King is sailing, they say

heissailing is a website which asks the questions that I bet most Fundamentalist Christians have in the backs of their minds, but are generally afraid to ask.  This is a very young site right now, and who knows what I will type about or what this will turn into, but I am hoping there are others out there who are of like mind as myself.  I am also hoping to hear from you if you are.  The thirst for knowledge and the feeling that there is more to our faith than is dispensed by our churches and creeds is obvious by the runaway success of books like The Da Vinci Code.  Yet, when it comes to asking real questions and confronting legitimate doubts about God, Jesus and our Bible, those same folks tend to shy away.  Does questioning and doubt equate to sin and faithlessness in the eyes of God?  Are we taught to be afraid of God if we dare to questions his claims?

I will write a longer story of my Christian journey later.  I am not a trained writer, but I can communicate (albiet crudely), I am educated, and I am insufferably curious.  Suffice it to say that I am questioning my Christian faith in ways that I never have before.  I am approaching these questions and doubts  as honestly as I can, with the view that if the Bible is truly the inerrant Word of God, it can stand up to a little scrutiny.  I am trying to approach it without the preconceived notions that we have been fed over the years, and as the sole source of our knowledge of salvation.  Examples of preconceived notions are those traditions that have been passed down by our church that are non-scriptual and should not necessarily be taken at face value.  There are many examples of this, one example being the authorship of the four Gospels.  Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are anonymous gospels, their authorship arriving from early church tradition.  Why is that assumption important?  If we don’t know for sure who wrote the Gospels, then we cannot say for sure whether they are in fact eyewitness accounts of the life and deeds of Jesus.  But the traditional authorship of the Gospels is an assumption, so that leaves the believer in biblical inerrancy in a bit of a pickle.

I do have legitimate questions and doubts, but I am not writing to bash Christianity.  I am skeptical for sure, but I have many dear friends in the church.  I am also not writing to convert anybody to follow my path.  This is my journey.

I am reading tons of books of all shapes and sizes, regarding the Christian faith, Bible commentaries, church history, etc.  Some are very conservative in their approach, and others are liberal and humanistic.  I am reading nothing that proselytizes any philosophical argument.  I am avoiding most websites, since I know any schlep can put any schlock on Al Gore’s grand Internet (look at yours truly).  But above all, I am reading the Bible, reading commentaries, and letting the Good Book speak for itself.

I encourage, and I am hoping for comments to anything that I write here.  Please comment here, or email me privately.  You can be Fundamentalist, Athiest, or Satanist for all I care, although I would appreciate toning down any preaching, but healthy debate is always cool.  I am interested in your ideas, your insights and your feedback.  I am not interested in following other religions.  I am praying (and I know many others are praying) for God to draw me closer to him, but if that leads me away from The Inerrant Word of God, then I will accept it, and take that as an answer to my prayers.