Hindsight

[Matthias]

“What’s one thing you wish you knew as a new Christian?”

Pastor Rich Bitterman (@w_bitterman) on X

What's one thing you wish you knew as a new Christian?

x.com

 

[pwg_jonathan]

For me it would be that you do not have to have it all figured out to start. I spent a lot of time thinking everyone else was further along than I was, and that mostly just made me quiet. Proverbs 3:5 says, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” Wish I had leaned on that sooner instead of pretending I understood everything.

 

[ScottA]

“What’s one thing you wish you knew as a new Christian?”

Pastor Rich Bitterman (@w_bitterman) on X

What's one thing you wish you knew as a new Christian?

x.com

That the enemy is within--even now within the church.

The scriptures reveal it ultimately--it's all written and documented, and the evidence shows that sin and the enemy of God is within the fallen, warring among our members, and manifest also in the members of the church, where the greatest battle between good and evil was and is waged. Christ's own people had Him crucified...and it is all now also manifest in His body, the church.

Let no one deceive you by any means; for that day of the falling away, and the man of sin revealed, has come.

 

[Lambano]

I wish I had known then that faith is not the same as believing doctrine.

 

[CoachedByChrist]

What a thoughtful question to sit with. One gentle truth worth learning early is that growth in Christ is a journey, not a race to have everything figured out. God is patient with His children, and He keeps teaching through every season, every mistake, and every small step of obedience offered in faith.

 

[Riven]

I wish I had known then that faith is not the same as believing doctrine.

What's the difference? Don't you have to have faith in the doctrine?

 

[Lambano]

What's the difference? Don't you have to have faith in the doctrine?

Riven, that question may deserve its own thread.

It wasn't long ago that you said you were becoming a Christian. If you haven't backed off on that decision, this thread may be useful to you. I'll try to explain where I'm coming from.

I learned a lot of doctrine ABOUT God, ABOUT Jesus Christ. And I still believe most (?) of it is true. But I didn't learn about trusting Jesus Christ THE PERSON. St. Paul uses as the paragon for his doctrine of Justification Through Faith, "Abraham believed/trusted God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness". Trusting God's promise. You'll see all kinds of doctrinal wars on this site, and you'll have to wade through all that to figure out what's true and what isn't. And even then, you could be wrong. With all these pissing matches, somebody's going to be wrong. Then I see statements like, "We're saved by believing in the atoning death and resurrection of Christ" (which I did see recently), and I want to smack somebody with a rolled-up newspaper. While I believe in the Atonement and the Resurrection, those are only reasons WHY we should trust Christ.

So, TRUST IN and LOYALTY TO Jesus Christ is what I what I think faith is all about. I hope this makes sense.