When Christians experience the "power of the Christ" ...

ithinkisee

Is this a feeling unique to Christians?

Because I felt tremendously at peace when I came to terms with the facts about (what I feel is) the lack of authenticity of the bible and it's status as an inspired book - almost as if the universe was telling me, "Just let go. Things are out of your control. You can fight against the universe or you can go with it and do great things." When I sit and meditate each morning, I feel even closer to that general feeling of peace and acceptance of what is and is not in my power to accomplish. When I stop meditating - which I missed a couple weeks about a week ago and then started up again - I start to lose that feeling of peace and acceptance and awareness of my power.

And I'm not joking when I say that I think in many ways my non-Christian outlook is likely very similar to what Christians feel:
When George W Bush says that praying every day gives him a sense of inner peace, I believe him (for once). I have heard other Christians say that as well - that when they finally realized everything in this world is out of their control and they finally just looked up to the sky and prayed to Jesus to take over and give them strength. That moment when they "let go" is the time that they feel that peace (or electricity for some) and the "power of Christ" come over them and they felt they could take on ANYTHING. And, of course, when you couple that with a Judeo-Christian upbringing they turn to what they instinctively believe to be the deity to worship - in their case, Jesus Christ.

So Christians associate it with a person (that I feel) was made into God. Whereas I associate it with the universe - a universal power that isn't deeply obsessed with atonement, virginal attributes, and spilling blood to make up for other spilled blood..

Many non-JW Christians - when faced with the crisis that eventually "revealed the Christ" to them, would not have come to an "accurate knowledge of Jesus" if they lived in Asia, or the Middle East, or many other places in the world. A Muslim gives credit to Allah when he beats alcoholism. A JW gives credit to Jehovah. And a Christian gives credit to Jesus Christ. Yet they all beat alcoholism. Whose god truly helped them and who just got some inner strength and determination and beat alcoholism? This is what I don't understand and no christian has ever even attempted to explain it. Instead they immediately go to "what the bible says", which is circular reasoning on a grand scale.

Regardless, I don't really mind that a Christian is - a Christian. I know and love many Christians deeply. I recognize this IS a personal choice. (I';m saying that because that is the next argument i hear after the rest are exhausted) But I do have a problem when these Christian parents tell their kids that unless they accept Jesus as their lord and savior they will burn in hell. To put that sort of fear into a child about a concept that is completely unproven, and in fact most evidence points to the contrary - really angers me. And don't tell me that is not how Christian children are raised, because I have heard it with my own ears.

How does a Christian explain when a Buddhist has this same feeling? Or a member of any other religion?

-ithinkisee

freedomloverr

great post....

and yet again, I await for a christian to explain their *experience* to me. I ask for this out of genuine interest - not to argue or disprove anything. I would like to be able to compare it with my own experience (which is very similar to ITIS's) yet for some reason whenever a thread like this starts it seems to me the xian's are no where to be found....

lonelysheep

Excellent post, ITIS. I look forward to reading the responses from our christian friends. Honestly, this would have left me without an answer.

lonelysheep

I just finished reading page 5 of the ongoing discussion on Beliefnet between Sam Harris and Andrew Sullivan.

You might find this interesting: http://www.beliefnet.com/story/209/story_20904_5.html

startingover

Great post ITIS! I too experienced the "peace" you speak of.

Your words so well described what I see people doing, who basically just have a "feeling" and connect so much more to it depending on where they were born. What continues to bother me is the spreading of this "Jesus" feeling which involves much more as you said.

IsaacJS2

Lonelysheep (or anyone else that's interested)

Just thought you might find this interesting at Google video. It's a video of Richard Dawkins having a sort of impromptu debate with a Christian apologist about his book and his views on a BBC TV show. The audience became pretty hostile. He handles himself well, though he gets pretty impatient with some of the more emotional objections.

There are tons of stuff on him if you just look up his name. Including some that run for well over an hour! I believe I found some satirical stuff about JWs as well. Anyway...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9HtY1chchM

IsaacJ

IsaacJS2

BTW, that sensation you are descibing isn't unique to religion. That sense of excitement and clarity, or when something is just sorta "right" and you know you're on to something big. Etc. It may seem to be a religious experience to a religious believer if they've never felt it before they found religion, but it comes about for other reasons as well. I've been there when I was religious, before I was religous, and after I stopped being religious.

I like what you said about becoming an atheist and not being in control. Some anti-atheists accuse us of needing absolute answers. I tend to think that is not a uniquely atheistic or skeptic trait at all. Both sides can be guilty of that one. Being a healthy secularist, to me, means accepting the fact that you will never have all the answers. If you don't believe in God or an afterlife, then there's no glorious place with answers you expect to go to. It also means you have to try to do the best you can at figuring stuff out anyway.

But enough from me about all that philosophy crap. Heh heh.

IsaacJ

stevenyc

ITIS, I have those feelings. sometimes emotive or euphoric, an epiphany or an empiricism . It's strong and something I know and feel is real. I become aglow with it. I can live the experience when I understand something profound, or when crazy unconnected events come together to deliver something great.

People experiences this.

It's who we give the credit to that can become "Christian Light".

There are a few Christians here who have experienced these things and have attributed their encounter to something supernatural. Both these posters and myself have had the same chemical reactions in our bodies to create this euphoria.

The difference between me and them is I attribute them to we function, and they attribute them to something beyond our natural world.

steve

stevenyc

In the last sentence, :

The difference between me and them is I attribute them to we function,

It should say:

" The difference between me and them is I attribute them to THE WAY we function, "

I apologize, but. I can't edit the post because the board doesn't work for people using Mac's.

steve

bernadette

I must admit that not too long ago I had all the atheists down as unspiritual materialists. Talkabout prejudice. How wrong I was.

I've come to the conclusion, as you have, that sprirituality/enlightment doesn't need religion to mature/express itself. In fact I'm coming to see that religion actually works against spirituality and inspiration because it tries to put that sort of thing in a box with a label.

however I do believe we are all part of the same whole/Divine/Source.

thanks for your very thoughtful post.

bernadette

When Christians experience the "power of the Christ" ...

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