Tricia

This should be easy. You seem to want to do some converting, so put it to some good use here.

I'm 15, and I've grown up in the church forever. I accepted Christ when I was 6 or 7, and rededicated my life last year in January.

But lately, I've been having some MAJOR issues in the doubting department. <a href="http://iljboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8069" target="_blank">Here</a> is a thread at the Christian boards I frequent, and <a href="http://iidb.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=44&t=001113" target="_blank">this</a> is my thoughts a couple days after that.

I also posted <a href="http://iidb.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=55&t=000450" target="_blank">this</a> recently.

Believe me, nothing would feel better right now than for someone to hit me upside the head and give me proof for why I'm wrong. I want it. But everything seems to be pulling me in the other direction.

If you really care for your sister-in-Christ, help me.

~Tricia

[ July 19, 2002: Message edited by: Tricia ]</p>

Grizzly

Space reserved for future comment

[ July 19, 2002: Message edited by: Grizzly ]</p>

MrDarwin

Tricia, it may surprise you to read what David Mathews said in <a href="http://iidb.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=50&t=000405&p=3" target="_blank">this thread</a> in EoG:

So it would seem that David is not here to do any converting, in fact seems to think that attempting to convert anybody is quite unnecessary, indeed that it doesn't matter one bit what you believe. So the question remains: why is he here? He has more or less admitted that what he wants is attention.

[ July 19, 2002: Message edited by: MrDarwin ]</p>

HelenM

Tricia,

Do you think you could articulate what causes you to doubt? I mean, your biggest objections to the Christian faith, at this point?

It might be helpful if you could.

love
Helen

Tricia

As I've said in those threads, my main issue is how the God of love in the NT can be compatible with the God who oversaw so much murder and rape and overall abuse in the OT.

Also, I don't feel God. I might have a one point, but my life is void of God as of right now and for as long as I can remember.

~Tricia

Queen of Swords

That's exactly what happened to me too, when I deconverted. The Old Testament is littered with detached foreskins and virgins' blood, but the New one does a flip-flop and exhorts people to love their enemies. Major policy change there, God. Was the PR that bad?

Sephiroth

I think the NT god is just going for more PR or alternatively, drinks too many alcohol beverages. For every good thing he says there is a, "Think not I've come to bring peace for I've come not to bring peace but a sword!" Fortunately, he's back to his good ole' self in Revelations.

wildernesse

Tricia,

The way I see religion, of any shape and size, is that it’s part of the culture of the people of a certain group. Religion is part of how people explained the world around them, kept societies together, and knew their purpose on this planet in regards to everything else. And that is still its function today. Probably the reason that God seems so different in the OT and NT is because the culture changed--and their view of God and how they fit in the picture of this world changed as well.

That’s how I would explain it academically—but not necessarily what I believe in my real life. After all, I’m a product of a Christian culture and I’m a Christian (whether you think I’m a good ‘un or a bad ‘un is another thing). If I were brought up in India, there’s a good chance that I would be something else. I haven’t had a problem with the idea that God in the OT seems different from God in the NT—and I don’t really know if either of those are portrayals of what God wholly is.

Actually, I think that a lot of your questions come from taking the Bible literally. Do you think that the Bible could still be inspired by God and not word for word literal? Why should the Bible be taken literally? Or, conversely, why shouldn’t it be up for interpretation?

And what on Earth is David Mathews talking about? All atheists in heaven? Why? Probably because, deep down in your hearts, you all know that we Christians are right, and you just don’t want to be uncool in front of your friends. Watch out, he’s on to you!

--tiba

Toto

I don't see how interpreting the Bible helps.

Why did God inspire man to write all of those terrible stories about killing, warfare, rape, etc? Couldn't a good, loving God inspire stories with better examples?

RufusAtticus

Mythologically, the OT god is same god that's in the NT, the Koran, the Book of Mormon, and some other religious writtings.

However, the nature and personality of that god varies a lot. It's a very interesting task to try to see how divine personalities changed and how that reflects on changing cultures and different authors. You can see the same thing in other cultures with deep litterary history. I think there are similar changes in Indian and Greco-Roman writtings over the years. Basically, Christianity isn't as unique as its ethno-centric believers what you to think.
With respect to Christianity, my main problem is that so many of its adherents prefer to follow the militaristic OT God instead of Jesus's God. I find it so odd that so many gentiles follow a god that only cares about the Jewish people.

~~RvFvS~~

[ July 20, 2002: Message edited by: RufusAtticus ]</p>