Why are you a Christian?

[rocklobster]

OK, here's a scenario for each of you out there to consider. Let's say an alien from a planet where Christianity wasn't as well-known were to visit our planet. What would you say to explain to this being why you are a Christian?

[Gabriel 9.0]

I would tell him/her that I'm a Christian because I'm thankful and honored that Jesus and his father along with the Holy Spirit gave me another chance to live, and for protecting me, my mom, and bro and others I know throughout many trials, trial that seemed very hopeless. I feel its my duty as a follower of Christ to tell as many people as I possibly can about the true nature of God and to try my best to live accordingly to the way God tells us to live.

[Yokuo]

I'm not going to explain it. I'm going to sit this alien down and show him the Word of God, starting with Genesis, the creation, the birth and fall of man, show him examples from the Old Testament of how he is a born sinner, reveal the 10 Commandments, then share the Good News of Jesus Christ, who came to die for our sins so God's wrath wouldn't be laid out on us.

And that very method will teach any new believer the fundamentals he/she HAS to know.

[K. Ayato]

What if he doesn't want to hear a lecture?

[Dante]

I would say that I am a Christian because my experiences as a consequence of faith have proven to me as a human being that there is an entity given the name God whose existance is familiar enough with social sentient beings that he has and had the desire to befreind other entities. Furthermore, this entity does not deny but instead inspires within our experiences that the universe inclusive was derivative from his thought and inspiration and was created out of the desire to exist with other entities out of a need to love and be loved. For despite the fact that he defines reality, he cannot without contradiction create a reality in which is chosen to be loved by other entities without first creating other entities and second creating entities that can choose to love him. All sentient lifeform represent the sum of his aspirations.

However, despite this initial concept, choice cannot be predetermined and still be choice, therefore in creating freewill this entity also created the possibility of his creations rejecting him. While the general story of how this went down as a universe is not known, it is known that mankind past and present have and continue to reject the possibility loving this entity known as God. As all things have consequences, God made this universe a form of yes/no gate where those who loved him could continue to do so in a seperate existance called Heaven, and those who decided to not love him continued their existance in a place called Hell.

There is of course a whole list of negative attributes associated with choosing to reject God as in doing so you also reject his work and creations specific to him. This is particularly bad because we as a creation were built and designed to be dependent upon God as we areselves cannot create reality from nothing (it is assumed that this is the case on their world as well).

But all this aside, I am a Christian because I have chosen to love this entity because he loved me and manifested his existance within one of our own species around two thousand years ago in the form of a man who held the spirit of this entity God given the name Jesus Christ. So that my prior actions that stated that I chose to not love him at one point in my life (having not known him) could be forgetten and I would have a new opportunity to choose to love him and change the course of my entire existance. I believed that choosing to love God was the best choice for the rest of my existance as an entity because I feel that he created me and therefore built me with the intention of my loving him, and without fullfilling this love I will not meet my fullest potential as an entity within existance and I will meet with a lesser end then is optimal for me. Therefore, because I chose that I want to love God, I am a Christian, because through Christ I am able to better love and have understand the entity God, and only through his sacrifice could I have a second chance at loving God.

That is why I am a Christian.

That sound good? Wonder if I'm missing anything, anyways, any other ideas .

-Pascal

[Raiden no Kishi]

I would have to go for most of the classic arguments coupled with my own personal experience. That is, I would explain how I see the influence of God in the finely detailed engineering in every living thing, the existence of the universe itself and the principle of causality demanding a First Cause, plus the strong leading towards a Moral Lawgiver evidenced by the existence and proliferation of moral codes, especially those that promote self-sacrifice, because self-sacrifice is so entirely unnatural and foreign to a materialist [i.e. there is no supernatural] mindset. I would also explain the touch of God in my own life, such as my parents' love for me plus the love of others that I know I have not earned and have many times given reasons against; also, my own [albeit minor] miraculous experiences. To sum up, I would explain that Christianity, from my perspective, offers the most sensible answer to life, the universe, and everything . . . yes, even better than 42.

.rai//

[rocklobster]

Raiden, you rock! Love the Hitchhiker's ref!

[Raiden no Kishi]

Raiden, you rock! Love the Hitchhiker's ref!

Thanks! Now I just need to read Hitchhiker's Guide . . .

.rai//

[12praiseGOD]

I would explain to the alien about my personal testimony and how GOD has changed my world around, then I would show him the Historical Document, which are quite frankly true, especially the 4 gospels I think because if you think about it. When you say the disciples that wrote the gospels were lying, then you have to look at what happened to them, 11 out of the 12 were crutially killed because in their belief that Jesus was the son of GOD; and by the way most of them were crusified. So when you tell me that they are lying then you tell me that They not only died for a lie..heres the catch...but they died knowing it was a lie. Now you wont find many people in history that died for a lie, knowing it was a lie. Anyways, I would give testimony of me, my family, and all other facts that I can think about to the alien.

[Tyrel]

There is no real short answer for that. That's like asking me what I'd tell my son, if I had one.

Fact is, I would first strive to understand their worldview, and then relate the message of truth to them in a way they could understand it. That's a problem, I find, which Christians even today face; we aren't sensitive enough to other people's paradigms, and worldviews. For example, the ancient Chinese saw the Cross as an offensive symbol. Thus, the intelligent Christians, learnt how to relate the Gospel to them, without shoving that image in their faces, while the unintelligent, simply fanatically waved crosses around, expecting the "unsaved" to "open their eyes".

This is not a unique example either. I find Christians are far too legalistic in their approach to understanding the Eternal Law.

So, I would, ideally, preach first and foremost with my life. Then, once I was more aware of how they see the world, and could thus fully respect their sensitivities, being thusly even better equipped to preach effectively, I would attempt to respectfully relay the message in a way they could relate and understand.

That is not to say that I am "relativist" in any way, nor am I complacent.

[marcjames07]

Guys, the most efficient way of answering the question: "Why are you a Christian" is your own Testimony. How Jesus came into your life, the miracles that you have experienced and the renewal that has given to you. Upon seeing them your actions, the way your interact to them, the way you speak to them, becoming humble in the presence of them, they will notice a very big thing about yourself and they will end up a question, "Why is that person is different in the way that he denies himself for the sake of others?"

For me, thats the best thing that I will say when someone ask me that question.

[PSA374]

Guys, the most efficient way of answering the question: "Why are you a Christian" is your own Testimony. How Jesus came into your life, the miracles that you have experienced and the renewal that has given to you. Upon seeing them your actions, the way your interact to them, the way you speak to them, becoming humble in the presence of them, they will notice a very big thing about yourself and they will end up a question, "Why is that person is different in the way that he denies himself for the sake of others?"

For me, thats the best thing that I will say when someone ask me that question.

I agree, this is the purest thing you can say about the "why are you a Christian?" question...

God bless always .