Am I the only one?

Question

I believe that God is real and all around us. I have seen too many things good and bad that cannot be described in human scientific manners, that must be the work of a power greater than us. I do not believe in organized religion, as they have been created by mortal people that create these cults to serve their lifestyles or their interpretation of the bible. I also believe that the book that we know as The Bible cannot be anywhere close to the original document that was created thousands of years ago. It has been translated and retold so many times. Is anybody with me here? I talk to Him, He listens, and He helps me out a lot. I have found this to be a lot simpler than what others make religion out to be. I just remember that He is responsible for my blessings, and He is all around me. I try to be a good person basically and acknowledge. I pray that I always do right by Him and make good choices, and so far I have a pretty wonderful life. Anyone feel the same?

Just to clarify- I don't mean that praying to be a good person ensures a happy life, I just meant that instead of picking a religion and all their rituals and rules, I just try to be a good person overall- without chanting, communion, etc...

Wow you guys have some fantastic and interesting comments, thanks so much for all the insight, keep it comin'!!!
And I do not think that the Bible has zero value- it is inspirational and a good source, just not sure if it could be the same now as the original words, that's all.

Answer 1

I like the way you put your feelings out here, I have respect for the way you feel. I go through the same thing, questions that no man could answer at times only the holy ghost of Christ. I learned something years ago back in 1997, that God is not about religion, and yes some people have taken advantage of how God does work, sad but true. We have to go through things to learn discernment. I never knew about that, no man has been able to teach me the things I have learned on my own through Christ. Amazing, and he will put the right people just to teach me or take me, to well organized ministries to be fed the truth, and understand what I read to help unfold what he teaches me on a daily basis. But I learned that our bodies are the temple of Christ. He is so good to me, I am a new person, but deal with the trials to keep me stay focused on Jesus, and not on mankind. Trust in him, pray and invite Jesus in your prayer life, to receive your blessings, and to bless others, read your Holy Bible, every time you open it and read, pray for direction and guidance to be guided by the Holy Spirit. Be sensitive to hear his voice, and know that when you read the Bible, Jesus breaths into you life, and why would that be, to renew your mind, your spirit to be more Christ like. You will see lots of things unfold. God bless...

Answer 2

Question, why do doctors go to school? Would you let a bus driver perform brain surgery on you? You are not the only person that acknowledge a greater being. We all do, even idol worshippers. This is why we have prophets and guidance to teach us how to acknowledge God in the right way. Yes there is a right way.
What if your boyfriend would acknowledge you disrespectfully and then you tell him you don't like it. Then he keeps doing it. Should he think that you would grow to like it? Would he be right in thinking so even after you have corrected him?
Similarly, idol worshippers were acknowledging "God" when they worshipped, but it was disrespectful to God and He Sent us prophets to show us the proper ways. This is how you end up with religion. But christianity is not from Jesus, Jesus never asked anyone to worship him. Jesus did allegedly say that he was the Son of God. He also said he was the son of man, and that we are all children of God- brethrens. How do you arrive to divinity from that? Well, men want to be great so they make their own rules.
The thing is, the bible doesn't describe how Jesus prayed. But Idolaters also prayed. The bible was never intended to be a religiously instructive text. I have something way better. Read the Qu'ran. In it is sound truth. Muslims believe in One God- not three. The One that Created everything, the one that Abraham prayed to, the one that Jesus called his "Father" (not in the literal sense of the word), the one that allowed Moses to part the sea... Just One God. We hold no human being at any status higher than prophethood. We do not ordain saints because only God chooses who enters heaven, Muslims have no master keys.

Answer 3

Hiya

It is good that you feel that you have a personal relationship going with God., and your observation about the conduct of religions is very true.

But do not dismiss the Bibles content as being of no value because of the actions of people that profess to follow it.

You also said -¨I have seen too many things good and bad that cannot be described in human scientific manners, that must be the work of a power greater than us.¨
It is logical then that if God exists , and that he wanted humans to have a printed message containing his purpose that he not only could get it written , but also preserved.
After all ., it would be a real waste of time for God to write the Bible and then man alter it.
So because God has the ultimate power in all things we can be confident that the Bible is , for the most part , exactly as written all those years ago.
Comparisons with the earliest of written fragments also support its continuing accuracy.

So , trust the Bible.

Most religions on the other hand have done very little to promote true worship of God.
They have deliberately obscured his personal name , purpose for humans and what we can do to please him.
Instead they have brought in Pagan untruths , like the trinity doctrine and the torment of hellfire.


By careful study of the Bible we can find who god really is and I am sure that you would agree with me that KNOWING someone , is really the first step in having a good and long lasting relationship with them.

If you would like to know more on this subject plz feel free to email me directly.

Answer 4

Yes, God is real, and He's all around us, but human works alone, and our own striving alone, will not bring us to Him in the hereafter. We need His help in getting there.

One thing you have to remember about organized religion is that it is made up of imperfect, sinful human beings, who are only trying their best to discern God's will and hold to it. Many frequently stumble and fall. That doesn't mean we should give up on His Church. Remember that it's about God, and keep that with you. Fellowshipping with fellow believers is good support. Communal prayer is actually more powerful than individual prayer, even though God hears and answers *all* prayers.

About the issues you have with the Bible - for all of it's translations, versions, etc. for a manuscript that's been around for thousands of years, our Bible is remarkably faithful to the earliest copies that we know of. I don't believe that's an accident or coincidence. God's Holy Spirit has helped preserve and pass down the true Word over the generations to us, for us to follow.

Answer 5

Yes, I feel the same, except about the Bible part. God didn't leave it up to us to 'make up' the truth.

You may be blessed with many things, but without Christ there is no salvation, and no peace with God.

Since I do not care for 'religion' myself, I trust in God personally, and I know that through Jesus I have peace with Him. I am therefore under no illusion that I make good choices, but when I am led by His Spirit I can make a good choice. He makes me able.

I do not think my life is wonderful. I think that since I got with God my life is better, but I stink things up too much to think that I am somehow 'good' or 'wonderful'. I know that without Christ I am trespassing on this world, and the world belongs to Him. He doesn't want sin on the Earth and I am a sinner.

But God promised to take the sin nature from me, and the only way to have that happen is through Christ.

So I keep going back to the same source for peace with God, and I mean to. Because Jesus went to the trouble to make things different for some of us, and I am merely saying that I recognize it and am responding to it.

Certain definitions of religion are exactly as you said, Man made. And I avoid that like you do. Just because I am Christian doesn't mean that I have to fit in the cookie cutter mold that other Christians have pressed themselves into.

Answer 6

During the first decade of my life, I was as close to Heaven as a child could believe, then my life fell apart and I lost everyone. No pets, no freedom, no parents and finally, one at a time no brothers or sisters. All the while I begged God to bring them back since the state of Maine took them away. God never did. I bounced from one church to another looking for answers in The Holy Bible. It wasn't until I abandoned churches and became an unwed mother that I dared to hope. Ten weeks after his birth my precious son died from SIDS. My life continued in misery, I married an abuser, had another son and gave birth to a beautiful baby girl on my 20th birthday. 6 weeks later, 9 days before Christmas, she died like her first brother. I believe in my heavenly Father because I asked to understand and He grants understanding. What did it take? "Be still and know that I am GOD!" I do that better because I am a Daddy's girl who lost her real Daddy to alcohol. God treats me like a child and I trust him as a child trusts. I am now an older woman but I will always be a little girl to 'God'. Jesus Christ came as a messenger. When He taught us to pray he said, "Our Father..." That means he is my brother. I am at peace on this Earth though I believe that I am in Hell. The evidence is everywhere. I don't need to understand all of the reasons to know that I don't want to live here for all eternity. I see how much worse it's gotten since my childhood. I have a place in the Heavens with my name on it. I believe as you do. When people say that I'm going to Hell I just thank God that it isn't up to them

Answer 7

What you say is reasonable and respectful. It's the easy way out. There is more and that is finding Jesus. He's given you the peacful world that let's you think that way. Without him the world would be harsh and you would probably be hating life. You can start by acknowleging or thinking about what the world would be without him. Understand that as more follow, the better the world will be. Once you pass the material benefits then you can start to see the spiritual possibilities.

Answer 8

I agree in direct Fellowship with GOD, but as I listened to HIS Voice, HE revealed a reasonable Order to HIS Covenant, as perfectly reflected in the Bible, and that HE has a People United that are the Catholic Church, which perpetuates the Traditions from GOD.

The Bible is not one Book, but many Writings. The Writings have many individual transmissions and overlapping ones as well, in which great agreement is preserved.

The Torah was owned by all Israel before the split from the Davidic Kingdom of Judah by the Northern Tribes. This northern split-off changed very little, to make the claim of their kingdom in its locale being what the Jewish one was. But the framework of sentences, with its Commandments, etc., is the same, so that the same sentence is had by both versions of the Torah, except a different mountain name in the same otherwise word for word sentence. The split occurred centuries before the 8th century AD exile of them by the Assyrians. Before that exile, many from the Northern Kingdom came south to Jerusalem to worship, but none of the Jews went north to worship YAHWEH there.

Despite 2000 years friction, Jews, Catholics, and Samaritans have preserved like Writings. In the early history of the Church, those having the gall to call themselves "Gnostics" also preserved the same Writings, and wrote commentaries, though misinterpreting them. Early schismatic groups like the Montanists, the Novatians, the Armenian Church, the Nestorians, and the Monophysites, and then the Eastern Orthodox (which last-mentioned sect broke away from Catholicism halfway through Christian history) all preserved the same Writings as well.

The heresies were well described by the Church Fathers, as can be seen in the copies of those heretical works eventually discovered more recently.

The Books now in Bibles are not the only ones of their sort - the Bibles are selections out of many more Writings with the same Orthodoxy in them. The fact of all the others besides fortifies the certainty of the Orthodoxy they express.

Many judge the Writings by bad translations, or according to their own faulty philosophy, or lack of skill with following along with a line of thought, or with picking out details that show the just reason for the Writing, or for discerning the context, or for knowing what the language means.

The Ethiopians still have an open Canon. This was inherited from the two Apostles who inherited it from Athansius the Tradition Athanasios of Alexandria had himself earlier recieved. This tells against the idea of him choosing Writings for a Bible. There are evidences of this open Canon in the earlier Alexandrian Fathers, who recieved their Tradition form Mark the Evangelist.

Answer 9

You had me until the "by HIM" part. I believe there is a "God" but my version is slightly different from the Abrahamic version. I believe in a universal consciousness from which we all came and to which we will all return. I believe in karma, which would basically be 'Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you'. The Bible could not have possibly gotten it right, considering that it was written by men, revised by men, and interpreted by men. The spiritual world is all around us, but we do not do it justice. We do not do "right" by it, but constantly try to degrade, bully, and demoralize what we know to be 'true'. Anyone who lives their life to the potential they see fit is living up to their own expectations and for me, that is the best anyone can hope for.

Answer 10

O Yes I feel like you do! Except for that bible part tho...
2 Timothy 3
16. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
17. That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.