likewise you just have to look at the level of social decay associated with areas where fathers are nowhere to be seen (particularly in the case of young boys who need an adult male role model and, in the absence of a father, often end up looking in all sorts of inappropriate places for a role model to follow) to see how the breakdown of the family - both children born out of wedlock and the depressing statistics for marital breakdown where one or both spouses puts themselves before their spouse - to see another good reason for sex being reserved for marriage.

Arguably homosexual activity, at least within a monogamous relationship, is harder to justify prohibiting even from a secular perspective. The more sexually promiscuous among the homosexual community, who may go through 50-100 partners in the space of a month, naturally face the same risks associated with casual sex as their heterosexual counterparts (although with the obvious omission of the chance of pregnancy), although if a gay couple is in a long term committed relationship then arguably their risks of STDs are minimal and their chances of unwanted pregnancies are zero. That said, much depends on whether we look at God's rules as being created because God is some kind of cosmic killjoy who wants to make sure we don't have too much fun, or because God wants the best for us and knows that certain types of activity might seem acceptable now but have longer term consequences that are bad for us.
 

MennoSota

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As of lately I have been questioning the validity of Christianity lately. I do accept Jesus as my lord and savior, however I don’t agree with the Bible on all things. Like premarital abstinence and gay relationships or how the earth has existed for only 6,000 years.


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Let me get this straight.
You question the validity of Christianity because you don't agree with the Bible. You then mention 3 areas where you disagree.
1) Sexual abstinence before marriage.
2) Same-sex sexual abstinence
3) Age of the earth, declared by some Christians.
Is that correct?
2 Timothy 3:16 says:
"All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong with our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right."
It seems to me that you are struggling with whether God is your Sovereign Lord or whether you just want God as a consultant while you rule your own life.
My question to you is: Who will do a better job ruling your life?
God will not change what He declares in the Bible. If you cannot submit yourself under God's ordinances and will, then you know that you have been faking faith and you have never been under God's guidance. If you can accept God's word as authoritative and submit yourself under His teaching, it is possible you are reconciled with God.
The decision really is whether God will rule every area of your life and conform you to His image or whether you will be in rebellion to God and thus claim to be your own Lord. That is strictly between you and God.
I will pray that you will be kept under the Lordship of God and that God will conform your will and opinions to be in alignment with His.
God is not going to change His rule to accommodate your opinion, so either get in line (repent) or rebel. If God has saved you, I know which path you will follow.
 

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Let me get this straight.
You question the validity of Christianity because you don't agree with the Bible. You then mention 3 areas where you disagree.
1) Sexual abstinence before marriage.
2) Same-sex sexual abstinence
3) Age of the earth, declared by some Christians.
Is that correct?
2 Timothy 3:16 says:
"All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong with our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right."
It seems to me that you are struggling with whether God is your Sovereign Lord or whether you just want God as a consultant while you rule your own life.
My question to you is: Who will do a better job ruling your life?
God will not change what He declares in the Bible. If you cannot submit yourself under God's ordinances and will, then you know that you have been faking faith and you have never been under God's guidance. If you can accept God's word as authoritative and submit yourself under His teaching, it is possible you are reconciled with God.
The decision really is whether God will rule every area of your life and conform you to His image or whether you will be in rebellion to God and thus claim to be your own Lord. That is strictly between you and God.
I will pray that you will be kept under the Lordship of God and that God will conform your will and opinions to be in alignment with His.
God is not going to change His rule to accommodate your opinion, so either get in line (repent) or rebel. If God has saved you, I know which path you will follow.
You can't go wrong with God basically :)
I love that, let his grace guide you and teach you and abide in you and you will be following the narrow straight in Gods merciful love.

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Josiah

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There are all sorts of theories about the origins of the earth that result in a wide range of ages of the earth, that all ultimately begin with "In the beginning God created..." It's not strictly necessary to believe that you can add up the ages of everybody in the Bible and calculate the time the first wriggling things wriggled in the sea.

If you look at the dietary requirements imposed on the Jews it seems largely arbitrary but actually makes a lot of sense. In a time when the Jews didn't have modern day refrigeration it makes sense to avoid pork, shrimp etc. Even today many people choose to abstain from such things for health reasons, if not for reasons of keeping kosher.

In the same way it makes sense to restrict sexual activity to within marriage. Sure, it's arguably more fun from a secular perspective to not get caught up in all that fuddy-duddy nonsense from a bygone age but the statistics on the prevalence of STDs shows one immediate reason why sex with one partner for life makes a lot of sense. Likewise you just have to look at the level of social decay associated with areas where fathers are nowhere to be seen (particularly in the case of young boys who need an adult male role model and, in the absence of a father, often end up looking in all sorts of inappropriate places for a role model to follow) to see how the breakdown of the family - both children born out of wedlock and the depressing statistics for marital breakdown where one or both spouses puts themselves before their spouse - to see another good reason for sex being reserved for marriage.

Arguably homosexual activity, at least within a monogamous relationship, is harder to justify prohibiting even from a secular perspective. The more sexually promiscuous among the homosexual community, who may go through 50-100 partners in the space of a month, naturally face the same risks associated with casual sex as their heterosexual counterparts (although with the obvious omission of the chance of pregnancy), although if a gay couple is in a long term committed relationship then arguably their risks of STDs are minimal and their chances of unwanted pregnancies are zero. That said, much depends on whether we look at God's rules as being created because God is some kind of cosmic killjoy who wants to make sure we don't have too much fun, or because God wants the best for us and knows that certain types of activity might seem acceptable now but have longer term consequences that are bad for us.


[MENTION=406]austinhirsch1999[/MENTION]


Yup, these are all issues we'd be GLAD to DISCUSS ... all within the framework of ALL of us being Christians....

There will be different views here (CH is a diverse community), there will be passionate opinions here (happens a lot), but the discussion just might be helpful.
 

IACOBVS

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As of lately I have been questioning the validity of Christianity lately. I do accept Jesus as my lord and savior, however I don’t agree with the Bible on all things. Like premarital abstinence and gay relationships or how the earth has existed for only 6,000 years.


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As others have already stated here, the things which you are having questions about are viewed in many ways by different Christians. Like you, I would disagree with the conservative interpretations of the Bible regarding the issues that you mention. However, that doesn't mean that you (or I) disagree with the Bible per se about them. It is good to question things.
 
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