What made you believe in what you believe?

If Chelsea and Fulham both fell down a few leagues, I'm sure that Chelsea would get just as many, if not more, fans attending the games. Although a lot of us Chelsea supporters are glory-hunting plastics, there are a still a lot who have been supporting them since the 60's at least.

I am a Yankees fan at birth, and have met quite a few plastics along the way. Nevertheless, they are my team and will continue following the team even if we never win another World Series.

Sorry for pulling the thread off topic. I'll shut up now.

 

Can you show me any biblical reference to support this.

Jesus himself stated clearly that narrow is path to salvation:

Matthew 7:13,14 "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it." (the Sermon of the Mount).

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'
(Matt.7:21-23).

"Many are invited, but few are chosen" (Matt.22:14).

"Someone asked him, "Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?" He said to them, "Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, 'Sir, open the door for us.' "But he will answer, 'I don't know you or where you come from.' "Then you will say, 'We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.' But he will reply, 'I don't know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!'
(Luke.13:23-29).

In Matthew 10:32-33, Jesus said, “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.”

John 3:16-18"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."

Pretty plain and clear. I'd suggest that you might want to back up your advice with more than just your opinion on the matter when talking about the state of one's soul in eternity.

 

ASF said "intelligence" responsible for the universe, not god as argued from literal interpretation of the bible.

 

Must....resist....temptation...

 

I would rather follow the opinions of those who witnessed what they wrote then, to quote you, the unsubstantiated opinion of someone based on absolutely nothing but his or her own "feelings" about a particular topic.

Matthew was an actual eyewitness to the words and works of Jesus. He spent three years with Jesus before he was crucified. Matthew was an educated man, a tax collector by trade for Rome, before being called by Christ.

Luke was a physician, also an educated man. An associate of Paul also wrote the book of Acts. If we accept that Luke was in fact the author of the Gospel bearing his name and also the Acts of the Apostles, certain details of his personal life can be reasonably assumed. While he does exclude himself from those who were eyewitnesses to Jesus' ministry, he repeatedly uses the word "we" in describing the Pauline missions in Acts of the Apostles, indicating that he was personally there at those times.

John, son of Zebedee, the author of the fourth Gospel, written 40 to 50 years after Christ's crucifixion, was also a witness to the things he testified too.

Multiple witnesses, writing multiple accounts, none of which contradict in any way each other. Matthew, Mark, John, Peter, John the apostle, and others.

The evidence of Christ Life, Death, and Resurrection is substantial and overwhelming. The empty tomb stands alone as testimony. Yet you have the eyewitness testimony of many. The works substantiate the testimony. If Christ had not lived, died and rose again, then why would so many be tortured and then killed for what THEY KNEW was a complete lie! A lie that they KNEW. Quite a conspiracy. And to what end? What was to gain to protect this lie? You tell me. They gain nothing if this was just a lie. But because it was not a lie, they put down THEIR lives as well.

There are absolute truths. 1) All have sinned! ALL!

2) The wages of SIN (singular!) is death!

3) No one can come to the Father based on their own good works. Sin permanently separates us from God. Without redemption for sin, all are lost.

4) Christ paid the price for sin, died, and is alive today. "In the evening of the first day of the week, the disciples were gathered together with the doors locked because of their fear of the Jews. Then Jesus came and stood among them, and said to them "Peace to you!” Having said this, He showed them His hands and His side. So the disciples rejoiced when the saw the Lord". John 20: 19-20.

5) Without redemption, there can be no relationship with a loving God, who gave all He could give for both you and me. What more could He give?

6) God wants a personal relationship with you; all you have to do is ask! "Listen, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and have dinner with him and he with Me." Rev 3:20.

Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father except through the Son! Anyone who comes to Christ is saved by grace through Faith and not of their own works!

Gordon, for me living in Christ and dying is gain! Now if I live in anything else, and die, it is loss. Substitute anything you can think of in this sentence...

To live in _______ and dying.....is LOSS.

Only living in Christ and dying is gain! For I consider the suffering of this present time is not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to me. All of heaven eagerly awaits God's son's to be revealed. The Holy Spirit that is in me also eagerly waits for adoption, the redemption of my spiritual body. It is in this hope, through faith in Christ, by grace, that I am saved. Yet hope that is seen is not hope because who hopes for what he sees?

Yet still, a personal, tangible intimate relationship with a loving God is possible. You need only ask to receive. Seek to find. God gave his life, what more would he give you if you only seek him....you are that valuable to God!

 

Do you have anything worthwhile or interesting to contribute to this thread?

 

Did you really have to quote the entire thing?

 

Sorry. Laziness.

 

Jesus is happy again.

 

I have to say, the silliness of the gospel is one of the main reasons I quit believing in that story. That came a good while before I quit believing in god though.

 

I liken it to peeling away layers. I've found myself doing that over the years which why I'm where I'm at in thought. I peeled away the falseshoods of Mormonism, then Christrianity, and then finally, a belief in God altogether. Each step I suffered a considerable amount of congnitive dissonance but I still found myself better off each time. It's amazing how much energy I expended trying to glorify something that isn't there. Now I can comfortably go about my business doing the good that I would normally do, but not worrry about whether I was good enough for god. It's really a nice way to live.

 

You are exactly right! Nothing we do is ever going to be good enough for God.

But there is good news!

You don't have to do a thing!

The gift of God is Salvation through Christ, and it is open and available to anyone who simply asks!

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from youselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast." Eph 2:8

 

Great.

God, if you exist, forgive me for not believing in you. Amen.

Now I can go about my business.

 

I was raised as a Pentecostal evangelical Christian in Yambol, Bulgaria. (Side note: evangelical Christians in Bulgaria are less than 0.5% of the population). However, in early childhood I exhibited an aversion and resistance to the very idea of God. I am thankful that my parents never tried to force things on me and merely presented what they believed, leaving me to make up my mind. Eventually, I came to accept Jesus Christ into my life. I cannot attribute that decision to reason - I was simply too young at the time to weigh all the evidence and come to a decision. I attribute it to a sudden change of heart.

At age 12 my parents and I moved to the United States. It wasn't until I came to the US that I seriously began to question my faith. There were two factors which contributed to this. First, as I got older, smarter, and better-educated, more and more and questions about my faith began to emerge. Second, there were things about American evangelical Christians that I didn't like. The ultra-conservatism and militarism of the religious right turned me off because of their contradiction to the New Testament. While the vast majority of evangelical Christians I've met here are wonderful, compassionate people, the fact that they were afraid to speak out against, say, Pat Robertson, because "he's one of ours" really bothered me.

By the time I graduated from high school, I had some serious doubts about my faith. I had more questions than I could find answers for. Liberal theology and agnosticism became increasingly appealing to me. But ironically, as I went through college, my faith was actually strengthened - quite the opposite from most people. First, I discovered Soren Kierkegaard. His idea of the "leap of faith" really appealed to me. I felt like I could relate to Kierkegaard because he was a passionate Christian, even thought the duality of Christ's nature made no sense to him. I became increasingly interested in existentialism, particularly Christian existentialism and the writings of Kierkegaard and Berdyaev. I eventually decided that I could not abandon my faith even though I could not rationally defend it.

Over the last half year, however, I have become more and more convinced that there is a rational basis for some basic Christian beliefs, such as the divinity of Christ and His resurrection. This notion was fueled by my research into the historical evidence for the life of Christ and his early followers and the logical inferences that can be drawn from it. I expected that my quest for the truth would make me more skeptical (as it usually does), but in the end quite the opposite happened. I don't claim that everything about Christianity makes sense to me now. I still have some serious philosophical objections and find some logical inconsistencies. But I'm willing to put them aside because of what God has done in my life, and make that leap of faith. Christianity doesn't make perfect sense to me, but neither does atheism. And after all, if I could rationally and empirically defend all of my beliefs, what would be the point of faith?

 

The point of faith? It's where organized religion gets its power, nothing more. The lessons of all religions should be allowed to exist independently of the need for faith, frankly. We should believe it's best to be good because it's best.

 

So you don't know even know whether you're an "atheist" or an "agnostic"?

And you're not scared straight?

What are you? Young? Tangential? Ephemeral? Illusory?

Since you have no idea what you even believe, what the hell are you talking about? Your own lack of substance?

You fear faith because you fear your own self...not to mention how much you fear your neighbor (which goes without saying). If you fear God, you won't have to fear your own self, or even that of your neighbor. You ought to try it sometime. You might even figure out whether you're an "atheist" or an "agnostic".

 

You can dis' God all you want. You can even dis' J.C. all you want. The Lord will indeed forgive you multiple times over for such perversions.

But you better dare not dis' the Holy Spirit. There's no comin' back from that one.

 

The "good" you do. Like spreading the lie that God doesn't exist?

You're rich.

 

Please explain this.

 

I'm glad you're a judge.