Hi Paul.
I can identify exactly with where you are right now, I was there myself not too many years ago. I grew up in a family that really had no time for religion of any kind, which is fairly typical of British families since the 1950s and 60s.
I personally think the Church is next to useless in helping people who are where you are. They talk about faith and God and being saved and Jesus Christ as though the unbelieving are just supposed to know exactly what they are talking about. In my experience since becoming a Christian, ad this was my own experience what unbelievers are looking for when God begins to drag them is (paraphrasing)....."Ok I want to believe, so prove to me there's a God, prove to me about this guy called Jesus Christ, did he really do all those miracles? Did he really walk out of his tomb and was raised from the dead? Whats this stuff all about?"
These are the questions that need answers way before the deeper spiritual stuff.
I just want to say here that I mean no disrespect to anyone with this next part. Many in the Church, many that come from religious backgrounds, religious families etc tend to forget that there are billions still in western society that come from secular backgrounds, had secular education, and that there is a prevailing culture these days of proof proof proof to almost everything.
The fundamental questions facing anyone being drawn to God are is there a Divine creator, a God? If so did He send His Son to earth 2000 years ago to be the savior of all mankind, and was He risen from the dead?
Well I did a lot of searching, listened to a lot of teaching, read the Bible, read Bible comentries etc, and God brought me to the conclusion that the answer to both questions was yes.
Oddly enough, while initially studdying the Bible (and not really understanding a lot of it to begin with, I was just fact finding), one of things that helped me and still does today is studdying cosmology and astro physics. I found that some of the worlds leading cosmologists and physicists, all avid atheists, are now concluding that there must be a creative superior intelligent force at work in the universe. Sure they don't believe in the God of the Bible, but they are lead by their findings to believe that the universe did not create itself out of nothingness.
Up until recently there was always a 1-2% chance for randomness in the way in which the universe functions according to their findings. But a recent discovery has totally eradicated any possibility of randomness in the universe, and its called the cosmological constant. According to physicists its is so finely balanced that it cannot be changed by 0. 120 zeroes after the decimal, which is a trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion (don't ask me what that number is, I just know it was a trillion six times over). They calculate that should this constant force be changed by that almost incalculable tiny amount, then its all over, there's no life, the universe collapses and that's game over. This they say is proof beyond any reasonable doubt that there is no randomness in the universe. Of course there were those (and there still are some) that put forward a theory of what they termed "the multiverse". This is the idea that there are infinite universes, all different, which they say reinstates the possibility of randomness (do you see how silly this gets, hanging on to this theory of the universe just evolving out of nothing?) What they could never have imagined is just where this mutiverse theory would take them. You see, if that be the case, then that introduces the possibility that there is a universe, or many that are far advanced to ours, in which could live superior beings with the ability to simulate a universe.........one just like ours.....so where are they? Back to the possibility of a superior creative force behind the universe. Well only God can give you faith. The scientists are floundering with this random evolution stuff as you can see.
As for Jesus Christ. Well for me that was the easy part once God had drawn me. The evidence is simply overwhelming. Christ is by far the most reliably documented person in ancient history. Writings of his life, ministry, miracles, death and resurrection were being widely circulated as early as 7 years after he left the earth, against a backdrop of deadly opposition.
Seven years is incredibally soon after the events by the standards of ancient history. The idea that people would risk stoning, crucifixion etc by writing about something that never took place is utterly ridiculous to my mind. There were many around that time making all sorts of claims to be messiahs etc, but their stories were practically forgotten and lost to time, and as we see from the story of Barjesus in Acts its because they were total frauds. The Gospel of Jesus Christ remains to this day because it is true.
As for being a slave to sin, show me a Christian that isn't or wasn't. Romans 3:10-12 “ There is none righteous, no, not one;11 There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. 12 They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable;There is none who does good, no, not one.”
Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
No man that ever drew breath on the earth lived without sinning, save for our Lord and savior Jesus Christ.
I pray that God will continue to draw you Paul, and that you will come to know Jesus Christ through his Spirit.
Be blessed.
David.
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Topic: Stuck With that "Anything's Possible" Attitude (Read 8498 times)