Becoming a Christian

[YoungButWise]

Well i could not find an "introduction forum" so i guess ill make my topic here.

I have been reading a lot into Christianity lately, and am soon to be making the choice to declare my faith.

I am 20 years old and have found that i am at a mature enough stage to take my life seriously, knowing that there are consequences to my actions and that living a life of sin may not be a wise choice if what the gospels say are true. You could say im at the research stage looking at the evidence and testing all the arguments to the contrary.

I am not an atheist, and i do not buy into the big bang theory for a second. I know that things can have a chemical reaction in nature, but i don't believe the universe just exploded to form all the sophisticated things that we see today. I believe that the world was designed, i believe that the law of physics were also designed, and i believe that i have a soul.

Now do i believe that a guy by the name of Jesus died on a cross for me 2000 years ago to save me, i am not sure. I have no reason not to believe this, but i have never met him so its not an easy decision to make. If i could be sure he was real i would instantly be ready to dedicate my life to him without a doubt. Many of my friends do not care for religion, and are living a life without restraints with all the luxury's of sin and lust, i myself was like this, but i don't want to go to hell, but then i can not be sure hell is real? i hope you can see the dilemma i face. I consider myself a good person, but i am told this is not good enough to get into heaven? And that even a small wrong sin is enough for god to send you to hell unless your saved?

Through my research i have read and heard testimony's of people experiencing these near death experiences and going to hell/heaven but being brought back to our physical realm because god still had a purpose for them on this earth. I don't doubt these people i believe there experiences could be real, but as i have not experienced it myself i can't be certain 100% certain.

I will continue my research, and godandscience.org has been a great place of learning for me, i agree with mostly everything so far apart from the cannabis is bad part, i believe every herb had a purpose of medical benefit, although i agree just taking it to get feel good is probably misuse of what god made it for, but i don't want to turn this topic into a debate about that.

I hope i didn't bore you, and thank you for reading.

[Reactionary]

Hello, YoungButWise, and welcome to the forums.

I am 20 years old and have found that i am at a mature enough stage to take my life seriously, knowing that there are consequences to my actions and that living a life of sin may not be a wise choice if what the gospels say are true. You could say im at the research stage looking at the evidence and testing all the arguments to the contrary.

I am not an atheist, and i do not buy into the big bang theory for a second. I know that things can have a chemical reaction in nature, but i don't believe the universe just exploded to form all the sophisticated things that we see today. I believe that the world was designed, i believe that the law of physics were also designed, and i believe that i have a soul.

I'm 20 years old as well, and despite being a Christian (Catholic) for my entire life, I only recently started to ask myself the big questions of life - who are we, where did we come from, where do we go when we die, etc. You're on a good path - the best option is to look at the worldviews, evaluate their arguments and make up your mind. In my opinion, you don't have many choices - it's either Christianity or atheistic materialism. Which of them requires more faith? There is a quote that says, "I don't have enough faith to be an atheist", and I see the point - in the world of atheistic materialism, everything is a product of accidents. The universe accidentally popped out of nothing (and turned out to be perfectly orderly), rearranged itself for no apparent reason, forming a perfect life-supporting planet where life originated again by accident, when a thunder struck a puddle of mud, and then gradually evolved into humans, who developed reason and consciousness... Absurd? Definitely, but I don't have to convince you as you said yourself that you're not an atheist.

Now do i believe that a guy by the name of Jesus died on a cross for me 2000 years ago to save me, i am not sure. I have no reason not to believe this, but i have never met him so its not an easy decision to make. If i could be sure he was real i would instantly be ready to dedicate my life to him without a doubt. Many of my friends do not care for religion, and are living a life without restraints with all the luxury's of sin and lust, i myself was like this, but i don't want to go to hell, but then i can not be sure hell is real? i hope you can see the dilemma i face. I consider myself a good person, but i am told this is not good enough to get into heaven? And that even a small wrong sin is enough for god to send you to hell unless your saved?

Jesus is real - that fact is corroborated by external sources as well as the Gospels. His birth was also prophesized well before it happened. The question is whether He rose from the dead. There are plenty of resources you can look up about that topic, but I'll just advise you to think about this:

- Jesus can only be two things - the Son of God (as He claimed), or a liar or lunatic. Would the apostles, who knew Him personally, give up their lives for a lie? They couldn't have been fooled - they witnessed everything first-hand. Loyalty to Jesus didn't bring wealth or power to any of them, on the contrary, they died of painful deaths because of it.
- Do you think a myth would survive 2,000 years? There were many magicians and false prophets throughout the history, none of them withstood the test of time, far from that. Two milleniums later, Christianity is the largest religion in the world, with over 2 billion adherents and still increasing.
- Think about why only Christianity, of all religions, has been under constant attack by militant atheists.

If I understood you right, you stopped living the life of sin and lust. I'd like to ask you - is the fear of hell the only reason why you did so? Did the life without restraints make you feel truly happy and fulfilled? To be honest, I don't think so. I can't speak on your behalf, but all humans have a constant desire wired into them. We're never 100% complete. I know when I was at high school, I used to say, "If I graduate and make it into a good college, I'll be fulfilled." I succeeded, but after a short while, I started wishing something else, now I think about finishing the college. Or, another example - you buy a new state-of-the-art computer or a luxury car you wanted for years. You'll enjoy it for a while, but soon you'll start to take it for granted. After a little more while, you'll forget that you ever craved for it. What I want to say is that humans obviously aspire for something that can not be fulfilled in this world. This is not our home - it's just a temporary residence where we decide about our ultimate future. God gave us the greatest gift - free will. He could have created an army of robots, but that would be pointless. Instead, He created "mankind in His own image" - able to reason, think abstractly, feel the right and wrong. I'm convinced that you came here because you felt that something was wrong, because when you take God out of the equation, nothing can be right or meaningful.

I wish you luck in your quest for truth and I hope I helped. I'm sure you'll choose to become a Christian soon.

Best wishes,
Reactionary

[Murray]

One this you must understand is that the big bang theory can help explain how god created the universe, it does not disprove Christianity at all.

And congratulations on the declaration of your faith, the world would be a better place if more people had your interest, bravery, and discipline that allow you to make this important decision.

May god be with you in this truley life changing event

[jlay]

I consider myself a good person, but i am told this is not good enough to get into heaven? And that even a small wrong sin is enough for god to send you to hell unless your saved?

Well this is an essential question that needs to be answered.

Since you believe that the world we have is desinged and there is a designer, there really isn't any point in covering those issues. I'm assuming based on your post, that a creator God is an obvious truth. The question now becomes, how do we know this designer. Which 'religion' is the right one? Is Jesus really, "the way the truth and the life"?

I think we would both agree that at some time in the future you and I will both die and then face eternity. This isn't a scare tactic, just a reality of life. If life is a plane ride, then everyone's ride requires us to make a jump out of the plane and into eternity. Every second that ticks by is the hand of fate pushing us closer to the jump to come. The question we need to answer is how am I going to survive the jump to come. Would you want your fate hanging on the goodness you claim for your life? Will it hold up under the scrutiny of the creator God? Are you really a good person? And by what standard will your goodness be measured? How do you determine just how good is good enough to receive eternal life. Here is a link to a free video. Not only is it entertaining, but it will deal with some of the questions you have regarding this very question.

http://www.onlybelievetv.com/view_video ... cce972a28b

[PaulSacramento]

Being a Christian, by definition, means being a follower of Christ and the teachings of Christ.
If you are NOT sure about Christ, perhaps calling yourself a "Christian" is a bit premature at this point.
As St.Paul pointed out, a chrisian declares to himself and publicly that Jesus Chrits is the Son of God, that he came in human form, lived with Us as a human, died for our sins to bring reconcilation between Us and God, he was ressurected and is at the right hand of God.
That is the core of Christianity, if you don't believe that or are not sure, then proclaiming yourself a Christian is a bit premature.
That said, you are on your way it seems.
Realize that the big bang theory is NOT an issue for Christianity, at least not for many Christians, since the big bang theory makes on comment on the existence of God. one way or another.
The central issue it seems, to me anyways from reading your post, is WHO you believe Jesus to be and THAT is, without a doubt, THE issue if you are a Christian or not.