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Answer to
common myths and questions about Christian faith
I know Jesus is God, but I am
afraid of family and friends!
Are we supposed to change our names?
What about our festivals?
What about our traditions and culture?
How marriage and other ceremonies will happen?
I love an unbeliever,
may be I can save him along!
Is the news of
forceful religious conversion true?
Do Christians eat human
flesh?
I am vegetarian, will I be
forced to eat non-veg?
I want to address few questions
(issues) and clarify certain myths here. Many of these questions
come in the mind of a person when he or she comes to know about
Lord Jesus Christ. Especially to those who are convinced that
Jesus is the saviour, yet are unable to make a firm commitment
to follow Him due to many wrong concepts and beliefs about
Christian faith imparted to them by invalid sources.
I want to give a clarification as per my understanding and
belief, according to the scriptures.
I must caution you before you start reading these explanations
that these are only general guidelines and your view may differ
from this. Also note that prayer and guidance of the Holy Spirit
is the only right way to handle all such situations. My
experiences and explanations are also based on the leading of
the Holy Spirit in answer of my prayers for every specific
situation; so you should not take them as thumb rule, rather
read from the Word of God, pray about it and let the Holy Spirit
take control and lead you through.
I know that Lord Jesus Christ is the living God. I have
experienced His prayer answering power too; but I cannot make a
commitment to follow Him. What will my family say? What about my
friends, colleagues and relatives?
Yes. It seems difficult to take this decision when we see it
from religion point of view. But if we can see it at personal
level, you will realize that we are simply believing in God and
loving Him, nothing else (not conversion of religion at all).
Moreover, if you start loving God and all ungodly, selfish and
evil (to whatever degree) are gone, and you start leading a
noble and blessed life, then how and who would object?
I want to tell you two things here.
First, that salvation is a personal choice, as much as our
choice of eating some particular food or choosing some
particular colour dresses. Our own decision in this regard is
terminal.
Trust me, neither anybody is going to die with you nor is anyone
going to stand before judgment throne to answer on your behalf.
We all will do it individually.
Secondly, whom did we ask when we did all other ungodly stuffs,
for example - boozing, or smoking or fantasizing wrong things?
If we chose to do it by ourselves – then why so much of
commotion in taking a good decision to follow God considering
Him omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent God, which will save
your life and probably others too, through you.
Nobody wants to go to hell, but all are heading towards it
unknowingly. Unless we deviate from the sinful way of living
life, change our values, purpose and beliefs, we have no escape.
Probably once you are saved, you may tell them and save them by
showing from your example.
Withstanding all resistance that came from my near and dear
ones, when I continued to love Lord Jesus Christ with all my
heart and followed His ways, my life changed, my attitude
changed and this was noticed by everyone. Today, most of them
respect my views and above all, many have embraced the path of
peace, love and joy through Jesus Christ.
God can do it for you too, what we need is a simple act of
obedience with all sincerity.
Are we supposed to change our name after believing in Jesus
Christ?
NO! God is not interested in unnecessarily changing our names.
We did not change our names. My name is Brijesh, my wife is
Prerna, my son is Pranjal.
Though Bible has some references where God changed the names of
some people; however, those were in certain specific cases to
impart a particular teaching. He did it in several cases like
Abram renamed to Abraham, Sarai renamed to Sarah, Simon renamed
to Peter and Jacob renamed to Isreal. This was essentially to
lay foundation of biblical principle about faith that how it
brings a transition between old and new, past and present.
“As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the
father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your
name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many
nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of
you, and kings will come from you.”
[Genesis 17:4-6]
“God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you are no
longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. I will bless
her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so
that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will
come from her.” ”
[Genesis 17:15, 16]
In the above scriptures, by changing their names, God taught
this barren couple to change their attitude and be positive in
trusting God. He did it to teach us to bring change in our
perspective, vocabulary and faith including thought process by
turning it positive from negative.
This in no way gives us any indication that we have to change
our names. Bible says that God knows us by our names, and He has
written it in the heaven in the book of life also, so why to
change it.
“…but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
[Luke 10:20]
He knows our heart, our attitude and our faith in which he is
interested. Instead of focusing on unwarranted acts like
changing names etc, let us better concentrate on the things
which will edify our faith which is the prime substance of
spiritual life. We should rather strive to become holy
as God is holy.
What about festivals? Can we not celebrate our religious
festivals?
I feel this is a subjective question and must be dealt case by
case. Instead of proposing a solution here, I would rather tell
you the framework, base on which you can understand how we
should deal with such situation.
Primarily I feel celebrate and not celebrate should not be our
question. We must ask ourselves, why do we want to celebrate or
why this festival is being celebrated. Once you see the reason
behind it, probably you will automatically cease celebrating it
without my explaining.
However, if you are genuinely looking for a solution, follow
this principle –
“Refrain from all such activities which do not give glory to the
true and living God.”
You may enjoy the fellowship with your family and other
relatives though. Completely alienating ourselves from rest of
the family, friends and society at large is not the teaching of
the Bible and it does not make us good witness of His love too.
Bible teaches that we are in the world so we cannot walk in this
world closing our eyes because sin is all around. So, being in
the world (but not of the world), we must take wise decisions so
that by our sincere faith and conviction, everyone will be
inquisitive to know more about the source of our confidence in
God.
Most of the festivals (be it of any religion) have a purpose
behind it. Some of them are general purpose but some solely
religious. I am not here to talk about religion so I cannot
endorse celebrating the religious festivals but others should be
fine as long as we glorify the true and living God. People
forget the fundamental reasons of the celebration and fall in
rituals. This is a blunder. Religion or festival should not
become an obstacle to us in glorifying God Himself.
All festivals have been commercialized now which is really sad.
For example, even in Christianity, most of the people celebrate
Christmas - the birth day of Lord Jesus Christ, around the
world. They include every thing like parties, decoration, dance
and amusement in their celebrations, but forget the birthday boy
outside. In fact, many of them have forbidden Christ in the
‘Christ-mas’. They have replaced Christ by a big ‘X’ and greet
each other as ‘Merry X-mas’.
This should not happen. If you cannot glorify the true and
living God while celebrating your festival, better don’t
celebrate it.
But if you can, I encourage you to use every opportunity during
festival times to meet our loved ones and tell the truth of the
love of God to everyone. I do not find any problem in meeting my
friends in these holidays and showing the love of God. Amusement
is not bad unless it is done in confined limits of godly conduct
and biblical teachings. Take wise decisions and live a life
which will glorify God and will become a model for many.
Remember, greatest commandments given by God – Love your God and
then love your neighbour as yourself. This encompasses
everything.
And what about other traditions? Can we not respect our elders
by touching their feet?
This is again a subjective question and above principle can
explain this. However, to answer it specifically, I would
recommend that we must ask wisdom from God to differentiate
between culture and religious rituals. In general, you may touch
the feet of elders, but we ought to understand that it is
ensured that we would not compromise with the glory of God in
anyway.
We have to stay away from false religiosity (hypocrisy) and at
the same time understand our culture. I advocate breaking
certain traditions like dowry system, child-marriages, caste
system etc which is hindering the progress of the society (and
uplifting of the down-trodden class), but I am not against all
cultural traditions.
In some customs, husband is considered like a god to his wife (pati
parmeshwar). So it is not because of the respect but also
because of this factor that wife touches her husband’s feet; it
becomes a sin against God. Husband is not God but he is a
creation of the supreme God who deserves all the glory,
unshared.
However, if there is a major age difference between the wife and
her husband, which is customary in Indian village context, and
if she wants to touch her husband’s feet due to respect and
submission, probably this should not be objectionable. Bible
teaches wives to be submissive before husband who is the head of
the family as Christ is the head of the Church. Though at the
same time, Bible also teaches husbands to treat their wives with
much care and same kind of love what Jesus had for his church.
It is culture and not cult for children to touch feet of elders to show
respect to them. Bible teaches all of us to be lowest of all and treat
one another with respect and love.
Bible teaches us to respect our parents (and others too) and
love them as we love ourselves. So make your decision and go
ahead, God will bless you because of what is in your heart.
What about marriage and other ceremonies? Our rest of the
families are yet following old religious traditions? So are we
supposed to oppose them?
This is another subjective question in this series. I must
admit, you have to take your own decision and deal with it based
on the leading of the Holy Spirit of God.
You will find people on both extremes – those who totally revolt
and go against their families and relatives and eventually loose
the opportunity to share the gospel forever or those who totally
surrender themselves to idol worship and other customs and do
not give any glory to true and living God. In both the cases,
probably they have not understood the spirit of the Word of God
but the letter.
My advice in this context is to glorify God in every possible
manner and at the same time, not make any conflicts with the
family which might put you in defensive mode and diminish the
opportunities to share the gospel of salvation to your family
forever. We need to balance it appropriately.
If possible, make the Living God as the centre of your ceremony
and glory goes to Him alone; otherwise, yield only to the extent
that you are not involved in any rituals against the will of
God.
More than the mode of marriage, I would suggest what Paul
suggests in second Corinthians to not be yoked unequally with
unbelievers. Marriage is a life time decision and hence must be
made to be done with godly man or woman who loves God and would
encourage you lifelong.
“Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do
righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship
can light have with darkness”
[2 Corinthians 6:14]
Especially for first generation believers from other religious
background, I would rather advise to find the match from a
family of similar backgrounds who would be able to identify with
you and understand your restrictions and values which would be a
little difficult for a person belonging to a traditionally
Christian family. With this, I am not trying to discriminate one
with another and this is not a principle but a suggestion. There
is a high possibility that God has different plans for you, so
eventually you must rely on your prayers and leading of the Holy
Spirit.
I feel that you must be honest with the person whom you are
going to choose for life time. You should share the truth of
your faith from the beginning and then see how it proceeds. If
it is in the will of God, it is quite possible that God will
take the lead to bring the salvation in this life too.
In other ceremonies like birth, naming ceremony and death, I am
liberal as long as we do not compromise with basic fundamentals
of Christian faith.
Whether to incinerate or burry the dead body is least of my
concerns. People who believe that God has to use this same
mortal body to raise us from the dead are the ones who are after
‘only burial’ of the body. Probably they are limiting God. With
this I am neither contradicting the bodily resurrection nor am I
endorsing any other way of death ceremony. I fully believe that
we shall be given a glorious body which is incorruptible while
our earthly bodies are corruptible. God is able to form the
glorious body from the remnants as dust or ashes both.
My advice is that if it is possible to burry with consensus, I
feel this is good, however, if it is not possible after
reasonable explanation and discussions, it is better to agree
with rest of the family and do it accordingly, in order to avoid
any socio-religious issue.
My sister was married in Hindu way in 2001; I and Prerna were
married in Buddhist way in 2003 because our families were not in
same faith yet, but we know that we did not compromise even for
once with our faith and duties towards Lord Jesus Christ during
all ceremonies.
I cremated my father when he died in May 2006.
But I love a non-believer and I am sure I will be able to bring
him or her to my faith after marriage. Probably God wants to
save one soul by this.
May be, but to me the probability looks very less.
We must understand that it could be a deception of devil to take
us away from God than our genuine effort to save the soul. God
wants to save souls, this is His agenda but he would not
compromise on the way it should be done. When He asks not to be
unequally yoked with unbeliever, He means it.
If you are unable to witness the love of Jesus to this person
before marriage, there is hardly a chance that you would be able
to do it after it. Especially for girls in Indian society, it
could be even harder to persuade her spouse to believe in what
she believes. This may rather affect her own spiritual growth
and draw her away from fellowship and eventually from God
Himself. Think! Are you not bringing obstacles in your own
spiritual growth? Decision is all yours.
I have heard that Christians do religious conversions forcefully
or by luring poor people through money or other benefits like
education or medical facilities. Is this true?
Bible does not teach so. The real Christianity would not suggest
anything like this and if it has happened in past and present,
it is regrettable. From my experience I can firmly say that it
did not happen with me and I have not seen it happening so far.
Probably I would be the first person to object if I see so.
Our God is not religious, but He is a spiritual being and He is
interested in saving souls from hell and bringing them in His
kingdom (heaven) to have fellowship with them because He loves them. So
for Him as well His real disciple, religion
is of least concern.
“God is Spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and
in truth.”
[John 4:24]
If we are true disciples of Christ, religious conversion is out
of picture. It is a deception, a show-off which does not have
any substance in it. Change of the inner man is the true
transformation from darkness to light and from death to life.
Jesus did not initiate any religion and hence not even once in
the Bible, he mentioned to do religious conversion. He rather
asked to witness His love and salvation to the ends of the earth
so that peoples from all nations may receive salvation of their
souls.
Is it true that Christians eat human flesh?
Hah! This statement is not true.
The only mention in this context is the statement of Jesus
spoken to His disciples regarding His own body and blood.
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone
eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my
flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” Then the
Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man
give us his flesh to eat?” Jesus said to them, “I tell you the
truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his
blood you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks
my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last
day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I
in him.”
[John 6:51-56]
Jesus in the above verses was talking something deeper than mere
flesh and blood, he was talking about His suffering, death, life
and resurrection through which He was about to pay the price of
sins so that putting faith in His sacrifice we could be saved by
His grace (and no works attached).
Apart from this, there is no mention of eating human flesh or
drinking human blood. Rather, Bible in Old Testament asked to
abstain from certain kind of meats and any kind of allowed meat
with blood.
My wife Prerna is vegetarian and she has not eaten even any kind
of meat in last 7 years of her devoted faith life in following
Jesus Christ.
Do Christians force to eat meat?
No. This is a myth. This statement is not true.
Bible does not endorse anything related to eating any particular
food – vegetarian or non-vegetarian. My last statement about
Prerna must answer this question already.
Paul explains in the Bible that eating or not eating anything
does not matter because kingdom of God is not about eating or
not eating some particular foods. He rather exhorts not to eat a
particular food for the sake of a brother or sister of weaker
faith who may stumble because of our eating of particular food.
“But food does not bring us near to God; we areno worse if we
do not eat, and no better if we do. Be careful, however, that
the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block
to the weak.”
[1 Corinthians 8:8, 9]
The other faiths that ask people to abstain from eating meat
talks about living a simple life (which is no harm and
rather appreciated); however, living good life by our efforts
does not bring salvation because withour best possible acts we
would still fall much much short of the holy standards of God. Salvation (moksha) comes only
by believing in Jesus Christ because of his atoning sacrifice on
the cross for the forgiveness of mankind.
In nut shell, it is not what we eat which accounts for our
spiritual life, but our attitude and faith towards God and His
people.
“Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the
stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out
of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man
‘unclean’.”
[Matthew 15:17, 18]
On the other hand if we want to scrutinize it technically, we
must also realize that we are unable to prevent ourselves from
killing other organisms anyway. We inhale millions of micro
organisms in every breath and probably hundreds of thousands of
them would die in our inside body temperature. We walk on the
land and many small organisms die under our feet unknowingly.
Even according to some scientific researches, it is concluded
that plants have life, so in that case we kill plants which are
other kind of living beings.
Standing on this premise how can we survive at all? And if we
compromise just based on the level of life and life generating
ingredients, probably we are just trying to justify the means.
So summarily, I can say that Bible is very sensitive about the
salvation of people for which it encourages us that even if we
have to abstain from certain foods, we should.
Real Christian faith does not force anything because in the Holy
Spirit there is freedom. God gives us free will to even choose
to love Him or reject Him, then how could he force us for
anything. He does not change, he is good God.
You may have more queries too which are not answered here. God
is able to answer all your questions. Come to him with faith and
prayers, He shall bless you. You can write to us for more
question-answers at
aatmiksandesh@gmail.com. Alternately, read our
blog where we write answers to other
prevalent myths.
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