Answers for Doubting Christians

2: Lies Shaping Worldviews.

So in Katherina’s story, a huge part in it, perhaps even bigger than her unanswered questions, is the feelings of incompetence she struggled with as a result of learning about her sins.

This is probably the most common thing I hear from homosexuals who were once Christians, that they felt oppressed and worthless until they threw out their beliefs.

This is a hard thing to understand, because it makes so much sense, and yet it contradicts the message of the Gospel. Which leads to my first point;

1: The Lie of ‘Toxic Christian’ Morals.
So in the book, Katherina talks about Christian morals as ‘toxic Christian doctrine’.

Now, at first this had me thinking it was because she had come to the conclusion that if something makes you feel bad about doing something, then it is bad, even if your actions were wrong.

But right after I typed that out, I realized there was something else I hadn’t put my finger on. Then, I realized something; Condemnation from God doesn’t cause feelings of worthlessness. God doesn’t see us that way.

That is, however, the Devil’s view of us, and the lie he wishes us to believe as well. His plan is to convince us that we are worthless, that our sin has made us less valuable.

This is because he knows that if we truly believe that we are sons and daughters of the one true King, we will become immune to many of his lies, and we will be able to overcome sin.

So he uses our knowledge of good and evil to convict us. He mixes a little lie with a lot of truth, so that we do not spot it, and he whispers the lie over and over in our ear. And he doesn’t stop until we stop seeking God.

He convinces us that it is because of God that we feel this way, because he attacks us whenever we hear about God, and leaves us alone when we decide to forsake our knowledge of good and evil. When we decide to avoid it because we think it is ‘toxic Christian doctrine’.

2: Without a Personal Relationship With God, it is Easy to Fall For The Lies.
So, as I touched on in the last chapter, when people don’t have a relationship with God, they won’t be able to understand His heart for them. As a result, they can easily believe the Devil’s lies and fall apart.

I’ve watched quite a few people struggling with this; they see the list of sins they need to stop, and they believe the lie that this lowers their value, so they don’t see the Father’s heart of love for them anymore.

Last year I watched the guy I was in a relationship with falling apart, because he could only see the sins on his hands, believe this took away his worth, and he couldn’t see or experience God’s love.

He had no relationship with Christ, so all he saw was his imperfections, rather than God’s forgiveness and love for him. Such, I suspect, is the same with Katherina.

She talks about feeling condemnation and shame, and how her mental health grew worse as a result. This to me is a very clear sign that she was believing in lies, but simply could not see it. So instead, she decided that the doctrine was bad.

So it’s understandable then, that she reacted by throwing it away, because that is what a person should do with something that takes away their sense of value to God. But she threw the proverbial ‘baby out with the bathwater’.

She couldn’t find the lie, so she threw out the whole thing, just as the Devil planned.

3: The Lie That Questioning Is Wrong.
So this lie stems from the belief that we should be ‘trusting’ and have ‘faith like a child’. Some Christians take this too far, to the point where questions are actually considered wrong and distrustful. And they pride themselves on having blind faith instead.

Now, just to be clear, the term blind faith doesn’t always refer to this type of Christian, however it often can.

So, in response to people who think that having faith like a child means never asking questions and not seeking to understand things, evidently they have never spoken with a real child.

Children are full of questions! But they have faith that whoever they are asking will have every answer, and they do not hesitate to go to a parent with their questions.

This is what Jesus meant when He said ‘blessed are those who have faith like a child, for they will inherit the kingdom of Heaven’ (please note, I may be paraphrasing here as I am writing this chapter in a vehicle and have no access to a Bible at the moment).

Final notes:
Katherina’s story is a sad one, filled with the slow infiltration of lies about the Bible, God, and lastly about Christians.

If you have not read it, I highly suggest you do. You’ll find it at Katherina_Michaels, the book is called ‘Thoughts of a Doubting Christian’. Two chapters called ‘My Story, parts one and two’, that’s where you’ll find a shortened version of her experiences with Christianity.

Now, I have not yet read parts 3 and 4, those will come up yet along the way as I am reading and writing chapter by chapter, and those parts are later in the book. But this chapter was my thoughts so far on it.

I would like to add lastly, that it does appear that some lack of compassion and moral standards did contribute as well to Katherina walking away from the Church.

Thanks for reading, and until next time, God bless!