Page 39 - Finding Jesus with Good News report A5 WEB

Aspects of Christian belief What was most
challenging as
Overall, 43% said this was a challenge and
25% that it was one of the two most significant you explored
challenges for them. As well as philosophical and Christian faith?
ethical questions, when they started encountering
what the Bible teaches (both reading it by Difficult aspects
themselves and in church), they had lots of queries of Christian
such as, ‘Did this really happen?’ Most frequent belief
in the interviews were questions around creation 25%
and the relationship between science and the
Bible. Participants wondered about the historical
reliability of the Bible, especially the miracles it Believing I can be
reports, like the feeding of the 5,000. forgiven
23%

Believing they could be forgiven
38% of participants reported this as challenging,
Understanding
and 23% said it was one of the two biggest
the Bible
challenges. It seems that even in a permissive,
20%
liberal society, people are carrying guilt and
shame. In interviews, participants explained that
they didn’t struggle with the concept of God being
Personal
loving and merciful. They believed this to be true
struggles
and had no problem believing other people could
be forgiven. The struggle is personal: could I be 18%
forgiven? One participant explained: “I could see
in principle that God is forgiving and God is loving.
Lifestyle changes
And I’m going to church, and totally believe that
He’s forgiven all these people, and that He loves 18%
all these people, and they’re His. But would He do
that for me? Because I knew my own heart, and
I could see that I wasn’t the standard of holiness
that we as humans should be.”

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