New Song

Statement to Nihilists

It is far more logical to believe that there is a creator God that loves His creation enough to come and die for it, than to believe that there is no truth and that not somehow be a paradox or contradiction.

Faith Comes First To Following God’s Law

I’ve taken care in writing this. Sorry for the length, but please take careful consideration of all of it. This is my personal testimony.

I wrote longer answers to some of your points, but after reading the ending of your message, I think I see better now where your concern lies.

I’m going to instead just give a brief answer to one of your points because the rest are less relevant to then what you said at the end of your message. I was going to exclude these answers completely to not build walls, but they are still important topics. Like I said before, the Apostles did not understand the Cross before the Holy Spirit came to them. After Pentecost, when they received the Holy Spirit, their eyes were opened, and they understood the meaning of the Cross. They went out and preached about the meaning of the Cross, and people started having their eyes opened. Paul was killing those who started believing in Christ. Jesus came to Paul, and Paul was saved, his eyes were opened and he then understood the Cross. The rest of the matters can wait for now.

Let me go on now and help explain better where I am now with my faith, let me explain how I got there (much like, to fully understand the New Testament, you have to fully understand the Old Testament first)

Let me start by saying that I’ve been meaning to go back to rewrite my, “Why I Left the Catholic Church,” post for sometime now because that statement isn’t necessarily accurate.

And I’ve faired that the post would result in building walls instead of bridges. So maybe part of all of this is God’s way in getting me to actually go back and write a better, more accurate, testimony. (Which I’ve actually felt Him, for a great time now, has wanted me to do.) God is good. Let me tell you:

A few years ago I lost complete faith in the Bible. Though I would have claimed back then to know all about the Bible and have a good understanding of it, I now see that wasn’t true. I rarely ever read it, and most of what I knew about it came from outside sources, including television, due to a being lazy. This lack of Biblical understanding and wisdom caused me to loose faith in God’s Word, and began to pray to God that He reveal His Truth to me without using any outside influence (This was sort of bias though because I still allowed outside influences, I just didn’t let anything from the Bible influence me.) This led me down some dark paths. Remember that one game at retreat we played where we closed our eyes and tried to follow someone’s voice while others were either trying to lead us to the voice or away from it. That’s pretty much what happened to me. But with no way to know the right voice from the wrong voice I ended up becoming a Universalist more or less (someone who believes in all religions). It was like I was trying to complete this puzzle, the way I wanted to be completed (I was defining God in my own terms) And my puzzle worked, I could get all the pieces to fit. All my pieces, that is, except Jesus. And this caused me to get angry at Him and at Christianity all together. Well, I was still praying for God to reveal His Truth to me, and very quickly after I had constructed my puzzle, He took it and smashed it against the wall, gave me the piece that was Jesus back, gave me a Bible, and told me to start with Jesus and construct the puzzle using the Bible as a guide therefore allowing God to define Himself in His own terms, not mine. This led to my life changing drastically, and the way I saw the world dramatically. It all changed for the better, and now live my life defined by God’s terms, not my own or anyone else’s. Because in life all that matters is God’s Will, no one else’s.

The Christian life is not an easy road; Jesus made this clear in the Gospels, as well as the writers of the letters. I’m thrilled to hear of your continued struggle to live the life that God wants you to live. I understand the struggles you face. He doesn’t expect us to be prefect over night, nor should we expect to be prefect at all in this life. But we have to persevere to be made in His likeness. The world and culture we live in today makes it very hard to live a Biblical/Christian life. And it would be a lot easier to just give it all up, and live life for ourselves. For me personally though, in the past when I’ve started to just slightly step away, it resulted in really deep emotion things. I don’t think God’s letting me go, and I’m sure He wouldn’t let you go either.

Just have faith that there is nothing you can ever do will cause God to turn His back on you. If He would go as far as to come down from Heaven to die for us, why would He do anything less for us? Just believe that there is nothing you can do that is too big to be covered by Christ’s blood.

After everything I’ve been through, and where I am in my growth to be more like Jesus, I’ve never felt closer to God than I do now. Though, like us all, I still have a long way to grow.

I apologize for the “Why I Left the Catholicism,” post. It was written during a time when I was sort of upset about what had happened to me (the puzzle thing) and I wanted to blame it on something. I guess the Catholicism acted as part of my scapegoat. Another reason it was easy for me to blame the Catholicism was because my whole family pretty much confess to being Catholic, but I see how unChrist centered some of their lives are, and it I wanted to blame Catholicism for that as well. But I realize now what happened to me was my own fault, and what has happened to my family are their own faults. When we lack an understanding of Christ, then we don’t have any other choice but to fall to our own desires. But like most things that has happened to me, God took the biggest mess up in my life (the whole puzzle thing) and turned it around for His glory caused the best thing that’s happened in my life to grow from it.

Now, because of what happened to me was due to my Biblical ignorance, I feel that part it is important for me to let others know how important being Biblically literate is. With me personally, the traditions got in the way and clouded God’s message of salvation. But that’s me. If the traditions help someone understand God’s message of salvation then I would never want to jeopardize that for them. I’m really glad to hear that Catholicism has helped you has much as it has. It helped me in the past as well. Father Chris as a big influence in my life, as I’m sure he was in yours, but for me I’m a lot happier now where I am, and I’m closer to God then I have ever been in the past. Helping people see the importance of understanding and knowing God’s Word is a big part of my life’s mission now.

The church in the Bible is described as all the believes of Christ. Anyone who confesses that Jesus is their savoir is part of the church. But sadly right now the church is greatly fracture. This is not a small problem as far as I’m concerned. Jesus is the head, and the followers are the body, and right now Christ’s body is fractured. So I haven’t left the church at all. Trying to build bridges between the fractured pieces is another big part of my life’s mission. This is a trying part because it is easy to jump onto the defense when people confront you. But I have to remember to keep God’s plan in mind no matter what I do.

In your message: “It's people that bring people close to God - not a book - even if it is God's book. People teach people to read. People teach people to pray. People teach people to give, share, and heal. Everything I've learned from the Bible has been a supplement to the things I've learned from my parents, God-parents, Priests, Nuns, Campus Ministers, and brothers and sisters in Christ. Not the other way around.” God’s Word is all about bringing people together. God is all about bringing people to be a union with each other, not individuals by themselves which is what our culture is all about, though we do need to all have a personal relationship with God. Community is important, but you can’t pick and choose different things out of the Bible; you have to take it as a whole. So you can’t accept what it says about the importance of community, but then neglect what it says about the importance of knowing Scripture (remember, it says that Scripture is more important than eating food). The things that you’ve learned from other people have been based on guidelines that are set in the Bible, I hope at least.

One of the things the Bible is used for is to be a baseline. There needs to be a definite answer for things, a definite answer for what is right and wrong. And if there’s not a baseline then what you get is what’s now happening in the world; people are defining what the guidelines are for themselves; the whole ‘truth is subjective” fad. They define what is right and wrong based off their own desires and experience. The Bible is there to keep people accountable because it tells them flat out, this is right, this is wrong. If someone you looked up to came and told you, “It is alright to have lustful thoughts about woman. There is nothing wrong with that.” If you’re Bible illiterate, since you trust this person, you’ll probably believe this statement. But if you know what the Bible says on this subject then you are able to defend against this statement and others like. This is exactly what Jesus did when he was tempted by Satan. Remember Psalms 199:105, “Your Word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path” The Bible keeps you accountable to God’s Will, and He has made His Will clear to us, it’s up to us to be selfless to His Will. If someone is Bible illiterate, then they don’t have a good grasp on God’s Will, and are at a mercy that what others them is right and wrong and true. The Bible should not be a supplement to what others have told you. You don’t put other’s words and make sure that God’s Word matches their; you take God’s Word first and make sure everyone else’s matches His. I completely encourage you to research everything I’ve told you, and make sure it is true in God’s terms, not anyone else’s.

This turned out longer than anticipated. I care a lot about you, Tom, so I’ve taken care in writing this. It’s been good for me personally because it’s helped me put down exactly where I stand on things, to help me see them clearer, and understand what God has shown me to be His Truth. I just ask you to meditate on what I’ve written, and then pray and ask God to show you where you can grow to be made more like Christ. Because at the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about, and we all have a long way to go, but He is their to give us His strength.

Romans 3:19-31

“Obviously, the law applies to those to whom it was given, for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses, and to show that the entire world is guilty before God. For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.

But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.

 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he declares sinners to be right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.

Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.

After all, is God the God of the Jews only? Isn’t he also the God of the Gentiles? Of course he is. There is only one God, and he makes people right with himself only by faith, whether they are Jews or Gentiles. Well then, if we emphasize faith, does this mean that we can forget about the law? Of course not! In fact, only when we have faith do we truly fulfill the law.”