Is it "really" possible to to have just a "personal" faith as a Christian?

1. 67

   bstiltner77posted 15 years ago

   Is it "really" possible to to have just a "personal" faith as a Christian?
   
   I certainly understand the desire to not make waves and to give respect and to be "open minded"; however, if one really claims to believe the message of Christianity as stated in Scripture, would he or she not be responsible for more than just a "personal" faith. Jesus did not claim to be "a"  way but rather "the" way, He also gave a mandate that believers go into all the world making disciples; furthermore, he spoke more of Hell than he did of Heaven. Therefore, although I understand the intent, it seems to me that many are either quite unconvinced of the claims of Christ or simply don't care

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2. 60

   seyiariposted 15 years ago

   well to my own understanding , there is no  cooperate  movement on earth. it is individualistic movement that we have . bible even says look unto you father Abraham and your mother Sarah i called them alone.... faith is personal but must be a Christ accepted faith. your faith must also have proves and work. show me your faith without work and i will show you my faith with works

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3. 67

   bstiltner77posted 15 years ago

   thesecondadvent,
   
   I appreciate the time and thoughtfulness you extended in your response to my question; however, with the utmost respect, I must disagree with a few of your statements. I applaud your recognition of the love that draws others to Christ; however, to go to an extreme that views disciple making as something without effort is to deny those who have gone before us with great courage for the sake of the gospel; many of which are now considered martyrs; including the majority if not all of the disciples. Nevertheless, one would be mistaken if they understood this type of effort to be divorced from love, for it us only by the love that Christ has shown and the love He has placed within us for others that we will ever be willing to turn the other cheek, to give more than is asked, pray for our enemies, or to lay down our lives for another, all of which takes a considerable amount of effort. The disciple maker is not passive nor is he or she to rely on his or her own strength in this effort, for it is not I but Christ within me that accomplishes anything of eternal value.
   Regarding the idea of going forth in a pushy or forceful manner, I agree wholeheartedly with the fact that this is not a Christ like method; however, passive love or forceful evangelizing is not the only two logical conclusions in this matter.
   Lastly, regarding your assessment of my understanding of the scriptures,...where's the love? I will not spend time in defense of my understanding of the Scripture, suffice it to say, the intent of the question regarding the mention of Heaven and Hell by Christ is simply to highlight the "fact" that the "quantity" of times in which Jesus spoke of Hell is beyond ignoring. I am fully aware that Jesus came to seek and save that which was lost. Thank you for your input my brother.

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4. 0

   Marliza Gunterposted 14 years ago

   God, demons, Angels, spirits, ghosts, witchcraft, bible, Jesus, Holy Spirit, miracles, healing, heaven and hell, new age, satanism, paranormal, blessings, curses… are questions that people ask.  Does God really exists?  I testify of how God revealed Himself to me in a powerful way...

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5. 62

   gracefaithposted 14 years ago

   Well faith is personal as it is about relationship- and this with Christ. The leader and the lead, the authority and the submitted, the lover and the loved, the bridegroom and His bride. most importantly the head and the body must have a relationship or the Church would be in utter chaos- indeed in some parts it is, I say this as a member of the Church of Scotland so google if you don;t know of it's recent issues : /
   
   Christianity is about relationship with the one almighty and all- knowing God whom we were made for the sole purpose of glorifying. He saw us before the beginning of time and knows every single hair on our heads! In this sense Christianity is personal.
   
   However, of course Christ is the Truth, the Life and the Way, and no one can come to the Father except for through the Son. Christ is the one universal Savior, the only way to redemption and reconciliation with the Father for all of eternity. Knowing this and knowing the wages of sin- death- Christians are most deffinately called to spread the Good News and make desciples of all the nations. Indeed Spurgeon states that "every Christian is either a missionary or an impostor."
   
   Of- course no Christian can claim to know the love of Christ and keep the faith to themselves. God has comissioned us to go forth and bear fruit- and this to image forth His glory. If we remain in Christ and Him in us then we will bear fruit. Keeping relationship with the living God an individual choice and regarding it as personal is mislead, literally deadly and a gross sin against our neighbours.
   
   As C.S. Lewis makes clear that everyone; friends, family, our hairdresser, the cashier at the supermarket, the child in the park, are all immortals, some will spend eternity in Heaven, knowing perfect completion and peace with the Father, some will be condemmed to etertnal suffering in damnation. This the most awful experience that could be remotely imaginable, and then infinitely worse.
   
   In short, and for many more reasons than I have stated here, I do believe that faith is personal, and this more so than anything. However it should not be individualised, and nor should an openness to anything one believes to lead to condemnation and eternal seperation  from God- no one who is a truly a Christian can keep it personal and individual without being convicted of a grotesque sin by the grieved Holy Spirit.

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6. 60

   aliciajadebrowneposted 14 years ago

   Oh, yes. It is very possible. It is more than possible, actually. Technically, we all have our own personal faith and believe our own sets of beliefs, whether we really realize it or not. We all believe what makes sense to us, or what makes us comfortable.
   
   However, many people worship together, which is actually quite different. it is possible to share faith with one another, to worship between one another, to celebrate your general religion together. People unite to form tighter and stronger bonds and faith. The more energy that is inputted (idc if "inputted" isn't a word) by more people sharing their faiths, the stronger the beliefs, the stronger the faiths, the stronger the influence.
   
   Although we believe seperately our own sets of beliefs, we do come together to worship and share with others who tend to have similar beliefs.
   
   That's my view

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7. 60

   Pollyannalanaposted 14 years ago

   If you are speaking of having a personal relationship with Christ then everyone that has accepted Him does. We are individuals and that is how God has made us as DNA proves and we each relate to our savior in our own way, following Christian guidelines of course which basically is in your heart knowing right from wrong.

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8. 81

   pay2cEMposted 14 years ago

   I would echo what BStiltner77 said, but explore it a bit further and more in-depthly. One of the things we need to do is make sure that we're not paraphrasing the Bible into something it doesn't actually say, which seems to me what we're doing here. The Great Comission - which is the narrative from which Christians derive this notion that they are somehow morally obligated to pester people in the check-out isle - was NOT directed at Humanity In General, but specifically at apprentices who had just spent 3 years studying at the foot of the master. Taking Jesus' words at the time to apply to you personally is basically the same thing as sitting in on a graduation ceremony of med students and thinking you have the authority and directive to go out and practice medicine just because you overheard the the speech-maker telling people to "get out there and heal the world." This was a specific directive for those who had undergone supervised training from the person leading the initiative, not for Anyone Who Has Ever Heard About This Injunction.

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9. 50

   billhowee4posted 14 years ago

   Everything seems to depend on how literally on takes the Bible, or not. Much hinges on one's understanding of who
   Jesus was, and whether or not one takes him to have been
   historical or not. Taken historically, it can be hard to see how
   the claim "I am the way...." could refer to anything other than the personal I.  But if it all means anything, this must refer to
   far more than the personal self, the usually understanding of
   I.  Once Jesus is understood as the expression of a universal
   archeotype, "I am the the way..." becomes immensely more
   meaningful; the myraid contradictions with which chistianity
   so often seems rife also begin to all fall away. 
   As for going forth and making disciples, why would God, in
   his compassion for all of humankind, all of his children, have
   wanted to limit to the spiritual upliftment , renewal and inspiration of the Jesus story, likely the greatest ever told,
   to a mere few?
   As for talking more of hell than of heaven, perhaps this was
   about reflecting the extremely dysfunctional social conditions
   people were living under at that time of Roman occupation
   and oppression.
   Since humans may well be "hardwired for God", dysfunctional
   social conditions no doubt bring religious belief to the fore.
   Belief-based religion seems to thrive under such condition, and especially under persecution.
   Today however, social conditions are very different from those
   of 2000 years ago. Today people are far less desperate
   spiritually; today literacy is widespread and access to information is at the touch of a keyboard;  today we have science to explain reality and nature.
   Today's challenge to chistians is understand the Jesus story
   in more esoteric and nonliteralist terms in order for it to be more deeply meaningful to, or to make more sense to, the
   rationally-minded people of today.

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10. 53

    jeff_ibarraposted 14 years ago

    section:cc2:JEFFREY O. IBARRA
    
    
       Faith must be possess personal or just by an individual.As a Christan follower having faith to our SUPREME LORD is a key for salvation.

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11. 60

    kprimeauxposted 13 years ago

    I am not sure if I completely understand the question but if I understand it correctly, I would simply say:
    
    Every man must work out his own salvation...
    
    The great commission was a call to spread the good news. It was to share of His life and love to the world. By spreading hope to those generations, they may come to know Him through their own personal revelation of who He is.
    
    Faith altogether is a personal development as well. It is like a spiritual muscle that each individual has to exercise to ensure it's development.
    
    My bible says that Christ will return for His bride. His church.
    
    I believe that "church" is the genetic make up of individual beings that have developed their own salvation, but through the good news, have shown the love of God to the world.
    
    I think of it as a human body. Each cell in the body is created with a specific job. Each cell in the body, needs other cells to exist and function within their calling or purpose. In a way, each cell has to work out their own salvation. When that body of cell's has been formed, He will return for his bride.
    
    In other words; the personal side of our faith is to develop ourselves and our own salvation so that we can go forth and bring the good news through the words of our testimony.

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12. 56

    choosen vesselposted 13 years ago

    The Bible tells us that we are a part of the body, so that tells me that we must have fellowship with each other, it also tells me that we can't forsake the assembling of ourself together. We need each other.

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13. 69

    Micky Deeposted 13 years ago

    A personal faith is the only relationship to have with God. Does God say to pray to Mary? Bob? Let every man and woman be a liar. I cannot be told what my God is to me. I have a personal relationship. I don't understand it, but I have one. God bless!

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14. 69

    writerjayposted 13 years ago

    Thank you for such an introspective question.
    
    The Bible states that God has given us all a measure of faith. I believe the questions are in whom, what, and what are we going to do with it? As a Christian our faith is personal and with Jesus Christ. Our faith that He is is basic to our growth as followers of Christ. As we grow in the knowledge and the surety of Christ our faith, our relationship with Him grows.
    
    "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature...Mark 16. Go therefore, teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even until the end of the world." Matthew 28.
    
    The disciples of Christ did just that, changing the world. As followers we continue to do the same, even if my world revolves around my family, aquaintences, or I am sent to evangelize around the world or my city. For all of us were not called to the same purpose. We are to witness, but I may be a teacher, preacher, mom or dad, but God uses us in various ways, at various times. My faith may be small, yours may be great - but it is still personal and and the Lord will grow it as I open my heart to Him.

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    Mikioposted 13 years ago

    "Faith," by definition, is existential.  You became a Christian because it was YOU who decided to buy into the teaching.  Based on how I read your question, you seem to be wondering if it's okay to be a Christian and not tell others about it.  You sound as if you struggle with the question: Should you go out and tell others about Jesus Christ so that you might help others see the Truth?  As a non-Christian, I beg you to keep your belief to yourself.  It will annoy me to no end if you come over to my house uninvited and start preaching to me about Jesus so that I might go to heaven.  I will become a Christian on my own terms.  As a matter of fact, if you (or anyone else) tell me to become a Christian with a threat of hell, I will be so turned off and will refuse your religion as the most offensive religion in the world.  Now go in peace.

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    NiaLeeposted 13 years ago

    definitely, it means that you may not share your faith openly or loudly. You don't need to go to  church. you read and practice the Word. love and peace to all                 
    Now you can be an example for your family and everybody that comes across you...

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    Jordan Travisposted 9 years ago

    The Christian faith by nature is relational. We meet with God best when others join with us. We draw nearer to God when others join us. God is not a "personal" God in this respect, because He Himself is in community with the Trinity, so I believe He expects us to go and make intentional relationships with others - both Christians and outside our faith.

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