Monday, January 11, 2010

Interactive: How Certain Are You Of Your Beliefs?

This should be fun. Below, I have listed 30 "truth statements." For each statement, I want you to answer 3 questions:
1) How certain am I that this statement is true? Please rate from 1-10, with 10 being absolutely certain, and 1 being I don't believe at all. A 5 might represent the "I could go both directions" point of view.
2) Would I be willing to die for this belief? Or, would I be willing to divide from other Christians over this belief? Or, would I be willing to merely discuss and disagree with others? I'm going to call this question the 3D: Die, Divide, or Discuss.
3) Is belief an essential belief, by which I mean essential for salvation?

Remember, if you answer a "10/die/essential" for every question, you might be a fundamentalist. If you answer a "5/discuss/what's essential?" to every question, you might be a liberal. :)

Have fun!

1. There is a God. (Remember: number, 3D, essential)
2. Christ rose from the dead.
3. God loves you
4. God is Trinity.
5. Christ is going to "rapture" the church before the "great tribulation."
6. Christ will return.
7. Christ is coming back to reign on earth for a literal 1000 years.
8. God wants you to trust that he will protect you from all physical harm.
9. God wants you to trust that he will protect you from all emotional harm.
10. God wants you to trust Him in every circumstance.
11. The Bible has no historical errors.
12. Adam and Eve were real, historical people.
13. There really was a talking snake in the garden.
14. God created the earth.
15. God created the earth in 7 literal, 24-hour days.
16. Christ's death effectively paid for all the sin of mankind.
17. Christ's death was for you personally.
18. I have a "free will" and chose to accept God's salvation.
19. The Apocrypha (extra books in Hebrew literature, as well as Catholic) should not be a part of our scriptures.
20. The book of 3rd John should be a part of our scriptures.
21. God still speaks to people today.
22. God still performs miracles today.
23. Smoking is always sinful.
24. Eating unhealthy food is always sinful.
25. Having your mind altered by recreational drugs is always sinful.
26. Having your mind altered by medicinal drugs (pain-killers, anti-depressants) is not sinful.
27. Listening to music where the lyrics are about Jesus is better than listening to any other music.
28. The Bible should always be read literally.
29. The church members must give 10% of their income to the local church that they are a part of.
30. We should always have music and singing as part of our church gatherings.

Fun stuff, huh? Final thought for you. Where do you get your opinions/thoughts/beliefs/convictions about the above questions? Here are some of the main ways that we formulate our truths:
- scripture
- general revelation (God revealed through nature)
- tradition (family or church)
- logic & reason
- experiences (your own and other people's)
- emotions (how you feel about experiences)
- special revelation (prophecy, word of knowledge)

I will try to post my numbers, etc. as a comment on this blog. I also plan on doing a blog post on how much we should lean on each of these sources of truth, what are the pros and cons of each.

Thanks! Aaron

2 comments:

  1. I can't take the time to go through all thirty (90 questions in all) But #2 is it (10, essential), it all starts there... But, since these are largely questions of faith, how anyone can be absolutely certain about any of these I am not sure. Maybe I will fill it out...

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  2. Hope these (8 & 9) are not true considering Matthew 10:38; my experinece certainly says this is a vale of tears.

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