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Doubting Christianity? Watch This Video! w/ Dr. Alex Plato
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- Опубликовано: 14 ноя 2022
- Full Episode: • Philosophy, Philosophy...
Everyone doubts, but by redoubling our faith we see everything clearer again. Matt and Dr. Plato talk about their own experience, holding on to reason, hope, and accepting life through the lens of grace.
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St. Augustine once said, “Faith is to believe what you do not see. The reward of faith is to see what you believe.”
I'm a simple person. I practice the sacraments and pray the rosary daily and haven't experienced doubt of God since I became Catholic. When I was an atheist I was riddled with doubt, my monkey-brain wasn't calm. I have let go of that completely by the grace of God and my guardian angel. I no longer over-analyze or marinate in deep and complex theological or secular ideas as I don't see the point of it. Not saying there isn't a place for it for others...just that there is no place for it within me, it wasn't productive or spiritually edifying for me.
That’s the way to be. True faith doesn’t need to analyze or intellectualize God. God wants us to be like children in our relationship with Him.
And whoever you are Saint Charbel, I’m a big fan of the saint myself. ❤️
I'm hoping to get there someday! God bless you.
Do you feel lighter
@@IONov990 I do now. I fast on Wednesdays and it has worked wonders on my waist.😂
I don't want this to sound disrespectful, but it sounds like you just made a choice to stop thinking, or more precisely you have ceased to entertain certain thoughts and doubts.
Totally a personal choice, not meaning for this sound like an insult. Sometimes to pursue something subjectively important to you, art music, religion, etc. you have to give up other things. I think your story is not so much an objective proof of Christianity, but it is an effective way to cling to the faith.
Love Plato!
Love play dough
@@thehungarywaffleinc.7775 I don't like the way play dough smells.
@@GrislyAtoms12 I once saw the babysitters daughter eat a whole thing of play dough. Fast forward about 17 years, she’s not the brightest
I prefer Aristotle.
Praying for your discernment of Catholicism. God bless!
This was perfect timing. I have really been doubting myself and my belief. I needed this!
“Love has reasons of which reason does not know.” -Pascal
Not to throw out this wonderful conversation - the Catholic tradition of philosophy (heck I’ll even throw Kant a bone!) is entirely fascinating - but truly the mystery of life does not begin to speak until we acknowledge Jesus lifted up on the cross drawing all men to Himself in an act of supreme love. Great video, praying for your ministry!
Wow. Needed this. Glad to hear someone better explain what i myself have been thru and go thru
I really appreciate this discussion. Our world is starving for the encounter with God both personal and intellectual. I have encountered God in a very direct way many times in my life and sadly, to my great shame, I have fallen away from God wandered and confused unable to resolve the world and faith, only to run right back into the God that cannot be denied and pursues us in love. It was not until God revealed that I was meant to be a Catholic, all my life, and was directed to that end did I find the connective parts of my theology that completed me. It was like a whole universe of reason, completion and truth was revealed in the Catholic faith. I was like so moved and moved by how I found the consistent and powerful truths of life in the faith. It is not that my life became perfect, it was that I could see the perfect God who created me and in his Son my redeemer a universe whole and wonderous and my path became straight and the goal more knowable and resolute in my heart, to journey to God, with God. Keep teaching, keep talking, the world is dying from a lack of these beautiful conversations. Peace be with you
Maaaaan I have been dealing with this exact thing for a while now. Could not have come at a better time
BIG same. I'm glad I stumbled onto this video.
Sameeee
so this is clearly a common thing to worry about - but what i cannot believe is the TIMING of this video. i've been thinking about this for the past few days!!
I always remember that wishful thinking always CUTS BOTH WAYS. Atheists too can have MANY underlying motives for wanting God to not exist. So no point in overly-psychologizing each other or ourselves.
Maybe. But when I was atheist, and I'm still agnostic at this point, it was not because I was motivated to not believe in God. I was terrified He did not exist and felt like I was deceived by naive others who didn't know that it was all a myth to protect against death anxiety and to create an in-group. I don't think this is uncommon in atheism.
@@nicolegallien5963 I didn't say all atheists have such motives. I'm merely saying that the wishful thinking accusation against theists or Christians can be turned right back at atheists/agnostics. To demonstrate: the atheist who accuses the theist of embracing "a myth to protect against death anxiety and to create an in-group" can himself be accused of holding a myth that protects the atheist against having to face his own sin and moral failings. Both kinds of accusations from both sides are fallacies, veiled forms of ad hominem attacks rather than actual logical arguments.
I literally just prayed for God to guide me and quell some of my doubts. I literally just spoke to Him about my own questions surrounding my reason, and whether the last year and a half in my life coming to know Him has just been one of my new “obsessions”, or that I actually just want to live the Christian life due to external reasons. This video in my feed is itself proof to the contrary. Thank you for this!
wow and here I am thinking I'm the only one, just never able to articulate it this well. Thank you Matt, this has helped me so much
THANK YOU for this, your devils advocate at the beginning is exactly me, his response was exactly what I needed to hear
That hurt my brain
I think I’m as far from the life state(s), worldview and opinions of these two men as it’s possible to get. I’ve never related to religion in any sense whatsoever. Ever since I was a little kid, I can remember attempts at praying to or contacting God and the feeling of emptiness I always received in return. Even as a child I never believed in Christianity, and as I’ve gotten older I’ve started to define myself as an atheistic Buddhist-a lifelong atheist who nonetheless has found a lot of comfort in the teachings of Buddhism, so I’m influenced by that religion but do not follow it.
And even though I think Christianity is nonsense, I keep being drawn back to Catholicism. I’ve been watching this channel for almost two years, I think. Since I was fourteen. I’m sixteen now. I just can’t stop watching it. I think theology is utterly fascinating, and some of the things talked about on this channel even upset me-everything I disagree with, pretty much-but I’ve spent hours of my life on it because I feel something in it tugging at me. I feel like if I don’t figure this out, the rest of my life will be meaningless; that if I don’t decide one way or another there is no purpose. This question troubles me.
Just a statement of my thoughts on this clip.
Thanks for sharing all of this. I think it's great that you're open and seeking truth, and not making apologies for your journey or disbelief/difficulty to believe. What I love about Christianity is that there is a rich thought tradition, based in both faith AND reason, throughout theology and philosophy, that can help us.
As it would happen, I'm the opposite of you: nearly twice your age, and a lifelong, happily devout Catholic who never significantly doubted the goodness, beauty or truth of my family's faith until high school, but dug deeper and more contextually into scripture and history, and found reasons to keep on believing. But I've recently run into life experiences in my 30s that have caused me to question whether I've been wrong all this time in the observant lifestyle I've chosen. Namely, missing out on a lot of potential relationships that might've worked out, if only I wasn't so adamant about following Catholic teachings about marriage and sexual ethics, etc. I hit a low point last week, after a series of recent rejections, where I felt resentful. I'd tried to follow all the commandments through the "best years of my life", and yet still came up short, at least if compared to my married peers who appear happily married, but gave up on their faith years ago.
But I stumbled across this video at the right time - it's making me wonder if my doubts are simply fueled by misology, or "not liking my reason", as broken down in this video. I can back up my values with reason, but I simply have experienced rejection and frustration, so I don't like the outcome right now... therefore I'm feeling doubtful and tempted to abandon it altogether. The hypothetical talked about at 3:50 to 4:05 or so is exactly how I feel right now. "Screw reason! I want to just live the way I feel, like Nietszche proposed... maybe that way, I'll get the happiness I think I want." I authentically felt like this for the past 2 weeks, but after learning about "misology" and hearing this video discussion, I suspect this "feelings"-driven mode of thought is rash. Anyway, I digress. But it's encouraging to see that this channel is helping people like us, who are both wrestling (from different directions) with the notion of God's existence, faith, and religion. Kudos again to you on your honesty and your searching mentality. I hope you do find God's presence in your life, and I hope you keep coming back to the well that is this internet community :)
Thank you for this response; I know sometimes it can be hard for people your age or, again, much older than you to take a teenager seriously when they’re asking questions on or talking about the greatest question in the universe-the existence of God-but I feel like it’s something that unites us all. Even though the questioning is painful, I’ll continue to wrestle with the question because to ignore it would be to ignore the meaning of life.
It surprised me how much I can relate to what you mentioned about losing relationships over this, and how painful that can be. I relate to what you talked about so much; hating my own reason, hating the intellectual game of it all, the endless back-and-forth of trying to prove or disprove faith. And I have so many friends-a relationship-that I stake on my atheist status, that I wonder if I ever felt God’s presence if I would be able to accept it as I ought.
The human heart is such a weak thing, and unfortunately we really are sometimes stupid enough to pick material goods over spiritual goods. But if your religion has cost you opportunities and relationships, I’d like to commend you for sticking to it and the bravery and fortitude that takes. If you’re strong in your principles, that deserves respect, no matter if one agrees with the principles or not.
Your struggle to seek the truth is beautiful. It touches me deeply. I think God is pulling you towards Him. Sometimes it can take a very long time indeed. Be patient and keep seeking. All the best.❤
Thank you, I wish you all the best too.
You are blessed to be wrestling with God at such a young age. You are already blessed with insight and wisdom beyond your years, and that will be very fruitful for the rest of your life.
Might I recommend Jordan Peterson’s video “Why Should You Go To Church?” Might help give you some new content and perspective to grapple with!
Be relentless in your pursuit of truth. Apologize to no one for your internal debate. Follow the path of truth wherever it might lead you.
I love this video, thank you for sharing!
I converted to Catholicism a long time ago and I feel like I’m still unpacking my gifts at Christmas. Of course, living in liberalism means that we are assaulted by doubt. But one of the many things I do is behold the rich, joyful civilisation Catholicism producedImagine if we once more lived in an officially Catholic culture.
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. John 10:27
Man says "Show me, and I 'll trust you." God says " Trust me, and I'll show you."
This dude brings it down to my level
“Let’s do LSD and watch SpongeBob SquarePants” 🤣😂
Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world-to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” John 18:37
I totally understand this point he made. I’ve been having these incredibly stupid thoughts of “were the Pharisees right, was Jesus possessed or something”. I can safely say that that is NOT true and I really want to believe that Jesus is my lord and savior because I KNOW he has to be, but I can’t help but have these weird and unreasonable thoughts
I also have had those thoughts before. However, when I read what Jesus said and how he was able to communicate with people. There is no doubt he was divine. Its also important to remember that Jews were waiting for the messiah at that time because they KNEW he had to arrive around that time. He just wasn’t the Messiah they wanted. So, they ended up recreating their religion through the Talmud which came like 400 years after Christ.
@@soccerislife6108 I heard too that the Jews expected the messiah to arrive around the time of Jesus. Do you maybe have a source so I can read more about that? That alone should be enough to prove modern "Judaism" wrong.
@@illyrian9976 They did come up with a false Messiah right after the time of Jesus, and then of course that failed. I read about it in "Why Catholic Bibles are Bigger" by Gary Michuta.
LSD and Spongebob squarepants! LOL Matt! 🤣
I went thru the phase of “well, I am a Catholic because I always have been and it is where I am comfortable.”
Thank God for conversations like these because they opened me up to really accepting the Truth.
🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation:
00:42 🌌 Doubting one's faith is akin to the indifference towards extraterrestrial life; it's not necessarily about being convinced it's wrong, but a lack of personal investment.
01:23 🤔 Doubts about religious beliefs may stem from emotional experiences and acceptance of arguments that weren't critically examined, leading to a potential self-constructed narrative.
02:05 🕊️ Making Christianity coherent doesn't necessarily make it true; addressing philosophical challenges and theodicy (problem of evil) doesn't automatically validate religious beliefs.
04:26 🧠 Choosing between mythologizing and embracing reason involves a critical decision; rejecting reason entirely can lead to a life driven solely by emotions and personal preferences.
06:30 🤝 In an era of diverse spiritual beliefs, the challenge arises from doubting one's religion due to exposure to various perspectives, leading to a perceived epistemic parity among religions.
10:56 🕵️ Natural theology involves integrating disparate facts and experiences into a rational explanation, akin to Sherlock Holmes piecing together clues to deduce a conclusion.
11:37 🤷♂️ Personal experiences of God can be a foundational aspect of belief, even in the face of skeptical introspection, making Christianity true in the context of a holistic worldview.
13:58 🔄 Beliefs, initially formed through complex inferences, can evolve into properly basic beliefs through lived experiences that validate and integrate those beliefs into one's worldview.
I appreciate that Matt gives voice to the fact that those moments exist, because I think it does assist in having empathy towards atheists and not rejecting them as bad faith actors who secretly do believe but 'just want to sin'.
I'm in the camp that I am satisfied that entirely natural, non-spiritual explanations for the "big questions" exist and that in some cases we've started to pull them together. At that point, the addition of an entire supernatural realm with attendant entities, rules and meta-history (or as I would call it, mythology) is not only unnecessary, but just sounds a little too much like a fantasy story.
I think I don't have much of a choice but to rely on reason because frankly I don't have a better choice; but I also think that Godel's incompleteness theorem shows that there will always be some questions we can't definitively answer.
Isn’t it scripture that says those who reject the creator are suppression knowledge of the truth in unrighteousness?
@@AlixPrappas Romans 1:18-25, yeah.
So I suppose you'd then have to say that either a) I cannot be being honest, no matter how much I try to show that I am or b) I'm deceived about my own internal life: I genuinely and truly think I'm being honest, but in actuality I'm not.
Either way, you destroy any possibility of genuine discussion with people who disagree with you, because you've presupposed moral failure on their part that renders their intellectual objections moot.
Alternatively, Paul was wrong and it is possible to honestly disbelieve...
I am struggling with skepticism, nhilism, apathy and assent, lately.
Someone please recommend resources for the sake of my faith & sanity.
Perhaps a book you may find useful is The Pilgrims Regression by CS Lewis. It’s one of his least referenced books, but it’s his first book after his conversion. I found it to be tremendously helpful :)
“Let’s do lsd and watch SpongeBob SquarePants” 🤣🤣
When doubts assault me, I need not think of what convinced me personally, I don´t need elaborate theological arguments, all I need to do is look at history. A bunch of obscure illiterate Jews who followed a fringe crucified rabbi in a forgotten corner of the world converted the most powerful empire on earth in a span of 3 centuries without shedding a drop of blood. I am in Brazil and I believe in the God of Israel. As every single messianic prophecy in the Bible said would happen. Look around. The world has been shaped by Christianity. And the principal claim of Christianity, from the beginning, is that the world would be shaped by Christianity. History makes it undeniable.
Holy guacamole! What a great name for a philosophy professor! Salutations, (Dr.) Plato!
I find Father Ripperger immensely helpful in his exposition of the Catholic faith and the writings of Saint Thomas Aquinas.
I also find him trustworthy for three reasons.
1. He's obviously not insane.
2. He's obviously not a liar.
3. He actually talks with demons.
I've learned a lot from him!
By the way, this discussion was extremely helpful, too. Dr. Plato is fantastic!
@@stephencuskley5251 Checking it out right now!
Great Video mate.
Great vid
I dont always agree with u matt - but i do appreciate your raw honesty. thank you.
So good.
Geez Matt that first 2:30 where you went on a roll, I mean Day*m, hahaha 😂. Talk about playing Devil’s Advocate. …”I don’t care… I could care less…”. Sheeesh 😂
I'm glad he did that. Because that's exactly the kind of doubt that's been plagueing me the past few weeks. He must have heard a lot of those arguments from people who are struggling in the same way, in order to articulate them so accurately.
Doubt is good.
Wow This popped up randomly and summed up my crazy misleading thoughts recently.. 🙏
I'm not doubting Christianity, but we can all use things which bolster our faith.
I thought of Richard Rohr and Audrey Assad and others that have left or changed the faith Bc they seem to shrug their shoulders at the religion they were brought up in Bc of this hatred for reason. It sounds more like self hatred. I totally suffered from this before I converted to Catholicism.
Smart fella!
Just watch Fr Ripperger lol. Matt you should have him on!
I have had these thoughts to
Very interesting! Not sure what he means at the end about belief in God BECOMING properly basic. If it's believed via abductive inference, isn't it an inferential belief?
In Layman’s termas please!😂😂
All you can do is the best you can do. You can't worry about "What if I'm only Catholic because of some underlying psychological reason, and not because I'm actually convinced of the arguments". Look at the arguments and evidences. To the best of your ability, judge whether or not those arguments convince you. And then stick to that until new arguments or evidence changes your conviction.
This is the real Paschal's Wager - do your best, which is all you can do. And then hope that your best, and your honesty, is good enough for God, even if it turns out that you had the wrong religion all along.
-An ex-Catholic
What happened? If you don't mind me asking.
@@navidemelo348 I do not mind at all! The short story is that I become unconvinced of Teleology. Alternatively phrased, I began to believe that Teloi do not exist. The rest followed from there.
@@Kevigen i see
@@Kevigen I'm sorry I'm not super sophisticated in my knowledge of philosophy. What is teleology or teloi?
@@AntonAchondoa "Teloi", or the singular "Telos", is Greek for "end / purpose". Teleology is the study of ends or purposes. The Telos of an object is Aristotle's 4th Cause, in Aristotelian physics.
Lately, I have been having doubts due to stuff on Reddit and Quora. I let people get to my head. There are those who say that critical thinking leads to Atheism and that is an enemy or incompatible with faith. I feel as if I just want to believe, I feel as if they're right. But I don't want critical thinking to destroy my spiritual views. Can someone help me?
I am exactly the same as you my friend. I am hugely skeptical. I always remember and talk to myself thinking over why I became a Christian in the first place. Doubt is normal and worrying sometimes is ok. I can tell you that our faith makes a lot more sense than atheism. Atheism is something I will never adopt again. It’s completely baseless. There are always going to be skeptics on any issue no matter what. You will heal over time just like I am. Your faith will grow. Don’t give up.
Ps Reddit and Quora is laughably the worst places to go. The overconfidence of people on there is unbelievable
What if your doubts are because you don't feel God is there, that prayers seem unanswered? Or you can't discern if a prayer was answered or not. You see all these Christians getting answered prayer and you feel so distant from God. I have many health problems, I don't believe in health, wealth, prosperity gospel, but at the same time, God feels so distant and its led to doubt. God-bless
But what about the constant search for empirical evidence for the existence of God? That’s the main hang-up for people. Given that we use empirical evidence to confirm things in most facets of life.
I ask this because this is the main objection my agnostic friends have. They won’t budge on this until I give them proof of God’s existence, something you can observe and see and touch, etc
Personally, I consolidated my faith the moment I felt that it did not depend on miracles or the promise of eternal life.
I started to believe in God when i thought about the Universe. If you travel in any direction in space you would never come to a boundary or end. It goes forever and we think we are at the center but we are a random dot in an endless place called space. If you think it through, space goes on forever and ever in every direction with no end and if there was an end what could it be and if it was created what was here before it was created. It had to always be there and it is so big because God is also so powerful and infinite. How could space have a starting point and how can God have a starting point. They were always there and God needs a place to exist as much as we need a place to exist. The other world is all around us. We just don't have the ability to see it. The brain evolved with limitless potential but why is it stunted. The brain actually has the ability to halt aging, stop sickness and see beyond this world. Some people have a photographic memory of every book they have ever read, some people can play instruments without ever a lesson... For some reason it is retarded but for some people they can see the other world and it is because of their brain that enable that.
What's the difference between skepticising and refuting a proof??? If you can identify an unfounded assumption, you have refuted the proof.
👍✝️🇻🇦🙏
14:05 beautifuł
Isn’t he basically saying, at the end of the day, Christianity is more plausible?
I would hope not: that would mean lack of Faith.
Shall I as a Christian turn to never ending animal sacrifices that never satisfies the infinite righteousness and glory of God Almighty that Gods justice should fail/be flawed in that no all sin is punished and paid for in full once and for all? Shall I go with no sacrificial system that doesn’t pay the debt of sin once and for all that Gods justice should fail against sin, that sin shall be set free from punishment? I tell you NO! Only in Christ Jesus, we see perfect righteousness justice in that all sin is punished and paid for in full once and for all since Christ Jesus is God “the Son” who is infinite in worth who can pay the debt of sin in full once and for all for any amount of humans of any amount of sin. He also demonstrated the greatest act of love for us in that while we were still yet sinners, Christ died for us! Paying the debt of sin in full once and for all, all the while demonstrating the greatest act of love for us since God the Son “Jesus Christ/Messiah/Savior” is infinite in worth, took on the exact opposite of His nature “evil/sin” into Himself for us who committed the sins in that all who believe in Him that He died for us because of our sins and bore our sins upon Himself and rose from the dead for which we receive His perfect righteousness so that when we approach God on judgement day, we are perfect and righteous before God and so we are able to enter into the Eternal Kingdom of God Almighty only because of what God did for us in Christ Jesus in the shedding of His perfect righteous blood we are saved by the grace, love, mercy of God not of ourselves but of Gods love for us. No greater justice, no greater love! I shall never turn away from the True God of the Bible “The Holy and Blessed Trinity!” God bless you all in Jesus Christ’s Holy Name!
I find this bemusing: the thesis/atheist divide is not that relevant. The great majority of folk are indifferent to whether there be a God or not. The folk who assert a strident thesis or atheist position are the very small minority. I imagine this is what atheist and theist are troubled by most: that We don't care. They avoid that facet and never go there.
I'm a bit bothered by the claim that people who think that people claim equal plausibility of religions when they think that, if they had grown up in another religion, they would probably be following that relgion.
This idea is not based on equal probability, but on the observation that children typically keep their parents religion, irrespective if what that religion is. The question then remains what this observation implies.
So basically, the proposed argument is a bit of a straw man.
It doesn’t imply all that much. Most people claim a religion, but it seems like a much small subset of them actually practice, and an even smaller set put serious thought into what they believe, and an even smaller set would look so far as to realize they are in the right or wrong spot, and a WAY smaller amount that come to find they are in the wrong spot and then are willing to turn away from their own family, friends and community towards that truth. That’s not an easy ask.
But all that says nothing about the truth of a given religion. I believe that if God is real then the Catholic Church is where he wants everyone to be. If I was born Muslim and did just as much research into the matter I might find a way to rationalize remaining Muslim because I’m too chickenshit to stand up to my entire family over trivial things let alone religion.
I left Christianity when I found a self contradiction in the bible. I still believe in God but I can't truthfully call myself a christian if I can't call the bible inerrant. I still believe in pretty much the same God as before, I even still believe Jesus rose from the dead, I just don't believe the bible is inerrant and so can't call myself a Christian. According to the Bible (acts 17 and the unknown God) I worship in the same God as the Christians. I've been considering shamanic practices lately just to have a connection with a real faith tradition instead of just making things up as I go along.
I thought Vatican II (Dignitatis and Nostrae) said all religions are equal and conscience trumps tradition and orthodoxy?
Technically, no. In Document 14 of Vatican II (might of been 15 or 16, come to think of it, but I'd have to look it back up), it states that if one knows that Catholicism is true, yet rejects it, then that person will go to hell. The reason some people who aren't Catholic can go to Heaven is because they don't know that Catholicism is true through no fault of their own, liking growing up in a heavily Protestant culture where they are indoctrinated against Catholicism, but if they did have more exposure to Catholicism, would know that it is right and would convert to it. Not everyone gets to be born in a culture where they will be exposed to the true faith.
@@gunsgalore7571 I was being a bit facetious but in practice of the life of the Church what I said is true. Pope John Paul II paved the way for the religious indifferentism we are seeing now. I will go even further and state that Nostrae Aetate is neither binding nor infallible. It was a stupid document written by a corrupted theologian Gregory Baum (ex-priest, homosexual, and avid LGBT activist). Since 99.9% of Catholics have never read it, the point is mute. But it has seeped into the ethos and practice of the Church. I would ALSO point out that NA makes claims and comments that are not within the purview of the Magesterium of the Church.
Oh please enlighten me....🙄
Do you think you can live in a whale for three days? Do you think burning bushes can talk? Do you believe that graves are opened and corpses walk the streets of Jesusalem? Do you believe you can walk on water?
Anyone with sufficient intelligence *eventually* comes to the realization that there's no such thing as magic. And that's exactly what religion is: belief in magic. How did God create Earth, did he use construction equipment and contractors? Nope, he used magic. It's absurd. It's very obviously absurd.
The Gospel:
Plain and
Simple
“But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent
beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your
minds should be corrupted from the simplicity
that is in Christ.” - 2 Corithians 11:3
Ask someone today if they are saved and
you will most likely hear responses like these:
“I have accepted Jesus into my heart.” Or “I
have made him Lord of my life.” “I’ve been
baptized.” “I said a prayer.” Sounds all good
and churchy don’t it; but it is difficult to de-termine whether or not a person actually
knows the gospel that saves them. These useless phrases don’t describe a thing about what
the gospel is and has left a devastating effect
of people not knowing what it is that they are
saved from nor how they are saved; which
leaves a more serious effect of people questioning their salvation.
Let’s not muddy the simplicity of salvation that is in Christ with vague church
sounding phrases that do not communicate
anything. But rather present God’s word with
clarity and assuredness. So here is the gospel:
plain and simple.
Sin was passed upon all men by one man
Adam, and death is a consequence of this sin
(Rom 5:12). Mankind has an eternal destiny of
condemnation and wrath - Hell - because of
this sin (Rom 6:23). No matter what good
works one might do we are still found sinners
in the sight of our Creator God. And all unrighteousness and those who follow get indignation and wrath. We cannot be found
righteous for by God’s law we are found sinners (Rom 3:19-20). If we have broken even
one law we are found guilty.
It is for this reason of not being able to
create our own righteousness and being born
in a sinful flesh that we need a savior (Titus
3:5). Christ is that Savior, God manifested in
the flesh, sinless, died in our place on a cross
2000 years ago. Taking upon him the wrath
and judgement that was intended for us sinners. And it is through his bloodshed, burial,
and resurrection on our behalf that we are
able to have peace with God and forgiveness
of our sins (1 Cor 15:1-4, Col 3:14). This good
news is unto all but only those that believe in
it are made righteous in Christ (Romans
3:22).
It is then after we have heard this good
news of Christ’s righteousness available to us freely, that we are sealed with the Holy Spirit
and we are now part of Christ’s body the
church (Eph 1:13)
There is nothing that we need to do, no
good works that are required, and no bad
works that can separate us from our new position in Christ (Romans 8:35-39).
Faith and belief in this information from
God’s word is the gospel.
The gospel is not accepting Jesus into your
heart. The gospel is not making him lord of
your life, it is not saying a prayer and it is not
being baptized with water.
So next time someone asks you if you are
saved. Give them the clear assured answer
“Yes! And let me tell you why!”
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