My Beliefs- GDR

Faith writes:All of today's evangelicals who haven't gone liberal, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, John and Charles Wesley, all the Puritans such as John Owen, Thomas Watson, Richard Baxter and many others; A W Pink, A W Tozer, Leonard Ravenhill. John MacArthur, R C Sproul, John Piper, Alister Begg, Alistair Grath,....

NT Wright writes:Our reading from Acts made it quite clear that in the earliest apostolic proclamation about Jesus of Nazareth his death and resurrection were directly linked to two promises, one about the future, and one about the present. These can be simply stated: the resurrection demonstrates that Jesus is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead, and the resurrection demonstrates that he is the one in whose name forgiveness of sins can be had here and now. Now at first sight these two promises may seem somewhat arbitrary, and only somewhat loosely connected to Easter Day itself. But that again only shows how far we are off the mark. Easter Day is the moment when those great Psalms in the middle and late 90s come into their own, all about heaven and earth rejoicing, the sea thundering, the fields and the trees and the animals celebrating for joy, because YHWH is coming to judge the earth, to judge it with true justice and the nations with faithful equity. In other words, Easter is about the whole creation being set right at last, put back on track with the way it was supposed to be, and the way it had been longing to be. According to Paul, echoing Genesis of course, God intended that the created order should be governed by wise human beings reflecting God’s stewardly love into it. With human rebellion, this purpose was thwarted, and the earth brought forth thorns and thistles, not of its own will but because it had been subjected to futility against the day when humankind would be restored. Now, in the person of Jesus Christ, that restoration has happened; there is at last an obedient human being at the helm of the universe; and the heavens and the earth rejoice at the very thought. God’s judgment is the form that his mercy takes, when faced with a world out of joint.

The questions are actually complex and require a complex answer as everyone has their own idea of what exactly the questions mean in the first place.

GDR writes:We all believe something about why we're here and what if any meaning there is to our lives, and none of us can be sure that we have it right. Neither one of us can be sure about whether I am right or wrong and we are all just searching for that somewhat elusive truth.

Faith writes:Such DOGMA you preach!

Dogma is a principle or set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true.[1] It serves as part of the primary basis of an ideology or belief system, and it cannot be changed or discarded without affecting the very system's paradigm, or the ideology itself.

Faith writes: Sigh. Logic chopping and hair splitting are great sport around here.

I thought you'd just get my point: You SOUND awfully CERTAIN although you aren't in any position to be certain.

Faith writes:Of course all THAT is a bunch of sophomoric pedantic pontification too, but oh well.

I've not merely said that I believe it, I've also said that I find the testimony to be believable and honest.

That's one of the reasons I trust the Bible, but I also trust it because I know the nature of God and how and why God inspired it.

My FAITH is in the "things unseen" that scripture teaches, things we can't know through our own abilities.

By early church I meant the first century after the death and resurrection of Jesus.

It is a narrative of the story of God as understood by individuals at various points of human history.

So yes, I am largely dependent on the Biblical authors

The problem is of course I don't know which parts of what I believe are wrong.

The fundamental Christian message rings true in my heart and through my experiences of life.

We all believe something about why we're here and what if any meaning there is to our lives, and none of us can be sure that we have it right.