Eight months ago I began a journey of finding my own faith. I decided to forget everything I had been taught about the bible and this Jesus figure and discover the truth for myself.
Since then I have been on a journey of finding things that Christians have seem to forgotten and things that Christians have simply made up. In doing this I have learned to approach faith with an open mind and an open heart.
There are a lot of things we don’t know and our perspectives are always limited. I learned to test and question things the way Paul tells us to do in 2 Thessalonians 5:21:
Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil.
Test everything
Explore everything
Challenge it
Wrestle with it
One of the most dangerous things I’ve seen in other people is a faith like a house of cards. Take one thing out and the whole thing falls apart.
But when you begin taking out cards and seeking the truth you come across a plethora of truths such as:
Mary Magdalene wasn’t a prostitute.
The story of Jesus saying “he who has not sinned cast the first stone” was not written by John but added later by someone else.
Christians don’t consider the Book of Enoch to be a part of the canon with the other books even though Peter and Jude quoted it in their letters that we do include.
These things should not make your faith fall apart but strengthen it through clarity. I find it sad that when you bring up the possibility that the story of Jonah could be a satirical parable and not a historical event some people get defensive and claim things like “If you say that never really happened, you’re saying everything in the bible never really happened.” Yet no one has said “If you say the parable of the prodigal son never really happened, you’re saying everything in the bible never really happened!” I can talk more about Jonah another time but let’s stay on topic.
Galileo was once considered a heretic by the church for claiming that our planet revolves around the sun. The church used scriptures against him to prove his heresy. Some of the scriptures include
The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.
-Ecclesiastes 1:5
The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved…
-Psalm 96:10
He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved.
-Psalm 104:5
It’s interesting that they even used biblical poetry as historical facts. Nonetheless Galileo was sentenced to formal imprisonment and the following day sentenced to house arrest until the day he died. His works were banned as well as anything he would publish in the future.
In later years the church revoked their accusations. It would be pretty ridiculous to still think Galileo was wrong about heliocentrism nowadays. The church evolved. The church was presented with new information and it learned to evolve. They didn’t change scripture or attempt to change God. They changed themselves.
I’ve learned that I can never question God but I can question my understanding of God. I’ve accepted that I will never have a full grasp on God and because of that my faith will remain in a state of evolution. And I believe that is part of holding on to the good.
So this is a small portion of background of my journey so far and I plan on continuing this journey as it changes the way I think, act and love. I want to continue this journey of testing everything, holding on to what is good and staying away from every kind of evil and sharing it here along the way.
Damon Garcia 