CHRISTIANS: why do you believe that jesus is the saviour? PLEASE READ THE REST OF MY QUESTION BEFORE ANSWERING

Question

PLEASE read all of this before answering:

there are certain answers that you might feel prone to say but which are invalid. invariably, some of you will still use these answers,, either because you didn't read this, or because you did but still think that those answers are appropriate. i assure you though, they're not.

1. please don't provide bible quotes. i'm not asking "what does the bible say". what i'm asking is "WHY do you believe what the bible says?". --- there is no quote in the bible that can answer why YOU PERSONALLY came to a specific conclusion. so please,,, i only want to hear your own words.. please..

2. please don't say things like "because it's true". this is an invalid answer. no one ever believes something simply BECAUSE it's true. they believe in things because other things lead them to those conclusions.

i'd rather hear answers like "because christianity makes more sense than other religions", but then you're gonna have to back that claim up.

hey arewetheryet,

you're wrong. i DO want to hear answers. that's why i asked the question. what you said about water is good. you believe in water because "when it rains, you get wet". see, that's a good reason to believe in water. for you to say, "you believe in water because it exists" is NOT a good reason. the existence of water is the very thing in question. so you can't say "water exists... because it exists". that's just a defective sentence.

so,, i'm still not clear why "jesus' being the lord" makes any more sense than "jesus' not being the lord".

some of you said that you can feel the grace of god. ok, this is a valid answer. i thank you for it. but now consider if you were actually feeling something else. like,,, how do you know it wasn't the grace of vishnu?

for those of you who said that believing in jesus brings more joy to your life or makes you a better person,,, sorry, it's just not a valid reason to believe that something is true just because you like the idea.

madkins007,

thank you for your organized approach. but you need to understand that preference in food, songs, and tv shows are OPINION based, where as belief in a god is BELIEF based.

beliefs and opinions are OPPOSITES!! i know most people don't realize this, but think about it. if one guy thinks "green acres" is the best show, and another guy thinks "growing pains" is the best show, then which one is right?? NEITHER!! there is no right and wrong because these are OPINIONS..

now let's say that one guy thinks "god created the universe", and another guy disagrees and thinks that the universe formed accidentally and meaninglessly. now which one is right??? well,,, we don't know, but one thing is certain,, whatever the truth is, then IT IS THE TRUTH.

see,, opinions do not make claims of universal truths. so they can never be correct nor incorrect. beliefs however DO set out to make claims of universal truths. so they will either be TRUE or FALSE. there is no "well, it's right for me".

evy,

i just read EVERYTHING that you wrote. uhm,, thanks for not 'quoting" the bible, but still i must say, i didn't want a book report on the life and trials of jesus. (furthermore, did you even write this? the part where it says jesus died 1,961 years ago leads me to believe that it was written in the 90's and that you just copied and pasted it.)

regardless, the reasons you gave are bad ones. it doesn't matter if people all over the world believe in him. it wouldn't even matter if EVERY SINGLE PERSON believed it. that still wouldn't determine whether or not it's true or false.

as far as saying jesus was a good guy,,, well what about ghandi? why not worship him? there have been TONS of good people. why single out jesus?? plus,,, jesus was not as good as people might claim he was. sure, he might've preached the golden rule, but he also said:

" But bring here those enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, and slay them before me." ............luke 19:27

celle,
i just tried praying sincerely, and nothing happened. i've done it before and nothing happened then either. did you think something WOULD happen?

sam,
just because jesus died on the cross for us, that doesn't mean that he's the son of god. those two points are completely unrelated. you can't use one to substantiate the other. it would be like my saying "i'm smart because i have brown hair". the two things just have nothing to do with one another.

djslinky77,
you had a miraculous experience. this is a valid reason to believe in something. BUT,, any chance that there's another explanation? you don't wanna rule out even a SLIGHT explanation.

maybe the person you saw was actually just a figment in your drug-induced dream. maybe the reason you were able to quit so easily is because this experience caused you to have a very deep animosity toward drugs.

also, how do you explain all the prayers to jesus that DON'T get answered. maybe you were just lucky.

Answer 1

Hey Toby,

Bookmarked your question awhile ago. A bit large to chew on, so I didn't dive into it yet. Obviously you have a good intellect; you're making some very good, very nuanced distinctions, and I appreciate that.

That being said, I think that the majority of the crowd here will have a hard time meeting your standards. Most people are simply not that rigorous. It's not that they don't want to be; they actually don't even see the distinctions that you are making.

I think one thing I would point out is that you have a set of criteria that is not necessarily the only set of criteria that can be used to decide whether God is "real."

Coming from a intellectual philosopher mindset myself, I remember being so frustrated with people when I was younger because none of them were as rigorous as I felt I was in terms of "proving" something to be true. Most "proofs" people offered seemed to be based on assumptions & supposition, or wishful thinking. I always hated that. Everything had to be purely rational and explicable.

One thing I learned when I got older was that my own mindset was based on a few assumptions:

1. Everything that exists can be defined and logically explained.
2. God is reachable through a purely rational mindset.
3. Logical proof is the only paradigm that is meaningful in human experience.

That last one is a biggie. As an intellectual, I might have had a handle on realistic perception and piecing things together, but relationships confounded me... and if God is relational in nature, a purely rational approach will only get a "piece" of him but not all of him.

Basically all that can be offered is a reasonable assertion that God exists and resembles the God of experiential Christianity. There is no logical proof that will satisfy you. You need to live out the truth and experience it, in order to make the final leaps; otherwise God will only be as real to you as the comparison between your grandmother (for example) described in a book versus your interacting with your grandmother in real life.

This isn't a cop-out, it's simply acknowledging that there is truth that must be experienced, rather than conjectured. You are right to question experience, since we are all subjective (none of us have a 100% perception of all of reality) in nature; but you cannot blithely dismiss it.

If I have time, I'll add some more. Right now I'm rather burned out.

If you want to see someone who is extremely intelligent and rigorous and give you a philosophically detailed exploration of Christian issues, visit Glenn Miller's web site (listed below). He's too much for most people, but I bet you could deal with it and enjoy it, even if you don't agree with his conclusions.

Take care. Keep your intellectual integrity, but reconsider / be open-minded about your stipulations. Other people are gifted in areas that you are not, and they can perceive things that are true in a way that you cannot, despite your intellectual gifts.

Answer 2

I am glad that you explained your question so clearly.

I believe because there has never been anything that makes as much sence. The bible has never been disproved and, in fact it is used by archeologists to find long lost places and it has NEVER failed.

I cannot escape the fact that everything comes down to belief.
faith that the material thet makes up our universe always existed and had NO beginning or to believe that ther3e exists a God that did the same.

I also cannot accept that life came from nothing.
Why?
Because there shold be n time frame that stopped instantaneous life and it should still be happening.
because it does not make a whole lot of sense that so much variety should come about and form such perfect niches. (by accident? every accident I have EVER seen, creates dis order NOT order!)
BecauseI WANT to believe that life has a purpose and without the existence of a God, I cannot see any purpose other than what I live. When I die, it will not have mattered that I lived and I can not accept that much futility!

I also believe because the Bible is so perfectly meshed within itself and No other work of writing has ever matched it.

Could I be wrong? YES!

But, at best, we hit .333 lifetime in the right / wrong department! and If I am wrong, big deal! I still tried to live a good life. If I am right I have the absolutely BEST reward waiting for me. It is worth the gamble!

Answer 3

You really aren't looking for an answer here, are you? What if the reason that I personally believe is because of what's written in the Word? Because it is. Everytime I use God's Word in my life, my world becomes more wonderful, more enriched, and I grow immensely in my quest to seek God's face.

Sure we believe because it's true. That's like asking me to prove why I believe in water. Because water exists. Since I'm not a scientist who can quote an H20 sequence or a physicists who can show what the internal properties of water are, all I can say in my little ignorant mind is, well, because when it rains, I get wet.

And then at the end, you say "back that claim up" ... how do you expect us to do that without using the very thing which we believe? Again, that's like saying, prove water exists, but don't use the word water, don't give me any properties of water and don't use water to show me it exists.

You make no sense and are not really looking for an answer.

Answer 4

Why do I believe? Because of vast experience! Spiritual experience (not religious). I don't have to belong to churchianity to believe that Jesus Christ lived and died for the salvation of my soul. AND, my spiritual experience does not begin and end in that belief. What belief and faith I have in said salvation gives me a reason (an excuse), to be kind and thoughtful and generous and loving. By nature, these qualities were not pre-programed to pop up automatically. As a result, I have lived my life with no regard for anyone but myself and it's been a long, hard, exhausting road. And because I'm not materialistic, fairly unrewarding. So, when I learned that if I would follow the example of this dude Jesus, I would eventually feel better, be happier, AND have a chance at a better position after earth life was over . Sounded good...so I gave it a try. I follow Buddhism to be more like Christ. I meditate and am a health nut, to be more like Christ. I PRACTICE random acts of kindness often. I read and attend gatherings of spiritual leaders of ALL kinds, to be more like Christ. I sing and dance and celebrate, and I feel more like Christ. I laugh with the Pastafarians! And the results are twofold: One, I feel better!! And it is all about me right? And Two: I don't hurt people (very often) anymore and I really got tired of hurting people. So, I believe because of the proofings I've performed for myself.
There's my pitch. Hope I win.Hope I win.

Answer 5

Why do I believe? First, because there was actually a person named "Jesus of Nazareth" who WAS crucified by the Romans, after being arrested by the Jewish aristocracy of that time.

So, the core event is true.

Second, the arc of the doctrine embraces the greatest truth. Man's defects? Covered: The Fall. Man's longing for the perfect? Covered: Eden, before The Fall. Man's inability to "perfect" things himself (see Shaw's "Life Force", Nietsche and Hitler's Arian Nazism)? Covered: The moral depravity that came with The Fall. Hopelessness in the face of this depravity? Covered: The Free Gift of Christ's sacrifice. Lack of universal love and peace after Christ's death? Covered: Free will and the need for each man to accept Christ. The contentions between the religions and the difficulty of saying Christ is the One? Covered: We are called to a "personal" relationship with God, and the doctrine and evangilizing is secondary to being right before your Lord.

The list goes on and on ... a fine book called "The Pilgrim's Regress", by C.S. Lewis discusses how the alternative religions can not match this arc. But the reasons above are most of mine ...

One last thing, though you'll hate it. Proverbs says "The Heavens declare the majesty of The Lord." Many have misread this passage. It does not mean that the heavens make Gods existence obvious and you are an idiot if you don't believe. What it means is that the believer must be spoken to by God of His existence. It does not mean that it is intuitively obvious. What it does mean is that for you to recognize God, and the holiness of His Son, you must receive a revelation. If you do not receive it, you will not believe. That's the fact: without the revelation, you are not able to believe. "My people perish from lack of vision."

So, in the end ... my words are vain to push you along to the truth. But these - beyond the revelation of having had a "Christian experience" - are the reasons that give me peace.

Best to you ...

Answer 6

It is true I think we all tend to lean toward what er are taught concerning Faith, Christianity or any religion. but I was not raised with knowledge of any of them. I had a dream as a child , and there was some one sitting on a cloud looking down on me, talking to me , I woke up realizing it was a dream.
but it inspired me to question the possibility, that it was the Jesus ,that we some times heard about in School, in those days we learned the Beatitudes in the 5th grade and that was probably the cause of the dream logically.
Either way I Begin to study the Bible and off times, became inspired to study out side the Bible for facts. It was a long adventure. I am sure you don't want to read my book ,so will tell you I believe, God Called me. and many times over it has been proved to me. This is why I think Preaching is unnecessary to Sinners. once God calls them they will be receptive to learning, and being corrected.

Answer 7

The perception that faith is based on belief alone is a misperception. Belief is based on knowledge. For knowledge, we live in an opportune era. The discoveries of the past few decades in astronomy, physics, and paleontology have revolutionized the understanding of our cosmic genesis.

We have learned there was a time before which there was neither time nor space nor matter. Discoveries related to the explosive development of life have forced a reevaluation of the process and direction of evolution.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, that science has helped me understand this world. The same science is pointing towards a Creator and what the Bible says.

I believe in the Bible based on scientific findings. Call me what you want, but I think science and religion DO mix. Like I said, Religion does not require faith alone. It requires belief, and belief is based on knowledge. Therefore, the knowledge I have gathered leads me to believe the Bible.

Answer 8

I believe that Jesus is the Savior because I've witnessed the impact that belief has had on my own life and the lives of others. I've seen miracles performed in His name.

This is a very good question because it makes you own your answer...you cannot rely on anything outside your heart. I like that!

I believe that Jesus is the Savior, because that is what I was raised on, sure, but it's more than that. My parents may have built that foundation, but there comes a point when you have to own your faith. I studied the history of Christianity and of my own denomination, the Roman Catholic Church. I saw that despite human fragility, *something* could raise humanity as a whole to higher levels, but it happened one individual at a time. I saw how a faith in Jesus opened the door for that change in people's lives.

I believe that Jesus is the Savior because I have seen things in my own life that cannot be explained in human terms, and the only answer can be faith. My faith has been justified by my experiences, and my heart, that voice inside that leads me, tells me I'm on the path of Truth.

I hope this is the type of answer was you seeking.

Answer 9

I believe that Jesus is the savior because I had life without Him, and it pretty much sucked. I was really screwed up, and through a massive amount of circumstances that I do not believe could have been coincidence, I was lead to Him and the Bible, which I found to hold personal truths for me. I feel that I am reaching someone and getting answers when I pray to Jesus, and I never got them before. Christianity just makes sense to me and has turned my whole life around.

Answer 10

I struggled with this very question for years. This is the reason I have taken up studying and understand other religions as well. I do believe that Christ was sent by God to teach us. However, I have a hard time holding such stock in a book that has been proven to be translated so poorly. I do think of my self as a christian, I do believe in God. I do believe that Jesus Christ was a teacher, a leader, and the savior because that is what years of study and research and faith and belief have lead me too....