Well, we're still here.
It's hard to know what I personally believe about the end times and the potential second coming of Jesus. Was I raised to believe? I was. Do I still believe? I do. Could I be a lot better about it? Yes, I could. But the environment I was raised in was fundamentally disputational. As kids, we couldn't just issue blanket statements about anything without being asked, sometimes pointedly, sometimes not, to explain exactly what we meant. It makes our family dinner table look like a bad episode of Crossfire a lot of the time and irritates the shit out of my sisters pretty much most of the time, but it worked after a fashion.
You might think questioning everything and trying understand the why of a belief undermines the essential concepts of Christian theology: faith. But I think it helps me to try and think how I could be a better believer at the end of the day. It's not enough for me just to believe- I've got to understand why I believe what I believe and seek to challenge those beliefs whenever and wherever I can. It makes them stronger, I think.
But it doesn't make me seem like an especially devout believer. I have a lot of respect for people whose faith can literally move mountains and who have this unshakeable belief in a higher power- but I just don't have that. I think theologically, I'm always going to be in a wrestling match with it and I'm OK with that. It's just my style.
This whole Rapture thing though, it's got me a little down. First of all, I have to feel for people who jumped onboard this bandwagon with everything they had. How they have faith left to go on is beyond me... second of all, if there was a Rapture, it'd be nice to know what we're being judged on. I know I'm a flawed human being. I sin. Everybody does- but I can honestly look in the mirror and say that I genuinely try to do the right thing each and every day. Maybe I'm just a decent human being that way, I don't know- but if the Good Lord isn't grading us on a curve, I think I'll be in trouble...
I'm right there with you buddy.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe that anyone can get by on just faith. It even says in the bible to question everything as well as know why we believe what we believe.
I am not a great example of a Christian either, but my motto is: if God is love, then we are closest to God when we are loving others.
I don't think God wants us to be ignorant.
From what you say in your blog, you sound like a very wise person and understand that faith isn't blind.
I feel for those people too, and slightly even for the guy that predicted it.