More times than I can count, I have thought about leaving Christianity.
Whenever I post about this on Christian forums, I don't receive positive or reassuring comments. They seem to range from praying to see if you are truly saved or not. Or I'm not doing something right. I remember one person saying "God is not treating you like a Son." Then He tells his story about what all He had to do until God finally treated him like a son.
I got no idea why other people choose to leave the faith. There seems to be a few reasons. But I feel like my reason is a little different for theirs. In fact I don't think I will ever stop believing in Jesus. In fact I don't think anything could convince me to stop believing in Jesus. But I think I could be convinced that I am not saved or that I will ever be!
I am a simple Christian. I pray to Jesus, and talk to Him. I listen to my Bible because it is hard for me to read books. I listen to sermons, and Christian based podcasts. Yes I have Christian music too. As you can see I'm pretty simple. But here is the problem, as far as I can tell I have never heard God's voice in me. I have heard other voices in me, they were cruel. They probably come to be because I was treated badly by my peers for so many years. They probably torment me because I struggle in everything I do. Thank you learning disability!
I rely on the scriptures the most. However there are a bunch of different Bible translations. Some of the smarter Christians use the Hebrew and Greek to determine which translations best represent a word or a verse here and there. When they write books, they often will quote from various versions. While they might find this helpful or even more accurate, it just makes my poor head spin. If the Holy Spirit is really in me, then I would think that He would stop my head from spinning. But He doesn't. It is due to my head spinning from all the different ideas and stuff that I won't witness to anyone. I can't handle how complicated stuff gets....
I don't like feeling little all the time. Me walking away from Christianity is not what it sounds like. It is not me throwing my beliefs in the trashcan. It is me going to sleep so that my head will stop spinning. Even though I love Jesus with all my heart, my mind exist in confusion.
@tryingtosurvive2024
It does not need to be complicated ......Believing and having faith is enough. It is not a checklist that you must have this or that experience to be good in your faith. Regardless of your journey or different translations etc that does not make you closer to your faith.
If you find your peace in your faith........do not look for the same feeling or such others say they had, each persons path is different.
I think some people want to make you feel less then in your faith ... in saying you need to hear a voice or feel a certain way ...most to sell you books or their ministry.......
@toughTiger6481 It is true that we Christians have turned our faith into a business. All Christians have a problem they want to solve and other Christians who want to profit off of that. I try to keep my Christianity as close to the Bible as possible. Following scripture. When I feel like I'm not keeping up with it, then I feel like I'm not doing something right. Each Church and Book, all offers a solution, but it might not be the right solution. Thank you for your comment! 😊
Hi from what I can guess again brings up something my Christian friends have gone through. A pastor coined the term the "hurt test". Whether we would still follow God nevertheless when things were uneasy.
The rest seems relatable and sometimes may consider the end point.
So started writing a book on faith generally. What was found?
I consider Death as the example.
The thought sin automatically leads to Death. We made of earth that thought to have corrupted after the first sin then automatically might have sin coded and thus automatically set to Death.
Death a spirit. The souls that attach to a spirit will go where the spirit goes according to the theory.
Belief for Christian faith theorized to further state:
The scripture seemed to have that the Spirit Death was set to go to Gehenna (a ***). Thus we by default set to Gehenna except that a sinless Spirit of flesh or earth face the automation and shield us from facing the Spirit of Death and connect to us.
Jesus filled the role since He's going to Heaven we may as well. Still he can't let everything slide in heaven.
Consider where individuals connected w/ sin still rather than living Holy got were allowed? They could continuously commit the sin or just bring evil along toward everyone else.
So, we are saved from having Jesus as Lord and disconnecting from sin by faith.
Then what were experiencing during life shows a test whether we will also connect w/ sin that causes Death or fail to sin & have Jesus as Lord that causes Life and allows us to go to Heaven./ not face sin getting judged by continuous death.
Everything a test whether to connect w/ Jesus ultimately.
@tryingtosurvive2024
@blissfulFlute808 What you wrote is interesting, but I don't understand it.
@tryingtosurvive2024
I can relate to this sooo much. I grew up Christian but never felt that deep spiritual connection to my church or the religion itself in general.
I think it’s normal to question your beliefs. To me it got to the point of wanting to learn about other religions. I don’t there’s anything wrong with either. if anything, I think it is more rational than blindly following something without questioning it!
also to add, I still believe in Jesus, and I actually also still believe there is truth in Christianity, but I no longer identify as a Christian myself. However, I think there are ways to re-examine your religion & faith, and still stay with your faith, perhaps you find a different community or church. I just say this to say, no matter what path you end up on, exploration gives you plenty of options 😇
@Kait I have done some exploring into other religions and I still believe in Christianity. But Christianity has become a huge mess. For example, I have been reading about NAR. It is one of the fastest growing things in Christianity today. When compared to the Bible, it seems to be twisting scriptures, and stretching out scriptures to make it's views appear to be biblical so that they can include new age stuff into the NAR churches. It seems that these people are so hungry for miracles and hearing God that they will stop at nothing to get those things to happen. I think they are inviting demons into the Church, and they don't even realize it.