I'm an evangelical Christian - ask me anything

[Insieme]

I'm happy to answer questions, though I'm not interested if people just come on to be insulting.

I can only give my views and talk about what I believe - evangelicalism covers a broad spectrum of beliefs and I can only speak for myself.

Ask away!

Bitoutofpractice it depends what you mean by evangelise! Many people make the mistake of thinking it involves knocking on doors, handing out leaflets and preaching in the streets. Some people do that, but I'm not sure it's helpful. Or maybe they think it is talking about nothing God and Jesus and shoving it down everyone's throats.

But actually, evangelism is literally 'good news' in Greek. The bible tells us we should be able to give a good reason to anyone who asks us, for the hope we have in Jesus. That's what I'm doing.

If someone asks me, I'll talk about it. If someone asks me what I did at the weekend, I'll tell them I went to church. Occasionally someone will ask why, or what we did, and then I'll tell them. In the context of our relationship as friends, I am happy to tell them more. But I'm not going to force it on the unwilling! That's hardly likely to convince them.

Atrocious you have raised the issue of homosexuality, not me. I don't set it up as a worse sin than any other, but it's something people always seem to want to raise and ask about, as though it's something Christians give particular attention to.

Many LGBT+ people find a loving church family in evangelical churches, and let's not deny their experiences in an attempt to paint us all as homophobes.

I'm a sinner, in so many ways. So are we all.

If you are concerned about people being distressed reading our discussion of it, then I suggest we stop. We disagree, I think that is clear.

Hi! I hope the OP doesn't mind me jumping in, but I too am an evangelical Christian and would like to add my views in response to some of the questions.

Someone mentioned Sapiens and how people have a "need" to believe in "fairy stories" to give meaning to their existence.
I completely agree. But I believe it's because there IS a God and we are all drawn to search for Him.
How can I believe in a God? The honest answer is that I don't know. It just makes sense to me. I just have this feeling that He's there and the peace I get from that is real. I have my own evidence but to anyone else it may seem like coincidence (things like getting a place at the university I never thought I stood a chance of getting into, or certain (admittedly minor) health problems vanishing just a day or two after asking my friends to pray for me).

You'd have to experience it yourself to understand and not everyone is interested. And that's okay.

Those reading won’t be distressed by my support of them, but of your condemnation.

Sin can only be that which causes pain to others. So someone in a loving same sex relationship is not sinful. But someone claiming it as ‘bad’ or against god is sinful.

Ps I don’t believe in the religious idea of ‘sin’ but am meaning ethically.

Lookmorecloselier I'm not sure this is the place to get into very deep discussion about free will. It's a huge topic.

I believe God created us with the will to act on our own desires. It's one of the reasons he doesn't force us to believe in him. However, by giving us free will, he allowed us to choose badly, and so evil results. I think the devil is the force of evil, rather than a little man with horns. So God didn't create evil explicitly, he created the opportunity for people to choose evil ways.

You seem to have assumed that science has disproved the bible. I disagree. I think they are answering different questions. The bible answers why we exist. The job of science is to tell us how. So creation in Genesis is an allegory - it's telling us about why God made us and what his intentions were for us. Looking there for science is a waste of time. It doesn't intend to be science.

Hi. I have found this thread really interesting . Thanks got your honesty and clarity. I have a very dear friend who sounds as if age holds the same beliefs as you. She didn't always have her faith but her and her husband are now very committed . I now sometimes feel awkward talking to her about the kind of things I used to even though outwardly age says she wouldn't Judge me.

Anyway she goes out to work and her husband home schools the children..or.. well they just don't go to school let's say. They say the message of the lord is too diluted and inaccurate (the Christmas story etc) to allow their DC to hear it, even in a faith school. They also stopped going to church for the same reason. It's such a change and whilst I am happy if she's happy , it's such a huge departure from who I have known all these years.

If god is so loving - like a father- and just, what's with the Isaac and Abraham mock execution story? That just sounds like something a horrible ultra controlling abuser would do. The "PROVE YOU LOVE ME!!!" control freakery crops up elsewhere too. If a man got his partner to lift a knife to kill her child in order to prove her loyalty and devotion to him, then acted like the benevolent merciful one when he ordered her to stop at the last second, nobody would think he was that great.
I was brought up Christian and even though parts of the Bible are great, it's stuff like this that made me an atheist.

Seth I'm glad you've found it interesting. I have tried to be honest.

I must confess I'd be a little worried about your friend. Some Christian families do choose to home school, but I have misgivings about that. I don't think 'protecting' our children from other ideas and beliefs does them any favours in the long run. They will have to cope with people disagreeing with their views (and occasionally name-calling 😉) and I think it's wiser to help them cope with other ideas rather than hiding away from them. And of course there's also the issue of whether they are getting a good standard of education.

It's also a bit worrying if they've cut themselves off from all churches. People do move around of course in search of the right church, but to reject them all seems a bad idea. Part of what we do as church families is keep each other on track and stop each other getting crazy ideas!

But in general, I think you should carry on talking to your friend as before. Don't let it come between you. She's the same person underneath.

What do you think you might be 'wrong' about in terms of your religious beliefs, and do you think it matters?

I mean, given the huge variation in the beliefs of religious people as to the nature and being of God, then if you believe in there being a 'truth' about God it must be the case that some people's beliefs are closer to this truth than others. Which bits of your belief do you think you could be wrong about, or are you wholly right and anyone with an alternative belief is wrong?

Thistledew I'm sure there's plenty I've got wrong. There are so many different beliefs even within the church I belong to, and then far more between denominations. And most of those differences are a result of sincere people reading the same passage and coming up with different interpretations. They can't all be right!

But most of those differences are in minor issues and secondary matters. Evangelicals often disagree about baptism, for example. But that's not a primary issue, in my view.

The bible gives us loads of information and plenty of context around the really fundamental things, like how people are forgiven, or that Jesus is both God and man. I'm fairly confident that those things have been interpreted correctly, by enough scholars and experts, that I believe they are right.

The minor things? I'm sure I'll discover I've been wrong about many of those, but they won't matter. I don't have to get everything right to be accepted by God.

Why do you assume that people will be insulting? What would you say to my gay friend whose sister (evangelical Christian) won't let him be a godparent, and thinks he's going to hell? Said friend used to be a member of an Evangelical church, who 'accepted' him but tried to change his sexuality.

Why do I assume people will be insulting? Have you read Atrociouscircumstance's posts?

I don't know enough about your gay friend's circumstances and beliefs to comment usefully. In general, if he's going to a church that wants to change his sexuality, he needs to find a new church. Being gay is not sinful in itself. It's homosexual acts that the Bible says are sinful, in the same way that it says any sex outside marriage is sinful.

When you imagine God what do you see?

Why pray if God knows the feeling in our heart anyway? I’ve struggled with this one a fair bit.

So hang on, you can be gay, you just can’t act on it?!

I didn’t mean to insult you OP but I feel it’s very important to call out bigotry when I encounter it.

If you think being in a loving same sex relationship is sinful, that’s bigotry, and bigotry spreads misery and pain and shame.

My mother was fairly evangelical and I got involved in an evangelical branch of a mainstream church when I was in my late teens. My mother was difficult and her God was much the same - both given to constant surveillance and judgement.

I'm always surprised when people say that Christianity brings them comfort and hope. Even in my teens I recognised that there's an element of "I'm alright Jack" about redemption; fellow Christians would glow in the knowledge that they would share eternity with God while appearing content to leave their non-believing friends and family to eternal damnation (or at least, content to put the worry to one side and let it be dealt with on the day of judgement).

How can anyone look forward to "heaven" knowing that it's likely that beloved family members won't be there? At 17 I would lie awake sick with fear about my dying grandpa's chances - he was a fine man with a strict code of ethics. He worked all his life to improve the lot of his fellow-men. But he was atheist. As OP says, there is punishment for those who reject God - there would be no point to evangelical Christianity if everyone is saved at the end.

One more thing. Why do Christians believe that praying for the sick helps them recover? I accept that some people may find comfort in the thought of others praying for them but does anyone actually believe that prayer helps you have a better chance of a cure? So you believe God pays more attention to you if you have lots of prayerful friends?

I hope I can ask three questions.

Have you read the Apocrypha, what do you think of them and why they were missed out of the modern version of the Bible?

A Gnostic once told me that "God" can only be two of three things - either All Knowing, All Powerful, or All Loving. Which two do you think are the most important and why?

Which creation story do you prefer - the first one Genesis 1:26 which specifically in older versions/Jewish versions refers to "our", i.e. a plurality of Gods, or the second one Genesis 2:7 which is the one more commonly known about Adam and Eve?

Babyboomers you are right of course about relatives and friends who don't believe. It is worrying and often painful to think about. All I can do is tell them what I know and trust God, but that doesn't mean I'm ok with it. It's something most Christians struggle with.

Irritatingly I cant do quotes but....

*Briefly. God sets a standard for moral behaviour. Use the 10 commandments as an example. Everyone without exception, has failed to keep that perfect standard. Everyone has spoken in anger, or lied, or thought something unfair about another person. We've all failed.

God is perfect and just. He looks at what we've done wrong and has to punish us for it in some way. He can't just overlook it, because that wouldn't be fair. Jesus volunteered to take the punishment for us, for anyone who wants him to, and that is why he died on the cross.*

For me this 'punishment' aspect is a huge one I cant reconcile with an apparently loving God.
When one of my children (or one of the children I teach for that matter) does something wrong I don't punish them. I expect them to make amends in whatever way is appropriate, but I don't seek to punish them for the misdemeanour. To me punishment is about exerting control, and comes from a place of anger not love.

Beenandgone I have read some of the Apocrypha but not all of it. I don't believe it's inspired in the way the Bible is, though I'm sure some of it may be useful to some people. I don't think it has the authority of the Bible.

As for your Gnostic friend, well I don't believe that God can be only two of those things, so the question doesn't arise for me.

I think both accounts of the creation that you talk about are true, in the sense that they tell us truth about God and people. I don't think they conflict. The first one tells us what God intended when he made people - that they are made in his image. The 'our' is about God having three persons. It doesn't make him plural.

The second account is more part of the creation account - what God did when he made people, using the dust to make Adam etc. As the whole creation story is not a literal step-by-step narrative anyway, I see no conflict between the two accounts.

Thebookthief I understand your difficulty, I really do. But I can only tell you what God says about himself.

I have got a faith inside me however I think God and organised religion is a patriarchal outdated form of control that benefits men.
I find it quite depressing the judgement about gays, sex outside marriage, sex abuse within the church and condoned by it polarised beliefs causing discord within society and when I read Sapiens it made a lot of sense.
It made sense in the way monogamy wasn’t an issue until the industrial revolution and then reading how people use religion to justify their actions makes for thought provoking conversation. I just can’t see how people can believe in such an institution especially when they believe their loved ones aren’t ending up in the same place due to their beliefs or not - it seems a bit farcical to me. Sorry

Thanks for this interesting thread and your eloquent posts OP!

Throughout my life I've lived with more than one world view. The Christian one involves far less mental gymnastics than the atheistic one I used to hold.
Could you elaborate on this? What mental gymnastics did being atheist involve?