In Reply to: Re@ answers to, can anyone relate? posted by Fred on April 02, 2004 at 06:56:54:
"There’s also the thing of whatever someone is into or in awe off, be it prophecy, healing, witnessing or whatever its kind of like, ‘OK, been there, done that’. Once you’ve committed and sacrificed your life in the way that you do in the F nothing seems to impress, even if it was for a wrong cause. What do you call that? Burnt out, cynical, disillusioned?"
For me, personally, I call this growing up and coming into my years. I haven't been in TF for over 25 years, but as a "systemite" Christian, I put a lot of time and energy into trying to reach a supernatural state of sanctity. I no longer have the desire to go there. I no longer feel a need to prove anything or see it proven.
Now when I feel great awe, it is often in response to triumph of the human spirit. A few days ago I was reading some things that the young people at Movingon.org had to say about their lives, and I suddenly felt enormous awe at their courage, intelligence, and humor. Even with all their problems, the children of the FGAs are truly remarkable, outstanding people in many ways. What is good in human beings often triumphs over the evil that permeates their environment. It makes no difference to me that so many of these amazing young people claim to be agnostic (at best) and generally refuse to "give God the glory."
"OK doubt time. There’s something I don’t understand about one of the fundamentals of Christianity. Why did God require in the OT a sacrifice of an animal and then in the NT His Son? If its grace & forgiveness that grants us reconciliation and salvation why does it need to be symbolised this way? Does it not get in the way of the real meaning especially in the OT? Couldn’t a profit have given a message and said, ‘It’s by grace folks, not by works’?"
I have EXACTLY the same question, and I know there are some very clearcut answers to this question that do not satisfy me intellectually, emotionally, or spiritually. I've decided that it's OK for me not to have all the answers, and that it's OK for me to question doctrines, which in this particular case is called Soteriology or the doctrine of salvation.
It is exactly this question that makes it difficult for me right now to affiliate with a Christian faith community. I'm not always convinced that my experience of grace and higher power or the revelation of scripture is the same experience of grace and higher power that other people say the Bible reveals. I've concluded that I don't have to know who's got it right or be able to explain what is truly "of God" and what is not.
The only thing I need to do is trust in the goodness and grace of my higher power as I experience it day to day in the most ordinary things. This morning I watched a 2-year-old boy running and jumping around with sheer, uninhibited delight in the power and agility of his developing body. I suddenly felt very grateful that such a wonderful little creature had come into existence. It was not some on-fire sermon with flaming tongues of prophecy or heroic acts of charity and self-sacrifice or the remembrance of Christ's suffering on the cross that made me most aware of God's great goodness and grace today. It was experiencing the unhibited joy of this little boy that gave me a momentary taste of pure, unconditional love.
As long as I stay open to this unbounded, sacred mystery that can never be contained in a single religion or doctrine, but may in fact be what Christians call the grace of God--I have peace of mind, and I am able to make choices that have better outcomes for myself and others. And I am able to live without a great deal of concern or certainty about the reward of "everlasting life" because I honestly believe I can do no more than simply trust in the goodness and grace of my higher power.