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Rational Believer
As a Christian, it hurts me to see how ignorant and gullible many fellow-Christians can be. Many Christians believe virtually anything that merely sounds spiritual. In the process:
They throw away the credibility of Christianity
They give many non-Christians, some of whom DO think rationally about things, all the necessary ammunition to blast holes in Christianity.
More specifically, ignorant and gullible fellow-Christians are the ones who contribute to Christianity as a religion having a bad name among Atheists and Agnostics.
I continuously search for the harmony between the Bible and science. I cannot understand how any person is able to live a dualistic life where he or she believes one thing in the tried-and-proven world of science and maths, but has to switch off part of his/her mind in order to believe in the Bible and God, and vice versa.
If the God of the Bible is also the God who created and sustains the universe, then what we read about Him in the Bible and what we discover about Him and His laws in nature through science and maths CANNOT contradict each other.
The Bible is true just as science is true, because God is in both. If there is conflict, we need to re-evaluate our premises. Sometimes long-held beliefs or theories in science are superseded by new ones, like Einstein’s theory improved Newton’s laws. Long-held beliefs about things we thought as true about our Christian faith have to change.
For example, it was not long ago when apartheid was being preached from the pulpit. But that “gospel truth” has since been found to be wrong — and we changed our mind about it (or I hope all did!). Similarly, only a few centuries ago, it was believed that the earth was the centre of the universe — based on Bible scriptures. Now it is common knowledge that the earth is a planet in a solar system filled with more, in a galaxy with billions of stars, in a universe with billions of galaxies. It was found that the scripture was interpreted too narrowly.
The one thing we Christians have to learn is to not become fundamentalist in our mindset about what we think we know about the Bible; about how we understand God, and what we believe. Instead, we have to grow.
Christians have to make up their OWN mind about what they believe. A Christian cannot “believe” what he believes because his parents believed that, or they were brought up in a church denomination. That is not true faith. That is hypocrisy: you do not really believe it any more, you merely SAY so — and you go through the motions.
When it comes to your world view:
l Make sure what you profess you believe, and what you actually DO, line up. Else you are lying to yourself
l Have your OWN opinion, not that of the denomination you “worship” at, nor that of the preacher, else your opinion changes when the preacher moves along.
When you stand before God one day, He is not going to ask you what your preacher believed, or what denomination you worshipped at. No, it’s going to be you and God — alone! So, I suggest you start getting answers for YOURSELF — and live accordingly.
The biggest lie in the church is “blind faith”. There is no such thing as blind faith! You always have to have something you know to be true to believe in.
But do not merely believe something because someone supposedly in authority said it.
That is middle age thinking. And there is still far too much of that going around.
It is time for a Christian Spring... – News24
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