over time, I've changed my mind... Has anyone else?

There are several Christian doctrines which I started believing one way because that's how I was taught, then as I got older and investigated and researched for myself, I have sometimes changed my mind about them.

I'm sure many of you have had the same experience.

Over the years, family and friends to whom I've witnessed, have noticed that some of my beliefs have changed, and a couple of them have asked me, "Well how does anyone know what to believe? So many different beliefs and practices...even you have admitted believing differently. Why should I believe anything so wishy-washy?" (paraphrased, of course)

How have some of you handled this question? I really cannot blame my friends and family for questioning this.

I don't want to discuss which doctrinal beliefs have changed for me. I would really like to hear about your experiences though.
 
Well I can say I stayed with one doctrine up until I left Christianity to follow Druidry. When I returned to Christ my doctrine did change and I think after several years I have grown and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit I can say I have evolved a bit in my worship and knowledge of scripture. I believe the more we stay in the Word of God the more truth we are going to find and this can possibly seem like our doctrine is changing?
 
I think it's inevitable we will change in understanding of certain scriptures which can lead to doctrinal change. Hopefully this leads to a better understanding of the scriptures.
 
Well I can say I stayed with one doctrine up until I left Christianity to follow Druidry. When I returned to Christ my doctrine did change and I think after several years I have grown and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit I can say I have evolved a bit in my worship and knowledge of scripture. I believe the more we stay in the Word of God the more truth we are going to find and this can possibly seem like our doctrine is changing?

Yes, Lance...That is exactly what I mean. Reading your post gave me a solution to answering friends and family who question my belief changes.
 
I think it's inevitable we will change in understanding of certain scriptures which can lead to doctrinal change. Hopefully this leads to a better understanding of the scriptures.

I agree, Agua, because when I made a decision for Christ based on what I was taught, I really didn't have a lot of true understanding of the scriptures. I had only received "milk" from Sunday School teachers. I was actually very surprised when I started reading the scriptures for myself, at how many details had been left out of my education. For instance, partially quoted verses taken out of context during a preacher's sermon... Probably many pastors/preachers assume that most of their congregation recognize there is more to their quoted verses than what is being preached in their sermons; but I see now how dangerous an assumption that is.
 
Several of my views on specific doctrines have changed over the years. Growing in your faith is a process, and you will learn and understand things better over time.

It is like the process of learning a subject, say math for instance. When I first learned math, all I knew was integers like 0, 1, 2, 3, etc. I did not understand negative numbers or fractions, and I could not have distinguished between .365, 36.5, and 365. These other things existed in the math world, but I had not learned them yet. Later I learned that letters such as x can represent a number, but if I had been asked that in second grade, I would have said, "x is a letter, not a number!" I could go on and on, but you get the point. The mathematical truths didn't change, but my understanding of them did. There was no reason to give up on math as a whole because my understanding of it changed.
 
There are several Christian doctrines which I started believing one way because that's how I was taught, then as I got older and investigated and researched for myself, I have sometimes changed my mind about them.

I'm sure many of you have had the same experience.

Over the years, family and friends to whom I've witnessed, have noticed that some of my beliefs have changed, and a couple of them have asked me, "Well how does anyone know what to believe? So many different beliefs and practices...even you have admitted believing differently. Why should I believe anything so wishy-washy?" (paraphrased, of course)

How have some of you handled this question? I really cannot blame my friends and family for questioning this.

I don't want to discuss which doctrinal beliefs have changed for me. I would really like to hear about your experiences though.

When born from above (into an entirely new order of being) you are a "babe" in Christ....learning to walk, talk, and understand our parent's instructions (the will of our Father) are from love and not meant just to take away our fun, takes about a decade (for some of us more)....the instant transformation from living and loving a sin life (not even seeing sin as sin) to a squeaky clean Christian mini-me of Jesus in my opinion is a myth...cleaning the outside of the cup is only so important...Just some thoughts
 
There are several Christian doctrines which I started believing one way because that's how I was taught, then as I got older and investigated and researched for myself, I have sometimes changed my mind about them.

I'm sure many of you have had the same experience.

Over the years, family and friends to whom I've witnessed, have noticed that some of my beliefs have changed, and a couple of them have asked me, "Well how does anyone know what to believe? So many different beliefs and practices...even you have admitted believing differently. Why should I believe anything so wishy-washy?" (paraphrased, of course)

How have some of you handled this question? I really cannot blame my friends and family for questioning this.

I don't want to discuss which doctrinal beliefs have changed for me. I would really like to hear about your experiences though.
I have definitely changed over the years. I've gone back to the word of God to get the truth over dogma for myself. I was shocked by the level of deception in the church whether on purpose or just mere ignorance.
 
Several of my views on specific doctrines have changed over the years. Growing in your faith is a process, and you will learn and understand things better over time.

It is like the process of learning a subject, say math for instance. When I first learned math, all I knew was integers like 0, 1, 2, 3, etc. I did not understand negative numbers or fractions, and I could not have distinguished between .365, 36.5, and 365. These other things existed in the math world, but I had not learned them yet. Later I learned that letters such as x can represent a number, but if I had been asked that in second grade, I would have said, "x is a letter, not a number!" I could go on and on, but you get the point. The mathematical truths didn't change, but my understanding of them did. There was no reason to give up on math as a whole because my understanding of it changed.

I like that explanation.

The point is that you grew in the knowledge of the Lord that more you knew about the Lord. He stayed the same but you grew!
 
I have definitely changed over the years. I've gone back to the word of God to get the truth over dogma for myself. I was shocked by the level of deception in the church whether on purpose or just mere ignorance.

Yes. As have I. The older I have gotten the more the Word of God have become real to me.

That deception you speak of in the church is still there my brother and growing more and more every single day. It seems to me that the more a church or denomination moves away from the Word of God, the more their level of deception becomes.
 
I went to church all the time when I was a kid growing up.

Later in life, because I am skeptical, I did lots of research. Some of what I found really rang truth to me, and some untruth.

I tend to take scripture for what it says. I've found when people get involved in speculating what the scripture means, they are trying to make it appeal to their circumstances.

One thing I discovered too; if a man is teaching something he learned from another man, that learned it from another man, if it was false from the 'get go', it's just false teaching passed down as truth.

Also, I have found that when you mention a certain doctrine that you don't align with, others do react quite drastically. Why do you think that is? Hmmm.....
 
I have definitely changed over the years. I've gone back to the word of God to get the truth over dogma for myself. I was shocked by the level of deception in the church whether on purpose or just mere ignorance.

Yeah a portion of the deception in the Church is deliberate and from people willingly doing satan's bidding. imo
 
There are several Christian doctrines which I started believing one way because that's how I was taught, then as I got older and investigated and researched for myself, I have sometimes changed my mind about them.

I'm sure many of you have had the same experience.

Over the years, family and friends to whom I've witnessed, have noticed that some of my beliefs have changed, and a couple of them have asked me, "Well how does anyone know what to believe? So many different beliefs and practices...even you have admitted believing differently. Why should I believe anything so wishy-washy?" (paraphrased, of course)

How have some of you handled this question? I really cannot blame my friends and family for questioning this.

I don't want to discuss which doctrinal beliefs have changed for me. I would really like to hear about your experiences though.

When one consciously decides to live his life in service to God, that's only the beginning as we all know. And just like any relationship can't stay still in one place--it can only go backward or forward--so does one's faith. And the goal, of course, is that it matures and goes forward, closer to sainthood until we are ultimately there.

How does anyone know what to believe despite so many different beliefs and practices, this is where a sincere look into faith continues, through deep prayer, deep historical investigation, and deep study in the scriptures. Using intellect which we inherited from God, we should be prepared to weed out the heresies and move on to the next questions. All of this through commitment of finding the truth, the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and the will of God.
 
Wow! So many of you here gave such great responses! Thank you! I feel I am better prepared to give clearer responses to friends and family when this comes up again.
 
There are several Christian doctrines which I started believing one way because that's how I was taught, then as I got older and investigated and researched for myself, I have sometimes changed my mind about them.

I'm sure many of you have had the same experience.

Over the years, family and friends to whom I've witnessed, have noticed that some of my beliefs have changed, and a couple of them have asked me, "Well how does anyone know what to believe? So many different beliefs and practices...even you have admitted believing differently. Why should I believe anything so wishy-washy?" (paraphrased, of course)

How have some of you handled this question? I really cannot blame my friends and family for questioning this.

I don't want to discuss which doctrinal beliefs have changed for me. I would really like to hear about your experiences though.
Your unsaved family and friends are not interested in your changed beliefs. Calling them 'wishy washy' is an attack on you / Jesus in you. Jesus / the light in you causes offence and does not change. You either have Him or you don't.

They do not care about you better explaining anything. Though it is a foot in the door (y).

I would share the basic teaching / elementary / unchanging principles of Christianity in Heb 6.
 
I don't want to discuss which doctrinal beliefs have changed for me. I would really like to hear about your experiences though.

As I have grown, I have better grasped that God is true to Himself at level that we cannot comprehend.

God is good and just to the maximum. So on the unknowns, why always assume the worst about God? Why always assume God is dumb?

Arguments like 'people will go to hell because they never heard = evil and dumb assumption about God = evil and dumb assumption by us as God is not evil nor dumb'.
 
On a related topic: I succumb to paraphrase (in red) of the following when I cannot convince an Atheist* : )

Newton's first law, consequently:
An object (mind) that is at rest (unbelief) will stay at rest (unbelief) unless an external force acts upon it.
An object (mind) that is in motion (stubborn) will not change its velocity (stubbornness) unless an external force acts upon it.

I used to be stubborn so to speak : )

*As a sophomore went to a (forum) den of wolves so to speak : )
 
On a related topic: I succumb to paraphrase (in red) of the following when I cannot convince an Atheist* : )

Newton's first law, consequently:
An object (mind) that is at rest (unbelief) will stay at rest (unbelief) unless an external force acts upon it.
An object (mind) that is in motion (stubborn) will not change its velocity (stubbornness) unless an external force acts upon it.

I used to be stubborn so to speak : )

*As a sophomore went to a (forum) den of wolves so to speak : )

And I was never ugly till I looked into a mirror!
 
I have definitely changed over the years. I've gone back to the word of God to get the truth over dogma for myself. I was shocked by the level of deception in the church whether on purpose or just mere ignorance.

When we place what we think or what others have said above the Word of God, we are on the slippery slope of self deception and destruction.
You can take that to the bank!
 
Back
Top