u/Unlucky-Drawing-1266

I sometimes have a subconscious feeling of unbelief- I don’t quite know how to describe it? Like when you read something fictional and your brain quietly but deeply reminds you “that’s not real”? Sometimes when learning or thinking about God I get that feeling, and I try to correct myself and dismiss it.
I was thinking this morning about what my basis for belief is and I’m worried it’s too weak- I was raised Christian, live in a deeply Christian family. I started believing in God not because I have something I can definitively point to that convinced me, but because it’s just simply what I’ve always known. When I see atheist arguments, the anchor that keeps me from panicking is the thought that if I die and find there isn’t a God, I’ll have lost nothing, and even if someone could prove 100% God wasn’t real I’d still be a Christian anyways, because I think my life is better for it. I like having a guidebook to follow for how to live my life and I like having a God to be loyal to and to cling to when things are rough. So I don’t need 100% proof of his existence because if I believe and find I was wrong I’ll have lost nothing
But I worry this isn’t a good enough justification for my faith. I think about God all the time and worry all the time about sin(it’s a problem really) and living life the way Jesus wants, but what if my faith isn’t real? What if I’m just going through the motions and I’ve deluded myself into thinking I have real faith? I could point to all the ways my life is devoted to God as evidence, but theoretically I could do all those things and still not believe it in my heart. And I know someone will point out I’m talking a lot about works here and not what Jesus did on the cross- I can choose in my conscious mind to say “that’s real and I believe in that,” but what if my unconscious heart doesn’t believe it? You could choose to tell yourself in your head “my bed is lava” and then live your life treating it as such, but somewhere in your mind you still know it’s not lava and your just acting. What if that’s what I’m doing?
And if I really am deluding myself, how can I be saved? I know the story of the man who said “I believe, so help my unbelief,” but salvation depends on our hearts genuine faith in Jesus. I could imitate all the things someone with real faith does and even tell myself in my head that I have real faith, but if my heart still chooses not to believe then I can’t fix that no matter how hard I try. I’m hesitant to say my heart 100% without a doubt believes in Jesus, and it doesn’t matter if I choose consciously to keep obeying the Bible because if my heart doesn’t follow it’s all for nothing. Basically, if I can act like a Christian apart from faith, then what if I really don’t have faith and I’m deluding myself?

I posted this on another sub but post here for more answers
This might be more of a mental health thing, and it’s far sillier than the title suggests.
I love dragons. Loved them since I was a kid. I’m an artist and dragons were my favorite thing to draw, I was working on a story with dragon characters. I got hit with OCD out of nowhere months ago and dragons was one of the things it hit. My worry goes that the typical modern depictions of dragons, four legged with bat wings, spiked tails, horns and fire breathing, came from Christian artists trying to make them look more demonic. Things like bat wings or fire breathing were seen as demonic and so given to dragons. These are my favorite versions of the dragon and so I panicked that it’s a sin to like dragons because of their demonic associations/origins.
I can logically say that symbols aren’t demonic in nature and change with culture, dragons as such aren’t seen as demonic anymore, so it’s fine to draw them. But my OCD always goes “but what if.” I feel like I need explicit permission from God to like them, I’ve prayed and received no answer(another worry- what if his silence means no?).
I really want to return to drawing them, but every time I think about it something just seizes me- not guilt or conviction per say, but more like that feeling you get if you tried to put your hand on a hot stove. Your subconscious mind won’t let you do it. I don’t know what to do here. As I said, I want to get back to what I loved(I also have autism and I thinks it’s very likely dragons were/are my special interest) and I want to get back to writing my story but I can’t. What if God doesn’t want me to?

I was curious if this part of the chapter where Jesus speaks of his flesh as the bread of life makes more sense in its original language. Of course there might be bias here because I’m mostly looking for whether the original leans towards a representative view of the bread and wine(communion) or a literal view (Eucharist)
So, does the Greek give any clues as to what Jesus means? Is he talking of eating his flesh metaphorically, or literally?

Just a thought I had. The punishments for the fall was women’s reproductive stuff, having to toil for food, and death as a whole. So why everything else that can kill us, like disease or heat/cold or poisons or any of the ways humans can die? It feels like a lot of extra punishments that the Bible didn’t mention. Couldn’t it have just said “the world will try to kill you”?

Not an ex Muslim, just a curious random. I know some Muslims, particularly in the western world, like to claim that the verses ordering the killing of non Muslims are misinterpreted, that they were time specific, or that other verses emphasize peace etc. I’m curious about how well these apologetic responses hold up.
So, the verdict; peaceful or not?

This isn’t concerning a real situation so don’t worry, just food for thought and something I think about that I’d like to hear other opinions on cause I haven’t come to a good answer myself.

So there’s animated indie pilot called Gameoverse. The story is set in a universe of video games, which each game being its own world. As soon as the game is “beaten,” aka the hero overcomes the villain, that games world is destroyed. The protagonists of the show work to prevent hero’s from stopping their villains so their world doesn’t get destroyed, while the antagonists are trying to help hero’s in their quests to trigger their worlds destruction, and absorb energy from the dead worlds to supposedly be able to put a stop to the planet destroying altogether. When someone is in a game world they don’t belong, they are unable to harm anything or physically influence the world, or tell the characters within the game about the wider universe or what’s going to happen. All they can do is scope out the situation and give the hero/villain information on how to achieve their goals.

I try to think what God would have someone do in a situation like this(silly I know but whatever) and I just can’t come to answer. To prevent a universe from being destroyed, you have to aid in furthering evil, which is a sin. But helping good ends in the world’s destruction altogether, which is also a sin.
There’s also something to be said about which side is truly moral in their goals. I suspect the main villain isn’t actually trying to fix the world destroying nonsense but is using power for himself but that’s besides the point. You either keep things as they are, but preserve lives and prevent much heartache and death, or put a stop everything altogether but kill everyone in the process.

The only semi-answer I can come to is I think purposefully destroying planets, even for the greater good, would be frowned upon in Gods eyes. You’re again taking lives, but the power to rewrite fate is Gods alone and trying to usurp that is a fools errand.
But I’m interested in what anyone else can come up with, if there’s a path where you don’t sin, because it feels like a lose-lose situation if your trying to follow God and navigate this at the same time.

I’m taking a trip with my family to the beach, spending time together before I leave for college, and we’ve brought my rough collie with me. I want to take her down to the beach early in the mornings to play, when it’s coolest, because I want her to have fun too. Trouble is I checked the weather and even early in the mornings the coolest it’ll get is 81F. I worry about the heat with her double coat. So, what’s the verdict? Is it too risky to take her outside for a run at all?

Psalm 66:18

"If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened."

Isaiah 59:1–2

"Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear."

Proverbs 28:9

"If one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination."

1 Peter 3:12

"For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil."

These verses imply that sin and heart condition can keep someone’s prayers from reaching God

I’ve been struggling with ecclesial anxiety, looking into each denomination, and I’m sure I’ve been super guilty of not trusting God, but I feel like I can’t give up this paranoia until I can be confident that I’m following God correctly. I pray all the time but feel as though I’ve been abandoned by God because he doesn’t answer. What if it’s my paranoia and this whole struggle that’s keeping God from answering? What if this vice I can’t get out of has made God reject my prayers and abandon me?

One of the bigger claims of the Catholic Church is that people are incapable of interpreting the Bible themselves and need the church to interpret it for them.
In the story of Phillip and the eunuch, Phillip asks “do you know what you are reading?” and the eunuch replies, “how can I, unless someone explains it to me?”
I had a thought, does this confirm the claim that people need an authority to explain the Bible to them?

Ive yet to see any good youtube videos contesting the whole “mortal vs venial” thing. If anyone knows any, please share them

The standard Protestant response is “Jesus was just telling his apostles that anyone they proclaim the gospel to can be forgiven.” It’s the only Protestant response I ever see to the verse and I find it useless and redundant. Like, duh- it would be completely stupid for Jesus to state this because it’s obvious, the disciples already know “belief in the gospel= forgiveness,” he doesn’t need to say this to them.
And furthermore, if that’s what Jesus really meant, he would’ve said something closer to “whoever hears and believes is forgiven.” But he said “whoever YOU forgive” and “whoever YOU do not forgive.” There’s just no away around tying the disciples forgiveness to salvation.
This same thing goes for the “bound/loosed in heaven” verse that I also can’t find an answer to. Using this explanation for that verse is even more frustrating. Your saying Jesus basically said “whatever is sin is sin and whatever is not sin is not sin.” It’s a nothing useless statement

I’ve never found an explanation of this verse that satisfies me, as it seems as though Jesus is giving the apostles the authority to determine someone’s salvation. What the correct interpretation is has some big theological consequences, so I thought I would ask here; what does the original translation read like? Could someone offer a breakdown of what each word in this verse means and what meaning the Greek conveys as a whole?

English translations read this verse as “do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.” In English it makes it sound like doing anything purely for self-interest- even if it doesn’t affect others- is a sin. So does the original verse actually mean that, or is it referring to personal gain at the expense of others?

What I mean by that is art just for fun, not sinful art. I never glorify sin or heaven forbid make anything inappropriate. I’m an artist but I mostly draw for my own enjoyment- things like pokemon or dragons and such. I certainly use my gifts for good things sometimes- making gifts for people, and I’m currently working on a comic that while not explicitly Christian, I want to use to promote Christian values like forgiveness that are lost in most modern media(that’s its biggest theme really- a lot of media shows it’s characters getting revenge for ways in which they were slighted and portray it as a noble and heroic theme. I’m aiming to do the opposite- have a main character who’s been treated unfairly and unjustly, is bitter and angry about it, and ultimately comes to the conclusion that their bitterness is wrong and chooses to forgive, even though the people who wronged them are never sorry for it).
But most of the time my art is just silly things for my own enjoyment, and maybe admittedly my own pride because I love making something I think looks really good and showing it off to friends and getting compliments.
So is this all wrong?