Consistantly inconsistant.?

Question

Okay, before I say anything i ask that you please be as honest as you have to be, just not rude. I was raised a Christian. When I was in high school I lost my faith and announced myself as agnostic. I studied many religions, and throughout my stidying I realized how much i HATE religion. My family eventually became agnostic as well and I felt understood. But sometimes I look around me and see the complexity of the world and feel an overwhelming sense of purpose and I think, there has to be something else out there. I know there really doesnt. So occasionally I'll feel like I'm having religous experiences and fall into the belief in christianity (I think because its the religion I am most familiar with and understand)These periods only last as long as two weeks. And then I actually read the bible and become disgusted in its degration towards women, promotion of slavery, rascism, murder, and hate. So what are these religous experiences Im feeling? I feel lost. Its all or nothing with me

Answer 1

I feel as if I am reading my own personal history.

I left church at 18 and vowed "no more". I wanted to do things my own way on my own terms. But that life only lasted about 2 years as the love of God seemed to find a way to get to me.

My best friend from high school went into the military and came back home a Christian. He then decided that he was going to tell me about Jesus and the whole thing just rode on my shoulders. It weighed me down.

The scripture he quoted to me just let me know how much ineeded Jesus and how much God really did love me. I gave in a few times and went to church with him. The church we were in really fed my heart and all the knowledge that was seemingly lurking below the surface in my heart kept bubbling to the surface.

I was working 3rd shift in June of 1992 it was 3 o'clock in the afternoon and i needed to get some sleep if I was going to get to work that night. But i couldn't sleep. I was tossing and turning. The whole subject of Jesus and that he need to be in my life just kept burning on me.

So, i got up, went out to my sofa, knelt down on the floor and just started talking to God. I didn't really know what to ask for or how to talk. So, I simply asked, "Just give me the same thing you gave my best friend, Matt. Whatever he has must be pretty great cause he can't stop talking about it."

In time i realized what I was asking for was forgiveness and i needed the Love of God to come live in my heart.
Jesus will do that for you too if you left Him in.

We put our faith in Jesus Christ that He died on the cross for our sins and rose from the dead to cover our sins forever and that we might also overcome sin and death. He will forgive us for our sins and bring us into new life in Christ. We leave our old life of sin behind and walk on in newness of life in Christ.

John 14.6 "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No man comes to the Father except by me."

Romans 10.9-11 "9 If you use your mouth to say, "Jesus is Lord," and if you believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, you will be saved. 10 We believe with our hearts, and so we are made right with God. And we use our mouths to say that we believe, and so we are saved. 11 As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be disappointed."

Hope that helps.

Jesus Loves You

Answer 2

You said "And then I actually read the bible and become disgusted in its degration towards women, promotion of slavery, rascism, murder, and hate."

You obviously misunderstand the Bible. The Bible not only uses examples of how we should be, but also of what we should not be. I am sorry you are going through this and feel so lost.

Answer 3

I dont think the Bible promotes slavery, I think that it is trying to tell you that whatever situation you are in that you can still give glory to GOD and know that he is with you and that in the end you will be with him. There has always been racism, murder, and hate similar to the way it is now, but that doesnt mean that GOD wants it to be that way. Its satan and men that do these things. I recently just started to understand all these things myself. Please dont give up on GOD, you dont have to be a certain religion, like lutheran, or Catholic, that doesnt matter, all that matters is that you love GOD. Maybe you should go to some of these websites and listen to the 1/2 hour programs. maybe they will help you understand better. www.insight.org, www.intouch.org, www.lwf.org.

Answer 4

If you are a believer, one of the elect, God may be convicting you or disciplining you. If you are one of His, He does not let you stray away very far. A Christian who walks away is still saved, but leads a miserable life. When you read the Scriptures, why do you focus on the sinfulness of man and not the grace and mercy of God? We live in a sinful, broken world and the Bible reflects that, but does not condone sin, ever. Go back and read the words and works of Christ, study the letters of Paul, John and Peter. Seek forgiveness and restore the fellowship with God He so desires that have with you.
If you are not of the elect, then it is a mute point.

Answer 5

I accept as true with Mikillah. five one million/two weeks is simply too younger to count on her to sleep via the night time. Yes, there are infants that do this (my moment used to be the one one who did that) however it isn't the norm. My eight week historic son used to be getting up each and every two hours at night time til this week. This week he's getting up each and every three-four hours at night time and I am totally grateful. You simply have got to wait it out, however it's well to set up a night time-time ritual for her from the begin. A first-class bathtub, a comforting frame therapeutic massage with a few cream (if you'll get the only with the odor that supposedly places them to sleep, it has a rather first-class and soothing odor), hot garments, a feed, dim lighting fixtures, perhaps sing or play a tape/CD with lullabies. After that, you simply have got to wait till she falls to sleep. Also, if she does no longer get ample sleep within the day she can be stressed at night time... so watch that as good.

Answer 6

I honestly think that there are many things in our life that can confuse us,trick us into following the wrong thing,.I can`t tell you what to believe or not believe,I feel that down deep you already know.You and God know your heart and mind.I would say to pray and ask for guidance and understanding.I know I fond peace when I completely excepted God and took him into my heart.I don`t know all the answers but I do know that I have peace within my soul.God doesn`y promote anything but love.Man has always been the one who wants what he sees and wars to own it.

Answer 7

Maybe religion just hasn't made any sense to you yet. I was Christian, turned agnostic when I found the Baha'i Faith. Made sense. I've been a Baha'i since I was 29-years-old. I'm now 67. Just keeps getting better and better.

Check out my source. Good investigating!

RELIGION IS PROGRESSIVE

Religion is the outer expression of the divine reality. Therefore it must be living, vitalized, moving and progressive. If it be without motion and non-progressive it is without the divine life; it is dead. The divine institutes are continuously active and evolutionary; therefore the revelation of them must be progressive and continuous. All things are subject to re-formation. This is a century of life and renewal. Sciences and arts, industry and invention have been reformed. Law and ethics have been reconstituted, reorganized. The world of thought has been regenerated. Sciences of former ages and philosophies of the past are useless today. Present exigencies demand new methods of solution; world problems are without precedent. Old ideas and modes of thought are fast becoming  225  obsolete. Ancient laws and archaic ethical systems will not meet the requirements of modern conditions, for this is clearly the century of a new life, the century of the revelation of the reality and therefore the greatest of all centuries. Consider how the scientific developments of fifty years have surpassed and eclipsed the knowledge and achievements of all the former ages combined. Would the announcements and theories of ancient astronomers explain our present knowledge of the sun-worlds and planetary systems? Would the mask of obscurity which beclouded mediaeval centuries meet the demand for clear-eyed vision and understanding which characterizes the world today? Will the despotism of former governments answer the call for freedom which has risen from the heart of humanity in this cycle of illumination? It is evident that no vital results are now forthcoming from the customs, institutions and standpoints of the past. In view of this, shall blind imitations of ancestral forms and theological interpretations continue to guide and control the religious life and spiritual development of humanity today? Shall man gifted with the power of reason unthinkingly follow and adhere to dogma, creeds and hereditary beliefs which will not bear the analysis of reason in this century of effulgent reality? Unquestionably this will not satisfy men of science, for when they find premise or conclusion contrary to present standards of proof and without real foundation, they reject that which has been formerly accepted as standard and correct and move forward from new foundations.

The divine prophets have revealed and founded religion. They have laid down certain laws and heavenly principles for the guidance of mankind. They have taught and promulgated the knowledge of God, established praiseworthy ethical ideals and inculcated the highest standards of virtues in the human world. Gradually these heavenly teachings and foundations of reality have been beclouded by human interpretations and dogmatic imitations of ancestral beliefs. The essential realities which the prophets labored so hard to establish in human hearts and minds while undergoing ordeals and suffering tortures of persecution, have now well nigh vanished. Some of these heavenly messengers have been killed, some imprisoned; all of them despised and rejected while proclaiming the  226  reality of divinity. Soon after their departure from this world, the essential truth of their teachings was lost sight of and dogmatic imitations adhered to.

Inasmuch as human interpretations and blind imitations differ widely, religious strife and disagreement have arisen among mankind, the light of true religion has been extinguished and the unity of the world of humanity destroyed. The prophets of God voiced the spirit of unity and agreement. They have been the founders of divine reality. Therefore if the nations of the world forsake imitations and investigate the reality underlying the revealed Word of God they will agree and become reconciled. For reality is one and not multiple.

The nations and religions are steeped in blind and bigoted imitations. A man is a Jew because his father was a Jew. The Muhammadan follows implicitly the footsteps of his ancestors in belief and observance. The Buddhist is true to his heredity as a Buddhist. That is to say they profess religious belief blindly and without investigation, making unity and agreement impossible. It is evident therefore that this condition will not be remedied without a reformation in the world of religion. In other words the fundamental reality of the divine religions must be renewed, reformed, revoiced to mankind.

(Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith - Abdu'l-Baha Section, p. 224)

Answer 8

Just go somewhere else instead of Christianity when you start feeling spiritual.

Answer 9

Well, you are truly agnostic, but your society is trying to beat you back in to christianity.

Answer 10

1. "raised as" does NOT mean "is"

2. you're confused

3. maybe you should talk your faith issues over with a minister

4. life is RARELY (if ever) "all or nothing"