Why Do You All Believe In Christ?

[blacksheep]

What was the clencher? What told you yup he's real? What told you it was worth it? Are you just acting on what you've been told or have read? Is it something you feel?

[blacksheep]

or why do you not?

[cmotherofpirl]

History:

Because its logical to believe in God, the idea that we are a random bunch of atoms is silly and unobservant of the world around you. We are not the result of blind chance.

then


If you believe in God you have to decide what you believe about Him.
Who explains existence the best? Who has lasted 2000 years and consistently gives the same answers?

therefore

I choose to believe that the Church got it right. The Church says Jesus Christ is the Son of the Living God, so He is. If I didn't believe this I would become a Jew, because of their consistant and unchanging belief in the Creator.

my favorite book when I was struggling with this was[i] Mere Christianity [/i]by C.S. Lewis.

[Spem in alium]

Initially, because I was born into a family that accepts Christ as the Saviour. So I grew up with that belief - even though I didn't really understand it - thanks to my family's influence

I recently made a conscious choice to accept Christ. It was a choice helped along by little "miracles", by reading Scripture, trying to understand and answer questions I'd had for years, studying Theology, attending Eucharistic Adoration and, like cmotherofpirl says above, reading C.S. Lewis.

The story of Jesus, when I think about it, is probably the strangest story I've ever heard. But, amazingly, it's the greatest and most beautiful one too. I no longer feel like it's something I HAVE to believe because my family does. Rather, it's become a story that I WANT to believe.

For me, Jesus is not a liar or a lunatic. He is my Lord, my Saviour, my God. Thinking of his life, his suffering and his love fills me with the greatest sense of direction and purpose that I've ever experienced.

That is why I believe.

[beatitude]

I was not raised to believe in Jesus, although right from early childhood I have had a sense of the presence of God. I remember being five or six years old and praying for hours at a time, and being shy that someone would discover me. When I was seven I requested (and was given) a Bible to read. My parents weren't too happy with the request, and they came home with a King James Version. I was quite a sharp child, but that language was beyond my capabilities. Someone (I no longer know whom) went out and got me an illustrated children's Bible instead - an enormous book, with a Bible story for each day of the year. I fell in love with that book. Reading the stories, I got the sense that these were true in a deep sense: I could see their meaning in the world around me. That continues to this day.

This is something that goes beyond feelings. My feelings come and they go - sometimes I am lonely, cold, desolate; sometimes brimming over with happiness; sometimes wanting to spend hours in church; sometimes fidgety and willing the Mass to be over. These things make me human - all my questions, my doubts, my fears, my happiness, my wobbly attention span, my curiosity - and Jesus teaches me to honour my humanity, because He was human too. Honouring it means that I don't ever have to try and force myself to feel a particular way, or to think the 'right' thoughts. I just offer to God whatever is in my mind and heart at that particular moment. It's enough.

I think it does Christ a disservice to try and treat him as a convenient explanation for things. I don't think about my best friends in such a utilitarian way, so why would I think about Christ like that? There are many philosophical arguments for the existence of God, and I've read them, but they only interest me in the way that structural engineering interests me - I think they're fascinating, and I admire the mental agility required to put them together, but they are very much external to me. I find Jesus and the truth He taught among the hospital patients I've cared for, in my classmates, in the people in the street. At the heart of Christian theology is a belief in deep personal love, of the sort that courses between the Persons of the Blessed Trinity. To test the truth of that you need to go first of all to your neighbour, not to a book. Academic study has a strong and time-honoured place in Catholicism - we have a very rich philosophical tradition - but it shouldn't be that you compile a list of bullet points headed 'Why to believe' and then adopt that outlook. Learning how to have faith is a lesson that lasts a lifetime, because so much of the lesson comes from sources we wouldn't expect - from the grumpy aunt who really annoys us, from giving birth to our children, from grief, from doubt.

Yes, doubt. This is a beautiful teacher of faith. St Thomas wouldn't believe that the other disciples had seen the risen Lord, and he declared, "Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe." For this, he is now known as Doubting Thomas. I think he deserves a better name, because he expressed such a beautiful and powerful yearning for closeness with Christ - his hands on Christ's hands, touching Christ's wounds. Faith is not a cosy feeling. Sometimes it means recognising that absence and loneliness and darkness are all a part of Him.

[cmotherofpirl]

[quote name='beatitude' timestamp='1336513965' post='2428853']


I think it does Christ a disservice to try and treat him as a convenient explanation for things. I don't think about my best friends in such a utilitarian way, so why would I think about Christ like that? There are many philosophical arguments for the existence of God, and I've read them, but they only interest me in the way that structural engineering interests me - I think they're fascinating, and I admire the mental agility required to put them together, but they are very much external to me. I find Jesus and the truth He taught among the hospital patients I've cared for, in my classmates, in the people in the street. At the heart of Christian theology is a belief in deep personal love, of the sort that courses between the Persons of the Blessed Trinity. To test the truth of that you need to go first of all to your neighbour, not to a book. Academic study has a strong and time-honoured place in Catholicism - we have a very rich philosophical tradition - but it shouldn't be that you compile a list of bullet points headed 'Why to believe' and then adopt that outlook. Learning how to have faith is a lesson that lasts a lifetime, because so much of the lesson comes from sources we wouldn't expect - from the grumpy aunt who really annoys us, from giving birth to our children, from grief, from doubt.
[/quote]

We each come to God in our own way and in our own time, each path is different and one is not less valuable than another. God calls, we answer thru the heart, mind and soul we have been given.

[Mark of the Cross]

1/ The physics, chemistry and biology of this planet is so complex that our presence here cannot be due to chance. It would be unscientific to suggest it was. Life on planet earth is a miracle. The Church even has a saying about this.
[quote]36"Our holy mother, the Church, holds and teaches that God, the first principle and last end of all things, [b]can be known with certainty from the created world by the natural light of human reason.[/b]"[sup]11[/sup] Without this capacity, man would not be able to welcome God's revelation. Man has this capacity because he is created "in the image of God".[sup]12[/sup][/quote]

2/ 2000 years of experience and study of historical records. The story of Jesus and his wisdom is too profound to be made up. A large proportion of the planets human population accept it on faith alone. And thus Scientifically there is a high probability that it is true. Millions of people have been so convinced that they have lived and laid down their lives for it. Who am I to contradict such faith? I don't know of anyone who has given as much for atheism.

3/ Life's experiences! People who believe and practice faith have an aura. This aura can be experienced by emulating these things. Sceptics call it a 'warm fuzzy' feeling, but it can be observed in other people. God can be seen in other people, in his image he made them.

4/ Spiritual encounters. Hearing a wise and gentle voice guiding me in times of trouble. Sceptics would dismiss this as schizophrenia, but the advice is always profoundly wise. I identify this with Jesus, since it would be illogical to suggest that a brain can give wise answers to it's own questions without 'outside' influence.

5/ Life would make no sense without a purpose. If I'm wrong I will have lost nothing and gained the best I can from life. If I didn't believe and there is a God, I will have lost everything and had a worse life.


To me my [i]faith[/i] is a mixture of empirical evidence, history, intuition, personal experiences and reasoning and just because...
[i]As much as you wanted the Enterprise Jim, [b]I want this![/b][/i] (Star Trek 1 reference)

Edited May 8, 2012 by Mark of the Cross

[Papist]

In a nutshell. I believe what Jesus did to be true. I believe what Jesus claimed to be to be true.

[Mark of the Cross]

[quote name='beatitude' timestamp='1336513965' post='2428853']
I was not raised to believe in Jesus, although right from early childhood I have had a sense of the presence of God. I remember being five or six years old and praying for hours at a time, and being shy that someone would discover me. When I was seven I requested (and was given) a Bible to read. My parents weren't too happy with the request, and they came home with a King James Version. I was quite a sharp child, but that language was beyond my capabilities. Someone (I no longer know whom) went out and got me an illustrated children's Bible instead - an enormous book, with a Bible story for each day of the year. I fell in love with that book. Reading the stories, I got the sense that these were true in a deep sense: I could see their meaning in the world around me. That continues to this day.

This is something that goes beyond feelings. My feelings come and they go - sometimes I am lonely, cold, desolate; sometimes brimming over with happiness; sometimes wanting to spend hours in church; sometimes fidgety and willing the Mass to be over. These things make me human - all my questions, my doubts, my fears, my happiness, my wobbly attention span, my curiosity - and Jesus teaches me to honour my humanity, because He was human too. Honouring it means that I don't ever have to try and force myself to feel a particular way, or to think the 'right' thoughts. I just offer to God whatever is in my mind and heart at that particular moment. It's enough.

I think it does Christ a disservice to try and treat him as a convenient explanation for things. I don't think about my best friends in such a utilitarian way, so why would I think about Christ like that? There are many philosophical arguments for the existence of God, and I've read them, but they only interest me in the way that structural engineering interests me - I think they're fascinating, and I admire the mental agility required to put them together, but they are very much external to me. I find Jesus and the truth He taught among the hospital patients I've cared for, in my classmates, in the people in the street. At the heart of Christian theology is a belief in deep personal love, of the sort that courses between the Persons of the Blessed Trinity. To test the truth of that you need to go first of all to your neighbour, not to a book. Academic study has a strong and time-honoured place in Catholicism - we have a very rich philosophical tradition - but it shouldn't be that you compile a list of bullet points headed 'Why to believe' and then adopt that outlook. Learning how to have faith is a lesson that lasts a lifetime, because so much of the lesson comes from sources we wouldn't expect - from the grumpy aunt who really annoys us, from giving birth to our children, from grief, from doubt.

Yes, doubt. This is a beautiful teacher of faith. St Thomas wouldn't believe that the other disciples had seen the risen Lord, and he declared, "Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe." For this, he is now known as Doubting Thomas. I think he deserves a better name, because he expressed such a beautiful and powerful yearning for closeness with Christ - his hands on Christ's hands, touching Christ's wounds. Faith is not a cosy feeling. Sometimes it means recognising that absence and loneliness and darkness are all a part of Him.
[/quote]

[Adrestia]

My path was/is similar to CMom's. I believe in God because I see & feel evidence for His existence. In my teens, when I wasn't sure, I prayed and asked for faith. I doubt that prayer would have been answered if there were no God. I don't think it's a disservice to see Christ as a convenient explanation for things - I think He is the explanation for things. He is the reason for my faith and my hope. I'm a scientist, so I tend to view things with an analytical mind. Christianity makes sense to me. My relationships with Christ, with Mary, with the other saints, with the Holy Spirit & with the Father all came about because I read and studied.


That should be present tense: because I read and study. My prayer life & Christian community also feed this dynamic relationship.

Edited May 8, 2012 by Adrestia

[MissyP89]

I also reasoned my way into things, but it first came about from seeing firsthand the way that the Holy Spirit works and moves in our lives. Those little "coincidences" and little proddings showed me that God really can do anything. He made the rules of out world, and He is free to break them – that includes defying all the natural laws we know by being incarnate of a virgin,

[Laudate_Dominum]

Because MIkolbe said so.

[Kia ora]

I'm not a Christian, because I'm not the sort of person who could do what Christ did.

[Tab'le De'Bah-Rye]

for me it is the hope of salvation, the desire to love others better, and the faith that tells me i'm never alone even when i may feel so. also i would like more courage,patience and peace. These things i can't buy,or pick off a tree, and the t.v. can't give me these neither.

Edited May 9, 2012 by Tab'le Du'Bah-Rye

[Tab'le De'Bah-Rye]

[quote name='Kia ora' timestamp='1336528401' post='2428955']
I'm not a Christian, because I'm not the sort of person who could do what Christ did.
[/quote]

Martyrdom is for a select few, the rest are saints or ordinary christians.