/lit/ - Literature

Prayer is essential. That alone brought me more faith in God than any book and any amount of stuff that I’ve seen online. I was an atheist until my early 20s and found it a bit silly at first, but eventually I was given answers by God after lots of prayer and questioning. I asked about Jesus, and the answer was given. It shocked me, because I was very hostile to Christianity, but I could not ignore my own experience and gradually softened towards Christianity afterwards.

You should go the the New Testament first. Read the Gospels, read the epistles, etc. The OT is best understood with Christ in mind. When one does that, they will see things they would have missed before, like how the binding of Isaac is actually a prefiguration of Jesus’ crucifixion, etc.

It’s also good to watch people like William Lane Craig talk about the evidence for the resurrection. While I have stressed prayer, it is important to have a rational foundation as well, and this is what sets Christianity apart from other religions, is that there is a lot of historical evidence.

>Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
>What father among you, if his son asks for a fish,d will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? So if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

>>18966358
Imagine taking OT verses where wrath, anger and hatred are ascribed to God literally. The supreme revelation of God was his Son Jesus Christ, and through Him we learned of God’s boundless and immeasurable love and mercy towards creation and humankind, to the extent that the Son was willing to suffer and die to express this. Everything must be seen in the light of this.

>>18956698
Quietism is the only way. Worldly politics are Satanic. Our struggle is spiritual.

1 John 2:15
>Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

Colossians 3:2
Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth

James 4:4
>Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

Romans 12:2
>And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

John 18:36
>Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”

John 16:33
>These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

Ephesians 6:12
>For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Greetings Christians,
I am an atheist, former Eastern Orthodox Cristian, however, lately I feel I'm being drawn again to Christianity, so I invite you to a cordial, respectful discussion.
How would you respond to a few issues I have with Christianity and religion in general:
1) The majority of believers believe in their faith not because they have rationally analyzed all religions and then come to a conclusion which one is correct, but rather because they were brought up in a religious environment and their religion is simply an accident of birth. In light of this, how do you justify your belief in Christ? How can one claim to have objectively come to the conclusion that their religion is true, given the enormous, natural bias towards their society's/family's religion?
2) Why does God reveal his will only to individuals i.e. prophets, and not to entire humanity? Why does he give some people incontrovertible evidence of his existence, but the rest of us have to take it on faith? And how could he be just, if he judges us based on our faith in him? What about the people who were born before Jesus? And those who lived their lives not knowing anything about him simply because they lived in some remote part of the world?
3) If God doesn't judge us based on out faith, and all that's necessary to go to Heaven is to lead a good, just life, then what's the point of religion?