From: studman@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Daniel Tseng)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Prove it to me! New question!
Date: 17 Aug 92 06:57:09 GMT
Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA


	Hello everybody.  Some of you may recognize me and my past posts about
prooving the whole religious thing as real.  Many of you have basically said
that it comes down to faith, and I agree wholeheartedly.  Now, let's say that
okay, I agree that Jesus died for all of our sins including mine, I believe
that what you're telling me is the truth.  Now what?  Now that I've "accepted"
Jesus as my Savior, what is that supposed to do to me?  I haven't noticed a
change in myself, nor what I believe, nor what I wish to believe or do.  Is
there some revelation that I'm supposed to see now, that makes me want to go
out and get baptized.  If there is, I've completely missed the boat.
	I understand about God's love and everything, and many of you all want
to be a part of that as much as possible, why?  I mean, it might be great for
all of you, but I'm doing just fine right now, knowing God loves me, and not
following the Bible word for word.  I think I'm supposed to change the way I
act now, but I don't feel like it.  I basically do everything the Bible has
said anyways, but don't WANT to follow it by the letter.  
	I don't even begin to dare calling myself as Christian, just because I
believe that the son of God, Jesus, died thousands of years ago to save all of
our sin.  Do you all act in the name of the Bible because you feel completely
in debt of Jesus?  Don't you feel in debt to all your parents for simply
giving you life?  If you do feel in debt to your parents, do you follow
everything they say word for word no matter how much you disagree?  
	It appears to me that Christianity gives everyone a sense of security,
trust, and love by an all-forgiving being.  Great, I'm completely in favor of
that, actually it's a pretty cool feeling, BUT why force yourself into
following the Bible word for word, when some of it may not apply to society
thousands of years after it was written.  I already know it's the truth and
everything is the way things SHOULD be, but as many people can point out,
there are contradictions in ideas and wording found in the Bible.  I know
that's not a really big deal, because some translater could have screwed up,
but still, some of that stuff is sort of "old-fashioned".  I know that God has
a reason for asking us to follow it like robots, and it's for our own good,
but I don't feel I'm doing anything wrong to myself or any of my neighbors by
not being able to sacrifice my child for God, like Abraham was going to do. 
Even if God asked me, I don't think I could do it, partly because I don't
think it's necessarily the biggest sin in not obeying God. Denying God is the
biggest sin, obeying the ten commandments is next important.  If he's
all-forgiving and loving, then he'll certainly understand if I prefer not to
kill my child in His name.
	I think I'm missing something in all this Christian and religious
stuff.  It seems so simple to me, maybe too simple...accept that Jesus has
forgiven me for all of my sins, and thank and praise God for all of that, but
that seems about it.  Life is pretty cool with him, and it ain't bad without
him either, hey if all it takes to be Christian is to accept that fact, then
you guys are right, because as one person pointed out, although I haven't seen
Abraham Lincoln, I DO accept that he was our President at one point in time,
but that ain't a life changing event for me.  I really think I've missed
something, maybe the whole point.
	Well, thanks especially to Chuck Maier, who graciously sent me a nice
book about a man named Mahesh Chavda, who converted from Hindu to Christian
and was capable of healing people.  I'm still interested in your guys'
thoughts and ideas about what I've wordily said.  Thanks.

-Dan

[While there is more to it than this, at the very least the Gospels
will show you what Jesus taught.  Unless a number of different people
misunderstood him rather seriously, being forgiven is only the first
step.  Jesus wants people to follow him.  That's why he spent much of
his life as a teacher.  He taught a number of things about how we
should act, how we should treat each other, etc.  His goal was not to
turn people into robots, and that certainly is not the goal of
Christianity either.  As Jesus said, his purpose was that we should
have life, and have it abundantly.  

Perhaps you're focusing on the Abraham story too closely.  I am
certainly glad that you do not plan to sacrifice your child, and that
you have enough sense to doubt any voices that might tell you to do
so.  It's pretty unusual for God to speak directly to someone as they
did with Abraham.  When people talk about obedience to God, they don't
mean that they spend their lives listening for heavenly voices.  It
also does not mean that they set out to reenact the events in the
Bible.  Generally they mean that they study Jesus' teachings and other
things in the Bible that will help them understand the best way to
live, and they join others for mutual help in living as Jesus'
disciples.

You seem not to see any need for reflection about how you live.  I
don't know you, so I can't comment on your life.  I can only say that
it is the general experience of the people of God that there are
things we can learn about how to live that will make life more
meaningful to us and more useful to others, and that there are things
about our lives that we don't see without looking at them with the
illumination of the Gospel and the aid of our brothers and sisters.

I hope you will forgive me when I say that your comments suggest to me
someone who has not seriously examined himself or his life in the
light of Jesus' message.  Either that or someone who has been burned
by association with some rather overbearing form of Christianity.
Thus I'm not even trying to outline what I see as the full scope of
the Christian life or all the purposes for which the Bible is useful.
I'm suggesting simply a starting point: that someone who has been
forgiven by Jesus should be interested in reading his teachings and
trying to put them into practice.  I say this knowing that God is
capable of using oven a modest opening.

--clh]