My Beliefs
My Beliefs
I am a Christian, I believe in God and have accepted Jesus as my redeemer. I don’t follow a certain denomination, nor do I attend a church. Over the years people have told me how irrational it is for me to believe in someone/something that I cannot see and have no evidence of. Which I’d like to correct as I have seen evidence in my own life. The times when life has been hardest I have felt God’s presence strongly. When I’ve been stuck making a tough decision, struck down by illness, or find that I’m questioning myself and abilities, I turn to Him and ask him for guidance, wisdom and peace, and He never fails to provide. There’s a sense of comfort/peace, even through the toughest of trials, when I rely on God that I cannot describe or explain. There have been times where it’s clear to me that He does exist because of the people and opportunities that have been brought into my life…there’s no way I could say it was random chance.
Heaven and Hell
I believe that when someone dies they either go to heaven or to hell, there is no in between and there’s no coming back once you’ve passed into either one. All humans are by nature sinners, meaning we do things we shouldn’t, and sin is something God cannot tolerate. As such sin cannot be let into heaven with God, and that is why God sent his son, Jesus, to earth as a sacrifice for that sin. The only thing that will take away sins is Jesus. By recognizing you’ve made mistakes, feeling genuine repentance, asking Him to forgive you of any wrong doings you have done, and asking Him to come into your life He will take away that punishment of forever being separated from God.
“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
-Matthew 10:28
There is no “to do” list to get into heaven. A lot of people seem to think there are some kind of rules or regulations you MUST follow or you won’t be a Christian and won’t get to heaven. That’s bogus. The only way to heaven is through Christ, and every Christian has their own convictions of faith.
Though there is the 10 commandments and they are a basic code of ethics to follow, we all make mistakes and even the most faithful of Christians can mess up. However, that doesn’t mean it’s a one way ticket to hell. That is why Christ came, because he knew we would make mistakes even after we had accepted him and his sacrifice covers ALL sin. As Christians, though, we should strive be to avoid the sins listed in the commandments, because we reap what we sow. If we choose to indulge in sin, then we will reap the rewards, which aren’t very pleasant.
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.
-Galatians 6:7-8
Free Will
Pre-destination, do I believe in it? Yes…and no. I believe that God can and does see all the possible outcomes of life. He knows our full potential, but because He gives us a free will it is up to us, ultimately, to decide how our life turns out. However I think that God can and will intervene from time to time to nudge us in a certain direction. It might not be very blatant, but it will be noticeable. Sometimes certain people or opportunities come into our lives that help us along or teach us important things. I have seen this in my own life with many of the people I have met and the decisions that have come my way. I don’t find them random chance at all.
But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”
-Joshua 24:15
Preaching
I’ve had people also ask me why I don’t preach at them. Simple, I don’t enjoy being preached at or judged, and I stick to a treat others as you would have them treat you. It’s not anyone’s place to judge another, only God is the one to judge for He is the only being that is totally truly fair and just. I dislike when someone starts waving their religion/beliefs in my face having total disregard for what I believe in; therefore I respect others’ beliefs just as I would like to have mine respected. Let’s face it, if someone comes up to you and starts telling you you are going to burn in hell and you need to repent now would you really want to listen to them?
I prefer to let my actions speak for me, as in let the love of God show through my actions. Sometimes people will just pick up on something, I’ve been told they see something different in me, and sometimes I’m asked why that is. This, then opens up the door to me telling them about my faith. If I’m asked about my beliefs I will answer and try to give a good response to the best of my knowledge and ability. I will try to help that person to understand what I believe and why. I find this is much better than just randomly bombarding someone, who has no interest at all, since that is most often more of a turn off to the faith than anything else.
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
-John 13:34-35
Evolution
This is one of those touchy subjects for a lot of people. I don’t personally believe it. I do believe we and all other life on this planet can adapt but I do not believe it can evolve into a whole different species. I’ve yet to see solid scientific proof of this, and I also fail to see how we humans are changing for the better. There is more cancer, deformities and body malfunctions than ever before.
I also think it’s sill that so many Christians get wrapped up in this debate of “Old Earth/New Earth” with other Christians. It’s a waste of time; they are fighting amongst themselves and that doesn’t leave a really good impression. Maybe God used evolution, maybe He didn’t. I personally don’t think He did, but I’m not going to poo poo on other people’s opinions on it since nobody really knows.
4 Responses to My Beliefs
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Hello Greykitty,
first of all I want you to know that I like you art yery much. Your furry pictures and your comic strips are very beautiful and great to see.
And I’m glad you are handling this sometimes difficult theme about religion so good as you are doing, you are honest and you don’t hide your thoughts, feelings and your opinion. I’d say, this is something you also can be very proud on!
But I don’t want to hide I have a different look on this topic. I don’t believe in god and I’m always wondering how people can. But this shouldn’t be a reason to argue with you!
If it’s ok, I’d like to ask you some questions and if you feel to, you can answer me.
One of these different looks is that I cannot imagine the earth is made by god in six days (sunday is a day to rast). So many people, first of all Charles Darwin, prooved that nature itselves developped what we know today. The evolution took a long time to become what nature is now. How do the six days get in there?
Another thing is what so many people (also christians!) are wondering: When there is a god, why does he accept the bad things men are doing? Why does he just watch during the strongest are killing the weakest, men are burning down forests and killing kinds of animals, killing and torturing each other? Aren’t all living beings created by this “man” up there, as christians are saying? So why it doesn’t metter to him what they are doing? Of course, you can answer “It’s ours what we are doing with the things god gave us”. But when it is this way why would we need a god anyway?
These are just two of my many questions about god and the christians and I’d be glad if you take time to answer me how you think about this. ^.^
I hope you will apologize my English, I’m still practicing!
Thank you very much and please keep on drawing such beautiful pictures.
Sincerly,
Jens
Hey! Thanks for the comment.
Well this is my take on the evolution, creation thing. Now a lot of people take it quite literal. It’s never said how long a day is in Genesis. Days could have been in a different measure of time then or like it says in one part of the Bible that one day for God is like a thousand years to us. (2 Peter 3:8) or (Psalm 90:4)
Second is nobody knows how God made the creatures of earth. Maybe He used evolution. Maybe He didn’t. I do not believe we evolved from ooze or monkeys, I do believe that God created us, but that doesn’t mean that he didn’t let his creature adapt and change. I don’t believe in one species evolving into another, but I do believe that there can, over time, be many different changes in a species so it creates another sub species. Adaptation is everywhere and can be seen everyday.
The last part is, I just don’t see how some things that are so complex could just happen by random chance. Even some of the simplest and smallest creatures have a complex makeup. I just find it hard to believe that all that could come from nothing.
Now as to your second batch of questions. And I hope I answer all of it alright.
God gave us something called “free will”. Meaning we do what we want when we want. He loves us enough that when he created us He didn’t want us to be robots. He didn’t want to control our every move, hence the reason we were separated from Him by disobedience.
When we were created, we were created for fellowship with God. He wants to be a part of our lives but when Adam and Eve disobeyed his one rule they allowed Satan to steal that fellowship away.
This disobedience put a wall up between us and God. Now God still loves us very much and cares about us so He made a way for use to regain that fellowship, but He gives us a choice as to whether or not we want to accept it. Some welcome it and others choose to reject this and go their own way. They get entangled in the darkness of the world. God allows them because it’s their own free choice. He doesn’t like it, but He allows it. It’s like a parent when their teenager gets to a certain age. They let their child spread their wings and get a taste of the real world and sometimes they fall.
God cares about us because we’re His creation and He wants nothing more than for us to regain the fellowship with Him that we once had before the disobedience.
I hope this has answered your question!
Thanks again for the comment and questions! I think your English was pretty darn good.
~Kris
Hello Kris/Greykitty!
Thank you very much for your response. It is very great getting the chance to talk with someone about these things. Sadly I often made the experience many christians don’t want to talk about some critical “parts” of their believe, so I’m glad there are also the other ones who do not shrink back if someone wants to know it precisly.
The other thing is, your explaining caused some new questions. But if you think this goes too far and doesn’t belong to your web site I won’t blame you! But I hope it doesn’t hurt to ask.
You wonder how so many living beings, complex life, could have rised “just by random chance”. Actually this is a really good question!
I could imagine evolution is like water: It always uses the shortest ways, the best possibility to go on its way. So why a horse should have five legs if four already are good enough? A horse cannot stand on three legs, so “it got a fourth one” because a three-legged-horse wouldn’t have survived over the times. I think this is the only secret how live became so complex. Animals survived just because of there camouflage or there strength, other kinds which hadn’t these things died out. This is what you know as “selection of evolution”, but ‘course you also can say it’s selection of god.
It sounds great god gave us a free will and he didn’t want us to be robots. But if I see what some christians people want to force to, I wouldn’t be so sure about “not have to be a robot”. They say “Pray to god many times a day. Don’t love anyone more than god. Don’t have fun in something else than talking to god.” If you’d be following all these instructions, live abstemiously, you wouldn’t be so different from a robot, I fear.
And if he gives us a free will but he doesn’t like when we live not in a fellowship with him seems a little like black-mailing someone; “adore me or I’ll won’t like you”. Please correct me if I misunderstood something …
The example “parents and their teenager” is a great one, I think. God is like a father to us, christians always say. So they long to a father they can trust over their whole live. But honestly: Do you want to be depending on your father your whole life? Isn’t it so the day comes the young man moves to it’s own appartment having his own life with his own friends without explaining the parents where he had been when he comes home late and so on?
Sigmund Freud said “At bottom God is nothing more than an exalted father.” And he said that the humans project their problems, they get while making human experiences, on him, their father, because it releases the mind.
I hope I don’t overstrain your patience with so many questions but I really like to understand how believers handle this.
Best regards,
Jens
Hi again,
No I do not mind this. Actually I find if you cannot at least try to back up what you believe then why believe it at all?
Anyways….
Yes animals survive through camouflage and etc, but that still doesn’t explain why or how it is possible. All the experiments to create life from mixing random chemicals have never worked, most mutations that happen in humans or animals end up in shorter lives or mental retardation. Dying out because they were not fit, survival of the fittest, yes I know of this for years now. This would mean though that every animal and human being now is better equipped to survive than the those from thousands of years ago, but then why are we finding more and more of these awful mutations that do more harm than good. Shouldn’t we be improving rather than de-improving over the years? Maybe not the best example ever, but look at purebred dogs. They have been so over-bred, selectively bred, taking the strongest mother and father and a lot of these dogs have major problems.
Next part!
“They say “Pray to god many times a day. Don’t love anyone more than god. Don’t have fun in something else than talking to god.”
Actually I would like to amend that. Most things like don’t listen to rock music, or don’t wear this kind of clothing is a man made rule that establishments such as the Catholic church has made up to keep people in line. The only rules that are a must are in the 10 commandments. There is nothing in the Bible that forbids doing fun things. In the old testament God did set up certain guidelines for the Jews, but those were in the old testament before Christ came. Afterwards there were not rules and regulations of that kind, the only thing he asked is that you believe in follow. This is something a lot of people I know have a hard time with because so many “churches” have set up rules of what you can or cannot do in order to be saved. I do not follow a church, I find most churches are very off in their view of God, and imo are more looking to impress people and fill their own pockets. Many establishments have lost their base founding and therefore set up rules and regulations, they get anal with what should or should not be done. That is not true Christianity, in my opinion.
True Christianity is a relationship between you and God alone. Nobody should dictate to you what you can or cannot do. Anything added to the commandments is something some kind of establishment has set up.
I do not depend on him like a small child would their father. I look at him as a father but as more of guidance and yes support but not in the way of helpless kid.
“And if he gives us a free will but he doesn’t like when we live not in a fellowship with him seems a little like black-mailing someone; “adore me or I’ll won’t like you”. Please correct me if I misunderstood something …”
He loves everyone equally, even the baddies, since we are His. He gave us all free will because he loves us, but since we “sinned” that put up a barrier and that separates us from him. Not coming to Him doesn’t mean He’ll hate you because God is not hate, he love. I find this is where many Christians fail too, they preach only fire and brimstone, that God hates sinners. Which no he hates sin, but he loves the sinners. For the same way a friend or family member might have wronged you, you hate what they’ve done to you but you still love them.
Hope that made sense!
~Kris