a spiritual struggle: opinions wanted

hello all,my name is ben and i've been a christian believer for nearly 2 years. I was saved at indiana university and have grown to the word well, in fact co-leading a small group at my church.This past november, i was encountered with a view of God that was unsettling. A guy that i know who is an avid intellectual told me his belief of god, which is essentially buddhist in nature. he believed there was no way to separate God from one's self, and that God (or as he called it the ultimate reality) must be something that came from within and not from without (the idea of a creator God is disproved in this case by the Theory of Evolution). I battle with this idea because I can look at everything in the Bible and see how it can be an explanation of God that was fit for an ancient generation. Trust me, I do not want to see it this way!In all honesty, what i want is for God to come down here, give me a big hug, and say to me in a huge, disembodied voice: "Don't worry, Ben, I'm exactly who I said I AM and who you have learned me to be...just worry about what you need to do for Me." I don't expect to find all the answers from what opinions you can give me, but i want to know if any of you have faced questions like this or struggled with these alternatives ideas of God.Thank you all

Sir,You are asking questions that require a long post to answer. I will leave that for others, but to get you started you could try checking out this site which reviews cults: http://www.watchman.org/In checking out this site I would look for topics that deal with New Age. That should get you started. I do wonder if this fellow knows everything? Can he explain how everything in nature works? I am sure he created it!! Logic will tell you how dumb some people can be...must have been educated beyond his intelligence...like Jerry Clower would say. ginnyrose

take this for example: revival occurs when people repent, pray constantly, are willing to lay down their lives for the Lord. well, i can see how God would use them and move in revival, but i can also see how their zealousness made them tap into their 'God-selves.' in other words, revival happened because people made it happen. like i said, I really, really, really don't want that to be true, but i can unfortunately play this kind of 'devil's advocate' when i think about the Judeo-Christian understanding of God

Since when has man been rushing to God? It is man's tendency to run from him because of his sin, not to him "No man cometh to the Father except the Father draws him'. Since when has man been so good he could consiider himself to be god? Does he ever forget anything? If he does and he thinks he is god, he must sure be a stupid one. I want a god that knows a lot more then anyone else on this planet. While I have met lots of intelligent people, sooner or later their limitations will become apparent. Sounds to me like some people are on a huge ego trip...can't you sense my disgust? Oh dear, that does not lend itself to an intelligent conversation, does it....reckon I will shut up and let philologus or some other brainy scholars answer your questions. Still, read the Bible from beginning to end as though your life depends on it - because it just might - and see what you will find. Notice how the Bible characters regarded God. That should speak volumns.Blessings,ginnyrose

Dear Ben,One of the things that seem to get me out of the doubting mode is when I think on what the written Word has said. All of the direct prophesies that came true about Jesus show me that it has to be true. All of the types of Christ in the scriptures show me that it is true. All of the figures, patterns, and shadows of things to come, from Genesis on through the Old Testament prove that it is true. There is no way the bible could say what it says unless God himself inspired it to be written the way it is written.He still does say I Am……….. Read the Word and Pray.In Christ,GaryE

Greetings Ben, just saw your post, Ben God is with us Always, The Holy Spirit is God and is with us. If it helps may i tell you that i used to the need to say to God " Father i need to hear from You in A personal way, even saying at times Dear Father i would that i could recieve a letter from You. I recieved my reply when that beutifull still, small voice said, but i wrote a letter to all my Children, it contains all of the answers you need, Its called The Holy Bible. Glory to God Forever Amen. God Bless you Ben, as you seek and find more of The only truth there is, God is indeed The All in All. p.s also Ben when i felt so alone and confused, i hugged my Bible, and that was such a comfort. Perhaps The Father needs more Hugs from us. Snowdrop.

We all want God to come down and “give us a hug” spirituality speaking, when He does it is called revival. This called His manifest presence verses His omnipresence. In the bible, we are taught to seek the face of God.Here are a list of question from a website done by a person who converted from Buddhism to Christianity.URL is: http://www.christiananswers.net/q-aiia/letter-buddhisminterview.html1.\tIf there is no personal God, and if one can attain nirvana only as a result of the destruction of thirst (tanha) / desire, therefore the destruction of attachment, therefore the destruction of existence--from whence, do you suppose, did personality (or even the sense of personality) ever come? Exactly what is it, and where does it go when one ceases to exist? 2.\tWithout a personal God, on what basis can there ever exist any human moral standard or ethic--and therefore, in what sense do you mean for us to understand the terms noble and truth, i.e. The Four Noble Truths, or the term right in the eight-fold path of right views, resolve, speech, conduct, occupation, efforts, awareness, and meditation? 3.\tIf your teaching, which came on the scene in the sixth century B.C., alone represents truth and liberation--what provision was there for the millions who lived previous to the advent of your enlightenment and teaching? Why do you suppose that you, of all humankind, were the one to come on this insight when you did? 4.\tIf, as you are reported to have said, nirvana is "beyond...good and evil", then, in the ultimate sense, there is really no difference between Hitler and Mother Theresa, or between helping an old lady across the street and running her down--correct? 5.\tThich Nhat Hanh, bodhisattva (holy man) and author of Living Buddha, Living Christ © 1995 by Riverhead Books, attempts to homogenize Buddhism and Christianity. Though you never knew of Jesus Christ, it would seem that you too might suggest that one could conceivably be a "Christian Buddhist". Yet how could that ever be possible given Christianity's categorical differences with Buddhism on matters like the nature of sin, reincarnation, and salvation--to name just a few. Jesus claimed to be the Truth. The Christian Scripture says that "there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12 6.\tHow do you feel about the many variations of your teaching that have evolved down through the years? Please comment on Theravada (38%), Mahayana (56%), Tantrism or Vajranaya, Tibetan (6%; Dalai Lama), and Zen Buddhism? 7.\tChuck Stanford says: "Like cloudy water, our minds are basically pure and clear, but sometimes they become cloudy from the storms of discursive thoughts. Just like water, if we let our minds sit undisturbed the mud and muck will eventually settle to the bottom. Once this happens we can begin to get in touch with our basic goodness. It is through this basic goodness that the Buddha discovered that we can lead sane lives." But, Mr. Gautama, what if you are wrong about our being basically good? The Bible says that we're conceived in sin. What if there is a personal God to whom we will all one day answer? What if your enlightenment (awakening) was really only a dream? 8.\tIn the film Beyond Rangoon Laura's guide says that the (Buddhist) Burmese expect suffering, not happiness. When happiness comes, it is to be enjoyed as a gift, but with the awareness that it will soon certainly pass. If the ultimate Buddhist hope is to just leave the present wheel of birth and rebirth and enter into the ineffable bliss of Nirvana, where is the motivation to do good, and to actively oppose injustice, in this present life? 9.\tHow do we reconcile the Dalai Lama's observation that "Every human being has the potential to create happiness", with your own teaching that suffering is caused by desire? If one sets out to resist desire, why would one ever then entertain the desire for happiness, and thus work to create it? 10.\tPersonal Trivia: Did you really sit under that bo tree for seven full days--without ever eating any figs? Did your remarkably sensitive, compassionate, nature come more from your mother or father? How did your son, left to grow up without a father, feel about your "Great Renunciation"?

I think the questions that CyberCarbon has posted are a good place to start in your struggle with this issue.Also, if you look at the philosophy of Buddhism it starts with man at the center. When you start there then, in the end, there are no real answers to the particulars of man. For example, when you start with man at the center there are no real answers to the existence of the univsere, to man's unique place among all creation in our universe, and to man's ability to reach such great heights and yet fall to such depths of depravity. But when we start with God at the center and take His Word as truth then we have the only real answers to these questions.Here's a quote from Francis Schaeffer's book Pollution and the Death of Man...The beginning of the Christian view of nature is the concept of creation: that God was there before the beginning of the space-time continuum and God created everything out of nothing. From this, we must understand that creation is not an extension of the essence of God. Created things have an objective existence in themselves. They are really there.In Christ,Ron

thanks for the suggestions, everybody. i haven't yet been restored to the same confidence i had after my conversion and growing period, but i'm glad you have shared your opinions with me!Has anyone struggled with a view of God that has made them question the nature of their Christian beliefs?

If I may be so bold as to ask you my brother....Is there some kind of sin, or love that you have for somethingelse other than God that competes with him for you timeand your devotion?It's my opinion that when someone begins to question mattersof faith it is because something of the world is calling them tocommunion with it.Search your heart for this something else. If there is nothing there you may just have fallen asleep in the "Arbor of Grace"Another thing is....when was the last time you really spent time with Christ in the Gospels?Fall in love with Jesus. Remember what drew you too him. Have you ever been confirmed by the Spirit that you are his child? If not, there is a total surrendering that may not have occured.I really hope I don't come off as self-righteous but I have felt they things you have described and all of these things that I have mentioned contributed to it.May we honor Jesus' death on the cross by living a lifeserving His purposes.Desi, Jr.

Brother Ben,Maybe the source of your repentance was from a Worldly Sorrow and not a Godly Sorrow.In other words you came to Christ to be free from the guilt of you sin (this reason won't keep you on the path of Christianity) and not because the Spirit of God drew you to him.Pray about it.Desi, Jr.

I don't believe there is, unless that idol is the way i was brought up to think. i became a christian when i was 19, but before that i grew up in a somewhat liberal house where i was exposed to science and its natural claims as the truth, even though i always believed in God and prayed to him occasionally (i was a catholic).I came to Christ when my best friend here at IU witnessed to me one night, and i knew that everything he was saying could not be false, especially the ultimate statement i later learned was uttered by Paris Reidhead: "the end of all things is the glory of God" I became a christian, you might say, because my heart knew Christ is the Truth as my friend witnessed it to me. I committed myself to him in a pentecostal church that sunday, and after that everything, including carnal sin and my worldview, changed. i later received the baptism of the Spirit and have not looked back, until my reasoning was challenged in the situation i earlier described - you see - because the reasoning i used in my liberally-raised background made sense of his idea that God is not separate from the Self and the bible is all symbolic, and i became scared because i realized that Christ is my life and there was no way i wanted to find out that He is less than i know Him to be. Am I a christian? Absolutely. I believe, and for more reasons than i can list, that God's hand has been over me my whole life and has led me to indiana university. Have i approached this problem the right way? No, probably not, because I chose to be distracted from the problem rather than approach my Lord and spend as much time in His Word as possible. Do I worry too much? sure.DesiJr, thank you for your questions of accountability. I love Jesus and would not ever want to turn my back on Him for something as trivial as the world (even though still i sin by it). As i am a brooding, thinking man, however, many times i am led to question my faith by the reason inherent in me, which naturally wants to question whether the Bible is inspired and whether its stories and characters are real or simply allegorical. these are things i am faced with, and i hope you at least gain a sense of where i am coming from. thank you.

hi, i have been a christian for 42 years and when i first started of this path i was with an evangelist as a street worker. i evenually became an associate evangelist,preachung revivals in smaller churches that the main man couldn't or wouldn't go to.one sunday morning i was on the platform at a medium sized s.b. church when i found myself lusting after the pianist in her short skirt and tight sweater. i decided that that was the last time i would preach. i quit and went to work in a jazz niteclub in new orleans where i was kicked out of the s.b. church i had attended.christians came and told me that i was damned and other things not that encouraging etc. i rued anytime i was in contact with any of these people who could live the life of Christ, because i could not. one day a man came up to me on the street and asked if my name was jim, and i said yes and he asked if he could by me a coffee. we went and had some and he said that God had brought him to me to tell me that He loved me just as much as he did when i first asked Him into my heart. i began to sob under the overwhelming prescence of the Holy spirit. i have never been to good at being a churchy cristian ( i was a good sinner) but God has used me greatly since that time in missions and in homeless ministries where i can be me and not have to live up to anyelses standards but Christ in me. i have grwn in my walk over the years but still cannot stand the selfrighteous. i have seen many miracles and thousands truly saved.CHRISTIANY IS CHRIST IN YOU AND HAS VERY LITTLE TO DO WITH YOU AND YOUR WORKING UP SOME KIND OF ANNOINTING BY YOUR FASTING OR LONG PRAYERS. a famous drunken preacer laid hand on a dieing friend of mine and God put a new lung in his body and replaced the ribs that had been removed by surgery and he lives today preaching the gospel. do not try to figure God out but lay your life at the foot of the cross and let the blood drown you, let the risen Christ lead you in your walk with him.His love is enough to keep you. His being risen is a provable reality and seals everything as truth.jimp

Ben,I have been in the exact same place as you. I graduated from HS top in my class, got a full scholarship to college for academics, always aced tests....All that to say that I have a mental capacity to think intelligently about things to a great depth.And, after about 2 years of living the Christian life, I came to this same crisis that you are having now. I saw loopholes for all of the supposed proofs that I was using to believe, I saw reasonable explanations against them, and I saw somewhat convincing arguments supporting other ideas. I was a wreck, although nobody knew it but me and the Lord. A few things I would like to mention to you, as you are dealing with the same thing:1. Apologetics and stuff like that may help you, temporarily, but it will work as a weak band-aid, one which you will need to reapply once it falls off, and the gaping would is exposed again. The issue that you are dealing with is one of faith, the true faith of God, and since you are lacking - as I was - and maybe even have a faith rooted in something other than Christ - as I did - you are wavering. This is called a test. God is testing you, proving you. Either you will reject it all, and walk away as some do, or you will call out to God, and beg Him to help you, and when He gives you more grace, your faith will be stronger than ever.2. When this happened to me, this is exactly what He was doing. My faith was in apologetics and miracles - I used them to keep my believing going on. But God wanted something better for me, to really Know Him, and not just the scriptures, and not just historical accounts of what He had done. If our faith is in a revival, or a miracle, or an apologetic, the devil can destroy us. But if it is in Christ, then we won't so soon be shaken - and Christ is at the right hand of the Father, making intercession, to see to it that we grow in this true faith. Be encouraged brother, for although the fire may seem hot in your own mind right now, there is a far greater glory the Lord has waiting you on the other side. Do not cast away your faith.Please email me if you have any personal questions:brian@baldpreachers.net