In the past, no matter how much I read the Bible, I had thought that it didn't encourage questions or questioners. I soon realized that my call to questioners and my previous belief about the Bible had become incompatible.
As I started this new Bible study, I realized how much I valued the cocoon I had built around myself. I realized how much I valued my own safety when it came to the Bible. As long as I could fit it into my neat, theological categories, I did just fine, at least, on the surface.
Fear. All of us feel it. There is no shame in feeling it, although we often think it's the height of sin to just have the feeling. It often comes to us when we are in situations that are completely out of the realm of our abilities. We have no way to cope, so we often fall back on what we know. Rarely do we enter into those questions and feel their full brute force. That is, until God makes us face them.
We feel fear and then we lash out at the person who is doing the asking. We react in fear not because God is challenged but because our idols are being called into question; the idols of success, influence, power and control.
Atheists often talk about how Christians and the Bible encourage blind belief. Christians often think it as well. When I struggled with doubt, I avoided the Bible. It made me ill to even think about reading it.
I have to say, rethinking how I approached questioning in the Bible turned out to be harder than I thought. I had such an ingrained attitude driven by misquoted scripture, "Didn't Jesus say we should have the faith of a child?"
It's true, He did, but it's my belief we haven't really thought about His words. Have you ever been around kids? Kids do have a simple faith, but they also question everything. My kids ask intense questions like "Why does God let people die? Why do I feel scared? Why was this person mean to me?"
I find it much easier to answer the questions of adults than kids.
Jesus' first words of the Sermon on the Mount, "Blessed are the Poor in Spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of God." What is interesting about that phrase, "Poor in Spirit," is the literal translation, which is "Spirit beggars."
God wants us to see that we are panhandlers covered in our own filth. He wants us to admit that we are full of doubts. He wants us to bring them out into the open before Him and lay them at His feet. God wants us to see that He understands our doubt.
How do we know this?
Eloi, Eloi, lema, sabachthani.
Recognize this? Jesus said it. He said it on the most horrible day in history, the day God died, and the day that God doubted Himself.
My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?
At this very moment, God is calling Himself into question. At this moment, all of the skubulos (see St. Paul's letter to the Philippians) and sin of the world has been placed on God's shoulders. He takes the blame for everything. God embraces His responsibility by paying the price required.
Forsaken. You have forsaken me.
Jesus is quoting Psalm 21, a Psalm that expresses ultimate agony and feelings of abandonment. He is echoing the Old Testament theme of the struggle with belief in God. Psalm 88 is a perfect example of this struggle. The Psalmist questions God's sanity and the darkness of the world. Unlike most Psalms, it doesn't end on a happy note. It ends with, "My companions have become darkness."
This passage of scripture is actually in the Bible. Its mere presence destroys the idea that God doesn't allow people to question him. The Psalmist asks stark and terrible questions.
"Vanity, Vanity, everything is Vanity," begins one of the most question intensive books of the Bible. The writer of Ecclesiastes asks disturbing questions like, "What use is pleasure? Work? Why bother? Why should I strive to be wise?"
Underneath all of these questions are these "Why does God allow death? Why give us any pleasure in the first place? What's the point of it all?"
These are questions that are asked to a God who doesn't seem to answer. The questioner in Ecclesiastes is not struck down, but he isn't answered either.
This theme plays out starkly and loudly in the book of Job. It's a tragic story. Here is Job, an upright man who believed in God. We are told that he even gave offerings on behalf of his children in case they didn't believe God. This guy had all his bases covered.
Then, in what seems like a barroom bet between God and Satan, Job becomes the focus of a series of horrible tragedies. His crops are destroyed. His property raided and, what strikes me as the worst of the worst, his children are killed in a horrible windstorm.
Job never curses God, but he does question. He calls God into account. He demands that God explain Himself. He feels forsaken and unloved.
Job's friends appear on the scene, and they aren't really any help. In a modern retelling of Job, the Coen brothers' movie A Serious Man illustrates Job's friends' futility through three Rabbi's who fail to answer the questions of a man whose life has come undone. They all give him the same advice that Job's friends gave him.
Shut up. You have probably sinned somewhere.
Don't ask God questions.
When God appears on the scene in Job, he does something very interesting. He answers Job by asking more questions. God doesn't give Job any pat answers. Instead, he asks Job:
Who are you in relationship to me and the rest of the world? Do you think you are the only one who suffers?
As I read through the biblical discussion of doubt, I realized how much the Bible really does describe reality, especially the reality of the human condition. It calls us to question and to doubt. The relief I felt can barely be described. I felt liberated. I could openly bring out my doubts and not get struck by lightning.
My faith had been restored through doubt.
Follow Rev. Jonathan Weyer on Twitter: www.twitter.com/spookypastor
Don't we all?
The best antidote for doubt is evidence leading to hope and then to faith.
A. How is life better for a person without God
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B.Great advances in your life without God in your life.
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Thanks..
1. Living in reality, combined with critical thinking, logic and reason is the clearest way to live because you will not be unduly influenced with religious fantasies and woo hoo.
2. You say god is real, I say it's an imaginary being in your mind. This clears up areas in the brain to live a life not afflicted by cults like religion.
3. Advances? I had a much less chance of being abused by pedophiles. I have been able to keep my money and not being forced to give it to religious scammers and hucksters. Like L Ron Hubbard said, if you want to make money, start a religion.
I'll bet you believe in homeopathy as well.
Which of the 10,000+ gods in history do you get on bended knee for?
2. God never doubted Himself.
Paul wanred us that individual would show upand use the "word game" controversy to confuse many. Paul says that this invidiual is proud and knows nothing. This invividual is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reveling, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of these people with corrupt minds and destitute of the truth (1 Timothy 6:4-5).
The word "rape" I do not beleive is found any where in the Bible. Using your logic, are we to conclude that what occured with the Levite's concubine in Judges 19:25, was that they only knew her? Knew her? what does that mean. She wasn't raped because it didn't exactly say "rape"? Jesus is Jesus not because of words but becsue of eye witness testimony( 2Peter 1:16-17). Its all about faith-not words-but evidence.
HOw are you?
and Burton Mack , "Who Wrote The New Testament". These arn't 'new atheism diatribes' as they call them but real scholarship.
They remove doubt about why priests write and edit scriptures, the ratio of history to mythology in them and how they borrow heavily from other cultures religions.
But if you have money to burn and like historical non fiction/fiction conspiracy stories, read The Emissary by St. Thomas.. The spirit of Babylon is alive and well in 2011.
..... from the Babylonians ........2 Kings 24:17
God is not pleased with those who "waver in unbelief"
"with respect to the promise of God, he (Abraham) did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God,
"But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind."
I have known this since I was a very small child.
I know some that have never prayed in their life, but have had what seems more than their share of good fortune.
Regardless, what never fails to surprise me is the egotism and arrogance of the theist who, by praying for divine favor or intervention, actually calls in to doubt the very wisdom of their god by requesting change.
Is the world ending today? Yes and No.
Does god hate homosexuality? Yes and No.
Should we all be good socialists or capitalists? Yes.
Frankly, the "theology" in the Iliad and Odyssey is more consistent and useful.
Only our Maker Himself is able to be our Savior because there is no one else who can be.
"Biblical teaching" only becomes clear when one is isolated/isolated withing a community of like minded believers who mutually reinforce one particular view.
Arguably, most people hear / learn about God from fellow humans. Accordingly (especially in light of errant religious leaders & sham promulgations that have caused people to lose their lives, become financially ruined, etc.), it behooves rational people to have doubts. But, doubt should be where a COMMA goes, not a PERIOD.
Religious doubt should cause PERSONAL study, inquiry and investigation like those who listened to Apostle Paul (Acts 17:11). Moreover, the benefit of qualified INSTRUCTORS supersedes
personal study (2 Timothy 2:15). (* Using caps for emphasis since I can't bold or underline*)
Throughout my life, some instructors’ writings that still benefit me (notwithstanding any shortcomings that could furnish juicy gossip) are: J .I. Packer, Oswald Chambers, Watchman Nee, Jeremiah Burroughs, C. S. Lewis, Andrew Murray, Dwight L. Moody, John Newton, Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, John Stott, and Lehman Strauss.
The other thing I would say about doubt and questioning God, is that I remember decades ago being told: ‘you can’t question God’. It was liberating to ultimately discover various Bible passages like (Jeremiah 12:1-4), and others with poignant questions for God.
Doubt and inquiry (via prayer) can become catalysts for discovery if the correct routes are taken. It can help maturity and triumph –even from previous religious manipulation. Inquiry and sound instructions helped me (not merely make me pious and fanatical) develop Faith, Strength, Courage, and Hope –all of which it is essential for my survival and life journey.
What does "The Great Gatsby" say about doubt?
What does "James and the Giant Peach" say about doubt?
What does " Huckleberry Finn" say about doubt?
What does " Hamlet" say about doubt?
What does " Goodnight Moon" say about doubt?
What does any other great work of fiction say about doubt?
It's a book. And not even a very good one.
http://www.truechristianityevangelism.org/hell.html
http://www.truechristianityevangelism.org/koranhell.html
it's very hard to keep large chunks of your brain's analytical functions completely suppressed so you can keep up the childish game of "let's pretend".
cognitive dissonance is so very pesky.
Now what...?
"There is no need for any particular scripture to see.
It is not in the words but in the seeing. Words on a page are like dry leaves rolled in the soil. After awhile, the reader's eyes blur and the words become crumpled leaves. By abandoning the text, these crushed pieces of cellulose intermingle with the soil to mulch and nourish the trees.
A storyteller once came to my village and told us tales of nature. I have learned from him not only to see nature but hear the rustle of leaves along with birdsong and the prancing of deer. The words of the storyteller remain fresh from his lips. For him, there is no autumn where the leaves fall to the ground and perish."
In the Shadows: Tales of Ashik
Ashik Jaya
I just dont believe a collection of ancient fragmented texts from a primative peoples filled with often horrific myths of demons of deities to be not much more than that; myths.
can't hardly wait, "Rev".
I'm sure you'll bring great comfort to people who can irrationalize all the way out to the necessary levels of willing suspension of disbelief.
heck; if you get weaving, right now, you might be able to cheer up some of the lucky few before poof! they disappear in the Rapture - yours could be the last thing they ever read!