I am a deist researching christianity could you help me?

General Faith
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I have a question for you. Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m just researching Christianity. I’m a deist, but I feel like something is forming inside me against Christianity, in a good way, but I can’t make sense of it. What is this?

1. Was Jesus a Jew? If so, is he the prophet of the Jews?

2. Is Jesus seen as God, or as a reflection of God on earth, or as a prophet sent by God to the world?

3. What are the differences between Protestantism, Orthodoxy, and Catholicism?

4. What is the possibility that the Holy Scriptures could have been altered? What are your thoughts on this? (For example, the Bible, the Quran, the Torah, etc. )

5.What is the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament? Was it written based on the words of the apostles? How reliable is it? After all, is it possible that some people said things that Jesus did not say?

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What kind of Deist would you say you are, so we can understand your position more clearly? And just to clarify, you are not a Baha’i, correct?

J.

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Jesus was born of Mary, she was a Jewess, so Jesus was born a Jew..

His genealogy can be found in Matthew chapter 1, this is the genealogy of Joseph his legal Father, but not his biological Father. This shows his descendant from King David.

Luke ch 3 verses 23 to 28 is his genealogy through Mary.to show he is a saviour for all mankind.

Jesus forgave people there sins, healed the sick, blind, deaf, lame and raised the dead, something only God can do.

He also identified so closely with God that he was accused of blasphemy.

question 3. basic difference is protestants accept only the bible while the other two accept traditions and statements made by there leaders as being equal to the bible.

Christians believe that the Holy Spirit inspired the writers of the bible to record what God wanted them to write.

There are errors introduced by scribes coping the bible. These can be found by looking at the footnotes in any good bible.

The Quran claims that Gods revealed word can not be corrupted, it acknowledges the the bible is the woprd of God yet Muslims claim it must be corrupted because the Quran contradicts what the bible teaches.

The Old testament looks forward to the coming of Jesus, while the New reveals he has come and looks back at his coming.

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No, brother, I’m not a Baha’i

In the place where I was born, it is generally believed that Jesus was sent to the world as a prophet of God to spread Christianity and to bring the wayward society back to believing in God, reforming themselves, and worshipping only Him. In other words, God is one, and Jesus is a prophet He sent to the world. It is believed that most prophets were given different powers so that people would believe in them and no harm would come to them. For example, Jesus’ ability to heal the sick and raise the dead, just as Moses parted the sea and led his believers across, is seen as a talent given by God to His prophets.

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Please clarify what kind of a Deist you are brother, since there are many branches within Deism, correct?

J.

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@Emre

From what you have described about the beliefs common in your birthplace, your theological framework appears to align much more closely with classical Islamic monotheism than with Deism. You affirm that God is absolutely one, that Jesus was sent as a prophet rather than as divine, and that miracles function as divinely granted signs to authenticate prophetic missions; these are core components of Islamic doctrine concerning prophethood and divine unity.

Deism, by contrast, rejects the idea of prophetic revelation and denies that God intervenes in history through miracles or divinely appointed messengers. The belief system you outlined depends precisely on such intervention and revelation. For that reason, there seems to be a conceptual tension between identifying as a Deist and affirming the theological structure you have just described. It would therefore be helpful to clarify whether your self-identification as a Deist reflects a philosophical shift away from prophetic religion, or whether you are using the term in a more cultural or generalized sense?

Thanks brother.

J.

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I identify as a deist, meaning I believe in a god who created the world, but I don’t believe in religions. I define this as classical deism, but I am currently thinking about what the purpose of God creating us is. I am researching whether religions are true, because I believe religions have very strict rules. For example, in India, if you accidentally harm a cow, you are sentenced to life imprisonment . Similarly, why does no one respect others? If someone is fasting, it is none of anyone else’s business, but those who fast should respect those who do not. If you are hungry and eating, no one can ask you why you are not fasting. If you are fasting, you are doing it for God, and that is none of my business. Or when a poor little child who is hungry steals bread from a bakery, why is the punishment cutting off his arm? Would God want that? Who would want such a thing? We need to question those who condemn people to poverty. We see these kinds of things everywhere. These are extremes. They really turn me off. Thank God, the country I live in is a secular republic, so there are no such things in my country.

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First Question: Yes, Jesus is a Jew by ethnicity. He is more than just a prophet; he is God in human form and the son of God.
Second Question : Jesus is regarded as God’s son. People came to believe that he was God in human form following his resurrection.
Third Question: They are all the same, although their histories and “liturgical” practices differ.
Fourth Question: Definitely not . Over 28,000 distinct manuscripts of the Bible have been written over 1300 years, and they are all identical, with only 0.001% of copyscript faults unrelated to any major doctrine. Only two of the Quran’s eight manuscripts are visible to the general world. There is nothing to compare. The Bible is the most trustworthy book ever, according to modern science.
Fifth Question : The new testament is the testament of grace, whereas the old testament is the testament of law. The apostles who penned the New Testament could not have written anything that Jesus did not say or do because those who were alive and knew Jesus would have rejected them. It’s difficult, my friend. The Bible is acknowledged by contemporary science as the most trustworthy text with the greatest number of manuscripts. God loves you and gave His life for you. He is not your master; he is your father, and he loves you.

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You call yourself a classical Deist, but are you really following it all the way? If God doesn’t intervene, then all these extremes you’re pointing out, the punishments, the rigid rules, the hypocrisy, aren’t just annoying human quirks. They are the world operating exactly as God left it. If you honestly believe God set this up and then steps back, you have to wrestle with why He would create beings capable of such cruelty and injustice. Are you okay with simply saying it’s human error, or does that push you to reconsider what purpose creation actually serves?

If you really want to reason as a Deist, you can’t just admire secular republics and shake your head at India or other extremes. You have to ask why a rational God would make humans capable of injustice at all, and whether your own sense of morality actually has any foundation without divine intervention. Are you willing to go there, or are you stopping short because it’s uncomfortable?

Debating God With The Archbishop of Canterbury, Philip Goff, and Elizabeth Oldfield

Ever listened to this brother?

J.

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@johann Thank you brother I will watch :folded_hands:t2:

I believe that God has granted us free will. If God constantly intervened to prevent every act of injustice or held our hands at every turn of evil, we would be nothing more than programmed robots without a will of our own, or merely pawns in a simulation.

Evil is not a flaw in God’s design it is a manifestation of human free will.

Think of it like this you can use a knife to cut bread, or you can use it to cause harm. The fault lies not with the one who forged the blade, but with the hand that wields it. In other words, God didn’t give us a perfect, ready made world. He gave us the reason to understand and shape this universe ourselves.
To claim that if God doesn’t intervene, then evil is his work is wrong in my eyes. It is simply a way of avoiding responsibility by labeling everything that happens to us as a test or fate.
Because God willed it is no excuse. Injustice, hunger, and all those extreme examples are our own doing. God gave us immense intelligence and the reason to decode the universe, and alongside that, He gave us the freedom to do as we please. If we use this intelligence to manufacture bullets, is the fault with the factory, or with the hand that pulls the trigger?
If we were created to only perform good deeds, we wouldn’t be human we would just be machines.
This is exactly why I admire secular republics. One attempts to establish order through reason and conscience, while the other hides behind thousands of years of documents and treats misery as something sacred.

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@Emre, I appreciate the way you’re thinking this through. You’re right about one thing. Human cruelty is not God’s fault. Scripture agrees that evil flows from the human heart. Jesus said, “out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries…” ~Matthew 15:19. The problem is not flawed design. It is fallen humanity.

But here is where I want to gently press you. You speak about injustice, hunger, cruelty, and extremism as if they are truly wrong. And they are. But on what foundation? If God created the world and stepped back, and if morality is just human development, then “wrong” becomes opinion shaped by culture. One society cuts off a hand. Another calls it barbaric. Who decides?

Your moral outrage actually points beyond deism. You say evil is the misuse of free will. Christianity agrees that humans are responsible. But it also says something deeper: “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” ~Romans 3:23. The problem is not just extreme laws in certain countries. The problem is the human heart everywhere, including secular republics.

Christianity does not defend religious cruelty. Jesus did not enforce faith with a sword. He said, “my kingdom is not of this world” ~John 18:36. He confronted hypocrisy, exposed self-righteous religion, and laid down His own life.

The difference between Christ and religious extremism is this: Christ bore punishment instead of inflicting it. “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures” ~1 Corinthians 15:3. That is not oppression. That is substitution.

You admire secular systems because they appeal to reason and conscience. But where do reason and conscience come from? Why does injustice bother you at all? If we are just advanced matter in motion, why should hunger or cruelty disturb us?

The question is not whether religion has been abused. It has. The question is whether Jesus is who He claimed to be. If He truly rose from the dead ~1 Corinthians 15:17, then this is not about rigid rules. It is about reality. You are already wrestling with purpose. That is not random. Keep pulling that thread.

So let me ask you plainly: if God is not distant but has spoken and acted in history, would you want to know?

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@bdavidc I don’t know, my friend, my mind is so confused that I just hope, if hell or religions really exist, I don’t want to burn. Right now, I’m just researching, questioning. Please excuse me. I’m not saying it’s definitely this way or that way. I’m just looking for a way out from God. I’m questioning why people are evil. I’m questioning why babies die. I don’t know why wars happen. People are truly more devilish than the devil himself.

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1. Was Jesus a Jew? If so, is He the prophet of the Jews?

Yes, He was born a Jew, under the Law ~Galatians 4:4, descended from David ~Matthew 1:1. But if you stop there, you miss everything. He is not merely a prophet to one nation. He is the promised Messiah foretold in Moses and the Prophets ~Luke 24:27. He is the Lamb of God ~John 1:29. He is the King of kings. He did not come simply to advise Israel. He came to save sinners.

2. Is Jesus seen as God, or as a reflection of God on earth, or as a prophet sent by God to the world?

Scripture does not stutter. “The Word was God” ~John 1:1. “The Word was made flesh” ~John 1:14. He said, “Before Abraham was, I am” ~John 8:58. Thomas fell before Him and said, “My Lord and my God” ~John 20:28. If He is not God in the flesh, then He is a blasphemer. There is no middle ground. You cannot reduce Him to a moral teacher or a prophet and still be honest with the text.

3. What are the differences between Protestantism, Orthodoxy, and Catholicism?

The dividing line is authority and the gospel. Scripture alone is breathed out by God ~2 Timothy 3:16. When tradition is placed alongside Scripture as equal authority, the door opens for corruption. And when justification by faith alone ~Romans 3:28 is mixed with human merit, Paul says that is “another gospel” ~Galatians 1:6–9. Eternity hangs on that distinction.

4. What is the possibility that the Holy Scriptures could have been altered? What are your thoughts on this? (For example, the Bible, the Quran, the Torah, etc. )

God moved men to write ~2 Peter 1:21. Christ promised His words would not pass away ~Matthew 24:35. Yes, scribes made minor copying errors, and they are known. But no doctrine of the Christian faith stands on a doubtful verse. The message has been preserved. The gospel you read today is the same gospel preached by the apostles.

The Qur’an is not the Bible. It is a later religious text written six centuries after Christ. It presents a different message about Jesus, a different view of God, and a different way of salvation.

Scripture gives us a standard for this. “Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed” ~Galatians 1:8.

5. What is the difference between the Old and New Testaments? Were they written from the apostles’ words? How reliable are they?

The Old Testament promises a Redeemer ~Isaiah 53. The New Testament declares that Redeemer has come ~1 Corinthians 15:3–4. The apostles were eyewitnesses ~1 John 1:1–3. These writings were circulated publicly among churches while eyewitnesses were still alive ~Colossians 4:16.

The issue is not whether the text is reliable. The issue is whether you will believe what it says.

This is not about religious systems. It is about this question: Who is Jesus Christ? Because if He is who Scripture says He is, then neutrality is not an option.

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Emre, you do not need to apologize. You are asking the right questions. Confusion is not the enemy. Indifference is. First, understand this clearly: Christianity does not begin with “try harder so you don’t burn.” It begins with truth about the human condition.

You are asking why people are evil. Scripture answers directly: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” ~Jeremiah 17:9. Evil is not just out there in wars and corruption. It is in the human heart. That includes mine and yours. “All have sinned” ~Romans 3:23.

Why do babies die? Why do wars happen? Because the world is fallen. Death entered through sin ~Romans 5:12. This world is not the way it was originally created. It is broken by rebellion against God.

But here is what you must see: your outrage at evil proves something. If this is just a random universe, why should injustice bother you? Why should war disturb you? Your conscience is testifying that there is real right and real wrong. You say you hope you do not burn. Fear alone will not save you. The question is not merely “Does hell exist?” The question is “Is Christ who He claimed to be?”

Jesus did not ignore suffering. He entered into it. He did not stand far off from death. He went to a cross. “Christ died for our sins” ~1 Corinthians 15:3. That is not religion trying to control you. That is God stepping into human misery. And listen carefully: you are not looking for a way out from God. You are looking for a way to understand Him without pain. But if God exists and is holy, then the problem is not that He is unjust. The problem is that we are.

Yet the same Scripture that speaks of judgment also says, “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” ~Romans 5:8. You are not crazy for wrestling with these things. But do not run from the hard questions. Follow them all the way to Christ.

Let me ask you gently: if Jesus truly rose from the dead, would that change everything for you?

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My mind is really confused, my friend. One of the most important turning points that led me to deism is this: I look at one religion, and it says, “This is the ultimate truth, everything else is a lie, and those who don’t believe will burn in hell.” Then I look at another religion, and it claims the same thing for its own sacred beliefs.

This situation really confuses me. Think about it: there are people born in remote villages at the ends of the earth or living in tribes that have never encountered modern society. What will happen to them? They don’t know the holy books and have never met a missionary. Or consider a child who has lived an honest life and harmed no one; will they be punished forever just because they were born in the “wrong” geography? If God is truly and completely just, judging people based on geography determined by birth and chance doesn’t make sense to me.

Seeing many religions exclude each other by saying, “Heaven is only for my followers,” has brought me to a point where I don’t know what to believe. That’s why I chose to look directly to the Creator, to God.

Our God must be looking at how fairly we use the free will given to us, don’t you think? Otherwise, wouldn’t Heaven just become a club for those lucky enough to be born in the right place?

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Emre, I understand the tension you’re feeling. You’re not confused because you’re shallow. You’re wrestling with justice. That’s serious. Let’s cut through the noise and go straight to what Scripture actually says.

First, the Bible does not teach that people are condemned because of geography. It teaches that all people are already guilty because of sin. “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” ~Romans 3:23. The problem is not location. The problem is the human heart.

God does not judge innocent people who just happened to be born in the wrong village. Scripture says there are no innocent people. “There is none righteous, no, not one” ~Romans 3:10. That includes me. That includes you. That includes the person in the remote tribe. Now here is where many religions differ from the gospel.

Most religions say, “Use your free will well enough and God will accept you.” The Bible does not say that. It says our will is corrupted by sin. Jesus said, “Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin” ~John 8:34. We do not naturally seek God. “There is none that seeketh after God” ~Romans 3:11.

So heaven is not a club for lucky people. It is a rescue mission for guilty people.

What about those who never heard? Scripture says God has revealed Himself to every person through creation and conscience. “Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them… For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen” ~Romans 1:19–20. No one is without witness. No one is without light.

The issue is not lack of evidence. The issue is suppression of truth. “Who hold the truth in unrighteousness” ~Romans 1:18.

Now here is the heart of it: salvation is not earned by geography, morality, or effort. It is through Christ alone. Jesus said plainly, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” ~John 14:6. That is exclusive, yes. But it is also open to anyone who believes. “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” ~Romans 10:13.

God is not unjust. He is perfectly just. He does not condemn people for being born somewhere. He judges sin. And He provided one sufficient sacrifice for sin in Jesus Christ.

If heaven were based on how fairly we use free will, none of us would make it. The cross tells us that.

The real question is not, “Is this fair geographically?” The real question is, “Is Christ who He claimed to be?” If He rose from the dead, then He is not one option among many. He is the answer.

You said you decided to look directly to the Creator. That is good. Now look at what the Creator has said. He has spoken. And He has pointed to His Son.

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@Emre
I have read your questions, comments, and the responses by others on this thread. I appreciate your sincerity, and the obvious willingness of others to help. Let me offer my POV, if I may.

If your quest is genuine, and you are sincerely searching for Truth, then I don’t think I wiill really assist you by commenting on various religions, traditions, philosophies, secular theology, denominational labels, or cults (cultures). Neither will I help by discussing the obvious malignity found inthe evil deeds of men. I understand your personal issues with all of those things, but it may be the reason you keep coming back to Christianity is because only Christianity transcends them all. By transcends I mean it cannot be isolated by any of those designations, although men often try.

I will comment on one thing you have stated multiple times:

I am not inclined to disagree with your observation, and your questioning of these things is surely rational. But revealed in your question is the point where I think you are getting stuck. I don’t think you will make any real progress in your quest for The Truth until you remove your focus on how evil mankind is, and refocus on how evil you are yourself. I know this sounds harsh, but as a card-carrying member of “mankind” we all fit right into the same spoiled condition; eternal death before our creator caused by our own unholiness. Surely you can agree that your own thoughts and deeds, even if they are not as bad as some others, still fall far short of sinless perfection; surely you can admit that your own personal record does not rise to the level of holiness. None of us can claim holiness. It is at the point of this realization that The Perfect one meets us and reveals Himself to us; it is in candidly confessing the reality of our own sinfulness that the gracious offer of forgiveness is made. Only through recieving forgiveness do we find real Life.

My personal experience and testimony are that you will progress no further in your quest for Truth until you face Jesus, The Perfect One, honestly admit to Him your shortcomings, sincerely asking for His graceful forgiveness by applying His own sacrificial payment to your own sin. He is willing to wipe your slate clean and apply His own sinlessness to your record, if you are willing to accept it. Only by passing through this singular gate of salvation will Truth finally be opened to you, and real meaning will begin to take shape.

“Unless one is born from above he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

More, if interested.
KP

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My friends, thank you for taking the time to write to me and understand me. Every sentence was important to me. I am grateful. Thank you very much. I will try to understand what you wrote again and again.

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This is a good place to start. Speaking of Jesus…

“He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” John 1:10-12

It’s all about faith, brother.