How do you decide whether to follow Christianity or not?
I hate when shitty imageboards from other sites come to 4chan to try to astroturf their way in overtaking other boards.
>>23541192Read the Bible. At the end you can decide whether you think it's admirable to get beaten up and nailed to a plank of wood and to reject real life in favor of some otherworldly nonexistent second world.
I'll give you a bump, ossian
>>23541192You must first understand that it is not Christianity, a culture and religion, that is to be followed if one is a Christian, but Christ, the man and God. One must believe that He is their lord and savior, but not in the sense of intellectual assent, but in personal trust and conviction. Without being in Christ, that is, without having a personal relationship with Christ as savior (from sin and ourselves) and lord, and without responding to this belief in keeping his commandments and turning away from sin (note that it is not our works and faithfulness that save us, but God's grace which is received through faith that saves us and which allows us to respond to his calling), none can follow Him. Read the Bible. Pray to God before every reading for understanding. I recommend starting with the New Testament first, followed by the Old Testament. You will get no better exposition on what the gospel is outside of the scriptures. Read carefully, meditating on what you read. It's spiritual literature, so it's not something to marathon through like a novel. Four chapters a day will suffice to get you through the Bible in a year.For secondary literature, I recommend Fear and Trembling, The Pensees, any catechism, confession, or creed you may find, and the writings of John Bunyan (especially The Pilgrim's Progress and Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners), St. Augustine (especially the Confessions, the Enchiridion, and The City of God), and Dostoevsky (especially Crime and Punishment, the Idiot, and the Brothers Karamazov).If you want further understanding for stuff like cultural and historical context or language, there's plenty of good resources online for that.For sites, there's stuff like GotQuestions, BibleRef, Catena (for reading traditional commentaries on the meaning of some texts), CatholicAnswers, BibleHub, etc.If you want to seek understanding for how faith is reasonable, we must first establish that God exists, or at the very least that it is reasonable to believe He exists. There are many philosophical arguments, the Ontological being my personal favorite.Next, you must consider how reasonable it is to believe that Christ rose from the dead given the documentation that has been handed down to posterity. Paul said that if Christ is not risen, then our faith is vain. The resurrection is the absolute lynchpin upon which the faith stands or falls. Personally, I find the argument that Christ is risen to be true and more convincing than the plausible objections that skeptics make. For YouTube channels to help on your journey to see whether Christianity is the truth or not, I recommend InspiringPhilosophy, Testify, BibleProject, CatholicAnswers, The Thomistic Institute, IMBeggar, Crossbearer, drcraigvideos, Counsel of Trent, Dr. Jordan B Cooper, and Christian Sermons and Audiobooks.Pray and go to church often, associate with believers. God bless you Anon. It is my hope you come to faith.
