[Many of the first articles we posted in year 2012 when we started this website were focused on explaining our change of direction from the “Savior” on Calvary to the Revelator on Sinai. Many of our Christian friends/colleagues were befuddled as we would have been once upon a time, had our Christian co-workers done the same. We are reposting many of those earliest ‘apologetics of sorts’, for those who have just discovered this website.—Admin1]
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Q1: What would make Christians like yourselves turn away from everything you have embraced all your life as your belief system/religion/faith, whatever you call it, when you’ve lived it and declared it to others because you were so sure all those years that what you knew was the absolute truth?
A: In a word . . . EVIDENCE.
Each shift was based on progressive exposure to factual knowledge instead of simply “faith” in declared unexplained mysteries. When religious teachers say ‘don’t ask, just believe’—we went beyond trusting other people’s word and kept studying the Bible as well as all other resources available to us.
A Catholic friend once argued that “faith” should not be based on “fact” because once it is, then it’s “fact” and not “faith”!!!
Our view is — faith should not be blind. What we place our faith or trust or belief in must have basis. People make decisions daily based on “fact” and “evidence”.
Examples:
- We trust that the food prepared in restaurants won’t make us sick but we could check out the cleanliness of the kitchen and food handlers to make sure.
- Transport services, particularly air travel or sea travel, have track records on safety or negligence. Should we not check out which one will get us to our destination?
- When we pay for goods these days, aware of so much counterfeit look-alikes, would we not want to see the manufacturer’s guarantee?
- This applies as well and even more importantly to our hard-earned money. Bank tellers are trained to spot fake cash by handling genuine money all the time.
So why not apply the same attitude towards faith in God, or our belief system that guides the way we should live our lives?
A Christian pastor we had “converted” to the Christian faith asked the same question, explaining that when he was “converted” it was because he was “convicted” first, and then he started studying Christianity.
We explained that in our case, we investigated the roots of our faith first, merely reading historical books about how Christianity started before we were “convicted” that we’ve been on the wrong path all this time. Conviction must not precede investigation; it must be the result of investigation and since Christianity is a historical religion, it is so easy to trace when it began, how it began, who were responsible for starting it and making it into a major religion, etc. That is readable and knowable in history books. If after finding out all the answers to the what, when, how, who, and one is still “convicted” that Christianity is from the God of Truth and Revelation, then stay within that religion; if not, one has to make a difficult decision . . . .
God is not a God of confusion; He’s very clear, in fact specific when it comes to Himself and what He requires of man. If He consistently declares how He hates idolatry, turning to other gods that compete with Him, would He be vague about Himself and the Way He wants humankind to follow and live?
Q2: How do you know you’re not mistaken now, when you’ve shifted a few times from your original religion?
How do we know we’re on the right path this time? Because we’ve done our homework THIS TIME!
In behalf of the Sinai 6000
Core Community,
