Living In Sin vs Being a Sinning Christian

To start this post a need to make something very clear: Christians still sin

When you become a Christian, you are still imperfect, still a sinner, still guilty of going against God's laws and still worthy of punishment and unworthy of grace.

BUT because you acknowledge your sin, realise that it is bad and put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, you receive his forgiveness even though you are unworthy. At that point, you still deserve to be sent to Hell, but you have accepted Jesus paying that price for you and thus you will not go to Hell.

Still with me so far?

This doesn't mean however that Christians can sin as much as they like because they'll still be saved. This is wrong and means you're living in sin. Christians still sin but they do not live in sin and there's a difference.

If you sin against God knowing it's wrong and doing it anyway (we all know what is right and wrong in God's eyes because he has given us a conscience) or pretending it's not wrong and doing it. You're living in sin. When you do these wrong things, maybe it's stealing, maybe it's lusting, maybe it's having sex outside of marriage, maybe it's getting drunk, you deny God and choose your own selfish desires instead of doing what He asks.

At this point you are delighting in your sin. You are not trying very hard not to do these things and slipping up every now and again. You are fully getting involved in sin, without trying to stop yourself, without feeling bad about it, without regret, but instead with actively enjoyment in the sin(s).

Christians however, do not live this way. Christians (and if they are living in sin, it shows that they are false converts and only fooling themselves) acknowledge that sin is sin. This means they don't fool themselves into pretending something is right. They know what is right and wrong and acknowledge which action goes in which category. In light of knowing what's a sin, they do everything they can not to do these things.

Because we are all born with sinful natures, we are all imperfect creatures, which means we will inevitably sin our entire lives. This won't stop. But Christians make a conscious effort to stop as much as they can. The new desires God gives us mean we no longer want to live in sin when we're Christians (Ezekiel 11:19). Then, when Christians do slip up they repent - genuinely.

Genuine repentence involves 6 steps:
1. Recognition of your sin - you know that what you did is wrong
2. Sorrow - you feel sad that you committed a sin
3. Shame - you are embarrassed that you committed a sin
4. Confession - you admit to God that you committed a sin
5. Abandoning sin - you give up that behavior and turn from it
6. Hatred of sin - you hate the sin that you've committed

And there you have a key difference between being a sinning Christian, who is saved, and being a fake Christian or non-Christian who chooses to live in sin.

For more on this topic from the Bible, please read Romans 6:12-23

If you're a Christian and you're reading this and really struggling with a sin right now, I recommend you read this verse: Romans 7:14-25

"What are you giving up for Lent?"

I've been asked this question a few times and the simple answer is "nothing". In this post I'll explain why.

We are supposed to have a relationship with Jesus every day. Our aim is to follow his example, turn from our sins, show his example in our lives and repent every day. Not just on Sundays, not just at Christmas, not just during Lent.

There is no reason to give anything up during Lent or start anything new. God doesn't want you to be able to go 40 days without coffee or without shopping or whatever, because this isn't an achievement that helps others or you grow in Christ. Unless these activities are where your time and effort goes instead of praising, worshipping and following God, you don't gain anything or benefit in any religious way from giving them up. It would be for your own reasons and not for God.

So if there's something that drains your time away from the Lord, by all means, surrender it or at least cut down on it. But again, that should be the case every day. You are fooling yourself if you think you only need to do it for Lent. If you're still sinning without repenting, but now during Lent you're doing that without drinking coffee... you're still sinning! See what I mean? That's the real and bigger issue at stake. That's what we should be addressing.

You are not any more a Christian if you give things up during Lent or any less a Christian if you don't. Our aim of discipline is to listen, obey and follow God's Word, God's plan and God's direction. Religious discipline is not about how long we can abstain from something we love to do or how long we can force ourselves to start doing something that we really don't want to do.

So, evaluate just what you're giving up and why during Lent

'Nothing Made Everything' - how atheists think they have the answer to everything

Many people are under the impression that atheism = intelligence and Christianity/creationism = stupidity. I would like to share a video with you that I just can't get enough of. You can try to argue against this all you want if you're an atheist, in which case, leave me a comment answering the questions Todd poses in this video. You can't. I present, the stupidity of atheists...

"I can't believe in something that I don't fully understand, so I'm not a Christian"

A few people have said to me that the reason they don't read the Bible or choose to follow God and become a Christian is because they don't understand the Gospel. The basics of Christianity are really quite simple:

• God created everyone with a purpose and He wants a relationship you
• You have sinned, which means you have disobeyed God's plans for you, like every single person on the planet
• God is upset by this and as a just and righteous God, He must punish you accordingly - which means Hell
• But God will not give up! He loves you so much that He sent His only son Jesus to take the punishment for your sin
• The punishment for sin is death. Jesus, in his perfection, took it upon himself to die an excruciating, horrific death so that we could be forgiven of our sins
• He showed his power and glory, when God resurrected Jesus from the dead
• The price has been paid for us, so that if we believe in God, trust God, choose to obey God now and apologise with sincerity then we fail, we will be saved - we will live with God in Heaven and avoid being sent to Hell

(For a more in-depth explantion of that, you might want to see my posts on why God sends people to Hell and how you can avoid it here and here. You may also want to visit Got Questions?)

If you would prefer to watch a video explaining the Gospel message clearly and concisely, check this out, it's done in the format of spoken word poetry:

credit to Odd Thomas and WretchedRadio

But if at this point you're still thinking "ok, I get that much, but I'm still confused by stuff like Jesus being resurrected, the Trinity, etc" here's my answer to you: yes, it is complicated stuff! God's plan is divine, it has been made with his ultimate understanding and knowledge, with his foresight and hindsight. We do not have this.

It is not important that we understand the ins and outs of His plan entirely, we just need to understand the basics which I have just explaned. God guides us and helps us to understand. It takes time to build up a close communication with God, through Bible study and prayer, as it does with any relationship. But He will reveal himself and help you understand. He listens and waits for you.

Now before you jump to thinking this is a 'cop out', think of it like this: what do you currently follow or believe that you do not fully understand? Do you understand...

• How the internet works? But do you believe that the internet exists? Do you frequently use it?
• How your phone works? But do you blindly use that without understanding it?
• How gravity works? Yet you believe you will stay on the ground
• How the universe exists? The movements of the Earth in relation to the Sun and the moon? But you expect that we'll have day and night

It is possible to know how the things I have just listed work. It is possible to understand God's unique plan for our lives. But both are complicated. If that is not a reason however to shy away or refuse to investigate the workings of the internet, why is it a reason to turn from God? If you can blindly follow worldly things without fully comprehending, why do you reject doing this with God?

3 in 1: My answer to questions about the Bible's compilation and being changed over time

This post is an answer to a few similar questions that I am frequently asked:

1. "How can I believe in the Bible when it has been changed over time?"
2. "How do you know what Jesus actually taught when (insert name of King here) chose what he thought should be in the Bible and what should be scrapped?"
3. "Aren't there bits of the Bible missing because some king put different writings together to make the Bible, leaving some out?"

For anyone who is asking these questions, or similar questions, here's your answer. Firstly, I find it's Catholics (or those raised Catholic) that ask me the 2nd and 3rd questions in the above list the most. I have never attended Mass, nor have I been to Catholic school, but the fact that so many Catholic friends of mine have this strange belief, leads me to think that perhaps Catholics are taught that some man/king/Pope or whoever compiled the Bible. Or perhaps Catholics are not taught this, but it's a conspiracy among the less observant/strict believers.

The first question I get asked a lot by Muslims. Many of them think the Bible has been changed in terms of things being added, things being removed and things being re-written, in terms of the language used, to say something different.

I'm answering these 3 questions at once because they all link in together. (Except for the semantic issue of the language used in the Bible when translated, which will be a separate post). The fact is the Bible was actually compiled by the writers of the Bible themselves, who were divinely called to write the scriptures. They knew their calling, wrote the scriptures and those scriptures were then brought together to form the Bible as a whole. (For a more in-depth look at who put the Bible together, click here). Thus, it was not a person putting things in and taking things out to suit their needs. Nor has anything been added since, left out or removed.

We know that everything in the Bible now has always been part of the Bible, as God intended. It is not missing anything. God was the one in charge of putting the Bible together. It is the sceptics and unbelievers who try to portray this message of the Bible being incorrect in one of these ways. Speaking about the apostle Paul, Peter says:

2 Peter 3:16 - He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.


There's also a great, short video from WretchedRadio touching on this topic:

"Why do Christians think humans are a superior species?"

This post is actually not to quote tons of Scripture as to why humans are superior above other animals, etc. The reason being that when I get asked this question, people don't want to hear "because in the Bible it says XYZ". The Bible provides plenty of information if you are interested in why humans are superior from a biblical perspective. In a nutshell, we were created superior: we are made in God's image or likeness, we have free will, we have a conscience, we have rationality, we were made intentionally and with a purpose.

Today I will instead explain how we can see, Bible aside, why scripture is correct in teaching that humans are superior to other beings. Here is a list of what we are capable of in comparison to animals:

• Self-awareness: before you start thinking about Cyberdyne and Skynet and claim that machines can be self-aware, hear me out on what I mean by this. We understand that we exist. We know that we used to exist before this moment in time and we can remember the past and how we existed then. We also understand that we will continue to exist in the future. Think of Dory in Finding Nemo. Although she can remember aspects of the past, this seems coincidental in relation to how we remember the past. The fact that she can remember things like 'P. Sherman, 4 Wallaby Way, Sydney' doesn't mean she is mindful of the fact that she used to exist and will exist in the future. We can, which is the key difference. Our self-awareness is on a higher level, more complex and thus superior in comparison.
• Empathy: humans have the ability to empathise, to feel what it is like for another person to be in a certain situation, without being in that position ourselves
• Mind-reading: not literally knowing exactly what someone's thinking all the time, Edward Cullen style mind-reading. What I mean is we can know what other people are thinking and how they are feeling sometimes without them needing to say anything. For example, you see your friend thinking about something when she hears her favourite song, you might know that she's thinking about the first time she heard it. You see your boyfriend staring into the fridge, you might know he's thinking about what to have for lunch. By knowing a person, we can to an extent read their minds.
• Emotion: we can recognise and know how a person's feeling by looking at them. We both express emotion more vividly and clearly than animals and we can recognise and identify emotions from people's body language, facial expressions and tone of voice. (Well, most of us).
• Language: we have developed thousands of complex, well-developed languages that are completely different from the communication animals use. We can use to talk to each other using these languages to express ourselves specifically, understand one another and respond.
• Predictability: by knowing people, we can predict their behaviour, emotions and responses. Unlike animals, we can weigh up scenarios and compare outcomes (using complex thought-processes and consciousness too for the record) to know how someone will feel about something, react to something and what they'll say to something else. What they'll like or dislike, how they'll react, etc.
• Monogamy: we seem to be one of few, if not the only, species that is capable of and often desires a monogamous relationship. Most animals don't care about the 'personality' of other animals, or even the way the other animal looks. They simply follow basic instinct to find a mate. They may have more than one at a time, or even move from one to the other. Humans have personal interaction with each other, we wouldn't want to end up with just anyone for life. We desire a specific person and want to hold on to them and no other. (Again, 98% of the time)

It's these factors that we can observe everday that go hand-in-hand with biblical teaching that humans are superior. These things I have just listed, show how God made us differently and touch on why He did so. Christians believe humans are superior and stewards of the Earth for these reasons and many others, not just because we want to give ourselves authority to do what we want, feel big and mistreat other creatures.

I hope to the people who've asked me that question, that I have answered it!

"Why can't I have sex before marriage when I know I'll marry him/her?"

This is a question I was asked recently and a good in-depth answer to this question can be found here at GotQuestions?

I'm going to summarise the answer in 2 parts, starting with why sex before marriage (or outside of marriage e.g. adultery, or if you're divorced and already had sex) is wrong in the first place.

God designed sex to be for a married couple, it is the only safe place where sex can be practiced in the way God intended. It is only a good thing when used in its correct context, like a fire. If you start a fire it can do damage, but a fire in the proper context of a fireplace for example is a good thing. 1 Thessalonians 4:3 says 'For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality'. It is sexually immoral to have sex with more than one person at a time, to have sex with anyone you are not married to, to have sex with someone you are related to and to have sex with someone of the same gender as yourself (see verses in Leviticus).

Why did God intend sex to be only within marriage?

• Whether you choose to acknowledge it or not, sex is emotionally bonding as well as physically bonding. The temporary emotional attachment during sex can still cause damage afterwards. Feelings of being used, self-worth only existing when you have intimate involvement with another person, etc. God does not want this emotional damage to occur
• Health issues can arise - your chances of picking up an STD increases with the number of partners you have, but can still be picked up from having sex with only one person and that includes oral sex
• Pregnancy risks - children should not be raised outside of marriage, especially with only one parent or by parents who are not emotionally or financially prepared for a child
• Your body is God's temple, because he created you, this is even more the case if you are already a Christian since the Holy Spirit lives inside you. 1 Corinthians 6:18-19 'Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?'

So now we understand why sex is forbidden outside of marriage, we can address the issue of why it is still wrong to have sex outside of marriage if you intend to marry the person. Again, I'll say that this is explained very well on the website I have mentioned at the start of this post, the link to the page is also there. But here's a short summary:

• You're still not married for a start, so the rules I just explained about why sex outside marriage is wrong, still apply. There's health risks, emotional risks and pregnancy risks. You're also still abusing your body which is a temple of God
• The emotional risks could become even worse if you say you'll get married and break up
• It shows a complete lack of respect for yourself and for the other person. If you love each other enough to get married, it shouldn't be hard to wait until then to have sex. If you can't, you're showing either you don't want to (so you don't respect the other person enough to wait) or you have no self-control over yourself which is a very slippery slope. How will you deal with other sexual temptations such as adultery and pornography?
• Think to yourself, will you actually get married if you're already having sex? Is that what the other person is sticking around for? Would you still be together if you removed sex from the relationship?

Remember that God made these rules with ultimate power and knowledge. He knows how these rules will pan out and work for us, He can see all the other possible options and where they'll lead and he chose these rules. That means He knows it's the best thing for us. We might think we know better, but we don't and God doesn't want us to learn that we don't the hard way. He wants us to trust Him and what He asks. So trust Him. We're not animals, so we should treat ourselves and our partners with dignity and respect.

"If God is forgiving, why is there a Hell? Surely I'm forgiven?"

This post is a response to a question I've been asked a couple times recently. I've been asked why some people go to Hell and why does Hell even exist if God forgives? Surely God will forgive everyone and we'll all go to Heaven?


Here is the answer in a nutshell: God forgives those who SEEK his forgiveness, apologise for the sins (wrongdoings) they've committed and try not to do that same bad thing again.

If you're not sorry, God will not forgive you. Imagine your friend has repeatedly lied to you and it's spiraling out of control. Nothing they seem to say to you is the truth anymore. You're getting pretty frustrated. Your friend turns to you and says "so? You're a pretty forgiving person. You forgive me right?" Do you? Your friend then turns to you and says "I'm not sorry. I don't think I've done wrong. Lying isn't a big deal to me". Will you forgive them? What if your friend says sorry and carries on exactly the same? Do you forgive them then? But suppose your friend says "I'm so sorry, I didn't realise how much I hurt you and I'll try not to lie in future". They still do lie from time to time, but much less and they are sincerely trying not to. Now you're much more likely to forgive that person than you were before.


In the same way, if you try to turn from your sin and apologise for when you do wrong, God will forgive you. No man is perfect except Jesus, so you will sin for your whole life. But the point is, you try your hardest not to and if someone were to look at your life on a timescale, they would see improvement. You can't just sin thinking it's fine because you'll be forgiven, since this is the same situation with the friend that I just discussed. It is admitting your sin, apologising and turning from it, that will bring you forgiveness. If you don't put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ and turn from sin, you will be destined for Hell.


Why?

Imagine a court of justice. A man has come before the court accused of theft. This is clearly a violation of the law. He has been found guilty and the judge is about to sentence him. The man says "judge I'm sorry, please don't send me to jail". What will the judge do? The man saying sorry doesn't change the fact he has broken the law. If the judge fails to sentence him, he is corrupt. The judge must seek justice and sentence the man. In the same way, if you have sinned and broken God's law, to achieve justice you must serve your sentence - in Hell.

However, if a second man were to step in and say, "I'll pay the fine so this criminal may walk free" then justice has been served. The man will walk free. Thankfully, Jesus stepped in to pay the fine for our sins, when he gave his life on the cross. That is the reason why God IS forgiving, but only to those who seek his forgiveness. There is a way to avoid spending eternity in Hell, but if you ignore this, your punishment is fixed in order for justice to be served.

Thought of the Day: Bad Churches

I recently spoke to a couple of friends about what initially drew me to attending Quaker meeting. The simple reason is, I had been to many different types of churches including Methodist, Evangelical and Anglican and I found many examples of very un-Christian behaviour. To give credit where credit is due, I did not find this in the Methodist church I attended and the Anglican church I attended I have heard has improved since.

Some people don't understand what I mean by this. In the Bible we are warned of those in Church authority who are not actually Godly: "And now I make one more appeal, my dear brothers and sisters. Watch out for people who cause divisions and upset people’s faith by teaching things contrary to what you have been taught. Stay away from them. Such people are not serving Christ our Lord; they are serving their own personal interests. By smooth talk and glowing words they deceive innocent people" - Romans 16:17-18 (NLT)

In my situation, I heard one pastor speak who said "all Christians need to turn away from sin. This means, they stop sinning for good". Well, that would make us perfect and no human (besides Jesus) is, was or will ever be perfect. Hence our need for salvation. Maybe he didn't realise the implications of his words, but if I can pick up on that and I'm not theologically trained, I think he needs to go back to Bible college before his whole congregation get the wrong idea. Another church told me that I had to be baptised in order to receive salvation and holy communion. Um, that isn't taught in the Bible either my friend.

In another church, I saw youth being denied access to the childrens and teens youth group and Bible study classes unless they could pay £2. The leader of these groups was stood in the doorway of the church bouncer-style, accepting the money and moving aside for those who paid and turning away those who couldn't. Since when did church become an elite group for those who can pay their way? I was shocked. Later on this youth leader left the church and his wife and 2 sons, for a younger female from the congregation, whom he confessed to having an affair with for circa 2 years. And this man leads Christian youth?

The Bible did warn us that in some cases these incidents would happen. God is perfect, his followers are not. More recently I have heard of churches lean more towards cult-like teachings. Make no mistake, the Quaker meeting I attend is very Godly, with almost all its members still staying true to the Christian faith. Talking to them, they are there for the same reasons as me. They also have had bad church experiences in places that don't teach the Gospel correctly.

On a side note: these Christian Quaker meetings are sometimes going by the name of 'Friends Church' now to show the reunion between Quakerism and Christianity. This is like Quakerism was back in the days of its foundation, as opposed to more recent times when some Quakers have missed the mark in trying to be accepting and pacifistic, forfeiting somewhat on their Christianity.

So if you have had a bad church experience also, I'm not telling you to run to the nearest Quaker meeting! If they're more post-modern and liberal then that will not help either. I'm encouraging you instead to check out this article by Focus on the Family about how to overcome your bad church experience. I certainly found it very useful. Good luck in finding your new Christian church home!

Some Wise Words from Charles Spurgeon

I found this today from The Evidence Bible's website and it really summarises nicely some of the struggles I face in my walk with the Lord:

“In what an unhappy condition is that person who cannot derive comfort from the salvation of his own child! Yet there are many men and women in such a state. They care nothing for the souls of their own offspring. It would bring no joy to them if they saw all their children walking in the truth nor does it cause them any concern to see them otherwise. To see them sharp in business, or fair in countenance, is their main ambition; but to have them beloved of the Lord is no matter of desire. Poor souls, their own carnality overflows and saturates their family! To some it would even cause anger and wrath to see their children turning to the Lord; they so despise true religion that, if their sons and daughters were converted, they would rather hate them than love them the more. Such is the alienation which sin works in the human mind, that it will in some instances curdle human affection into enmity, at the sight of the grace of God.” - Charles Spurgeon

The Answer to My Struggles

In my last post I wrote about how I was struggling with faith. What I thought I knew solidly, my faith in Jesus and Christian belief, I realised I understood far less.

To try and summarise, my struggle was in understanding why we should be Christians and not Jews. To break that down further: why was a human sacrifice suddenly needed to atone sin? Why was a new covenant needed? What's original sin and where did it come from? Should we still keep the laws of Moses?

Well finally I have the answers that I need. If you're interested, ask me questions and I'll go into greater depth. But I will try to be brief so you can see where I started in this struggle and where I ended up, as going deeper is probably of no interest seeing as these weren't your thoughts. Or maybe you're thinking the same thing?

God says in Leviticus (Vyikra) that blood sacrifices are needed in chapter 17. In Judaism, this was done by animal sacrifice. When the temple was destroyed, animal sacrifices could no longer be made at the alter. It is argued that at this point, the sacrifices stopped and thus blood isn't really needed for forgiveness. But historically, this was the time at which Jesus came, giving an alternative for ever more to animal blood sacrifices by providing a new blood sacrifice to atone sin.

So if God hates human sacrifice and forbids it in Deuteronomy (Devarim) 12:31, why did he send Jesus as a sacrifice? The answer is because he wasn't a human, reason number 1. He was a God in human form, allowing him to die temporarily because a God can't die. Therefore, it wasn't a human sacrifice and could simultaneously save all of humanity. Secondly, God chose to sacrifice himself in the form of Jesus to save others. It wasn't the kind of forced sacrifice for a non-existant god or other trivial cause that God says he detests.

Finally, a new covenant is mentioned throughout the Bible (e.g. Jeremiah 31:31) and from reading again Isaiah 53 I struggled to see how that could be about anyone other than Jesus. Lastly, I discovered that there is a whole book in the Bible on this topic (see God thinks of everything!) the book of Hebrews. It's all about how Jews were doubting their switch to Christianity, wondering if they should still keep the Jewish laws or return to Judaism entirely.

You can also check out http://www.gotquestions.org/ if you're still confused or have questions. There's over 20,000 I think so there's a good chance you'll find your answer to many theological issues.

A Moment of Struggle

As I've already explained, this is mostly a question/answer blog. Friends, classmates, co-workers, family, ask me various questions (sometimes repeatitively) and I write my answers up on here for them to read. Recently, people have continued to ask me questions but for some reason I haven't had the motivation to write my answers.

So instead, here is a slightly different type of post. I'll share with you what's going on in my head right now. I'm going through a moment of struggle. For the last 2 weeks I haven't wanted to attend Meeting. I felt tired and really like I couldn't face it, so I didn't go. Can you believe it? I spend a whole year at university wishing I could go to Meeting, I finally get the opportunity and I don't want to. On top of that, I've had difficulty feeling secure in my faith recently. I spent some time with some Muslim friends of friends who asked me about what I believe. I am interested in understanding Islam, but let me say now that I have no intention or desire to convert. My point is, that through speaking to them and hearing about what they believe, they know what that is and where they're going.

To explain that more clearly, they know what they believe about God, about angels, about the prophets, about salvation, about prayer. They asked me about Jesus, why he came to 'pay the price for our sins'. That made me realise that I have no idea why. It sounds fantastic that Jesus paid the price for our sins, died so we don't have to. But we still die. So what did that achieve? Why is the shedding of blood and death required for salvation and forgiveness? That wasn't the case in the Old Testament. If we still die, how come we aren't paying for our own sins at that point? It made me realise I don't understand this enough.

The Muslims I spent time with also knew what it was to be a Muslim. It wasn't just about believing, which they did, but also about praying, giving to charity, reading the Qur'an. I have no idea what a Christian should do in everyday life. That might sound stupid, but what I mean is in comparison to Jews and Muslims, what should a Christian do day to day? Read the Bible, ok. Pray... pray how? For what? When? How often? What else? Say you're sorry, ok. Then what? Be compassionate, give to charity, ok and what else? Christianity looks like a bit of a cop-out in comparison to other religions. Try to help out others, give to charity, volunteer, pray for your sins, forgive others and you are a Christian going to Heaven. Seems like you don't really do anything and you've got an easy way out compared to other religions. Christianity teaches that it isn't about works whether or not you are saved. But after you're saved, then what?

So right now, I'm a little confused. Unintentionally, these kind, friendly people have shaken my world. What I thought I understood and had complete faith in, isn't currently making enough sense to me. I need to know why there is a Trinity, why a human/blood sacrifice is needed to atone for sin, why we need a saviour when "the wages for sin is death" and we still die. Where 'original sin' came from and why these New Testament teachings don't seem to comply with Old Testament teachings. Until I do, I feel like a hypocrite. Trying to explain why Christianity is true when all of a sudden I don't understand it myself. And I hope the path I find to be true isn't influenced by the embarrassment of having to hold my hands up and say I was wrong.

Why Are You Christian?

People ask me this all the time, often it goes something like "but you're smart, why do you follow a religion? It's a bit of an outdated waste of time isn't it?" Well, we can start then by why I believe in God. In short, I believe in God because I look at nature, I look at animals, insects, humans and see complexity and beauty in them. Similar to Paley's Watch (wiki it if you don't know what I'm talking about), I think they are all far too complex to have been an accident. I don't think life can come from no life. How can complex organs have developed from bacteria even over millions or even billions of years? Why would it even need to? How did humans get to such a high intelligence over animals? Why aren't they building skyscrapers?

You can prattle on all you want to me about evolution and adaptation but to be frank I think it's just as far-fetched as you think my idea of God is. But my hatred for evolution and adaptation is a whole other story that I will not go into right now. The second reason I believe in God is that I can feel God, not all the time, but it's happened before and it will happen again. It is called the 'numinous' by philosophers. (Again, wiki it for more info). The final in short reason is because I believe I have had a religious experience, not a silly near death experience kinda thing, just a supernatural God had my back kinda thing. Twice.

So that's why I believe in God. I think science can tell us a lot of things but it will never have all the answers, especially in regard to God because science is just what we know at the time to be correct. Why I believe in Christianity started with me believing in Judaism. I am trying to cut this down because it is a long story and I'm sure no one wants to read it. I have read the Torah in English and in Hebrew and it just felt true and I couldn't stop reading it. In my daily life I came across ways in which it was true. Prophecies in the Old Testament were proved true by accounts in Latin writings I studied in school. I learnt in science that at 8 days old a baby going through a circumcision is the perfect age, any sooner and it's dangerous, the later you leave it the more likely a complication occurs and the pain increases. God said 8 days old was the time for babies to be circumcised - no sooner, no later. Wanna tell me that's a coincidence being written over 5600 years ago? The Torah has not been changed either, which is why I learnt Hebrew, to see for myself. The Torah in my room right now reads exactly the same in Hebrew as the Dead Sea Scrolls. So don't try to bullshit me about it being edited later.

So after believing the Torah I researched why Jews believe we are waiting for Moshiach (the Messiah) and Christians believe he's been. This lead me to read Old and New Testament prophecies. (In the original Hebrew if you were wondering, to combat the "it's all been edited" issue). I found the prohecies to add up and if you're really interested, leave a comment that you are and I'll do another post on that. That lead me to be a Christian. Because I can see from reading the Bible and Torah alongside actual historical documents that Christianity is true, Judaism is true and Jesus is the Messiah, Yeshua haMoshiach.

On top of all that, I can feel it. When I pray, I feel like someone is listening. Things I've prayed for have panned out. No, asking to be rich or asking for a Tag Heuer watch doesn't count. I have experienced God, by following the Bible and believing in Jesus. I feel the Holy Spirit guiding me. I feel sure and at peace with what I have chosen.