Anyone else's daughter suddenly a Christian?

[daffodilDiana]

We are a family who are unsure about religious beliefs. My grandparents were Christians, although they didn't strictly follow the Bible. However, my parents are atheists. I feel comfortable calling myself agnostic.

Since she turned 13, my daughter, now 15, has been facing anxiety and body image concerns. To all of our surprise, she has started attending our nearby church, alone and spending a significant amount of time there. Every time I've popped in she's either by herself or with a few elderly people. Despite wearing a cross beneath her blazer, listening to Gregorian chants and engaging in bedtime prayers, she doesn't truly understand what being a Christian entails. While it's brought her increased confidence and happiness, she lacks knowledge about Jesus, the Bible, and Christian principles. She's told me hell isn't real, for example. I asked her about gay marriage and she said people can love who they love and something about Jesus loving all. Though I refrain from questioning her too much as it seems to make her content, I've also noticed her making judgmental comments about other girls' clothing choices, which I've pulled her up on, and i've been informed that Christian tiktok is tasteless and flashy. Isn't everything on tiktok tasteless and flashy?

She has a romanticized view of Christianity, but she's also more confident, working harder at school and generally more serene and polite. So while her newfound interest in Christianity may be just a phase, I'm curious about why it might be having a positive impact on her despite her lack of knowledge about it?

@daffodilDiana Don‘t worry. Even the Vatican has scientists and astronomers etc … Only some Christians believe Genesis is a literal account.

WRT hell, when Jesus was speaking about Gehenna, he wasn’t just talking mundanely about the burning rubbish dump outside Jerusalem, he was using the place as a metonym for Hell and its eternal torments.

Jesus very much talks about this place and what puts us there in Mark 9 43-48

“If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched— where ‘Their worm does not die And the fire is not quenched.’ And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than having two feet, to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched— where ‘Their worm does not die, And the fire is not quenched.’ And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire— where ‘Their worm does not die And the fire is not quenched.’”

Hell is a place of consciousness where God’s eternal divine love and mercy cannot reach, as the individual has put their shutters up on him. The sense of absence of that love is so intense it feels like burning/torment. God doesn’t force us to accept and love him, as his created order runs on free will. God doesn’t “send us” to hell… people put themselves there. Simply consequences of choices. Sin is any way we “miss the mark” of God’s perfect harmony and intention for the cosmos… not merely rule-breaking. Accepting and aligning with the will of God, through repentance and prayer, is how we receive his love and healing and become whole. The Church is a hospital for souls, not a courthouse for felons.

There originally was no biblical word for hell.
Translating gehenna as "hell" is therefore an interpetation (and not necessarily justified).

Most Christians seem to be raised with the concept of hell, which makes sense when one considers how prevalent it is in Christian theology. But that doesn´t make the translation automatically correct.
One could argue the opposite: Seeing as somebody who already accepts the existence of hell will be more likely to interpet the bible in that manner / , which will obviously have an influence on the translation...

Which is also why I´ve found the vulgate version quite interesting, which uses gehennam and it´s unquenchable fire instead of an interpative translation.

et si scandalizaverit te manus tua abscide illam bonum est tibi debilem introire in vitam quam duas manus habentem ire in gehennam in ignem inextinguibilem.

Roman Catholics (and hence protestants) add “and the Son” after “proceeds from the father” about how they conceptualise the holy trinity, but the core belief of three persons in one godhead is common to all Christians.

I would have said most Christians, seeing as there are nontrinitarian Christians.
It is also important to consider that the concept of the trinity and nontrinitarianism have been topics of discussion before and after the council of nicaea.

This is a fascinating thread! It may not be what OP expected but it may give her a bit of an idea about the diversity of Christian beliefs and theology.

There’s both several words for hell in the Bible - Sheol (OT), gehenna, hades, tartarus (NT) and the concept being signposted and evoked behind the words. It’s like saying there’s no word for “castle” in French. Well, no, cos it’s “château”, but both signify the same concept, not withstanding a few architectual & historical differences. The English have carried over the Norse mythology word “hell” into translations of the Bible, but it points to the same concepts as written in scripture - a shadowy place of torment and sorrows. The concept of hell exists, whatever language we access it in.

Most Christians have been raised with the concept of hell, because it’s there in the bible, and the historical teachings of the church, it didn’t simply arise out of 19C fire and brimstone fundamentalism. Which is a wrong interpretation in itself. It’s simply the torment of eternal life experienced by the individual in conscious rejection of God’s love and will in this life. It’s the flipside of heaven, which is returning to the bliss state of pure divine love (agape). Who knows whether in our final moments in this life, we have the chance to repent, like the thief on the cross, I’m not going to chance it though. And finding the depths of divine beauty and mystery in church music, art, beautiful prayers and partaking in the Eucharist is a sweet fortaste of paradise on this earthly plane.

“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done." All that are in Hell, choose it.”

C S Lewis

Yes that would be my perspective

Jesus definitely talks about a place that is not good and dark and hopeless

Nobody seems to have noticed that this is not a chat thread. The OP is not interested in what you have to say.