/christian/ - Christian Discussion and Fellowship

I guess I fall under this category. I really want to believe but it's not easy for me. I greatly respect Christianity tho.

>>718071

I go to an Anglican church but I want to become (or at least am considering becoming) Orthodox, but there are no primarily English speaking churches in my area.

>>718098

But not speaking english is mystical and cool. You're not meant to understand anything

I believe all the things that Christians believe, but I have never been to a church service or had a baptism.

I was raised in an irreligious household, and my father and brother and adamantly anti-Christian and anti-religion; if I were to attend a church service, I'd basically be excommunicated from half my family.

>>718102

You must be baptized to be saved, your knowledge of your status would cancel out any hope of Baptism by Desire.

>>718127

I know. I hope that I don't have a freak early death before I take the plunge and be a committed Christian and get baptised.

>>718071

Currently in my Catechumenate, thanks to this board and you guys years ago. I am on my way to BEGOMING ORDODOG.

>>718071

Christianity has consistently interested me for years but I probably fall under >>718089

I'm not capable of believing, but I wish I could – or, moreover - I wish it were demonstrably real regardless of my belief or not.

>>718620

faith is an act of will, friend. and you are most definitely capable of believing. look at the historical argument for the resurrection, as well as the philosophical proofs of God (Aquinas' 5 ways). do some more reading, some stuff from edward feser might help you. in the end though, faith is a choice, it's something you do, not so much a feeling (although you can have that too).

you believe because you want to believe. people who don't believe, say they don't because that's the world they want to live in. they don't want to have to follow real morality, they want to make it up as they go along. or they start worshiping some man made nonsensical morality like the ever changing morality of the lgbtpiaq++ leftists and so on.

i believe because it's the world i want to live in, for starters. there's a lot more to it than that, but that's definitely a starting point. if you keep seeking for God you'll definitely find Him.

>>718775

I don't wish to be combative, but it always comes to this and never really sticks. I've read the 5 ways and Mere Christianity and even grew up a (protestant, Methodist) Christian – raised by a pastor even – but it just never came to make sense. I envy people that can believe; I'm not even wealthy or good looking enough to indulge in materialism, it's just an awful maddening pointless everything.

>>718849

Just read the Bible. Why waste time with words of men?

And read the KJV, its the actual English Bible if you're an English speaker.

I was like you, then I just read the Bible because I really hadn't before.

>>718849

the truth of Christianity can be proven tho

>prove God exists

>use Gospels as historical documents

>prove that historical Christ claimed to be God and was killed and was alive again later

That's really all you need.

>>718093

Find a small church anon. Mine doesn't preach about "feel good" Christianity but tells me to repent and to surrender to GOD. You don't have to agree with the church's political stance, just go to one that preaches sound doctrine and you're fine.

>>718102

Similar situation anon. But do you value your ego more than to be with Christ? Read Matthew 10:34-42.

For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

Just wake up early and attend church, don't tell them instead of lying, and you don't have to go to church regularly to be saved, just believe in Christ and confess your sins and accept the gift of salvation. Plus, there are other ways for you to serve Him.

>>718850

>>718853

I’ve attempted to do these both, but to no avail in developing faith. Life is just one big panic attack, but there is too much doubt and certain elements either don’t seem to make sense or exclusively makes sense in a manner more befitting a fabrication than consistent logic.

I'm afraid of the commitment.

I do believe in God, I have accepted Jesus into my heart and I know that God's order is the natural order of all things. The problem is I don't think I'm 100% Christian yet. I sin so much and half of the time I am aware that I am sinning and I feel I am insulting God while I do it. I want to commit fully but it feels like I must abandon everything that I love in order to do so. It feels like I must commit all the time and I can't let up not one time and the pressure is just too much for me. If I sin, I show my hypocrisy to everyone and dishonor God and the Christian community. I know I can always ask forgiveness for my sins but am I not being greedy and asking indulgences from God if I'm just gonna commit the same sins over and over again? In order for me to truly be a Christian, I must commit every second of every minute of every hour of every day and I don't think I can do it and I am not up to the task. I feel like if I die right now, I will certainly go to Hell since I have not reformed myself to live the Christian life despite accepting Jesus Christ into my heart and repenting of my sins. It feels like I must abandon everything I have in order to commit and I don't think I can do it. I try and try to fix myself and to not sin but lo and behold, I go back to sinning again due to failed commitment. I've been told that if you even doubt you will go to Heaven, you are certain to be Hell bound even if you have accepted Jesus and repented. Its just too much for me man.

Also as for going to church, the churches around here suck. There are over a 100-some churches around here but they are all your typical American deep southern churches where everyone spends half the time singing, praising Israel every chance they get, and the pastors just compete with each other over who can yell their sermons the loudest. There is a Catholic church but with the current pope in the Vatican, no way and there are 0 Orthodox churches. I also want to read the Bible but where do I start? Trying to read the entire thing and memorizing it all is foreboding and I am sure to get burned out. Maybe if I try to learn bite sized chunks each day might help but I don't know. Also I don't like that "feel good" Christianity stuff, that I feel is insulting to God's word and blasphemous.

I might be overthinking this all or maybe not, I don't know. Its tough.

>>718931

https://www.youtube.com/user/orthodoxstephen

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3x3gDTqUYy_bFZWS-U_mZQ

These two channels helped me. Hopefully they could be of help to you.

>>718918

For example, Genesis is really hard to work with for me. I understand that it's not even considered necessarily a wholly literal account of the Earth's creation even by the Church, but beyond that, it sets up Christianity (or Judaism, I suppose) as the religion that has existed since the dawn of humanity, but there's no anthropological evidence to suggest that.

I'd looked into the Shroud of Turin as well, but didn't find anything that disproved the test finding the shroud itself was from the 1300's.

>>719031

The science on the test on the shroud of Turin was accurate, but they tested the wrong part of the shroud. They tested a cutout from the edge, but the edge had underwent a repair job around the 1300s. Later tests on the center of the shroud put it close to the biblical timeline, though they're still working on narrowing the estimation. I think the current estimation has a probable range of like 300 years or more.

>>719068

Can you provide a source? So far all I can find is that every hypothesis for pushing the date back far enough for it to be legitimate has been debunked.

>>718071

I'm in RCIA. Two more weeks till the Rite of Acceptance.

>>719148

God bless you! Welcome home!