“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
I believe those searching for the truth of this created world and their point and purpose in it should simply start with Jesus, rather than exploring the myriad of doctrines and faiths that dot the earth.
It’s a timesaver, for one thing, and as He said Himself, the Way to the truth, which also just happens to be Himself.
You are both intellectuals it seems. My husband and I are churchless too although we watch an on line service frequently. Raised a Methodist, baptized and confirmed, I no longer attend the church where my oldest Daughter still sings in the choir. They followed the Covid rules of masking for an outdoors service and forbid singing. I saw that this enormous conference didn’t stand up for its congregations whereas smaller Catholic and other churches managed to.
Two parts of your son's experience strike a chord with me. One was C.S. Lewis's treatment of the problem you mention, which is why we should grant any validity to intellectual judgments if our intellect is a random and meaningless accident. The other was a conviction that a universe so ordered (for me it was the inverse-square law) couldn't be written off as random chaos. I ended up in the Episcopal church, which also relies on Petrine primacy and the Nicene Creed.
Trite saying: God works in mysterious ways. True saying: God works in mysterious ways. As one who spent my entire youth immersed in Roman Catholic doctrine and dogma, which left me an agnostic, or perhaps more accurately, one who simply did not care, I find it hard to comprehend what makes Catholicism such an attractive choice for believers in Jesus. In my case, the questions that arose after "apostatizing" began with the one famously posed by Leibnitz: why is there something rather than nothing? Looking for a "scientific" (or more accurately, materialistic) answer took me down a dead end, from which point I sought other paths. Eventually, the Bible began to provide answers, and I chose to accept the ones it provided because they were the most reasonable ones on offer. At a certain point, I realized that there was only one question worth answering, viz., was Jesus who he said He was and once I eliminated all other possibilities, I decided He was. (I could have gotten to that point a lot sooner had I read Lewis earler, but to everything there is a season.) I respect my Roman Catholic brothers and sisters, but can't accept the teachings of the church on too many points to agree with them on anything beyond those principles that are essential to Christianity. As Luther put it: on essentials, unity; on everything else, charity. I pray for the best for you and your son.
I think the concept of faith is not found in understanding doctrine, but is found in the pursuit of knowing Jesus Christ through his faith. There is no greater testimony of the works of God than the willingness of Jesus to be sacrificed as the perfect Lamb to save mankind. By trying to live like Him, we can know Him. A young boy was lost by his parents who left their Passover caravan to find him. After three days, they found him in the temple studying with the learned. All were amazed by his understanding of scripture.
John 14:6
“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
I believe those searching for the truth of this created world and their point and purpose in it should simply start with Jesus, rather than exploring the myriad of doctrines and faiths that dot the earth.
It’s a timesaver, for one thing, and as He said Himself, the Way to the truth, which also just happens to be Himself.
You are both intellectuals it seems. My husband and I are churchless too although we watch an on line service frequently. Raised a Methodist, baptized and confirmed, I no longer attend the church where my oldest Daughter still sings in the choir. They followed the Covid rules of masking for an outdoors service and forbid singing. I saw that this enormous conference didn’t stand up for its congregations whereas smaller Catholic and other churches managed to.
Two parts of your son's experience strike a chord with me. One was C.S. Lewis's treatment of the problem you mention, which is why we should grant any validity to intellectual judgments if our intellect is a random and meaningless accident. The other was a conviction that a universe so ordered (for me it was the inverse-square law) couldn't be written off as random chaos. I ended up in the Episcopal church, which also relies on Petrine primacy and the Nicene Creed.
Trite saying: God works in mysterious ways. True saying: God works in mysterious ways. As one who spent my entire youth immersed in Roman Catholic doctrine and dogma, which left me an agnostic, or perhaps more accurately, one who simply did not care, I find it hard to comprehend what makes Catholicism such an attractive choice for believers in Jesus. In my case, the questions that arose after "apostatizing" began with the one famously posed by Leibnitz: why is there something rather than nothing? Looking for a "scientific" (or more accurately, materialistic) answer took me down a dead end, from which point I sought other paths. Eventually, the Bible began to provide answers, and I chose to accept the ones it provided because they were the most reasonable ones on offer. At a certain point, I realized that there was only one question worth answering, viz., was Jesus who he said He was and once I eliminated all other possibilities, I decided He was. (I could have gotten to that point a lot sooner had I read Lewis earler, but to everything there is a season.) I respect my Roman Catholic brothers and sisters, but can't accept the teachings of the church on too many points to agree with them on anything beyond those principles that are essential to Christianity. As Luther put it: on essentials, unity; on everything else, charity. I pray for the best for you and your son.
I think the concept of faith is not found in understanding doctrine, but is found in the pursuit of knowing Jesus Christ through his faith. There is no greater testimony of the works of God than the willingness of Jesus to be sacrificed as the perfect Lamb to save mankind. By trying to live like Him, we can know Him. A young boy was lost by his parents who left their Passover caravan to find him. After three days, they found him in the temple studying with the learned. All were amazed by his understanding of scripture.
This is proof of the adage that Earthly things must be known to be loved while Divine things must be loved to be known.
I love that phrase!