Needless Obstacles
to Belief in Christ

 

I'd like to offer help with two categories of obstacles to belief in Christ:

1. Obstacles having to do with the extraordinary nature of the key facts about Christ.

2. Obstacles having to do with concerns about certain Christian teachings or with other specific questions.

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1.  It’s not about “proof”

While God has provided more than enough evidence to intellectually justify belief, he chose not to compel belief via “proof” as in a math equation. He wants following Christ to be voluntary. Fundamentally, in fact, he wants it to be a love relationship.

    But in terms of what can intellectually justify belief in Christ, a decent parallel (as opposed to the math equation comparison, which is totally not parallel) would be a civil case in a court of law. Such cases are decided based on "a preponderance of the evidence."

    Why am I pointing you to a civil case rather than a criminal one, in which the decision must be "beyond a reasonable doubt"? That criterion is inappropriate for a person's decision about Christ because, as I mentioned, God designed that decision as a voluntary one. The people he wants for followers are those who see Christ as attractive, who would be glad to find that Christianity is true. Such people are going to tend to assess where the preponderance of the evidence lies differently from others.

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"Can I believe this?" vs. "Do I have to believe this?"

    A person who wants something to be true thinks to themself, "Can I believe this?" A person who wants something to not be true thinks to themself, "Do I have to believe this?" That's how we all operate for virtually all of our belief choices that aren't compelled by math-like proof.

    It's certainly possible for a person to doubt Christianity for one or more "reasonable reasons," such as the existence of evil or that God can seem difficult to perceive. If that's you, I urge you, as from one human being to another, to be open to the reasoning and evidence that point to Christianity being true, open to the possibility that, despite evil and God's hiddenness, "the preponderance of the evidence" points in that direction.

    (To my mind, BTW, some of that evidence is actually decisive, regardless of any other considerations; for example, the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. As I said to start with, God has provided us with more than enough evidence to intellectually justify belief. Countless people of unsurpassed intellect and knowledge have become Christians, of course.) 

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Taking a first step

    One step toward your becoming open to the possibility of Christ's reality could be for you to listen to a few of the videos on Exatheist Friend or visit a couple of the recommended websites. And/or you could read the accounts of Jesus’s life and teachings in the New Testament (I recommend starting with the book of Mark). As explained in more than one of the videos, the accounts were all written during the lifetimes of eyewitnesses, whose testimony is the basis of the accounts. 

    I sincerely hope you'll take a step such as one of these. You – along with each other individual who visits Exatheist Friend – are the reason I created this site. If it helps just one of you to come to know Christ, creating it will have been more than worthwhile.  

    Simply altering your stance from negative or indifferent toward Christ to open to or interested in him can be a game-changer. In fact, when a person is earnestly pursuing the truth about Christ, God will sometimes give them some degree of direct spiritual awareness of Christ’s reality. After all, if Christ is real, he is a spiritual reality, so it only makes sense that God might reveal it to a person at a spiritual level.

    A genuine seeker, no matter how doubtful – even about God’s existence – can simply and sincerely ask God in prayer for such inner, spiritual-level awareness. 

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Ask, and it will be given to you;

seek, and you will find; knock, and

 the door will be opened to you.

               — Jesus Christ

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2.  Concerns/questions about evil, justice, hell, science & the Bible, LGBTQ folk, etc.

If a Christian belief is a concern for you, please check on two things:

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FIRST, make sure it really is a Christian belief! Many of people’s concerns are due to their having heard a misrepresentation of a Christian viewpoint. For example:

• It’s not true that a biblical Christian cannot believe in the Big Bang or evolution as tools God used.

• Major misconceptions about the Christian perspective on same-sex attraction (SSA):​

  • Misconception #1:  In Christianity it's considered sinful to experience SSA.

  • Misconception #2:  A person who experiences SSA is one whit less welcome at churches or is considered one whit less able to be a good Christian than other people.

• It's not true that a Christian must believe that the Bible contains no errors whatsoever. (The essential Christian view is that the Bible is completely reliable regarding theology and Christian behavior.)

• It's not true that a Christian must believe that the ordeal of hell lasts forever (there are three Christian interpretations of what the Bible indicates).

    Exatheist Friend offers help both with concerns that are due to misconceptions about Christian beliefs and with tough questions that are not due to misunderstandings, such as why God allows great suffering. The help is in three places:

1. Videos on the home page.

2. "For a Christian with doubts" page.

3. "Exceptional websites, podcasts, blogs & books" page.

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SECOND, is the belief you're concerned about one of the beliefs necessary for becoming a Christian? Only three beliefs, essentially, are needed: that Jesus Christ is the only Son of God, that you need salvation, and that Christ alone can provide it. A person who believes those things then just needs to accept that free gift of salvation from Christ and become his follower, in spirit and how they live. But, while following him needs to include showing respect for all his teachings and striving to act in accordance with them, it does not need to include being able to understand the reasons for every teaching of his or feeling “comfortable” with every one of them.

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How to become a follower of Jesus Christ

A simple but revolutionary set of beliefs

I gave a nutshell description just now of becoming a Christian: Believe that Jesus Christ is the only Son of God, that you need salvation, and that Christ alone can provide it; then accept that gift from him and become his follower, in spirit and how you live.

    It's quite simple, even when fleshed out: God incarnated himself as Jesus. He joined us here largely in order to put things right between each of us and himself. Jesus taught that our thoughts and actions that stem from our deep-rooted selfishness and other un-Godly qualities stand between us and God. But, out of love for us, he took the consequences of our wrongdoing on himself by dying on the cross and thus clearing the way for us to be with God forever after we die. This was his free gift to us; we only need to believe in and put our trust in him and his gift, and do our best to follow his teachings.

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A simple but life-changing move

    When a person entrusts their life and eternal future to Christ, his Spirit takes up residence in them. They thus become a new person with new inner resources of lovingness, strength, peace, patience, and joy that empower them in their efforts to emulate Christ. A desire to make those efforts comes naturally to the believer, out of love and admiration for the one who sacrificed himself for their sake and gratitude to him.   

    You can take that step of putting your trust and allegiance in Christ via a simple prayer to him. You can pray on your own or in the presence of one or more believers. As for what comes next, Jesus taught that it doesn’t work to live as a deliberately solo Christian. Being his follower involves being in relationship with fellow members of his family, who are now your “brothers and sisters in Christ.”

    That can be lived out by being connected with a local church -- one where biblical Christianity hasn’t been altered to fit cultural trends; here are a few in the Piedmont of NC.

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Where two or three are gathered in my name,

there am I among them.     — Jesus Christ  

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    A description of how to become a follower of Jesus Christ that includes more background information is provided here.