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Quote of the Day
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
John Adams
Wandering Views
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Wandering Views 
Thanks, Nancy Jill. It was 6 Arrows’s birthday, not mine. I was just enjoying the cake.
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His birthday will be along shortly. Then he will be really old. Like Peter L.
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Random, I’m late to the game with answering the questions you asked earlier in this thread. (“How old were you when you became a Christian? What inspired you to become a Christian?”) Those are good questions. Here are my answers, such as they are.
1st question: I do not know a specific time I became a Christian. I was raised by parents who were Christians from before I was born. I was baptized as an infant and confirmed as a 13-year-old. Yet there were a lot of ways I was not living for Christ. I was worldly in my thinking, and some of my actions reflected that thinking. I did not have any prayer life, and though I kept going to church regularly, I did not actually begin reading or studying the Bible outside of church until I was well into my 30’s. I did not read through the Bible in its entirety until my 40’s.
However, I can see God’s working in my life even when knowing Christ and having a deep personal relationship with Him were not foremost in my mind.
For example, I was strongly committed to marrying a Christian. I would not have it any other way. When at the age of 20 I met the man who would be my husband, I was clear in my mind that his commitment to Christ was the most important factor in considering him as a marriage mate. No one had ever spoken to me about the importance of a Christian marrying a Christian. Indeed, none of my siblings married committed Christians, but that is a story for another time (and that is still being written). It is clear that God in his grace put that conviction in my heart to marry a committed Christian. He (the Lord) deserves all the credit for everything He has worked in my heart and life.
2nd question: What inspired me to become a Christian? The living, breathing, inspired Word of God. His Holy Spirit led me to desire an ever-deepening relationship with Christ. Daily prayer and reading of the Holy Scriptures are becoming increasingly important to me, and it is through the Word that I am fed and nourished. I have found a level of peace in trials I have experienced in adulthood that transcends understanding. I know that whatever life may bring, the Lord will be faithful to walk me through it, bring me out stronger on the other side, and ultimately bring me to Heaven upon my earthly death.
Random, I pray that you will find that peace, peace through Christ.
Thank you again for your questions. This has been good for me to reflect on God’s mercy and goodness. You are a blessing to me, and I thank God for the privilege of “meeting” you this side of eternity. I hope to see you on the other side as well, in heaven with our Savior.
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6 Arrows, thank you for your reply and comment. All my life, I have wondered if humans have “free will.” As much as I understand the concept of “predestination,” I think its answer is “no.” It is interesting to me that more and more atheist thinkers and writers are coming to the same conclusion. One writer indicates that what “self consciousness” (our “ego” and sense of self) evolved as we developed as thinking animals, so we think, “I decide I will make coffee, I will log on and post this comment, I will decide to become a Christian or become an atheist” and so on, but these decisions were made by our nervous system and then we thought we were making decisions. Though I suspect that most or all people reading this do not accept the idea of humans as evolved creatures and still believe the story of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden as the truth about how humans came to be conscious beings on this planet.
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Random, thank you for your reply!
I have a couple questions for you regarding these statements you made: “All my life, I have wondered if humans have “free will.” As much as I understand the concept of “predestination,” I think its answer is “no.” It is interesting to me that more and more atheist thinkers and writers are coming to the same conclusion.”
First of all, am I understanding you correctly that you believe “predestination” totally overrides free will, then (as in, “our nervous system [decides]”, and we don’t have a choice in the matter)?
I was wondering about one other thing, Random. You speak of the concepts of free will and predestination. Those concepts are also presented in the Bible. Have you read or studied parts or all of the Bible? If so, I’d be interested to know what conclusions you’ve drawn from the scriptures on these topics, and how they compare to atheist thinkers’ and writers’ conclusions.
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6 Arrows,
As best as I can remember, I read most of the Bible when I was ten years old. I do remember being quite stumped by Revelation and giving up at that time. I remember thinking, “Either this was written [or inspired] by the being we call “God,” or it was written by human beings. It sure has the fingerprints of human beings on it.
My parents, about that time, sent me to a Synagogue for religious instruction. Not so much for religious instruction as for cultural instruction. They thought I would lose touch with my Jewish cultural roots, I suspect. I disliked the entire experience and whined so much they stopped making me go.
About that time, I also studied Roger Williams (for a 5th grade school assignment) and found him perhaps the most inspirational human I ever read about). (Odd, as he was a fervent Christian, though he was in severe opposition to the other Puritans of his time and place).
These views have bounced around a bit over my lifetime, but they are essentially the same now at 68 as they were at 10. I am often told that I am way too wordy. To answer all the questions you pose would take hundreds of pages, and probably not be very original or interesting. I think the universe is an accident. I think human beings evolved. I don’t know if there is other life in the billions of star systems out there. I think the Bible (and other similar religious texts) were written long before the time scientific research and empiricism were developed and represent the best guesses people at the time (who were not stupid, but were working on much less information we now have) had to various questions. Some of their answers (such as Genesis, on origins) are way out of date. Some of their answers such as “The Golden Rule” about ethics are pretty good, though often ignored, and not incompatible with our physical and cultural evolution and do not require a being I regard as imaginary for explanaition. Some are questions we have no answer to, such as “Why do we die?” and “What is the purpose in life?” (Though the answers in a way are obvious if unsatisfactory. We die because we are animals and all animals die. Also unending life would be a drag and essentially Hell. And the purpose in life is whatever we can create for ourselves as purpose.
It’s pretty generally accepted here that these answers are unsatisfactory. I have said, and was pleased to hear someone in my atheist group also say, “I just have a great resistance to answers which seem obviously untrue, and not based on empirical evidence.” That’s the way some of us are.
I presume you are trying to convert me to something you consider wonderful. I am not trying to convert you to anything. It’s just something to do until I croak. But my wife wants me to go do some work in the garden. Even though she is smaller than I, if I don’t get out and work in the garden, I will probably croak prematurely. Well, I did go on quite a bit, did I now? Be careful what you ask for, etc. etc.
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Random: I am often told that I am way too wordy. To answer all the questions you pose would take hundreds of pages…
I enjoy reading every word you write, and if you wrote hundreds of pages, I would read them.
🙂
And I know you’re not trying to convert me to anything. And truthfully, I wouldn’t be able to convert you to the “something…wonderful”, belief in the gospel truth of Jesus’ saving blood, even if I tried. The Holy Spirit did the convincing for me, and He can do it for you, too.
Random (I hope it’s okay I call you that — let me know if it’s not), thank you for taking the time to share some of your religious background. I found these statements in your first paragraph interesting: I remember thinking, “Either this was written [or inspired] by the being we call “God,” or it was written by human beings. It sure has the fingerprints of human beings on it.
You were talking about the book of Revelation, but it’s true of the whole Bible that the words therein are the Word of God, written by humans who were inspired by God’s Holy Spirit. Both are true: written by humans AND inspired by God.
Give the reading of the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) another shot, Random. You’ll see “the fingerprints of human beings on it” just as you said. Four different perspectives, as unique as the fingerprints of each different human being, all pointing to one Truth, Jesus.
I enjoy conversing with you, Random. And I can go on quite a bit now, too, can’t I?
🙂
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