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Philosophy/religion

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I think I can no longer define myself as Christian

14 replies

2010aQuintessentialOdyssey · 15/01/2010 23:48

I am quite confused at the moment, and think I have come to belive some thing wich is impossible to combine with the Christian Faith.

I believe in God. I believe in the story of Jesus. But I cannot believe that there is any afterlife. On the one hand I think when we die, that is IT. The body decomposes and the soul ends too. Yet, I believe in ghosts.

OP posts:
nighbynight · 16/01/2010 07:58

those last 2 beliefs are contradictory, surely?

I think a lot of churchgoers probably can't be defined as christians in the sense of believing everything.

MrsCadwallader · 16/01/2010 08:46

I define myself as Christian on the basis that, whatever it is that God is, Jesus is/was its human form.

The rest of Christian doctrine, teaching and theology is simply detail that is added to this basic belief, and something that I worry / think about to varying degrees according to what's going on in my life!

I too struggle with the notion of the after life (possibly because it is something that it is simply impossible to visualise - by definition, no-one on our earth has experienced it so it is a complete unknown) but at the same time I do find it very hard to accept that the essence of a person simply stops on death, and that for all the millions of people for whom earthly life is very short, or hellish, there is no 'redemption' in an afterlife. I'm not sure how anyone can carry on living if this earth, and this life, is all that there will ever be for them.

That said, I am a 'Christian' not because of the promise of a life everlasting, but because of what it adds to THIS life. If it all stops at death and there is no afterlife, then fine. I wouldn't have chosen to live my life without my faith in a loving God.

And, if you think about it, it's a no-lose situation. If there is an after-life, then great! If there isn't, well -so what? We're not going to know anything about it, are we? By living my earthly life as a Christian, I haven't lost out either way!

sarah293 · 16/01/2010 08:57

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

fanjolina · 16/01/2010 09:34

My struggle is that I believe in God, but I don't believe Jesus was the son of God. So I no longer call myself a Christian. It really annoys me that DH prays to Jesus sometimes and not God.

TheFowlAndThePussycat · 16/01/2010 09:58

Jesus himself was pretty short on doctrine to be honest, when he was asked he said that the most important rules to follow were, 'love the lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind' and 'love your neighbour as yourself'.

In my opinion most other doctrine is up for debate, I was brought up in a very 'hellfire & damnation' type church,which really turned me off church. I now pretty much don't believe in hell at all & I don't think heaven is a place as such more the next phase of being. There is a verse in Psalms (39 I think???) that talks about how God knows us from before the timein our mothers wombs. To me this suggests that we have some sort of existence before our earthly lives, which I certainly don't know anything about or remember, so I don't think that an 'afterlife' as such would have much connection to what it is like to live an earthly life.

Anyway, I've waffled a bit but my main point is that if you strive to love God and your neighbour then you can call yourself a Christian, the most important thing (IMO) is to keep thinking about and learning about the stuff you don't understand, no-one can understand everything, but at least we can say we tried!

Hth!

scrappydappydoo · 16/01/2010 10:11

Do you go to a church? Could you discuss this with your vicar/pastor? Imho part of being a good church leader should be about being able to sensibly talk you through your thoughts without condemnation or judgement.
Sorry its a bit difficult to give anymore advice without knowing more of your thought process

DutchOma · 17/01/2010 14:37

Jesus said:-"I am going to prepare a place for you." (John 14:2) He came back from the dead to speak with His disciples. Paul says:- "If ony for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men". (1Cor 15:19).

So if you believe the story of Jesus and His resurrection, you can also safely believe that there is a resurrection from the dead for us. What kind of shape or form that will take is something we none of us know, we have to trust God that He "will never leave us nor forsake us" (Hebrews 13:5)

AMumInScotland · 18/01/2010 09:52

One thing which I've learned over time is that there is a lot of breadth in Christianity. Some denominations (and some individual Christians) make you feel that if you don't believe in a whole long checklist of things then you aren't a Christian.

But there are others, and lots of them, who acknowledge that Christ didn't give a lot of rules about exactly what you had to do, or a lot of doctrine about what you have to believe, in order to follow him. And to them, the idea of whether or not there is an afterlife is one of the many grey areas about faith.

The Bible tells us that there will be a new creation after this one ends, and that if we are in a relationship with God when we die then we'll get the chance to be part of it. But it doesn't say much about what that will be like, and the early church was expecting it to happen any moment, not after thousands of years. So how much should we assume they had anything more than a vague idea to go on?

I think as long as you try to follow Christ, and be true to his teachings, then calling yourself a Christian is ok. But OTOH you don't really need to call yourself anything to be yourself and have a relationship with God, so if you don't feel the label is right for you, then don't use it for a while and see how that feels.

Another things you could do, if you're interested, is try putting your beliefs into the Belief-O-Matic and see what it says about matches - I think you'll find it says that a belief in an afterlife is not incompatible with mainstream Christianity, but you might also find there are other denominations, or other religions, which are a better description of what you do believe.

CommonNortherner · 21/01/2010 17:01

Last week I told my vicar I only read the Gospels because I thought they got to the heart of what Christianity is about and if God had wanted males in power to define the religion Jesus would've been born rich and powerful. He was fine with that and then lent me a book on feminist theology!

If you don't believe in an afterlife what do you believe the role of God is in your life now? Is that enough for you?

I believe we don't just die, but I don't know, there has been nothing in my life to give me a clue either way, but I feel God in my life and it has been immeasurably better since I became a Christian. If I am just worm food at the end I know God was there to make this life better.

questioneverything · 22/01/2010 11:00

The term 'christian' is basically defunct as it has been ruined.

Many people define themselves as christians and do not love God or serve him.

If we love God we keep his commandments, to love him with all our heart strength and mind and to love our neighbout as ourselves.

We are also required to repent of our sins, and those sins are defined in the Bible. We are required to 'bear fruit' that is the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, selfcontrol.

If we love God we cherish his word and believe all of it, and love all of it.

If we love God we accept him as he is revealed in his word, and not recreate him in our own image because we dont like the scary bits, like judgment and hell.

We would also desire and look forward to the return of Jesus as we love him and long to be with him.

If you really where a 'christian' if God had truly converted your heart, the thought of 'not being a christian' would break your heart.

AMumInScotland · 22/01/2010 11:16

I love God as he is revealed in his Word.

But God's Word is Jesus, not the Bible.

CommonNortherner · 22/01/2010 11:16

Oooh, tell me about this period in history where there was un-ruined Christianity!

CommonNortherner · 22/01/2010 11:16

Too right AMIS

MrsCadwallader · 22/01/2010 11:39

A Christian is (literally) a follower of Christ.

The teachings of the Bible give us the ideals we should strive for, but Christ taught us that it is the fact of our loving him that saves us, not our success or otherwise in reaching these lofty ideals.

As CN points out, Christianity as QE describes it has never existed.

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