Yes I am, good to meet you. I'm a member of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (also known as the "Only Perfect Church"--lol, just kidding of course!). I was actually converted by mean of the WCF--I identify completely with the Ethiopian eunuch whom Philip spoke with in Acts; I definitely needed someone to explain the Scriptures to me else they were a closed book (and another example of that sort of explanation is when Jesus in his resurrected body spoke with the two travelers to Emmaus explaining everything in the books of Moses and the prophets pertaining to himself). Years prior to my conversion in 2/2013, I read almost entirely through the Bible under a pastor who had an entirely different theology; but when I went back through to reread it, it was like I had never read it before. Looking forward to talking with you more on here!
Also, Christianity does not require that you turn off your Brain.
But it does require that you understand that things with God are not understood by the "natural mind".
The Natural mind, says.>"seeing is believing".
Christianity, does not enlist the eyes, it requires the Heart....and thats a totally different way to understand, yet, its THE only Way that we discover all that God requires us to Know.......about HIM.
Think of a FM Radio band.
Can you turn on an FM Radio, and find a AM Radio Station?
You cannot, because you are doing the wrong search, and that is what happens when a person, a skeptic, tries to find God by analytical thinking or similar pursuit.
God is not on that Skeptic's AM band.....>He is FM, and they are not Dialed in. God exists is the Spiritual Realm, and you can't find Him or even begin to understand Jesus or The Cross, or Heaven...when you try to diagnose all of this with human reasoning.
You'll never find the SIGNAL that way., Animal2692... you'll only stay disconnected.
What an excellent explanation Behold! Yes--it requires a different kind of understanding, a different way of thinking. Someone on a different board, an atheist actually, got it (for the most part, I think); he explained it as "compartmentalizing". I found this to be very much on target.
I was discussing this topic on there how some of God's revelation of himself is illogical. For instance regarding where did sin come from? If you take our logic, you say okay God created everything so he must have created sin too. Yet, God's revelation of himself is quite emphatic that he is not the author of sin. Yet, according to our logic that can't be possible.
This is when we realize that this is the understanding we have with our fallen minds which are corrupt. We as believers regard God's word to be absolute truth. Thus, since we arrive at the opposite conclusion as God's word does, then something must be wrong with our understanding. It is us that's on the stand at the trial, not God.
That is where atheists have it backwards. They set up God to judge him, but it is actually the other way around (they will only find this out when they stand before him on judgment day, but of course this means nothing to them since they do not believe anything like that exists).
None of this would mean much of anything to anyone if they did not have a spiritual relationship with the Lord Jesus. Afterall, if my mental capacities have served me exceptionally well in my life, why would I believe an illogical set of words on a paper over my own ability to grasp what is logical and what is not? That is why explaining the Bible in as logical a way as possible will do nothing to convince the unbeliever of the truth of God's word.
Actually, the story of Lazarus and the Rich man spells it out quite clearly that is it only by the working of the Holy Spirit to convince us of the truth of God's word that anyone will believe (and I believe that what is actually going on in this situation is that you encounter the Holy Spirit spiritually and he conveys to you in a real way the holiness of God; and in that way you meet the Lord Jesus in Scripture). Even should someone return from the dead to tell them of what is beyond life--no one would believe by that. They would think they are having an hallucination.
If I'm remembering correctly Behold, you are not too fond of the WCF. I believe I can understand your view on that perhaps; should one comprehend that work and have an amazing grasp of theology that would still mean nothing regarding their faith in Jesus. It is the relationship of the heart that matters, the only thing that matters. One could have the best theology out there, an A+ on an exam, but if their heart doesn't have that relationship with God then they do not really know him.
I love to say this--that the Lord God does not give us a doctrinal exam when we stand before him in judgment. Jesus saves, not our knowledge of theology. I find Reformed believers to be a bit heavy in the way of theological and doctrinal matters (which is fine by all means; I think it's great to have a good doctrinal base by which one understands God's revelation of himself to us. There's definitely nothing wrong with that). But they need to have a love for Jesus as well.