How would you know God hasn't visited you and you simply didn't know it was Him? Hebrews 13:2 “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” Even if He revealed Himself to you claiming He was God, how would you respond? Would you believe He was, if He performed a magic trick for you? I doubt anything would turn you into a believer.
If there is something that would turn me into a believer then God, being omniscient, would know what it is and, being omnipotent, would have the power to provide it and, being omnibenevolent (and wanting me to avoid eternal damnation) would want to provide it. So why hasn't he?
I was a Christian until about age 22. The question isn't did I look but have you? Have you taken a serious look at your religion? Or have you just bought what you've been told?
I did not believe what I was told at first, but what I have been told is being cemented with my own experiences. Before Jesus man always assumed it is the toughest man with the biggest stick that is in charge. Then the toughest man ever tells us "Love your neighbor as you love yourselves" , and even "Love your enemies". Love your enemies? There is nothing less obvious, but it works in practice.
22 is a very young age. Still it says nothing about how long you were a Christian and/or how involved with it you were.
Really? Before Jesus it was assumed that the toughest man with the biggest stick was in charge? Funny how the Roman Republic (a democracy) existed for about 500 years BEFORE the alleged birth of Jesus and then became an Empire shortly before Jesus was born continuing on for another 300 years (Western Empire) and was the form of government during the life of Jesus. Furthermore we have no idea what Jesus may (or may not) have said. The first gospel was not written until 70 or so years AFTER Jesus death. Up until then it was a giant game of telephone. You think that ANY story could stay accurate with about 70 years of telling and retelling?
From about age 15 to 22 and I was VERY involved. I was part of our church youth group, once every couple of months the youth group led services at our church. I was part of our youth group singing group going to different places and performing shows. So yeah, I was very involved.
Question.... when you say "religion" are you talking about what you are told by those you see higher up than yourself? In an organization you might join? Faith comes from the Word of God and that alone. As you grow in faith you partner with others and the Spirit reveals all things. When you do this.....you begin to see the difference in "Religion" and "Faith". "No one comes to the Father unless the Spirit draws him."
I was born into a home with one Christian parent who would take me to church every Sunday. I didn't start reading the Bible until I was in my late twenties. If you want to know what Jesus is about, read the first six books of the New Testament. The rest of the book is mostly commentary.
I had Faith that what the Bible said was true. I truly believed that Jesus had died for my sins I was saved through the Grace of God. I had this faith because no one ever presented the other side to me. I was never challenged in that faith. I believed the Bible to be true because no one had even suggested the Bible was not true. It wasn't until I got out of that bubble and started to investigate these claims for myself that I realized that the "truth" of my faith wasn't true at all. I came to realize that "faith" is exactly what Mark Twain said it was, "Having faith is believing in something you just know ain't true." Most of the major stories of the Bible just are not true. Adam & Eve, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, the birth of Jesus...none of that is true (or, at the very least, not substantiated by any evidence whatsoever). If none of these stories, which can be subject to scrutiny, aren't true then why should we believe any of the stories that CAN'T be subjected to scrutiny. Even Thomas Jefferson did not believe the supernatural claims of the Bible. And the very idea of heaven, eternal life and salvation are supernatural claims.
Funny, I grew up just the opposite. Grew up around those who told me it was just stories written by men. The other side of that was seeing men in fancy garb, clerical collars etc and just came to the realization that was a bunch of bull. Then I read for myself. Studied the canonization process and how the Epistles were written. How the Old Testament revealed the New. More wisdom there than anything ever written by man. Even small things like women of the time of the resurrection had nor credibility as witnesses yet they were the first to witness the resurrection of Jesus. Why would someone making up a story to convince others use women as a witness? And that is not all by any means. So did Mark Twain believe the sun would come up every morning? Or did he know it "wasn't true"? Mark Twain was full of himself!
Although I don't share all of your experiences, I can respect your honesty. It's not easy to keep the faith in the face of contrary opinions. I've shared before, that if not for speaking in tongues I also might be in your shoes.
Belief in the sun coming up is not faith, it's based on experience and observation. The sun will come up tomorrow because it has come up every morning for the entire course of human history. Even your own Bible says: Hebrews 1:11 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Why would someone use women in their story as witnesses to convince others? You are, right now, using the fact that the story of the resurrection of Jesus uses women as witnesses to bolster the idea that the story is true. Do you not see the irony of that. You are claiming that no one would use women in a false story thus the story must be true. THERE is the reason they would use women in their story. The very argument you are making is the reason!
And the same reason you use about the sun is why I say the evidence of God is all around us.Order is all around us! You like quoting scripture.....I would suggest you reread the 1st and second chapter of Romans! The Sun coming up tomorrow is all about faith. You take it for granted, that's all. You are ungrateful regarding the Sun and the Son. There are no guarantees. The Sun could redirect our orbit and your life would be over quicker than those in the Titan Sub. I don't need a Bible to know Heb 1:11. I've committed it to heart. Why is it unbelievers are always ones to quote Chapter and verse? They believe it is all folly yet, like earthly lawyers, they try, in error, to beat Christians over the head with it! If Scripture is man inspired as you assume, I think men could use a better theme than to have women be the ones to discover the resurrection when their witness was useless in that day and age. You strain at a knat and swallow a camel.
No, the sun cannot redirect our orbit tomorrow. The observations made over thousands of years of how the sun and our planet interact led to Newton's laws of motion and gravitation. Those laws have been tested and refined since he first wrote them down. We understand with amazing accuracy how this works. When man first observed the sun in the sky he called it a god. Then it became the chariot of the god. Then it was understood that it was just a celestial body that orbited around the earth. Then we finally understood that we orbit it, not the other way around. We first thought that it was a ball of burning gas, just like any burning gas we observe here on earth. Then we understood the nuclear forces at play and now know it isn't a burning (as we use the term) ball of gas but a ball of gas undergoing nuclear fusion at it's core. NONE of this information came from the Bible. ZERO. None of this information was divinely revealed by some cosmic being. The idea that the sun could just "redirect our orbit" tomorrow is ludicrous. It is not faith that informs me of this. It is observation and reason. The very things you need to abandon if you want to cling to religious dogma.
The Psalmist (ancient biblical writers) must have known something about the orbit of the earth around the sun long before the flat earthers posited their beliefs. Psalms 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.”
That says NOTHING about the sun or the earth or their relative orbital paths. It's just another example of someone trying to make their Holy Book fit the facts AFTER the facts have been discovered.
