Or for that matter, disbelieve because?
Why??
Well there’s a can of worms impossible to really suss out in a short blog post.
This one is an attempt to lay out only a small set of pieces I’ve thought important to consider for decades. The FACT is nobody is 100 percent correct all the time, fully certain -so faith comes into play whether or not the argument is “Yes, faith indeed but MINE is based on KNOWLEDGE, TRUTH, DEEP STUDY and EXPERIENCE!” Ha… yeah well so is mine. So… what?!
Most of us love to be “our own authority” or rest our positions on those people we trust -whether our faith in them and their knowledge and wisdom is warranted or thin. As if none of them are flawed just as we are -as are our friends and most trusted people? See, there is an unraveling easy to point out even re. the most wise persons.
I think often the atheist’s “Jesus” looks back at them in the mirror. I also think such is sometimes true of professing followers of Christ. History reveals pagan and so-called spiritual giants equally abusive of others and often especially so of those they disagreed with.
Then there is the flip side: kindness can be and has been a hallmark of people who do not believe in what believers would call “spirituality” just as it can those naming Jesus as their Savior.
Then there are people through flawed reasoning or merely a vague perspective take a stand against the authority of what Christians call scripture (Old and New Testaments). To be sure, the same is much like that of one follower of His vs. another in church history to this very day.
Where provable scientific and archaeological findings confirm what The Bible says is often dismissed and not given credibility and this often on the basis of an individual’s or group’s personal interpretation.
If the exegesis vs. eisegesis issue looms large between believers -and it does, when people who have pre-decided there is zero reason to believe in spiritual matters such as the Bible is laced with cover to cover, that it’s authors and others have taken such as reality and not mere mythology or personal desire means it’s all a wash, fables, not worth believing. Imagine the absurdity (and it has been done, of this I’m well aware) of believers doing likewise with scientific proof. “Flat earth” anyone?!!
As Charlie Peacock sang “We’re a whole lot different we’re a whole lot the same.”
Interesting how believers and unbelievers share in concepts of right and wrong, faith and faithlessness, kindness and compassion, harshness and brutality. How we each, then both general groups interpret all these often varies widely, no?
Am I saying it often gets down to interpretation as to whom we consider allies or adversaries, friends or enemies? Yes, precisely.
While a personal faith, trust, actual walk in following Jesus Christ is essential what follows for followers is not only knowledge of but application of… His WORD. To blow that off essentially means you think your own thoughts as scripture/cannon. Seems to me both world and church history reveal this is nothing new at all!
For me, it was indeed a new life, one I could never imagine nor create by myself nor via the most trusted people in my life. It was all too easy to recognize my own flaws and self-destruction as it also was the imperfections and false “knowledge” of believers and non-believers all around me.
In the end, when I wanted to be free of addiction none of them and certainly not myself could cure the poisoning of my own life.
As I have long heard arguments of people throughout my now 70 years, what keeps coming back to me is the solid truth and sense of things such as this:
I am convinced the true and very much alive God knows precisely how to reveal Himself to each person, a genuine epiphany.
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would approach him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”
-Hebrews 11.6
“When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart…” -Jeremiah 29.13
As always, thanks for stopping by. -Glenn
glennkaiser.com 