Believe it, or else

I think Christianity is criticized sometimes because people who are “followers of Christ” tend to follow somewhat blindly, especially if they are raised in that faith. This is actually probably true of most religions (including “non-religion”), seemingly because good parents are trying to impress upon their children the beliefs they hold as true.

This “believing without knowing why you believe” mentality severely hurts an individual’s ability to explain their faith anyone who disagrees with them. While you may know in your heart that what you believe is true, that alone will not resonate in someone still searching for answers or believing something else.

When you are raised in a Christian church, and testify publicly that you believe to be true everything you have heard from the Bible, little is done by the church to enhance your knowledge what you are now assumed to believe, let alone why. You are mostly fed with simple, application-based messages to help you live your life in a better way (or “more like Jesus”), and every once in a while, you learn a Greek or Hebrew word for something that will help you understand what a verse meant back when it was written.

I’m not criticizing this method of preaching or teaching, I simply wish there was more available from the place you go to worship and that deeper studying was encouraged. Throughout history, there were always groups of people who knew their scripture forward and backward, but in modern times the appreciation for in-depth knowledge, insight, and memorization seems to be of little importance to many believers.

I think, as Christians, we are so often told what to believe that we have a hard time questioning anything to find out what we do believe. This mentality influences not only our personal faith, but also our daily lives in things like politics and how we raise our children. Is it really the church’s responsibility to cover a topic like “parenting” in a group setting? If more of an effort was placed on knowledge of the scriptures, wouldn’t life-applicable things come more into focus as we would gain the understanding from the teachings already in place

I hope it doesn’t sound like I am just venting, or complaining, about the state of the church (at least in America) today. I just want to challenge everyone to continually evaluate what their Christian life is made up of. Do you just go to church on Sunday and live your life the way you want the rest of the week? Do you read the Bible and pray every day, but keep God out of certain areas of your life? Do you tell God that you can’t be a missionary because you don’t want to give up the nice things you have today?

Before we can have any kind of real effect on the world around us, we need to be sure we are constantly changing on the inside as we pursue holiness and sanctification. We do not claim to be perfect, but we believe in a God who is. It’s not easy to understand things like the Trinity, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. We are commanded by God to, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” – I Peter 3:1

Are you prepared?