Can someone please answer my questions about Christianity?

Original text of the letter:

Hi Jack.
I was hoping that you might clear up any misconceptions I might have about how to become a Christian/"be saved" and maybe answer a few other questions about becoming a believer.

SOOOO, In trying to figure out HOW to become a Christian, I've come across Acts 2:37-38 from which I gather there are 3 things one must do:
1)Repent
2)Get Baptized
3)Receive the Holy Spirit

Is there anything that I am missing in that model? Does believing there is a god belong in this list? At what point do you have to believe in a God to start the process of becoming a Christian? In the repentance stage, are you repenting of your wrongdoings because they are wrong in and of themselves (I can do this. I have many times.), or are you apologizing to a god for doing bad things (I can't do this without believing in a god first). Can you get baptized without believing in a god first? (I've actually done this a few times but I'm wondering if any of them counted :p )

...Then I have some questions about the Holy Spirit. If you don't believe there is a god, can you "receive the gift" of the Holy Spirit? Is this experience reserved only for those that believe, and only observable through personal experience? When someone "receives the gift", do they know it afterwards? How do they know? Is it a warm fuzzy feeling inside that cannot be mistaken?

As we briefly discussed in our Skype call, I have had experience attending a few different types of churches in my life. From my experience in the evangelical Glad Tidings Assembly of God church as a young child I learned that merely "asking Jesus into your heart" was enough. I did this repeatedly each week from ages 6-8 and never felt any different after doing so. I've done it a few times since with no results. This admittedly nowhere-close-to-scientific-or-logical personal experience was what started me on my path to skepticism and eventually atheism. This is my testimony. I've tried. Nothing works.


In summary, I went through the rigmarole plenty of times in the past. WTF did I do wrong Jack? WTF? In a world that leads so many people to an absence of belief in your god or any other, why would any merciful god not leave a path to discovering his existence without having to believe in him in the first place? Why would he remove himself from my detection every time I honestly look for him? Am I looking for him wrong? WTF WTF WTF! Am I somehow intrinsically disingenuous when I set out to SPECIFICALLY rule out myself being disingenuous by repeatedly trying in earnest?...

Why can't I find God when I look?...

WTF?...

I'm just going to stop there. I don't know if you realize this but many of those questions can be agonizingly painful and frustrating to atheists. You might have Chuck Norris' beard, but answering all of that is probably a hefty load even for a youth pastor...

Category:

Education

Tags:

• agent
• of
• doubt
• can
• someone
• please
• answer
• Christianity
• christ
• questions
• question
• togetherforpeace
• Jack

[ItsSolaFide]

Are you still interested in talking about these questions? I would like to answer them through a PM if you want to hear what I have to say. I want to do PM to avoid the "gottcha" dialogue.

[AgentOfDoubt]

@ItsSolaFide I'm all ears.

[AfterFauve001]

from my point of view, as a spiritualist/pagan.

atheists from 20 years ago use to say, "if there is a god, it's me".

as Deepac Chopra might answer "yes, exactly".

from a Buddhist point if view"if you meet the Buddha along the road kill him".

I think to ask Christ into your heart means to read the stories and apply them to your own heart, and in the process you understand the metaphors and begin to accept the chaos of life with some sense of structure.

how to do that is up to the individual.

[AgentOfDoubt]

@AfterFauve001 Your answer is one of the more unique ones that I've seen, and I'm looking for that. Over the lifespan of this video I'm sure I'm gonna get a lot of sheep just reiterating the same things that gave me the questions in the first place, but answers like yours feed new thoughts and are very much appreciated.

[violentlygraceful]

I think this the best video you've made, and one of the best videos I've seen on this subject on YouTube. Seriously...

[AgentOfDoubt]

@violentlygraceful It definitely felt different making this video than my other videos. The guy I am for the camera was a lot more like the real me. ...the real me I don't let anyone see actually. The frustration was really getting to me that day. Charles mirrored the vid, other people asked for the text of the letter, and now it has Christopher's accolades. Now I just need a flood of ANSWERS to roll in and I'll be okay the next time the frustration starts to get to me...

[rudeboywaz]

have you ever tryd islam

give it ago see what you think

thats what i did

[starryskye6829]

You must believe that God is more real than your family believes. Your smart enough to see past the religious nonsense and read the gospel of John for yourself. Seek Jesus in Prayer the old school way. Surrender all to God. Repent and believe. Accept in faith

Get rid of the questions and grab hold of the truth that sets all men free. Don't give up.

[jaffacec]

baptism does nothing to save you, it's basically to symbolise your new birth through Jesus, it's Jesus who saves not faith, faith is the means you receive his salvation, if you don't believe in God you'll never become a Christian, conversion is not something small and subjective as you seem to assume, it's a new birth,you no longer like sinning but hate sinning against the God who saved you,you need to ask God to reveal himself to you sincerely,don't give up praying for it please, reply if u wnt

[kevinscales]

A nice honest video. As an atheist living with Christians, I've had the same frustrations, though I grew up without much talk of God as a kid. I just wanna understand why they believe, because it makes no sense to me.

[jadaha1987]

Hi. I watched your video and I was wondering if you were still looking for answers. I read the comments that others had sent you over the past 10 months and even though some of them were true, I feel as though they may not have gone into enough detail. I am a christian and I have seen what God can do. I think I can help you understand what is going on. Please email me at jadaha1987@aol.com. Thankyou.!

[Suetekh27]

I was brought up to believe in God, but it was like I was just accepting what my family was telling me. As i began to question things, I wondered if I ever really believed in God in the first place. I never really felt some feeling when I needed him or really never could link any occurrence to an incident as an "act of God." I too, have tried, but how can you make yourself believe in something that you just cant believe in? I really just try to be a good person and not dwell on it nowadays.

[FrankieSayRelaxxx1]

@IndianaJesusfreak That's one of the major hipocrissies of Christians. They say that as atheists, we have no morals, as we do not believe in an afterlife there is apparently no point in being 'good' because they think that we think life is meaningless and that there are no repurcussions after we die. Yet the bible ITSELF teaches that you can do almost anything, no matter how bad, and you can do nothing more than just 'ask for forgiveness' and be 'forigven' again, with no repercussions.

[IndianaJesusfreak]

@FrankieSayRelaxxx1 My sins did seperate me from God. Any sin seperates us from God. That is the whole reason Jesus came to Earth as a man. It's very probable that my sins were a lot worse than the guy in the video. They are probable worse than yours. But if we repent and ask forgiveness God will forgive them. It will be just as if we had never sinned. Jesus took our sins on himself so that we could take His righteousness and have it applied to our account.