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Bible Study Why do you believe?

Corn Pop

Corn Pop

Member
Why do you believe?

Is it because your simple and read the bible so decide you will just believe it?

Is it because you have been influenced by family, friends, or a church?

Is it because you have followed the shadows and prophecies that have blown your mind to give no doubt?

Is it because you have had a vision or some type of spiritual encounter?

All of yhe above, maybe something else?

For me its prophecy and shadows. Like more how things that were written before the fact come to pass. I think thats also written in early scripture you should know who is truth because what they say will come to pass.

All true prophets lead to Jesus or give some type of shadow or witness, and since Jesus himself many of his prophecies have come true. Just like his words will never pass away, he not doing to bad with over 150 million likes on facebook for a 2000yo man. LOL, and not one stone apon another. Just everything like that.
 
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Hi Brother Dan, I really do not know the answer to this, other than our loving Father made it possible for me to believe, and seemingly believed in Jesus since very early in my life. I do know God gives to every man the measure of faith (Rom 12:3), and that in Rom 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.

Why I benefited from that bestowed upon me by grace, and another does not I have yet to figure out, but I am so thankful. So as I’ve heard, or read somewhere, I’ll just take that cup of salvation freely given me, and drink some more in its many aspects to deliver during our spiritual walk with our Savior.
:woot2
 
Good question. I agree with Eugene. By God's grace have I found Him. Don't know why it's not plainly obvious to everyone that God exists, and the ways He gave me to find Him aren't in everyone's life to one degree or another. But more specifically, I'd say in this order. Family, spiritual experiences, and reading the bible. Those are the path I suppose I can take my roots from. But why do I believe, not just how have I come to belief. It has to be God's grace.
 
Historical evidence points to the Bible being accurate.
Anthropology supports this as well.
So does Geological records.

Forty authors over a span of over 1500 years agreeing. (With different perspectives from different cultures)

The internal evidence in the Bible itself. There are layers of complexity and word plays which required centuries to play out.
On top of all the miracles required to make the Bible exist...
There exists a God who is still living and active today influencing outcomes of people's decisions despite what should have been the result.

So regardless of those who say otherwise, I know that the Bible is true. And since the Bible is true God is real.
And people need to be scared.

I've gone over the strawman arguments that Atheists have. I find them absurd. Incredulous that they knowingly are making such false claims in an attempt to deceive many.

So after exhaustive research of both sides I believe. I cannot unbelieve.
Personally I think God found me when I went looking for Him...but that's another story for another day.
 
I came to believe, now I know.


How great the blessing
when you know
cause you know
Jesus dwells in you
you are His abode
He is the light
He makes you glow
For the world to see
Your life is
No longer yours
It’s His testimony
Some will come
Some will run
Some will embrace
Some will shun
Some will say
It is a show
Victory is His
You know
Cause You know​

peter
 
I had thought why did he not come at a later time in technology when there would be more evidence to get more believers like video recorders and cameras and i could see witness.

Then i thought na, people would still be the same like they are today, just claim its been photoshopped or hes just like magician dynamo or something.

People would still doubt these days with eye witness and they all want evidence, but if they seen it they probably wouldnt believe it anyhow.

Nothing would change from 1st century.
 
I knew I was guilty before God and I would have no part of him after I died. I believe, and continue to believe, because he has forgiven my sins. I will not trade that for the world....literally.
 
After reading the Gospels I "perceived" His Passion. The events have many layers, but the injustice demonstrated by the community towards Jesus is quite tangible, and perhaps on that ground I related to the failings of mankind, and myself in the process.

I felt my own needs, my own fails and followed Him to the Cross, in sympathy for what He Performed. His Cross touched me.

And, past that, our Hope is then, revealed in Him.

Death and Resurrection. A very powerful combination of sights.

Tends to overwhelm the "temporal" senses.
 
kiwidan said:
I had thought why did he not come at a later time in technology when there would be more evidence to get more believers like video recorders and cameras and i could see witness.

Then i thought na, people would still be the same like they are today, just claim its been photoshopped or hes just like magician dynamo or something.

People would still doubt these days with eye witness and they all want evidence, but if they seen it they probably wouldnt believe it anyhow.

Nothing would change from 1st century.
Click to expand...
Your absolutely right. Many Christians have come to the conclusion that Jesus could come to us in a human body today the same as he did the last time and walk right into one of our modern day churches only to be asked to leave!
 
For me, I was too young and uncaring to have put any thought into any rational reasoning as to why I should or shouldn't believe in or accept Jesus. I was 14 at the time and only concerned about my image as a "cool teenager". I went to church because my mom pretty much insisted. Besides, they had cool trips to do things like water skiing that they took us teens on, and there were always good looking bikini clad girls along. What more could a 14 year old guy want, right?

Well, one of these trips happened to be to a Christian camp, and unbeknownst to me at the time one of the other guys I knew well accepted Christ at an alter call the first night we were there. (My attitude when they were telling us all about "Jesus" was "no way, this made up God stuff is for sissies and old ladies, not for ME!) But the guy in question was actually one of the "cool guys" that I looked up to, so I never dreamed he had gone forward and actually believed any of this stuff. But a few minutes later I was in our cabin when he came in. His only words to me were "Wasn't that great?" But he had been transformed. I don't have any other word to describe what I saw. It was almost as if his face was literally glowing, and his voice and his whole demeanor had so radically and instantly changed that I suddenly realized that God was not fake or made up by little old ladies that were just afraid of dying. This was real and it was a real God who had done it. This was powerful. And if this power could make this kind of a dramatic change in Mike, this was something I wanted too!

I knew in my head how to accept Christ since I'd been taught this already, I knew what it meant and what I needed to do without anyone needing to guide me through it. It wasn't that I didn't know how, it was that I'd just rejected all of it up until that point. As soon as I saw what God had done to Mike, I suddenly knew ("accepted") that God was real and was exactly who he said he was, and I immediately prayed to Him, giving Him my life, and asked Him to take it over and make me into what He wanted me to be as he had so obviously just done for Mike!

Two things I always like to emphasize when I tell this story:

1. Our example in living our lives with the peace, joy, and enthusiasm as God intended is very important. ("...let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." Jesus, Matt 5:16) Mike had only been living a Christian life for a few minutes, yet his "good deeds" (which at that point really had only have been to turn his life over to God maybe only 5 or 10 minutes prior, and then to let the results of that be seen by others around him) were what won me over to Christ despite all the "words" and teaching I had been given thus far in my young life. It was not the words of others, but the actions of one brand new baby Christian that was powerful enough to change my entire life.

2. You don't need to be actively "witnessing" to people all the time to be bringing others to Christ. Yes, this is a good thing to do. But a lot of Christians, if they are honest with themselves, have to admit they just haven't been successful at this. (Assuming their measure of sucess is the number of "converts" they can point to, which it is for most.) Mike had only been a Christian for a matter of minutes, and he's already lead another person to Christ (me!) Yet to this day he doesn't know that. By the time I realized he might have liked to know that, we had already gone our separate ways (his family moved to another town), and the rare times we did have contact just didn't seem like the times to bring it up out of the blue. But the point is that it's far more important to live our lives in a way that lets the light of God shine than it is to "preach" at people or condemn them all the time. It's the examples we set in our lives that really matter even if we never know in this life how many people we have "converted" through those examples. Mike doesn't know he did this for me. Some people have told me I have done this for them, but I'm sure there are others who I don't know about. Never be discouraged by not being able to talk about how many people you have lead to Christ. Just be content to let your light shine and let the Holy Spirit do His job of leading and convincing. If you just do that, you will have results even if you don't know it!
 
When I was down and out, it was Born Again Christians who were willing to help. In years past, maybe I would have gone to a state mental hospital. The Born Again Christians prayed for me and helped me until I finally--through my haze--got saved, age 28.

I still have doubts, more often that I'd like to. At the same time, I'm beginning to see more and more how dark and spiritually dead the world I live in is, as are (sadly) most of the people around...I was, too, not long ago.

I dunno...the world is all about looks and money and power and being conventional. The Lord calls us to be truly human through knowing His son, Jesus, and allowing Him to change us. I don't think I really chose Jesus, and I sometimes wonder if anyone really chooses to be a Christian. The world is really dead set against Christ, always has been, but its more blatant and forceful now, the anti-Christ slant of the world...so, I don't see how people can really choose Christ or choose to stay Christian. But I could easily be wrong.
 
Christ_empowered said:
When I was down and out, it was Born Again Christians who were willing to help. In years past, maybe I would have gone to a state mental hospital. The Born Again Christians prayed for me and helped me until I finally--through my haze--got saved, age 28.

I still have doubts, more often that I'd like to. At the same time, I'm beginning to see more and more how dark and spiritually dead the world I live in is, as are (sadly) most of the people around...I was, too, not long ago.

I dunno...the world is all about looks and money and power and being conventional. The Lord calls us to be truly human through knowing His son, Jesus, and allowing Him to change us. I don't think I really chose Jesus, and I sometimes wonder if anyone really chooses to be a Christian. The world is really dead set against Christ, always has been, but its more blatant and forceful now, the anti-Christ slant of the world...so, I don't see how people can really choose Christ or choose to stay Christian. But I could easily be wrong.
Click to expand...
No, I think you are wrong. I understand why you think this way. But if you truly look at history from the time of Christ, persecution of Christians has actually been a lot worse at other times in history. I agree it seems to be getting worse now than it was, say, maybe 50 years ago. But I sometimes wonder if this is really true? Or if perhaps it just seems worse because 50 years ago we didn't have instant access to all the information we do today and many things done to Christians in some parts of the world just went unrecorded and un-noticed.

But as for those of us living in the United States, we really have no real persecution, at least not yet. So someone insults us for being Christian, or tells us we can't display a Christian symbol on some public building. I don't like this, of course. But does it compare to being beaten within inches of my life and then hung on a cross to die, about the worst form of torture ever devised by man, because I am a Christian? This was not only done to Jesus by the Romans, but also to many others who followed, as well as many other unbelievably cruel things done to Christians in the years and centuries to follow. We experience nothing like this here in the United States today!
 
Oh, I agree...I'm not saying that straight up persecution is getting worse (at least, not in the US), just that the culture as a whole...the values are shifting towards outright hostility towards Christian beliefs, more so than in the past.
 
kiwidan said:
Why do you believe?

Is it because your simple and read the bible so decide you will just believe it?

Is it because you have been influenced by family, friends, or a church?

Is it because you have followed the shadows and prophecies that have blown your mind to give no doubt?

Is it because you have had a vision or some type of spiritual encounter?

All of yhe above, maybe something else?

For me its prophecy and shadows. Like more how things that were written before the fact come to pass. I think thats also written in early scripture you should know who is truth because what they say will come to pass.

All true prophets lead to Jesus or give some type of shadow or witness, and since Jesus himself many of his prophecies have come true. Just like his words will never pass away, he not doing to bad with over 150 million likes on facebook for a 2000yo man. LOL, and not one stone apon another. Just everything like that.
Click to expand...

kiwidan said:
Why do you believe?

Is it because your simple and read the bible so decide you will just believe it?

Is it because you have been influenced by family, friends, or a church?

Is it because you have followed the shadows and prophecies that have blown your mind to give no doubt?

Is it because you have had a vision or some type of spiritual encounter?

All of yhe above, maybe something else?

For me its prophecy and shadows. Like more how things that were written before the fact come to pass. I think thats also written in early scripture you should know who is truth because what they say will come to pass.

All true prophets lead to Jesus or give some type of shadow or witness, and since Jesus himself many of his prophecies have come true. Just like his words will never pass away, he not doing to bad with over 150 million likes on facebook for a 2000yo man. LOL, and not one stone apon another. Just everything like that.
Click to expand...
-You can not come to Christ unless the father draws you, and Christ and the Father are one (John 5: 27-47) (John 6: 41-59). When anyone reads or hears the Gospel, They can rejoice in it, but that is not being saved and is usually temporary. (Matt.13: 3-21) (2 Peter Chapter 2) They had knowledge of the glorious Gospel, but instead of calling upon the Lord, they returned back to their heathen life, while knowing the Truth. Here is the answer to your question. When a man hears the Gospel and the Scriptures and is convicted,and his heart burns within him. He knows about the Savior, but not Him personally. He is being kept from knowing Christ as the Father is waiting for a reaction from the Truth. Being convicted by the Gospel, he calls upon the Lord to enter into his life. The word of God drew him to Christ. The word of God is from the Father and can draw a believer to Christ. It is at that point that the father opens their eyes to see the work of God in their behalf as they hold on to Christ and invite Him in to dwell with Him forever. (Luke 24: 13-32)

In Christ
Douglas Summers
 
Christ_empowered said:
Oh, I agree...I'm not saying that straight up persecution is getting worse (at least, not in the US), just that the culture as a whole...the values are shifting towards outright hostility towards Christian beliefs, more so than in the past.
Click to expand...
I think that's true. And I'm not so ignorant to not think it could eventually lead to much worse things to come. But really, this does even more to enforce why I believe in God as I do. Scary as it is, this was all foretold in prophesy and the fact that we can see it coming true is just one more thing to re-enforce the truth of the word of God! It's really just one more reason why I believe!
 
Ever since I was little I have been like a little sponge. While others were talking, I was observing. I believe, because God has given me the gift of discernment. I believe, because I know what real Good looks like. Jesus is what I know to be ultimate Good!
 
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