What age did you get your faith? (Poll)

Tim Robbins

Hi there,
A quick survey.
What age were you when you first believed in God?
I started to believe around 4 as soon as had a picture of God in my head.
Rgds
Tim

PDN

I was 18 years old. Up to that point I had been an atheist & had never believed in a God. I think I would have reached this point earlier if I hadn't been repelled by the hypocritical behaviour and sheer unattractiveness of many who claimed to be religious.

Tim Robbins

PDN wrote:

I was 18 years old. Up to that point I had been an atheist & had never believed in a God. I think I would have reached this point earlier if I hadn't been repelled by the hypocritical behaviour and sheer unattractiveness of many who claimed to be religious.

Did anybody (parents, family etc) tell you there was a God when you were younger? And was it a case that you disagreed with them.

The reason why I ask this, is because some Christians (usually from the reformed Churches) don't consider young people old enough to understand faith so therefore they do not have it. The younger people are just going to Sunday school and learning bits about the bible.

My question wasn't about having a deep understanding and intellectual understandig of faith and your belief system it was about just believing there was a higher power, that you could pray to.

PDN

Tim Robbins wrote:

Did anybody (parents, family etc) tell you there was a God when you were younger? And was it a case that you disagreed with them.

The reason why I ask this, is because some Christians (usually from the reformed Churches) don't consider young people old enough to understand faith so therefore they do not have it. The younger people are just going to Sunday school and learning bits about the bible.

My question wasn't about having a deep understanding and intellectual understandig of faith and your belief system it was about just believing there was a higher power, that you could pray to.

Teachers at school tried to tell me that there was a God, but I didn't believe them. My parents were probably more agnostics than atheists. They didn't give me any religious instruction at all. I certainly did not believe in any higher power at any stage of my childhood.

Wagon

Properly, when i was a teenager. But i didn't really follow the bible because i think it's a load of crap for the most part (apologies to any true Catholic believers, no offence meant at all, its just my strange little mind at work) I just go to mass on Sunday cos i believe in a higher power who wants to help and not punish us. Also, he alone knows why the alphabet is in that order

Splendour

As far back as I remember, I have always believed in God, though it's only in recent years I have truely come into a relationship with my Saviour Jesus.

I was brought up Catholic and unlike my peers, I went to mass even during my teen years when most of them fell away. The fact that I was involved in church music was possibly a factor in this too. Even though I was member of the Catholic church, I felt a bit hypocritical as I didn't agree with alot of the churches beliefs.

About six years ago, I 'stumbled' (God led) across the Evangelical church and attended an Alpha course there. I seriously thought I didn't need to do this course,as being a practicing Catholic, 'I knew it all...' Still, I gave it a shot.

I was amazed at how the gospel was presented, for the first time in my life I truely understood why Jesus died on the cross and could see how the old and new testaments fit together! My parents were not too happy about this which saddens me as it is the same God I'm praying too...

So I suppose to sum it up, I have always believed in God whereas now I believe on God...:)

Sapien

Splendour wrote:

I have always believed in God whereas now I believe on God...:)

What does that mean?

robindch

JC of the creationst thread uses the "believe on" in his sig and he tried to explain the difference between 'in' and 'on', but I couldn't understand it.

BTW, at least German and Russian, and I think French, also use the curious phrasal verb "believe in" to indicate belief of a non-concrete, third-party concept. Anybody know of other languages that do this?

BrianCalgary

The difference with 'in' or 'on'.

it is possible to believe in God and reject Him. Whilst believing 'on' Him brings in the idea of putting your trust in Him. Turning your life over to Him and letting Him be your guide.

Sapien

BrianCalgary wrote:

The difference with 'in' or 'on'.

it is possible to believe in God and reject Him. Whilst believing 'on' Him brings in the idea of putting your trust in Him. Turning your life over to Him and letting Him be your guide.

Who decided that the preposition "on" should mean this? Is it some kind of evangelical Christian convention?

Splendour

BrianCalgary wrote:

The difference with 'in' or 'on'.

it is possible to believe in God and reject Him. Whilst believing 'on' Him brings in the idea of putting your trust in Him. Turning your life over to Him and letting Him be your guide.

Exactly Brian; well put. Satan, like a lot of people, believes 'in' God,but that doesn't mean he surrenders to God. I have, hence I believe 'on' God...

Sapien

Splendour wrote:

Exactly Brian; well put. Satan, like a lot of people, believes 'in' God,but that doesn't mean he surrenders to God. I have, hence I believe 'on' God...

Couldn't you just say "I surrender to God". After all, you can't surrender to God without believing in him. It would make as much sense, and spare us all that odd, inelegant phrase.

Michael G

To answer the original question: lost it when I was 15, got it back when I was 30. Now 51 and holding on. Sorry, can't fit that into the polling form.

Splendour

Sapien wrote:

Couldn't you just say "I surrender to God". After all, you can't surrender to God without believing in him. It would make as much sense, and spare us all that odd, inelegant phrase.

Taken onboard Sapien.

Fanny Cradock

Michael G wrote:

To answer the original question: lost it when I was 15, got it back when I was 30. Now 51 and holding on. Sorry, can't fit that into the polling form.

Ditto... more or less

BrianCalgary

Sapien wrote:

Couldn't you just say "I surrender to God". After all, you can't surrender to God without believing in him. It would make as much sense, and spare us all that odd, inelegant phrase.

Yes you could. Personally I have never said that I believ on God. I have always stated that 'I have given my life to Christ'.

I think that 'believing on' is a unique American evangelical term.

PDN

BrianCalgary wrote:

Yes you could. Personally I have never said that I believ on God. I have always stated that 'I have given my life to Christ'.

I think that 'believing on' is a unique American evangelical term.

To believe 'on' is not listed in most dictionaries, so it may well be a uniquely Christian usage. However, it is certainly not of recent, or American, origin. The King James Version of 1611 uses the term 'believe on' at least 14 times in the New Testament.

The term is normally used to stress the idea of biblical faith including commitment, and not just intellectual assent to certain propositions. Thus anyone who talks about 'believing on' Christ is usually trying to avoid what some call 'easy believism' (now there is a much more inelegant term ) or what Bonhoeffer called 'cheap grace'.

Tar.Aldarion

BrianCalgary wrote:

The difference with 'in' or 'on'.

it is possible to believe in God and reject Him. Whilst believing 'on' Him brings in the idea of putting your trust in Him. Turning your life over to Him and letting Him be your guide.

Ah, an interesting definition there. I suppose it makes sense to have both, because if the Christian god existed there would be people like me who would not worship it.

rediguana

Where's the "Still Waiting" option? I'm not trying to be difficult but I'd say it might be a sizable category. Would be interesting to know.

Tar.Aldarion

I think it's fair enough to leave that out on the Christianity forum, even if there are a lot of non christians.
There is a similar pole in Atheism & Agnosticism if you are interested.

rediguana

Okay, fair enough. I won't go the Atheism forum though, I know even less about that than I do about Christianity

Tim Robbins

rediguana wrote:

Where's the "Still Waiting" option? I'm not trying to be difficult but I'd say it might be a sizable category. Would be interesting to know.

Poll is only meant for people who had faith. I had faith once (as a young child) but lost it.

Tar.Aldarion

rediguana wrote:

Okay, fair enough. I won't go the Atheism forum though, I know even less about that than I do about Christianity

Lol, anyway, you don't have to know much about something that has no belief system.