Aside from the presence of the holy spirit which is an internal check, has anyone else here ever doubted God to the point of honestly wondering if he really existed?
What happened?
What brought you back?
How did this affect your thinking in the future?
Have you ever truely doubted?
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achilles12604
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Have you ever truely doubted?
Post #1It is a first class human tragedy that people of the earth who claim to believe in the message of Jesus, whom they describe as the Prince of Peace, show little of that belief in actual practice.
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lemonwinhead
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Post #11
What happened?
Im 17 and I have doubted, hated, turned against God at on point in my life. I just couldn't see how He could be so cruel, then there was no proof. It just happened
What brought you back? If Christ at one point doubted God, so are we, but the important thing is that we come back. I took a look at everything around me and I knew that there was a God, then i realized that He was peace to my soul.
How did this affect your thinking in the future? Well, some may disagree with what I'm about to say, but I am Christian...Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddist, and so forth and so on. There is only one true religion, just 1000 diffrent versions of it. That is what I now beilive.
Im 17 and I have doubted, hated, turned against God at on point in my life. I just couldn't see how He could be so cruel, then there was no proof. It just happened
What brought you back? If Christ at one point doubted God, so are we, but the important thing is that we come back. I took a look at everything around me and I knew that there was a God, then i realized that He was peace to my soul.
How did this affect your thinking in the future? Well, some may disagree with what I'm about to say, but I am Christian...Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddist, and so forth and so on. There is only one true religion, just 1000 diffrent versions of it. That is what I now beilive.
Re: Have you ever truely doubted?
Post #12An honest questioning b/w Christianity and Buddhism.achilles12604 wrote: What happened?
God. Prayer. Honest, sincere prayer. A painstaking wait.achilles12604 wrote: What brought you back?
That Gd exists. That God can only make a person believe. That the belief in God was always in me, and I believe in every other human being, it was just shaken and broken. God restored.achilles12604 wrote: How did this affect your thinking in the future?
Doubts arrive now and then, when a solid argument from the atheist's side comes. It may come anyway. The Bible implores us to "take the shield of faith, which will extinguish the darts of the Enemy." Which is important! And what you need is a solid foundation in Christ.alexiarose wrote: I doubt on the average of once a day. But that really is lots better than it was. I used to doubt God, hate God, and want to turn Him away. But someone here recently taught me that it is ok to be made at God sometimes and how I need to see that it really isn't all God' fault.
Wow, most people still do. But I can perfectly understand how some people who went through a personal tragedy can blame God. Some things only God can heal.alexiarose wrote: A person on the forum made me stop blaming God for everything. I may be able to blame Him for crappy genetics, but I can't blame Him for the suffering of innocent others. He didn't inflict the torture on them, man did.
Post #13
I was about 11 years old. I had my doubts about God's existence. I put him to the test praying for things that I had lost and could not find. The first few times my prayers seemed to be answered I still doubted and said to myself that it could just be coincidence or the power of suggestion. After about 5 or 6 times and some a little more spectacular then the previous I believed and never doubted to the extent of disbelief since.
The power of prayer has become even more remarkable. Where as now I expect results to reasonable prayers.
I don't expect to pray for and get a million dollars. Although one time I did pray for money and got it and felt ashamed that I used such a wonderful thing as prayer for such a selfish end. I never did it again.
The power of prayer has become even more remarkable. Where as now I expect results to reasonable prayers.
I don't expect to pray for and get a million dollars. Although one time I did pray for money and got it and felt ashamed that I used such a wonderful thing as prayer for such a selfish end. I never did it again.
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justifyothers
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Re: Have you ever truely doubted?
Post #14achilles12604 wrote:Aside from the presence of the holy spirit which is an internal check, has anyone else here ever doubted God to the point of honestly wondering if he really existed?
What happened?
What brought you back?
How did this affect your thinking in the future?
Yes - I doubted seriously not too long ago.
Here's some ramblings I wrote during my 'episode'.....
"Something happened to me – an overwhelming sense of doubt has consumed me for over three weeks.
This is a miserable time!
I have noticed that in trying to see God in ways that are physical, testable, provable by scientific means, I have lost my spiritual eyes. I am dull spiritually – completely!
God is not visible through the physical senses, but through our deeper, spiritual sense.
This is how we see Him and know Him. This is how we can relate to Him. We can look and look, but God is obviously not recognizable in this light. He transcends what we hold onto as reality. He is deeper and purer in truth than that which our physical selves can know.
These things are slightly important because they are/represent reality to us as we know it…until we see another reality – that of our truer selves – our spiritual selves. This then becomes our newer reality. It may be mocked by others, we may be spoken of as fools, but no matter. Once the spritual eyes are open, it is real.
My spiritual eyes were closing the more I focus on physical world and all involved there. It’s like one is blocked if you focus on the other. It is so important to seek God and look for Him there – not through man’s ways, but through His. If we respect who He is, we must see that He is more than we can encounter on a physical level.
Don’t we want this from God? Don’t we want our Lord and creator to be more than we are capable of being? Would we recognize holiness any other way? Would we design God in our own minds a different way?
We may glimpse His creation through our menial discoveries, but this does not allow us to fully experience Him in the way that is available spiritually.
I wonder if others are so wrapped up in themselves and their physical nature that they have forgotten to open their spiritual eyes again to really see Him. It is my important thing to recognize Him in this way again. I pray for renewed vision and to once again know Him in this way."
I am happy to say that I have been back on track for a while now. I do not hesitate to share with you that this was the most miserable time of my entire life -rock bottom, if you will! I felt yucky inside and out and just couldn't seem to get myself right.
But, I prayed and was patient and slowly things became clear to me again and God renewed my awareness of Him in very unexpected ways. I try to constantly check my own 'within', which is where He is.
Post #15
justifyothers,
Welcome back to the Joy of the Spiritual Connection.
I posted this yesterday. I think it deals with the dilema you speak of, of not being able to prove God scientifically but rather we must experience God experiencially. Which is so true.
http://ncrcafe.org/node/2047
These three insights of the cosmic mind constitute the a priori assumptions which make it possible for man to function as a rational and self-conscious personality in the realms of science, philosophy, and religion. Stated otherwise, the recognition of the reality of these three manifestations of the Infinite is by a cosmic technique of self-revelation. Matter-energy is recognized by the mathematical logic of the senses; mind-reason intuitively knows its moral duty; spirit-faith (worship) is the religion of the reality of spiritual experience. These three basic factors in reflective thinking may be unified and co-ordinated in personality development, or they may become disproportionate and virtually unrelated in their respective functions. But when they become unified, they produce a strong character consisting in the correlation of a factual science, a moral philosophy, and a genuine religious experience. And it is these three cosmic intuitions that give objective validity, reality, to man's experience in and with things, meanings, and values.
Logic is the technique of philosophy, its method of expression. Within the domain of true science, reason is always amenable to genuine logic; within the domain of true religion, faith is always logical from the basis of an inner viewpoint, even though such faith may appear to be quite unfounded from the inlooking viewpoint of the scientific approach. From outward, looking within, the universe may appear to be material; from within, looking out, the same universe appears to be wholly spiritual. Reason grows out of material awareness, faith out of spiritual awareness, but through the mediation of a philosophy strengthened by revelation, logic may confirm both the inward and the outward view, thereby effecting the stabilization of both science and religion. Thus, through common contact with the logic of philosophy, may both science and religion become increasingly tolerant of each other, less and less skeptical.
I really enjoy your posts justifyothers. God bless and be with you ALWAYS my friend.
Sanctify Our Steps
Our perfect and righteous heavenly Father,
This day guide and direct our journey.
Sanctify our steps and co-ordinate our thoughts.
Ever lead us in the ways of eternal progress.
Welcome back to the Joy of the Spiritual Connection.
I posted this yesterday. I think it deals with the dilema you speak of, of not being able to prove God scientifically but rather we must experience God experiencially. Which is so true.
http://ncrcafe.org/node/2047
These three insights of the cosmic mind constitute the a priori assumptions which make it possible for man to function as a rational and self-conscious personality in the realms of science, philosophy, and religion. Stated otherwise, the recognition of the reality of these three manifestations of the Infinite is by a cosmic technique of self-revelation. Matter-energy is recognized by the mathematical logic of the senses; mind-reason intuitively knows its moral duty; spirit-faith (worship) is the religion of the reality of spiritual experience. These three basic factors in reflective thinking may be unified and co-ordinated in personality development, or they may become disproportionate and virtually unrelated in their respective functions. But when they become unified, they produce a strong character consisting in the correlation of a factual science, a moral philosophy, and a genuine religious experience. And it is these three cosmic intuitions that give objective validity, reality, to man's experience in and with things, meanings, and values.
Logic is the technique of philosophy, its method of expression. Within the domain of true science, reason is always amenable to genuine logic; within the domain of true religion, faith is always logical from the basis of an inner viewpoint, even though such faith may appear to be quite unfounded from the inlooking viewpoint of the scientific approach. From outward, looking within, the universe may appear to be material; from within, looking out, the same universe appears to be wholly spiritual. Reason grows out of material awareness, faith out of spiritual awareness, but through the mediation of a philosophy strengthened by revelation, logic may confirm both the inward and the outward view, thereby effecting the stabilization of both science and religion. Thus, through common contact with the logic of philosophy, may both science and religion become increasingly tolerant of each other, less and less skeptical.
I really enjoy your posts justifyothers. God bless and be with you ALWAYS my friend.
Sanctify Our Steps
Our perfect and righteous heavenly Father,
This day guide and direct our journey.
Sanctify our steps and co-ordinate our thoughts.
Ever lead us in the ways of eternal progress.
