For some of you who have not been following the dialogue I have been having with an Anonymous reader, this post may seem outside of the spirit of the blog. I can not email Anonymous or respond in private and so the best way is in a post. Please understand that I feel compelled to respond to this reader, because I once sat where s/he did.
To Anonymous- I will do my best to answer your questions, but I have to start out by saying that I can not, nor can anyone else reason someone to faith. You will not be able to reason yourself to faith. What I was trying to explain in my blog about reason becoming my God was that I only looked to my own intelligence to determine the “rightness” of God. Faith is a giving over of reason to God. I understand that this isn’t easily done, as I have always been of the inquisitive nature. I still am. And what you will notice in the Bible is that many of the “greats” questioned God- Job, Solomon, David, Moses, Abraham, Thomas. I don’t think that questioning God is the equivalent of turning our back on Him. I am sorry that I gave you that impression! I do think that if we are not going to God with our questions, we place ourselves in a dangerous position of turning from Him. I was trying to encourage you to go to Him with your questions.
This is how I view my faith. I have trusted God to have the answers that I myself don’t have. He has been faithful in revealing to me His truth in the doubts I have brought to Him. Please don’t think that I am free of the struggle of doubt, but I have learned that I can not hide from God, but He is merciful when I come to Him with my doubts and sin. I pray very regularly, “I do believe, help me overcome my unbelief!” Mark 9:24
I want you to know that I am not frightened by the questions you pose, and hope this is not what you said you may not “write here again.” I am firm in my faith, so you do not have to worry about shaking it or taking it from me. And I do not think that you are trying to convince me that I am wrong. I see you as someone who is honestly seeking answers, just like I once did. I am thankful that you have chosen to engage with me. I wonder if it would be more easily done through email, only because sometimes the formatting of the blog poses problems in how I would like to line by line answer your questions. I certainly am not suggesting this to get you to reveal yourself to me or to “hide” your thoughts from my readers. I think it is healthy for Christians to know the very real struggle that so many have in coming to faith. I have family members in this same struggle. I wish I could hand my peace over to you and have it be that simple. For you to consider, you can email me at bloggingtobless@hotshepherd.org.
I am not sure I will be able to get through all of your questions today. The girls are napping right now but there is no guarantee how long that will last. Regarding the Native Americans and any that grow up in a culture different than ours- I want to first say that accepting belief in Jesus Christ does not mean you are condemning them. I know that this is what it feels like. I place my trust in a good and gracious God and can only trust in what He tells me. The rest I leave up to Him. Do I think that you must believe in Jesus in order to be saved? Yes. I think there is a reason that this makes me feel uneasy when I consider those that don’t believe- some my own siblings, relatives, friends. If I did not feel uneasy about it, I would not be encouraged to tell the gospel to them. We are continually reminded of the urgency in sharing the Gospel in the Bible. I believe there is a wrong way and a right way to do this. We are also told that the Gospel will offend some. It is not always an easy truth to hear.
I do not support solely the reading of the King James Bible. I have read that as well as other versions of the Bible. I am confused when you refer to the “Jesus of the King James Version of the Bible” as though He is different from the other translations of the Bible. The message from Bible to Bible is Jesus saves. It is not like the King James was the first copy of the Bible. It was the first English translation of the Bible, but the Bible was written in Greek and Hebrew originally. We have many original texts that our current English Bibles have been translated from. I have to touch on the oral history as well. I want you to consider how important it was to a culture to properly recite an oral tradition before the age of writing. It is not like our current culture of telling stories where details get lost or distorted. They valued that knowledge more than we can understand in our age of media.
Regarding the Sabbath, the early Christians starting gathering on the first day of the week to commemorate the day when Christ rose from the dead, which was Sunday. The Book of Acts describes this transition. I don’t think God cares what day we set aside for Him, as long as we are setting aside a particular time to worship Him. Romans 14:5-6 touches on this. Galatians 4:8-10 also discusses the difficulties the early Christians faced in following the law in a legalistic sense versus following it in a faithful sense. I believe that it is good for me to set aside time in my week to worship God and to draw closer to Him, but I do not believe it is necessary for my salvation. The Law was always a guideline to lead us to faith. There was never an opportunity where a man could follow the Laws of God to perfection and hence “win” salvation. That is where Jesus came in. He is the answer to the sin, the imperfection we all face in our life.
You said you admit you are “ignorant, flawed, selfish, sinful, boastful.” We all are. Recognizing that is the first step to rectifying that. I know that I can not lead my life in a way that will always be pleasing to God. God can not ignore the sin in my life. If He were to draw a line and say, “All sinners who have only sinned thus many times under thus many circumstances will be considered righteous, all others condemned,” where would he draw that line? God’s salvation is not exclusive. It is offered to everyone sinner, even the worst kind. Paul was a murderer of Christians. David murdered so He could have the wife of another man. But God does not limit His forgiveness. It is offered to anyone, even those who once denied Him.
Colette is up so I have time to address one more question and the others I will get to shortly. You asked, “If I agree that a rich man getting into Heaven is easier than a camel passing through the eye of a needle, what should I do about any pursuits of wealth?” God does not look down upon the wealthy, in fact, He often blessed the faithful with riches. The intent of these riches are to bless others. My husband and I tithe (as well as support other charitable organizations) not because we believe it will earn us anything, but because we believe we have been blessed so that we can bless. I know that God continues to bless us because we continue to be faithful in blessing others. There was a period of time when I was out of work and my husband was only working one day a week. We had to decide if we would continue to tithe during that time. We decided that our faith had taught us that God would provide for us and we continued to tithe. Faith is about exercising! It’s not just about what I believe, but how that belief leads me to action. If I say I have faith and have no works, my faith is useless. I have found that every time I put my faith into action, God proves Himself to me. When we decided to tithe, we were scared about our decision, but we went to God with that fear and told Him that we were trusting in Him. This is what He wants from you. He wants you to come to Him with your doubts and with your sin and step out in faith.
My friend, you are in my prayers. I know what a powerful thing that is.