Why are you a Christian?

[Jon Miller]

I was thinking of what thread to post next. I thought about posting one about "Did Christ need to die?" and going over both the traditional and nontraditional viewpoints on it.. (as I was asked), but since Christians seem to want to say in the other thread why they are Chrsitian.. and this was a planned thread anyways... I think that this one is more pertinant.

So once more, this is suppose to be about why you are Christian. This is not meant to be a discussion or debate thread. This is for informing purposes, just like the other thread.

JM

[Perfection]

I was dropped on the head as a child.

[Darius871]

It's impossible to answer that question without some definition of "Christian." According to most Christians, including some on this board, I have to believe Christ was the son of God (or at least a mode of God) who came to Earth briefly to die for our sins.

If I merely believe the moral code originally taught by Christ (setting aside any distortions created by humans in their attempts to construct a single dogma) is the best one for mankind to follow and was derived from at least some degree of divine inspiration, by the normal definition I couldn't be called a "Christian."

[Jon Miller]

I will start. For one, I was raised Christian. As can also be noted from the "Why are you not a christian" thread, this is a pretty big factor.

There was a period in highschool/college when I re-evaluated my beliefs a bit. During periods during this time I thought that group marriage was the way to go/etc. Anyways, I basically decided that I wanted to beleive in God. I knew that there was evil, and I wanted to believe in good. It has been a long time, but I could review this more if requested to.

Then Christianity seemed to have the properties that I wanted my God to have more then the other religions I looked at (I knew more about other religions then then I do now). During this time I didn't really stop being a Christian, mostly just looked at why was I a Christian and what other options I had.

In college and first part of graduate school, I was a Christian but didn't put much thought into being one. But I can now (with perspective) see that my life was being transformed by following Christ. That is why I am a Christian now, btw, it is because Christ transformed my life (no experience of light or holiness or whathave you).

There were some things I tried to change on my own, and I couldn't, and quit trying. But then later when I started putting more focus on Christ, I began to change even more then I had before. This is one of the reasons why I picked Christianity over buddism, is because in Christianity Christ transforms us from without, rather then changing from within.

So for those who this is too long:
I am a Christian because I was raised one, because when I looked at other options, I decided that I wished to believe in God (and Christ was most attractive of the religions I looked at), and because now I can look back on my life and see that Christ has changed me.

JM

[Fake Boris]

What's your opinion on miracles ? Did they happen as is, did they somewhat happened and then were overblown, or are they allegorical ?

Do you need to believe in them to be a Christian ?

I won't be debating the answers, I'll just read them.

[Ben Kenobi]

Good thread Jon.

I guess that means I'm next.

I was baptised in the Anglican church when I was an infant, and my folks were 'culturally anglican' for lack of a better term. I did go to sunday school when I was small but they stopped going when I was 6 or so. I have memories of my time there, but for most of my time growing up church wasn't even on the radar.

In high school, and it might surprise some folks here, I was quite fond of Carl Sagan and Asimov, I loved his books and his ideas, and wanted to go and do physics and astronomy. I saw Christianity as supersition and a hindrance to scientific observation.

What changed for me was my first year of university. I met some very smart christians there, one who was a lawyer and who I really enjoyed his company. We ended up eating lunch together all the time. He offered to share Christ with me, and we went over scripture. I told him I wanted to read what books he had, and I must have spent 3 months doing that with him. I've forgotten the exact titles, but it was mostly cosmology, and one on the historicity of the bible. If I have time I'd like to find those books again.

I read those and I had my eyes opened that there wasn't such a conflict between Christianity and science after all. I also got to read scripture, and was challenged by the question they raised. If the resurrection was true, then Christ was the Son of God. If it wasn't true then Christianity itself was false. So I had to figure out whether the resurrection was more likely to be true or not.

This all took about a year and a half. Then I was struggling with my courses and things were not going well for me. My friend invited me to come to church with him. It had been almost 15 years since I'd even been in a church before. I agreed, and he agreed to pick me up and drive me out each sunday as the church was about half an hour away. It was a Mennonite Brethren church. We went there for about several months and then I went up to the front and asked God to forgive me of all my sins, and that I couldn't do it without his help. That's when I feel I first became a Christian. He became real to me then, not just a name in a book.

I kept reading though, I particularly loved CS Lewis and his Mere Christianity. I have gone through two copies. The book doesn't look like much but over and over again I kept reading it. I also read a bunch of stuff on church history. I began to realise just how old the church was and that big gap between Luther and Christ. The more I read, the more I realised how radical the reformation had been, and how it was a break from everything else. I liked what the church taught about many things, including the pope, and I felt we should all be together again in one family and not divided. So I took my own medicine.

I didn't become a Catholic until I was 24, which was 5 years after I first became a Christian, but I'm happy here. It's been a long road and I hope it's not as long as others.

[Jon Miller]

First, in most of the rest of human experience, we recognize that 'true' and 'factual' aren't the same. War and Peace gives truth about the human experience, but it is a fictional account. I definitely could see parts of the Bible being 'true' but not 'factual'.

Being how that is, since I beleive in God, beleiving in miracles requires no additional beleive on my part, as long as it is only God doing the miracles.

I am still a materialist and reductionist, I don't even beleive in a soul.

Obviously you don't need to beleive in all miracles described in the Bible to be a Christian. There are some that argue that you don't have to beleive that Christ rose from the dead to be a Christian... just for ease of discussion I would prefer that such used a different name or some sort of clarification, but I wouldn't feel them out of place if they posted in this thread.

JM

[LordShiva]

WTF is group marriage?

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by LordShiva
WTF is group marriage?

X guys, Y girls.. very nontraditional. The point being is that I was considering a lot of ideas.

JM

[Darius871]

Originally posted by Jon Miller

Originally posted by LordShiva
WTF is group marriage?

X guys, Y girls.. very nontraditional.

JM

WTF is group marriage?

[Alexander I]

I am a Christian because the Atonement of Jesus Christ is real.

Maybe more on that later.

[SlowwHand]

Repetition of an acronym was your best input, Darius?
Good job!

[Darius871]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
Repetition of an acronym was your best input, Darius?
Good job!

STFU

[Rufus T. Firefly]

I was a Christian because that's how I was raised (Catholic).

I'm no longer a Catholic because the Church's theology and politics disgust me.

I still follow Christ's teachings regarding my fellow man as best I can, because they seem to me beautiful and true.

I no longer call myself a Christian since, especially in America, the term implies belief in Christ's divinity, in final judgement, and/or in the possibility of everlasting damnation. I believe in none of those things.

As to whether or not I actually am a Christian, it's a question I puzzled over for a long time until I realized the label was entirely unimportant to me; I now leave it to others to decide.

[SlowwHand]

Yeah, you and Darius are going to Hell.