Christians and true believers, please i need some advice........?

Question

please help me throught this question.......

i read something very disturbing to me. a jehova's witness,(i am not judging the people of that faith, just curios about their practices) recently posted a link concerning spiritual warfare.

now we all know that satan tries to trick us, but i read in the jw article that they feel that any thoughts that pop into their head that makes them question jw beliefs or jw practices must come from demons and satan. so they are taught to force these thoughts out of their heads

should this be the case with all beleivers, if you question your beliefs is it from satan?

there are so many beliefs and interpretations out there, they can't all be right can they? is it ok to think for ourselves sometimes?

Answer 1

I follow judaism. One of the tenets of the religion is to question things you don't understand, so you can learn and naturally make it a part of your life.

Answer 2

I accept the integrity of the bible in the sense that the Holy Spirit inspired the authors (but the Old Testament authors were people only gradually learning who God was - e.g. the rage filled passages in the Psalms show the incompleteness of comprehension of God and His standards at that time).
I accept this ultimately because belief in Christ led for me to forgiveness, and the gift of the Holy Spirit. When we encounter the awesomeness of the living God we know He's not going to give a flawed revelation. Much of the teaching in the epistles is from direct revelation imo.

I think JWs and Mormons may have subtly altered versions of the bible. If they have the Holy Spirit (not sure if they do) and are listening to Him He will witness to them that these teachings have been twisted, if they are listening.

I personally wouldn't trust other scriptures; those religions know nothing of the Holy Spirit, or think He is a human. They have logical systems of ideas and some good moral teachings.

Answer 3

Last question first: Yes, you must think for yourself but you must form your thoughts on the correct information.
No, you are right not every interpretation is correct. Sometimes satan places doubts in our heads through emotional and physical pain, anxiety, and fear. He will attack you when you are at your weakest. Satan tempted Christ in the wilderness saying," ....Turn these stones into bread', but our Savior while having fasted many days, still replied, " Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." No man under his own power can defeat satan. It is only by the power of THE WORD OF THE LIVING GOD !!! We cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. 2nd Corinthians chapter 10 v. 5 There are also times when our own bodies seem to betray us;for our flesh wants what it wants. Our flesh wars against the Spirit. But when we are weak you should know that your strength lies in Christ Jesus. So seek out a good church and loving and knowledgeable Pastor.

Answer 4

I believe the ability to question our beliefs is a God-given ability. He gave us our brains and we are responsible for the way we use them. Usually the idea of attributing any questioning at all to Satan is a sign of a cult. "Don't think! Let us think for you! If you do your own thinking, the devil will end up doing it for you!" And the devil can't affect the cult leaders' thinking? A lot more likely!
I am a convinced believer in the Gospel message. I don't think God is at all threatened by someone thinking through his beliefs. On the contrary, he is likely to come out stronger in his faith. - If his faith is real.
EDIT:
I am an evangelical, and I must acknowledge, that some evangelicals have sadly acted as though they were a cult. But that is not typical evangelicalism. It is not at all the idea of preaching the gospel of freedom.

Answer 5

It's ok to question the beliefs you were brought up with when you are deciding what to believe for yourself. Once you are convicted of your beliefs, most people stay with that faith. Christians who are firm in their Faith in God/Jesus realize that there is a spiritual warfare going on in the world with angels vs demons. That satan attacks us with cunning deceptions to lure us from truth which is found only in the True God/Jesus. When satan puts immoral thoughts into our heads = tempts us, we are to flee from temptation and use the Armor of God to fight the devil. The Armor of God is The Word of God. "If God be for us, who can be against us?" Once you are a true christian and know The Lord God/Jesus, there is no turning back. It's beyond human understanding!! God bless.

Answer 6

I don't doubt the enemy's putting sinful thoughts in our heads, but the reality is we're evil enough to do this on our own as well. We are definitely capable of coming up with our own thoughts. I don't want to offend JWs, but since you brought up their belief, I don't think the enemy has anything to gain from having them question their beliefs. I also think that there leaders' telling them this is a tactic typical of cults to try to keep their members in line.

Answer 7

Absolutely not!
One of the definitions of a cult is that the leaders will tell you what to think and how to think it.
Obviously JW falls into this category.

In my experience - I have questioned God at every turn. The bible even exhorts us to question God. If you have a thought, and you question it's validity, you have to test it - it would not be very smart or expedient to follow blindly would it?

And as an aside, I will always defend my choice to follow Jesus as an Open Minded choice. I jumped in with "eyes wide open".

Question, quest, pray, enquire.... do it all! Jesus is there to answer you!

blessings :)

Answer 8

My dad was a really great man and knew the Bible very well...his hands down answer was always the same "show it to me in the Bible." The Bible says to question/test all these things and to hold them up what the scriptures say...why would they be taught to NOT question when the Bbile says that we should question? Any time someone is told to not question this or not question that my first question is why...is there something wrong with it, is it not the truth?

Answer 9

First of all, please don't read the literature published by a cult. That was a mistake.

Of course it is fine to think. God wants us to think. What I have found is that searching the scriptures to see what God has to say about a subject usually clears up my questions. Be careful of just believing what people say. Read God's Word for yourself and do the research in the scriptures.

Philippians 4:8 "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things."

Here's a sample of what God's Word says about thinking.
Go to www.blueletterbible.org and you can do a phrase or word search on any word in the Bible. Stick to God's Word, you can't go wrong!

Answer 10

Some religion claim that they are far superior than other religion. That's probably why they conclude right away that questioning once faith is from the devil For me, as long as you're not offending somebody's feelings, you can do whatever you want with your faith. It is but natural to somethimes feel and think that way way because we are rational beings. We think and we analyze things.

Answer 11

Please DO question and study the Bible.
You'll find even more truths contained therein.
You'll find a few words or a phrase seems to jump out at you. Investigate it further. The Blue Letter Bible is a great resource for this.

Proverbs 25:2 says [It is] the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings [is] to search out a matter.

God bless you in your studies.