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!

Fourth question - why do you keep referring to God in the masculine form? he/his/him etc.

Don't apologise, Parsley! It's interesting to debate even if we don't agree.

Beenandgone it's just convention. I don't think God is male in the sense in which men are male. If we're all made in the image of God, he must encompass all qualities that we think of as feminine too. God is spoken of in the Bible as caring for us as a mother nurtures her children, as well as being our father.

Bestbeforeyesterday that's a big question too! There were many things I struggled with as an atheist, so the following is not a comprehensive list, just the things that immediately occurred to me. Also, I was a teenager at the time so some of these problems may be more or less important to me now as a middle aged woman!

I struggled with the idea of life being uncreated. There seem to be altogether too many billions-to-one chances involved in the idea of life arising spontaneously.

When you look at a baby girl, you realise the potential for her children, grandchildren and all following generations are there in her store of eggs. I find that amazing, and struggle to see it as just chance.

No one could explain to me what caused the Big Bang. Scientists seemed sure it happened, but couldn't explain why, or what there was beforehand that would make it happen.

What's the point of existing, if it's all just chance? Why would I want to exist for 70 years, eating to stay alive, working to earn the money to buy food and a roof over my head? And then to die and be forgotten. I felt there had to be more purpose to life than that.

What's love about if it's all just chance? Is it really just a chemical reaction, a primal urge to reproduce before we die?

I have a conscience that tells me hurting people is wrong, stealing is wrong, lying is wrong. But why should it be, if life is ultimately pointless? Why shouldn't I just be selfish and take what I want? Where does that conscience come from if I'm just a bag of chemicals trying to stay alive?

Many people have no problems with all this. That's the way they are, I guess. I have a 'God-shaped hole' in my life, and to me it seems more logical that there there is a driving force behind the universe.

I have to go and get on with life for a bit now! But I'll be back later this evening to try to answer the questions I've missed. Can I just say thank you for the very civilised discussion?

In answer to your atheism questions, it can, in my opinion, be summed up as - our human brains are fantastic, complicated and looking for answers, but we are just complicated meat computers, it's hard for us to contemplate that we are not that important but that's what I believe to be true, I would really like to believe there is something else, and I think there probably is other life outside our universe, but a supernatural I can't get on board with. Especially one which is so judgemental, unfair, egotistical.

Thanks for taking the time to answer.

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

This is what many Christians believe. ‘Love the sinner, hate the sin’. As a church leader I cringe when I read things like this. Please remember that not all Christians feel like this and many LGTB Christians are part of churches which celebrate their love

Just did a quick google of the word bigot.

"Definition of bigotry - intolerance towards those who hold different opinions from oneself ."

So the OP is quite clearly not a bigot.

Thanks for this thread OP, I find religion fascinating and have friends of many faiths but am too worried about offending them to ask my many questions to them!

1. Someone’s already asked a question similar to this, but I’m interested to know what you think God is like. Specifically, do you see God as a human-type figure (i.e. a single conscious entity, perhaps even corporeal in form) or do you believe him to be beyond our comprehension, possibly not in a form we would recognise and his descriptions in the Bible as allegory (I don’t know why, but I was surprised to learn a very religious Church of England friend holds the latter view)

1. Why do you believe the Bible over other holy books? Do you believe the other books are wholly wrong or just different interpretations of the same truth? Do you think that if you lived in a country where Christianity is not typically practiced that you would still have been saved by the Christian God?

I had another question, but I can’t remember it now!

Thank you and I really hope I don’t cause offence with any of my questions. It is not my intention to.

I’ve remembered my other question.

1. How do you know which bits of the Bible were written with relevance just to that specific period of time and which bits are still relevant in the literal sense now? I’m always struck by how radically progressive the New Testament was at the time it was written in terms of the treating slaves and children well, giving additional rights to women etc. compared to the fairly regressive (sorry, not the right word) way it reads now in our modern more egalitarian society. Obviously we recognise that the bits on slavery were written specifically for the time, but I always wonder why we don’t seem to apply the same interpretation to the role of women.

Again, I don’t mean to offend in any way, I’m genuinely curious to know. I actually tried asking a version of this question to my (born again Christian) high school RE teacher who was very offended and just suggested I went home and read my New Testament. I was reading my New Testament that had thrown up the question, so her answer really wasn’t all that much help

Hello Insieme. Some great answers. Do join us on the Christian chat thread over in philosophy/religion!

Sockeating, I'd love to answer your question but too busy watching football, so will try and come back later :)

Thank you Madhairday, I’d love for you to have a go at answering them.

I’m trying not to watch the football at the moment, although it’s on in the background. Too nail-bitting!!

Rednaxela thank you!

Sockeatingmonster thank you for reminding me I didn't answer the previous question about what I think God is like / looks like. God is a spirit, not a corporeal being. And three persons! That's hard to visualise.

If I'm honest it's hard not to visualise God as the old man figure with the beard! The truth is I think I am a very visual person and I need to have some image in my mind of God. Other people do much better at understanding God as pure spirit.

For sockeatingmonster's second question, why do I believe the bible over other holy books? This has to be a personal answer for me. There are scholarly reasons, to do with how manuscripts were copied and preserved, but I sense that your question is about which holy book is most convincing and why I think that book is the Bible? Do say if I've read you wrongly there.

For me, it's because the Bible truly fits with human nature. Most holy books demand that we lead a good life and obey a set of rules. We can't be sure we'll be good enough until our life is over. But humans are rule breakers. We love to feel we can be good, and that we can keep the rules, but inevitably we don't manage it 100%. Then we start trying to do more good things to make up for it, and the whole cycle starts again.

The Bible recognises that we can't keep the rules, so it offers a solution, a work-around, if you like. Jesus pays the price, and we just have to accept that gift of grace. We don't deserve it, but we're offered it anyway.

And then Christians often try to use that grace in their lives to improve the lives of others. People like William Wilberforce or Elizabeth Fry were motivated by faith to improve the lives of slaves and prisoners respectively.

I'm not saying there's no truth or wisdom in other holy books, but to me they remain dry and harsh in their expectations. That's my personal view.

You also asked if I would be a Christian if I had been born somewhere where Christianity is rare. I can't know! But God says he judges people by the light they had. So he expects less knowledge or faith from people who have little opportunity to hear about Jesus.

Hello, madhairday. Feel free to join in!

Thank you so much Insieme and, yes, that was exactly what I meant with my second question. I found your answers really interesting (and an excellent distraction from the football!!!) Thanks again

Babyboomersrock in answer to your question about prayer.

I think prayer changes us, rather than changing God's mind. God wants us to pray, but he doesn't NEED us to. If I pray for a sick friend, then I hope God will help her. But it also makes me more likely to help her in some practical way. Because I've prayed for her, she's in my mind, and I'll maybe phone her up, or send flowers, or do her ironing. Maybe she'll feel encouraged by that. And that's the change (in me) that prayer has caused.

Yes, the football...ahem. say no more.

I love your answer about the Bible, Insieme. Just to stay with that one - I think for me, I find a depth of authenticity in the Christian Bible because it's a developing story of a people trying to live righteous lives (and often failing), and their understanding of who God is. It's a very human story in all its rawness, with real characters who mess up very spectacularly. And then, in the centre of it all, you have God with humanity in human form, so not making demands from afar but living in the mess and the dust with us, then sacrificing himself to conquer death and sin. It's an incredible story, but for me there is a sense of truth which underpins the whole narrative in all its different genres, while not needing to be read as a literally innerant or perfect text.

Wrt your third question, it's a good one. I think the church has just taken longer to come to a better (and actually more biblical) position on women, mostly because of centuries of oppressive patriarchy - and I as much as anyone admit the church's shameful role in that. But the earliest church didn't have such structures in place - the book of Acts and the epistles clearly show women in leadership, as prophets and teachers, even as apostles. Much of the church now are able to apply more rigorous exegesis to the texts and discover that what has been traditionally accepted is not at all clear cut. Some still have a way to go. I never cheered so loud as when synod passed women bishops. About time... :)

And the third question for sockeating! How do we know which parts of the Bible are relevant now and which aren't?

I think there are two aspects to this. Most of the ceremonial and civil laws in the Old Testament have been fulfilled by Jesus' sacrifice, so we don't have to keep them any more. So for example, the laws about what we should wear or eat or how we sacrifice a lamb are all unnecessary now, because Jesus was the final sacrifice and we don't need to keep redoing the sacrifice every time we sin.

The question about how we treat things in the New Testament that seem to be of their era, is a bit more controversial and Christians don't all agree. I would say that the advice to slaves is less directly useful to us now, when slavery is rarer and clearly unacceptable. But some of it can be useful to employees - don't do the right thing only when the boss is watching, for example. So the advice is good, but the context is different.

As for the treatment of women, Jesus was certainly radical, and the church should be too (but often isn't). However, I do believe that men and women were created differently, and with different roles in the church. Note: in the church, not in life outside it. So if something is expressly forbidden in the New Testament (like women preaching), then I'd rather stay away from it. Other Christians will sincerely disagree, and that's fine. It's not a primary issue for me.

I'm more concerned with whether the church is fulfilling its role in improving the lives of women, children, the poor, the sick, the elderly etc. Because those are things we absolutely should be doing, and the Bible is clear on that, whatever the context.

By the way, I am in no way offended by your questions. I suspect the RE teacher you mention didn't really know what she thought, and got defensive, which is a shame. Sometimes we would do better to admit we don't know!

Ugh to the football! 😢😢😢

I love your answer about the raw authenticity of the people in the Bible, madhairday. You put that so well!

Wow. Just like to point out many evangelical questions dont have a "problem" with women preaching- see new wine and vineyard movements.

And not accepting lgbt. Crazy stuff. Im ex evangelical for 100 reasons but those 2 would be enough to not want to know a God who thinks less of over half the population.

I think prayer changes us, rather than changing God's mind. God wants us to pray, but he doesn't NEED us to. If I pray for a sick friend, then I hope God will help her. But it also makes me more likely to help her in some practical way. Because I've prayed for her, she's in my mind, and I'll maybe phone her up, or send flowers, or do her ironing. Maybe she'll feel encouraged by that. And that's the change (in me) that prayer has caused.

This is brilliantly explained OP. Thank you

Ah, we may have a point of disagreement there, Insieme, but as you say, there's so much more of importance and mutual ground to be found. I don't think the texts expressly forbid women preaching, but understand why they've been read that way. :)

Mrsmee, I have to admit that I have that reaction too. In fact, just yesterday DD told me she had an argument with someone doing just that (she quoted the Bible at them and they got rather rattled, by all accounts...) - but I do try to think that they are simply trying to follow God's mandate that we do tell others. Thing is, Jesus's model wasn't that of ranting about hellfire (though he did warn of the consequences of not following God) but sitting and having a conversation. I find that more relatable, though I know some people have found great freedom through listening to Street Preachers.(SO wanted to add manic at the beginning there)

But those preaching fear rather than freedom sadden me, because to me the gospel is about life in its fullness, not fear of eternal torment (which I believe is biblically untenable, but that's another story )