Close Encounters of the Spiritual Kind

I know many who have gone through the "deconstruction" (or "demolition", as I called it) of religion and lost their faith in the process. There was a while when I thought I would, as well. There are a few things that helped me keep my faith. One of them was my own personal experience of God. To deny Him would be to deny myself.

Some years ago, I was doing some freelance writing for an apologetics website. The website, which has since been decommissioned, paid writers from various religions to write content with the intent of spreading awareness and acceptance of other viewpoints.

In one such article, I noted the importance of personal experience as evidence for the validity of one's religious beliefs. One of the other site contributors argued that adherents to every religion could argue personal experience, and therefore all experience was meaningless.

I had to consider that carefully. I have no reason not to believe that adherents to Buddhism or Hinduism or Islam have also had revelations or encounters with their deity or object of their faith. 

Although, it could be argued that not every religion promises any kind of personal experience connecting an adherent to who or what they worship. Some are more about connecting to a higher plane of existence or of self, rather than to a god above. While I've done some studies of other religions, I haven't read much about this aspect in particular. I'm taking recommendations, if you know of any books or articles on the subject.

I remember sometime back reading a story about Christian celebrity, Billy Graham. According to the story, Graham once went on a trip to a remote country in Asia and traveled high up into the mountains to visit a Buddhist temple. There he met an elderly man who had lived there as a monk most of his life. Graham very excitedly shared with him about Jesus. Then, he asked, "Would you like to come to know Jesus?" To which the monk replied, "No, because I already do." He told Graham that Jesus had revealed Himself to him during his meditations, and he had been talking to Him for years.

I also remember one time a missionary serving in the Middle East came to speak to the church. He talked about how he and the others from his organization kept hearing story after story of Muslims who were meeting Jesus in their dreams. There were multiple accounts of people who didn't know each other and were from different parts of the Middle East,  all having similar dreams of Jesus calling them to Himself. The missionary also told us a story of a "modern-day Paul", who was part of a radicalized Muslim group (Note: the majority of Muslims are peaceful people) who had been involved in torturing and killing Christians. A dream of Jesus asking him, "Why are you persecuting my people?", turned his life around. 

It makes me wonder if there might be people all around the world and in every religion who have sought out God, and have found Him. 

One critique often made of Christians by our culture is how exclusive Christianity is. Christians assert that Jesus is the only way to God, and the Christian understanding of God the only right way, or the only true religion. It is certain that there are many verses in the Bible which make rather exclusive claims (ie. John 3:16, 14:6, Acts 4:12, Romans 10:9, 1 Timothy 2:5, 1 John 5:12, among others). They are hard to get away from. 

It could also be argued, though, that while Jesus talked about building "His church", He did not seem to be a fan of religion. Religion made it harder for people to get to God. He spent much of His time with people religion had rejected - with the outcasts, the exiles, the "sinners". It makes me think that, one, Jesus would not be welcome in many churches in America today, and, two, that He would not be pleased with the way we've turned the exclusivity of Christianity into a reason to keep people out, rather than a reason to welcome people in. 

On the flipside, a common complaint by Christians about our culture, is the denial of absolute truth. Whatever you see as your truth, is your truth, and cannot be denied.  There may be some who do argue there are absolutely no absolutes (which is itself an absolute statement), but I think most rather are arguing that there may be absolute truths, but they are unknowable. Therefore, whatever someone believes to be true, is just as real and valid as a contrary belief that someone else holds.

Even if, technically, in the physical world at least, they can't both be true.

The Earth can't both be flat and round, even if one's personal experience leads them to believe one way or the other.

This is the kind of thing philosophy majors love to argue about. It’s the kind of thing I think Jesus would’ve enjoyed, too, as we often see him in philosophical type debates with other religious teachers.

So much of what we know has changed over the last few thousand years. We used to burn people at the stake for suggesting that the Earth revolves around the sun, and now nearly everyone holds to this as truth. Science has evolved, but still, our knowledge is limited. We do not understand the things of God.

(Of course, who would want to worship a god who was small enough for our human minds to understand??)

The main characters of the Bible certainly didn't always understand. They wrestled with their faith. They struggled with the difficulties of this world. They asked questions, doubted, lamented, cried out, demanded answers. Reading through the Scriptures often leads to finding the people of the past grappling with the same quandaries we do today.  Many times, the peace within the storm was found in a personal (or, in many cases, often a communal) experience of God.

Perhaps, personal experience transcends understanding. Transcends logic. I do believe God wants to connect with us personally and directly. I believe I have heard Him speak to me. Not regularly. Not every time I pray. Not every time I wish He would. But there are definitely a handful of times in my life when I have heard His voice. I have also had a few dreams and visions. 

There is no logical way to explain what I have experienced other than a personal God. 

Holding onto those experiences has been an anchor for my faith. Something I can keep going back to. Something that keeps me going.

In another blog, I'll share another anchor that has helped me find faith among the fragments of religion.

Stay tuned.