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Is it just me, or this the only 'reasonable' position to take?
I'm been a believer since a child, yet much of that time I'm not sure I can really call myself one. Oftentimes I felt my faith was closer to agnosticism to true faith. I haven't really felt confident in alot of the tenents of the Christian faith consistently for years, really. I am pretty sure there is a God/Creator, but after that alot of it feels more like hoping for something or forcing myself to believe.
The annoying thing is that often things that are seen (by others) as not 'central' to the debate are stumbling blocks and seem critical to me...things like the predictions about the second coming (the generation verse), all that fairytalish fantastic unscientific imagery (I had to seem critical but I just can't get over it!), the character of God in parts of the OT, Noah's flood, Jewish mythological framework etc...also I find the fact that so few will be saved very depressing, and at odds with my longing for a Universalist framework. The last might make it emotionally unappealing but doesn't really detract from my actual faith in something, more the willingness to believe. The concept of the Cruxifiction ressurection is appealing on one level, yet I find it a bit senseless on another, and it's frustrating that so much of it is based on events that happened so long ago. I wish more of it was based on the here and now, and on us directly experiencing and communing with God.
Let's just say over the past few days I felt I have come close to death (it's anxiety related) and I was really frustrated/terrified because I didn't feel confident of there being any afterlife. My fear of not existing sort of blocked that out with noise....As much as I pray and try and feel I can't regain that confidence I had what seemed like so long ago, and I am really in a state of despair! I really hate everything about this life, but don't want to die just yet. I do want to live for Him but I just find it hard to do so when the monkey of doubt is always on my back. I just wonder if someone wants so hard to believe fully yet God won't do anything...I still cling to faith in God and Christ and the promises, and hope that God will be merciful, yet it seems hope is all I am clinging too! I do so want to believe in miracles but nothing seems to be happening...I know one should be patient and have faith but oftentimes I have been wondering if it's just not true. How can I be sure, without it being plainly proven to me through some supernatural apparation or the like? I feel so sure there is a divine being out there, and have prayers I believe have been answered, yet a part of me is really frustrated it has to come down to faith and that it might all be for nothing in the end.
Is it just me, or this the only 'reasonable' position to take?
I'm been a believer since a child, yet much of that time I'm not sure I can really call myself one. Oftentimes I felt my faith was closer to agnosticism to true faith. I haven't really felt confident in alot of the tenents of the Christian faith consistently for years, really. I am pretty sure there is a God/Creator, but after that alot of it feels more like hoping for something or forcing myself to believe.
The annoying thing is that often things that are seen as not 'central' to the debate are stumbling blocks...things like the predictions about the second coming, Noah's flood, Jewish mythological framework etc...also I find the fact that so few will be saved very depression, and at odds with my longing for a Universalist framework. The last might make it emotionally unappealing but doesn't really detract from my actual faith in something, more the willingness to believe. The concept of the Cruxifiction ressurection is appealing on one level, yet I find it a bit senseless on another, and it's frustrating that so much of it is based on events that happened so long ago. I wish more of it was based on the here and now, and on us directly experiencing and communing with God.
Let's just say over the past few days I felt I have come close to death (it's anxiety related) and I was really frustrated/terrified because I didn't feel confident of there being any afterlife. My fear of not existing sort of blocked that out with noise....As much as I pray and try and feel I can't regain that confidence I had what seemed like so long ago, and I am really in a state of despair! I really hate everything about this life, but don't want to die just yet. I do want to live for Him but I just find it hard to do so when the monkey of doubt is always on my back. I just wonder if someone wants so hard to believe fully yet God won't do anything...I still cling to faith in God and Christ and the promises, and hope that God will be merciful, yet it seems hope is all I am clinging too! I do so want to believe in miracles but nothing seems to be happening...I know one should be patient and have faith but oftentimes I have been wondering if it's just not true. How can I be sure, without it being plainly proven to me through some supernatural apparation or the like? I feel so sure there is a divine being out there, and have prayers I believe have been answered, yet a part of me is really frustrated it has to come down to faith and that it might all be for nothing in the end.
The false veneer of "precepts and doctrines of men" that dominates mainstream Christianity has clouded your understanding of God and kept you far from Him in fear. Fear is devastating on our mental state and corrupts any sensitivity we may have to God's loving presence. Love and fear are incompatible. Love casts out all fear. Stop focusing on what you have been told to believe and focus on the love of Christ for us ALL. Focus on "love of God and each other" without any concern about any negative consequences from this life. They will only be the result of any of your unloving (or oblivious) harmful thoughts, feeling and actions . . . not some horrendous punishment from a vengeful God. If you repent of them here . . . you won't have to deal with their effects after your death and rebirth as Spirit. Find a place to be quiet and focus on God . . . eliminate all thoughts and concerns and just BE. You will perceive His presence in a way that you will recognize . . . if you do not try to force whatever you've been indoctrinated to believe or expect onto the experience.
Is it just me, or this the only 'reasonable' position to take?
I'm been a believer since a child, yet much of that time I'm not sure I can really call myself one. Oftentimes I felt my faith was closer to agnosticism to true faith. I haven't really felt confident in alot of the tenents of the Christian faith consistently for years, really. I am pretty sure there is a God/Creator, but after that alot of it feels more like hoping for something or forcing myself to believe.
The annoying thing is that often things that are seen (by others) as not 'central' to the debate are stumbling blocks and seem critical to me...things like the predictions about the second coming (the generation verse), all that fairytalish fantastic unscientific imagery (I had to seem critical but I just can't get over it!), the character of God in parts of the OT, Noah's flood, Jewish mythological framework etc...also I find the fact that so few will be saved very depressing, and at odds with my longing for a Universalist framework. The last might make it emotionally unappealing but doesn't really detract from my actual faith in something, more the willingness to believe. The concept of the Cruxifiction ressurection is appealing on one level, yet I find it a bit senseless on another, and it's frustrating that so much of it is based on events that happened so long ago. I wish more of it was based on the here and now, and on us directly experiencing and communing with God.
Let's just say over the past few days I felt I have come close to death (it's anxiety related) and I was really frustrated/terrified because I didn't feel confident of there being any afterlife. My fear of not existing sort of blocked that out with noise....As much as I pray and try and feel I can't regain that confidence I had what seemed like so long ago, and I am really in a state of despair! I really hate everything about this life, but don't want to die just yet. I do want to live for Him but I just find it hard to do so when the monkey of doubt is always on my back. I just wonder if someone wants so hard to believe fully yet God won't do anything...I still cling to faith in God and Christ and the promises, and hope that God will be merciful, yet it seems hope is all I am clinging too! I do so want to believe in miracles but nothing seems to be happening...I know one should be patient and have faith but oftentimes I have been wondering if it's just not true. How can I be sure, without it being plainly proven to me through some supernatural apparation or the like? I feel so sure there is a divine being out there, and have prayers I believe have been answered, yet a part of me is really frustrated it has to come down to faith and that it might all be for nothing in the end.
Trimac, if you were a skeptic, I would tell you what I'm about to and you would probably just dismiss it. But you're not a skeptic. You are a believer who is having doubts. So maybe you will listen.
The greatest physical proof of what the Bible says concerning Christ, concerning eternal salvation, etc... are the fulfilled prophecies of the Bible which can be historically checked. The so-call prophecies of men such as Edgar Cayce or Nostrodomus do not compare with the verifiable prophecies contained in the Scriptures. The book of Isaiah has a number of prophecies which can be researched and verified. One such prophecy concerns the Phoenician city of Tyre. Critics will point to the modern day city of Tyre and say that the prophecy failed, but the prophecy was directed at the Phoenician Empire. Not at cities built by other nations on or near the site of the city of Tyre of the original Phoenician Empire.
If you can have confidence that the prophecies which spoken of in the Old Testament did in fact happen, then you can have confidence that those prophecies still to take place will indeed take place. Only God knows the end from the beginning and therefore, the fulfillment of prophecy is proof of the veracity of the Bible.
Look also at the Jews. For almost two thousand years there was no nation Israel. Now there is a state of Israel. When Christ returns, He will return to an existing nation (state) of Israel. Israel is a point of contention to the nations of the world. There will come a time when the nations of the world will attack Jerusalem, and Jesus will when He returns defeat these armies.
Here is a site I just briefly looked at concerning prophecy. You can if you are interested do more detailed study on the subject.
Home - Grace Doctrine Church (http://www.gdconline.org/default.aspx - broken link) The Bible class archive link sometimes doesn't work, but always will at another time.
The believers soul needs to be fed regularly from the word of God. It is essential for spiritual growth. Without feeding on the word of God, the believer retrogresses in his spiritual life and his faith can become shipwrecked. He is still saved, but his faith suffers through neglect of the doctrine of the word of God.
Is it just me, or this the only 'reasonable' position to take?
I'm been a believer since a child, yet much of that time I'm not sure I can really call myself one. Oftentimes I felt my faith was closer to agnosticism to true faith. I haven't really felt confident in alot of the tenents of the Christian faith consistently for years, really. I am pretty sure there is a God/Creator, but after that alot of it feels more like hoping for something or forcing myself to believe.
The annoying thing is that often things that are seen (by others) as not 'central' to the debate are stumbling blocks and seem critical to me...things like the predictions about the second coming (the generation verse), all that fairytalish fantastic unscientific imagery (I had to seem critical but I just can't get over it!), the character of God in parts of the OT, Noah's flood, Jewish mythological framework etc...also I find the fact that so few will be saved very depressing, and at odds with my longing for a Universalist framework. The last might make it emotionally unappealing but doesn't really detract from my actual faith in something, more the willingness to believe. The concept of the Cruxifiction ressurection is appealing on one level, yet I find it a bit senseless on another, and it's frustrating that so much of it is based on events that happened so long ago. I wish more of it was based on the here and now, and on us directly experiencing and communing with God.
Let's just say over the past few days I felt I have come close to death (it's anxiety related) and I was really frustrated/terrified because I didn't feel confident of there being any afterlife. My fear of not existing sort of blocked that out with noise....As much as I pray and try and feel I can't regain that confidence I had what seemed like so long ago, and I am really in a state of despair! I really hate everything about this life, but don't want to die just yet. I do want to live for Him but I just find it hard to do so when the monkey of doubt is always on my back. I just wonder if someone wants so hard to believe fully yet God won't do anything...I still cling to faith in God and Christ and the promises, and hope that God will be merciful, yet it seems hope is all I am clinging too! I do so want to believe in miracles but nothing seems to be happening...I know one should be patient and have faith but oftentimes I have been wondering if it's just not true. How can I be sure, without it being plainly proven to me through some supernatural apparation or the like? I feel so sure there is a divine being out there, and have prayers I believe have been answered, yet a part of me is really frustrated it has to come down to faith and that it might all be for nothing in the end.
Trimac, I think you are going through something very profound, and I believe that profound peace is headed your way. I only say this because I could FEEL all the way down to my bones exactly what you are describing here because I know that what I went through is the same. You described it in such a way, all of your feelings, and thoughts (and the anxiety) totally mimicked my own experience. Wow... this is the second time I've had this feeling this week with someone here on CD.
I will tell you that what it seems you are doing here is DIGGING and SEEKING and trying to get to the bottom of things. You are FEELING, and NOT shutting the door on your feelings and emotions, you are not NUMBING yourself. That is why you are feeling what you are feeling, I believe. There are many, (MANY MANY MANY MANY) who NUMB theirselves to their beliefs and gloss over them and DO NOT LOOK at them. They go onto their Sunday church meetings and act like everything is just dandy, all the while stuffing things away in the back of their minds.
Those people do NOT end up getting to truth and TRUE PEACE as long as they continue to deny and numb theirselves and push away what they SAY that they believe.
TRUE PEACE (that peace that surpasses all understanding) is what happens when you get OVER That mountain of FEAR. When you climb over that mountain of DOUBT and UNCERTAINTY and CONFUSION.
Trimac... you are ON THE mountain!
Keep climbing, friend.. you will find that GOD IS GOOD. That God is LOVE.
That fear and anxiety and all that you are going through right now, will only serve to further deepen your understanding of God, will only further your profound sense of PEACE (by way of contrast.)
Trimac... I know it is difficult. The most important thing I can tell you is to BE STILL. Listen to the small voice in your heart. When you feel compassion for another, that is the Holy Spirit. When you have mercy for another, THAT is the Holy Spirit guiding you. When FEAR rises up in you... KNOW that THAT is NOT the Holy Spirit... LET IT GO. Walk THROUGH it! The truth is within you and has ALWAYS been there.
Reflect on 1 Corinthians 13 with the thought in your mind that "God IS love".
Take a deep breath, and take care of yourself.
Please, please believe me when I say I have been where you are. Everything you said. TRULY.... I know what you're going through.
Well, I'm sorry if this was long but was just trying to throw you every lifeline I could think of. I've been sitting here for the past hour remembering this very time in my life, I remember it well. It was just before the peace of God broke through into my heart and I was never the same after that. When I was in the thick of it, I couldn't have imagined the peace I would have in the coming days. Nothing made sense to me. I wanted to be swallowed up by a black hole, but at the same time, I wanted to push forward and get to the truth. At times I was too scared to go on, at times I cried and cried and felt that God (if there really even were a god!) was not even hearing me. Perhaps He was made up, a figment of my imagination. or perhaps he really was as horrible as religion teaches. My God! What a mess of doubt, confusion, fear and troubling thoughts. I was a mess of knots and He eventually helped me to untangle them.
"Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is the recognition that some things are more important than fear" That quote seems to apply to you, Trimac. In order to love God with all of our heart, mind and soul... we must BEGIN to KNOW Him witih our heart, mind and soul. I think your courage is knowing that finding TRUTH, is more important than your fear.
May your fear lead to HOPE. And may your HOPE lead to the PEACE that surpasses all understanding, my friend. The peace that comes when you begin to understand just how GOOD God really is. And how LOVE casts out ALL Fear. There is no fear in LOVE. Love is EVERYTHING that is GOOD, and gentle and kind, full of mercy, keeping no records of wrongs, patient....
Please DM me anytime. Even if you just want to vent or whatever or if you are getting anxious, etc. I'm here for you, completely and totally.
Remember we need to "love ourselves" to be able to love others properly. I'm saying that because I want you to remember to be gentle and patient with yourself.
Watch others in action, people helping other people and showing compassion, things that warm your heart and give you hope. Perhaps you need a break. Focus on and seek out things that prove love is real. Stories, videos, etc. of humanity being GENTLE and KIND and COMPASSIONATE and MERCIFUL to humanity or to Creation. All of those things can help put LOVE and focusing on love (instead of fear), feeling the POWER of love back into your mind and heart. So that you can more easily RECOGNIZE the spirit of LOVE. The Holy Spirit. I would really recommend this. Fill yourself up with stories of hope and encouragment. It is all around us. There is so much beauty all around us, if you look for it, you will find it.
Trimac, I think you are going through something very profound, and I believe that profound peace is headed your way. I only say this because I could FEEL all the way down to my bones exactly what you are describing here because I know that what I went through is the same. You described it in such a way, all of your feelings, and thoughts (and the anxiety) totally mimicked my own experience. Wow... this is the second time I've had this feeling this week with someone here on CD.
I will tell you that what it seems you are doing here is DIGGING and SEEKING and trying to get to the bottom of things. You are FEELING, and NOT shutting the door on your feelings and emotions, you are not NUMBING yourself. That is why you are feeling what you are feeling, I believe. There are many, (MANY MANY MANY MANY) who NUMB theirselves to their beliefs and gloss over them and DO NOT LOOK at them. They go onto their Sunday church meetings and act like everything is just dandy, all the while stuffing things away in the back of their minds.
Those people do NOT end up getting to truth and TRUE PEACE as long as they continue to deny and numb theirselves and push away what they SAY that they believe.
TRUE PEACE (that peace that surpasses all understanding) is what happens when you get OVER That mountain of FEAR. When you climb over that mountain of DOUBT and UNCERTAINTY and CONFUSION.
Trimac... you are ON THE mountain!
Keep climbing, friend.. you will find that GOD IS GOOD. That God is LOVE.
That fear and anxiety and all that you are going through right now, will only serve to further deepen your understanding of God, will only further your profound sense of PEACE (by way of contrast.)
Trimac... I know it is difficult. The most important thing I can tell you is to BE STILL. Listen to the small voice in your heart. When you feel compassion for another, that is the Holy Spirit. When you have mercy for another, THAT is the Holy Spirit guiding you. When FEAR rises up in you... KNOW that THAT is NOT the Holy Spirit... LET IT GO. Walk THROUGH it! The truth is within you and has ALWAYS been there.
Reflect on 1 Corinthians 13 with the thought in your mind that "God IS love".
Take a deep breath, and take care of yourself.
Please, please believe me when I say I have been where you are. Everything you said. TRULY.... I know what you're going through.
Well, I'm sorry if this was long but was just trying to throw you every lifeline I could think of. I've been sitting here for the past hour remembering this very time in my life, I remember it well. It was just before the peace of God broke through into my heart and I was never the same after that. When I was in the thick of it, I couldn't have imagined the peace I would have in the coming days. Nothing made sense to me. I wanted to be swallowed up by a black hole, but at the same time, I wanted to push forward and get to the truth. At times I was too scared to go on, at times I cried and cried and felt that God (if there really even were a god!) was not even hearing me. Perhaps He was made up, a figment of my imagination. or perhaps he really was as horrible as religion teaches. My God! What a mess of doubt, confusion, fear and troubling thoughts. I was a mess of knots and He eventually helped me to untangle them.
"Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is the recognition that some things are more important than fear" That quote seems to apply to you, Trimac. In order to love God with all of our heart, mind and soul... we must BEGIN to KNOW Him witih our heart, mind and soul. I think your courage is knowing that finding TRUTH, is more important than your fear.
May your fear lead to HOPE. And may your HOPE lead to the PEACE that surpasses all understanding, my friend. The peace that comes when you begin to understand just how GOOD God really is. And how LOVE casts out ALL Fear. There is no fear in LOVE. Love is EVERYTHING that is GOOD, and gentle and kind, full of mercy, keeping no records of wrongs, patient....
Please DM me anytime. Even if you just want to vent or whatever or if you are getting anxious, etc. I'm here for you, completely and totally.
Remember we need to "love ourselves" to be able to love others properly. I'm saying that because I want you to remember to be gentle and patient with yourself.
Watch others in action, people helping other people and showing compassion, things that warm your heart and give you hope. Perhaps you need a break. Focus on and seek out things that prove love is real. Stories, videos, etc. of humanity being GENTLE and KIND and COMPASSIONATE and MERCIFUL to humanity or to Creation. All of those things can help put LOVE and focusing on love (instead of fear), feeling the POWER of love back into your mind and heart. So that you can more easily RECOGNIZE the spirit of LOVE. The Holy Spirit. I would really recommend this. Fill yourself up with stories of hope and encouragment. It is all around us. There is so much beauty all around us, if you look for it, you will find it.
peace,
sparrow
This is Truth^^^.
To the OP. Allow me to be a bit arrogant and presumptuous. I only say this to be a help. In my experience I have never doubted God. Yes at times I have questioned God and He has gently slaped me and said YES, I am HE. Faith is a funny thing. It feeds on itself. Like a muscle. Use it or lose it. I don't know why, but it is how it is. Can you step outside of your doubts and walk in faith? For whatever reason God seems to prefer this way of thinking. Just do it is the message. OK
Now with that said, I am a bit of a realist. I really hope you are not a Troll looking to cast doubt, which is a common tactic among atheists trying to deconvert people who are on the fence of belief.
Sparrow is right on. We all have to go through the fiery cross of affliction.
Check out... Galatians Chapter 4 -
1 I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, 2 but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. 3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. 4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
Hebrews 3:6 But Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.
The fact is every believer ultimatly does the same thing you are expressing.... "cling to faith in God and his promises."
We the believers live by faith, we concentrate for things unseen.
2 Corinthians 4:18
o we fix our eyes not on what is seen,
but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary,
but what is unseenis eternal.
The fact you're battling "the monkey" is proof
Quote:
Originally Posted by Trimac20
..
I do so want to believe in miracles but nothing seems to be happening...I know one should be patient and have faith but oftentimes I have been wondering if it's just not true. How can I be sure, without it being plainly proven to me through some supernatural apparation or the like? I feel so sure there is a divine being out there, and have prayers I believe have been answered, yet a part of me is really frustrated it has to come down to faith and that it might all be for nothing in the end.
1 Corinthians 1:9 God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, isfaithful.
Jesus said he was the way, the truth and the life.
Satan counters with..."Jesus is just one of the ways, some of what he said is the truth, and a losing proposition.
Here is some advice from God:
James 4:7
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resistthe devil, and he will flee from you.
Resisting the devil is not to Satan liking. One should almost expect that when you resists the devil, Satan is going pushes back just the more....expecially when you're at the weakest.
But don't think you're the exception...every Christian has a "monkey on his back" in one form or another. The lie of Satan is that you're all alone in your struggle. God's advice is to resist the lie...don't believe it!
1 Peter 5:9
Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
Is it just me, or this the only 'reasonable' position to take?
I'm been a believer since a child, yet much of that time I'm not sure I can really call myself one. Oftentimes I felt my faith was closer to agnosticism to true faith. I haven't really felt confident in alot of the tenents of the Christian faith consistently for years, really. I am pretty sure there is a God/Creator, but after that alot of it feels more like hoping for something or forcing myself to believe.
The annoying thing is that often things that are seen (by others) as not 'central' to the debate are stumbling blocks and seem critical to me...things like the predictions about the second coming (the generation verse), all that fairytalish fantastic unscientific imagery (I had to seem critical but I just can't get over it!), the character of God in parts of the OT, Noah's flood, Jewish mythological framework etc...also I find the fact that so few will be saved very depressing, and at odds with my longing for a Universalist framework. The last might make it emotionally unappealing but doesn't really detract from my actual faith in something, more the willingness to believe. The concept of the Cruxifiction ressurection is appealing on one level, yet I find it a bit senseless on another, and it's frustrating that so much of it is based on events that happened so long ago. I wish more of it was based on the here and now, and on us directly experiencing and communing with God.
Let's just say over the past few days I felt I have come close to death (it's anxiety related) and I was really frustrated/terrified because I didn't feel confident of there being any afterlife. My fear of not existing sort of blocked that out with noise....As much as I pray and try and feel I can't regain that confidence I had what seemed like so long ago, and I am really in a state of despair! I really hate everything about this life, but don't want to die just yet. I do want to live for Him but I just find it hard to do so when the monkey of doubt is always on my back. I just wonder if someone wants so hard to believe fully yet God won't do anything...I still cling to faith in God and Christ and the promises, and hope that God will be merciful, yet it seems hope is all I am clinging too! I do so want to believe in miracles but nothing seems to be happening...I know one should be patient and have faith but oftentimes I have been wondering if it's just not true. How can I be sure, without it being plainly proven to me through some supernatural apparation or the like? I feel so sure there is a divine being out there, and have prayers I believe have been answered, yet a part of me is really frustrated it has to come down to faith and that it might all be for nothing in the end.
How long did Moses talk to God before He answered?...I think it was something like 40 years, that is a long time to hold onto Faith...I wonder if Moses felt the same way you are feeling?....
Trimac, if you were a skeptic, I would tell you what I'm about to and you would probably just dismiss it. But you're not a skeptic. You are a believer who is having doubts. So maybe you will listen.
The greatest physical proof of what the Bible says concerning Christ, concerning eternal salvation, etc... are the fulfilled prophecies of the Bible which can be historically checked. The so-call prophecies of men such as Edgar Cayce or Nostrodomus do not compare with the verifiable prophecies contained in the Scriptures. The book of Isaiah has a number of prophecies which can be researched and verified. One such prophecy concerns the Phoenician city of Tyre. Critics will point to the modern day city of Tyre and say that the prophecy failed, but the prophecy was directed at the Phoenician Empire. Not at cities built by other nations on or near the site of the city of Tyre of the original Phoenician Empire.
If you can have confidence that the prophecies which spoken of in the Old Testament did in fact happen, then you can have confidence that those prophecies still to take place will indeed take place. Only God knows the end from the beginning and therefore, the fulfillment of prophecy is proof of the veracity of the Bible.
Look also at the Jews. For almost two thousand years there was no nation Israel. Now there is a state of Israel. When Christ returns, He will return to an existing nation (state) of Israel. Israel is a point of contention to the nations of the world. There will come a time when the nations of the world will attack Jerusalem, and Jesus will when He returns defeat these armies.
Here is a site I just briefly looked at concerning prophecy. You can if you are interested do more detailed study on the subject.
Home - Grace Doctrine Church (http://www.gdconline.org/default.aspx - broken link) The Bible class archive link sometimes doesn't work, but always will at another time.
The believers soul needs to be fed regularly from the word of God. It is essential for spiritual growth. Without feeding on the word of God, the believer retrogresses in his spiritual life and his faith can become shipwrecked. He is still saved, but his faith suffers through neglect of the doctrine of the word of God.
I hope I said something useful.
God declares the end from the beginning...
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How can I be sure, without it being plainly proven to me through some supernatural apparation or the like? I feel so sure there is a divine being out there, and have prayers I believe have been answered, yet a part of me is really frustrated it has to come down to faith and that it might all be for nothing in the end.
