[poll] Christianity-Helping or Hurting?

[spitfire1979]

I wrote that last one--- forgot to log in first.

[encourager]

Yeah, I see your point. As far as looking for a mate online, I don't know. I know there are internet sites that have chat rooms for classical music lovers. There are even internet dating services for classical music lovers. I might join something like that once I get employed again.

The problem with the classical music world is that it does attract a certain bread of people. Because I belong to a pentecostal / charismatic church, that doesn't seem to settle so well for the classical music enthusiast. I see most that are Christians that like classical music and on the conservative fundamentalist side of the fence. Now, I could hide the fact that I am in a pentecostal church, but that would be the same thing as what I am facing now in my own church in not being able to express my interest in classical music around anyone.

Now about socializing with unbelievers, there is that verse in II Corinthians that talks about not being unequally yoked with unbelievers. Many in my church would even caution me not to get envolved in a dating relationship with an unbeliever. I believe it is ok for me to have casual socializing with unbelievers, but as far as finding a mate I still have a strong conviction that it is off limits for me.

Yea, I believe that the church has isolated themselves so much from society that it has turned inward and not outward. It is no longer being a witness in the market place. Many Christians feel that the pull and draw of the world is too strong to be able to handle being good friends with an unbeliever. I was at a friends house yesterday that was from my previous place of employment, and he is definately not a believer. He has worldly rock music, nude magazines, and loves alcoholic beverages. I don't want to shut him out of my life, but yet I don't want to participate in the things he does. I guess it all depends on how strong in the faith I am.

[Anonymous]

Why the heck does classical music have to have anything to do with where you attend services?  You make a friend because you both like Mozart and whomever else rings your bell.  If they take a casual friendship as an opportunity to ride you because of where you go to church, don't bother with them.  This is what I mean by bounderies.  To many Christians, any sort of disagreement is FAIR GAME for argument and belittling.  Why do you like classical music?  Because it speaks to your soul.  It soothes you, it puts you in a better place.  Remind THEM of this, and agree to disagree about the rest!

I don't advocate online dating at all, although one of my best friends is marrying a guy she met online and is very happy to have found him--- and I'm glad she did too.  The thing is, society is about diversity, but for many religious types, diversity is spelled D-I-V-E-R-G-E-N-C-E.  You like classical music, which could very well mean that the way your pentecostal friends react to your taste has more to do with their upbringing than any sort of scriptural insight into you.  It DEFINITELY doesn't give them the right to close you off just because you like to listen to concertos instead of repeated choruses every single day of your life!!!

Why do you feel the need to treat your religion like a tattoo on your arm rather than a springboard into a positive and wonderful way of life?  Why do you feel that it marks you up so badly that you can't even show your true self in order to take your place in a society that REALLY, REALLY NEEDS people with good taste and an interested mind?

Oops, sorry... the therapist in me is showing up again.  I hope I haven't made things worse.  It's just that I have a huge aversion to the way American Christianity (esp fundamentalism) has turned everyone "else" into a fearsome enemy, whomever the "elses" are in any given situation.  Don't be afriad to have differences with the people you're around!  (And maybe, when you're not looking so hard, you will learn some stuff... so will they!)

[encourager]

Yea, anytime you get too finatical about anything but Jesus in the Christian world it is cause for alarm. You called it "Divergence". They want to make sure everyone is on the same page. It seems to be safer that way for everyone. Yea, I do have a problem with the repeated choruses. My church tends to make a shrine of them.

As far as the therapist showing up in you, that's ok. You seem to have made your point alright.

I don't understand why Christianity has to be a club. They seem to want everyone to look alike, talk alike, act alike and even smell alike. I call it cookie cutter Christianity. I can't understand why we can't accept each other for our individuality. When someone says, "I burned my classical music" or "I burned my Contemporary Christian Music", that is between them and the Lord. That doesn't mean that they should start telling everyone else to do the same. I guess this is what turns a lot of people off to church. There is bound to be someone that is not going to like what you do. I guess this kind of thing is in other environments as well, but it seems to stick out more in church. I think it is because we expect better things of God's people.

My approach to church I admit has not been very good. It seems kind of funny after being in a church that shuns rock 'n' roll that I am now in a church that shuns traditional or classical music. Once in awhile we sing hymns, but has to be set to a contemporary style.

I wonder what God thinks about the way we play church? Does he make an issue about what instruments are played on the worship band or whether or not there is a choir? Does he care how long the sermons are or if the pastor gives an altar call at the end of every service? Does he care about the color of the carpet in the sanctuary? Or if the pastor is wearing a suit and tie? Does God get offended if there is feedback in the sound system during the sermon or a baby crying?

I guess when we are asking the question: "Is Christianity Helping or Hurting?" we are more or less looking at the way that church culture has hurt us and not how the master and savior has blessed us. It is hard to see past the junk that is in the church, but I believe it is possible.

[Andy]

Christianity hurting or helping?  

Honestly, at this point in history, hurting.  Not even a question.  Why?  Look at us.  We do not even know our own biblical history.  So many of us are greatly offended when a brave soul presents our very own history.  This person is often branded as heretical.  This is simply ridiculous.  For some reason as determined by the church in general, we do not need to know this information and therefore it is generally never taught.  Do what?

As some have logically commented on this string--Why do we, we as a church, keep stuffing God into a box? . . .  "I have been taught right, and you have been taught wrong, etc., etc."  Indeed, some may have been taught wrong.  OK.  Fine.  Maybe so.  But for those who point the finger, do they even understand their own faith?  Throughout my life, I have emphatically found this answer to be not no, but hell no.  People, yes christians, listen to, fully accept, and live information presented to them with absolutely zero knowledge of where it came from.  They listen to information and take it all in--it sounds great.  They never research, question, pause & think, "Hey, where did this come from?"  After all, this would show a lack of faith.  God works in mysterious ways, etc.  Yeah, but is going to the library to understand the most basic biblical history wrong?  Yes, indeed, absolutely in many christian faiths this is completely viewed as heretical.  Especially when what the church presents & what is found by the tiny few who actually do this research is way out of line.  Truth be known, the miniscule christian few people who actually do this research will leave the church.  NO ONE wants to actually deal with them.  They are wierd, on the fringe, backslidden, lost their faith etc.

This is the truth, and this is the reality of the Christian church.  Welcome.          

Heck, I am actually scared, yes scared, to present specific historical, biblical fact because I know I will be literally drawn & quartered for presenting specific facts that some will no doubt find disturbing.  On a christian board.  I’m talking absolutely historical, biblical facts.  (And that is one primary reason why I stated in this post & an earlier post that Christianity today is hurting).   So, allow me to present some extremely simple, general questions.

How many Christians know:

1.  From when to when was the Bible written—the Holy Bible as we know it today?
2.  What collection of books, (early bible), did Christians commonly read before the bible, as we know it today, was put together?
3.  What happened to this collection of books that early Christians regarded & accepted as the bible?
4.  Who decided which books were chosen to go into the bible as we know it today?
5.  Were the people who chose which books went into the bible--the bible we know today, inspired by God?  
6.  What was the motive of the people who chose the books of the bible—the bible as we know it today?
7.  What was the general process of how a book was deemed to go into the bible—the bible as we know it today?

General Questions:

A.  Why are many Christians, (just about every one I have ever met), completely unable to answer these most profound, fundamental, basic, & truly inherent questions about their very own faith?  
B.  Why do many, (literally every one I have ever met in my life in person, not on this board), Christians find such intrinsic questions as heretical, as showing a lack of faith, and just wrong?
C.  In your opinion would Jesus find a person who is sincerely, from their heart, asking/researching/contemplating the above questions to be backslidden, weird, heretical, or showing a lack of faith?

[encourager]

I guess the reason why Isaiah 53 refers us to sheep going astray is that we are like a bunch of dumb animals that are prone to wander. We are also gulible and believe everything that is told us in persuasive way. Just the other day I had a guy come to my door selling magazines. He was well trained in the area of speach and being persuasive. He had his hook lines that grabbed the attention. I believe this is the way it is with ministers of the gospel. They are taught in seminaries the ways of a salesman. They influence the emotions and the win the hearts of many. Many don't check it out for themselves, they just go by word of mouth. I wonder how many check the Bible out for themselves or do like you said to check to see if the Bible really is authentic? Many would call this a sin, because to check it out means to be weak in faith. The Bible is a book of faith. The miracles of the Bible cannot be proven by science. The parting of the Red Sea is not something that is plausable in the laws of science.

The question I have always wondered is: Why are we so gulible and naive to embrace everything we hear?  Why can't we do our homework and check it out first?
In the charismatic churches we have exercising of the "gift of prophecy" and "word of knowledge". There is much abuse and much damaged being caused by this when they attach "Thus says the Lord" with it. Not everyone in my church was doing this, but there were a few that got carried away. I do believe God reveals himself to mankind, but there if fine line between truth and error. God does not contradict himself. If a so called word is given that contradicts Scripture than it definately is not of God. There has been much abuse with the "God told me" stuff. If God told one person one thing, and told someone else something entirely different than God must be schizophrenic. How can he tell someone one thing is wrong and tell someone else it is ok? Like my church shunning traditional music for the sake of contemporary music. Is contemporary music an abomination to God when the Bible says nothing about it? or Has the older music lost it's anointing? These are man's subjective opinions on stuff and has nothing to do with the character of God or what he requires. This is all silliness. Why do we get dogmatic on things that are not even mentioned in the Bible? We are taught since we are knee high to embrace this stuff and not question it. Is this what faith is all about, to embrace things that we are taught without checking it out to see if it is true? Am I weak in faith if I feel the need to research to see if it is true?

I guess the other thing that bothers me is this whole thing about leadership in the church. Is the pastor suppose to be the big head hauncho or the boss of the church? Is this a man made concept, or is this something that God has ordained? You also get people who have a super charged anointing that are somehow on higher spiritual plane than everyone else. They use that verse that talks about the "spiritual man" discerns all things as meaning that some people are more in tune with the Holy Spirit and are considered the mouth piece for God. They then tell you how things should be and act like a prophet. "Well if pastor Joe is anointed what he says must be the gospel truth." or "How dare you say that pastor Joe is wrong, because he has a special anointing!" This has caused much abuse in many churches. It is not to be taken lightly. Something is definately wrong. Don't we all have access to God or does God show favoritism and give a select few the corner on God's wisdom?

[Andy]

To:  encourager

Andy:  I will not do your thoughtful post any justice.  

In my opinion, we are treading on extraordinarily dangerous ground.  Those who ask questions are regarded as sinful, misfits, weird, backslidden, and so much more.

Why?

How have we as Christians arrived at a point where asking the most basic & fundamental questions are deemed as lacking in faith?

Again, would anyone please answer these most basic & simple questions of the Christian faith as stated in my previous post?

 

[encourager]

The original poll question was:

Christianity - Helping?  or  Hurting?

I guess the poll question was slighly changed. Since this is a web site about ATI or Bill Gothard's ministry, the question was changed. I think people are uncomfortable with the question. They may think it is slamming Christianity altogether. If you say "helping", then you are siding with all the abuse that comes with it. If you say "hurting", then you are bashing Christianity and may even be falsely accused of being an unbeliever. I do think that those who have been hurt by Christianity should be allowed to ask the questions, and not shut down and told that they don't have any faith.

I personally feel that we should not treat Gothard as if he were reflecting all of Christianity. If Christianity has hurt people it is because man's pride got in the way of the work of the Holy Spirit. God always confronts the proud, but helps the humble. He doesn't bash or hurt the weak. He doesn't withold grace from those who need it and reach out to him in fatih. Yes, there are false teachers within the realm of Christianity, but that doesn't mean we reject the one who wants to save us, heal us, and restore us.

I am getting some books to help me with these issues. One of the books I am getting is called "Pagan Christianity" by Frank Viola. It covers alot of the common practices found in most chruches that are not found in Scripture. I would like to understand why we believe what we believe and why the church does what it does. I think the primary focus of the church according to Matthew 28:19 is to go and make disciples of all nations. The primary rule or law is to love one another as Christ has loved us (John 15:12). I don't think that the purpose of the church at beginning was to control and manipulate people or to take away their free will. There was a fear of God, because there were miracles and wonders performed, not only by the apostles, but also other individuals as well. In our generation, if miracles are performed they are almost immediately ascribed to the devil. They did this with Jesus as well. When the presence of God really shows up the religious crowd has a fit.

There is a lot of things wrong with the church in western culture, but it is not my job to try to fix it. I cannot throw a teacher like Bill Gothard out of ministry. Pray for him, Yes! But I cannot change him myself, that is God's department. When I get into trying to fix the church, then I start getting into the manipulation and control department just like what we see with the false teachers. I believe we are to warn people about false teaching, but we cannot force people to change. Martin Luther tried to reform the Catholic church and had to end up starting his own church because the Catholic church excommunicated him. The reason why we have different denominations is because there was someone who disagreed with the previous church movement and wanted to see change or reform. They couldn't change their old church, so they had to start a new one.

I think there is more to this thing than meets the eye. We are getting towards the end of things. It says in the Bible that in the last days their will be various false teachers and that they are going to decieve and lead people astray. Satan is trying to do all he can to distort the gospel and have it not be understood, because he knows his days are short.

[Anonymous]

Hmm I'm not a member of this board but since no one seems to be answering Andy directly I'll put in my two cents from what I have experienced:

A. I'm a Christian and I believe I can answer the most basic questions about my faith. Obviously there are huge questions I can't answer and I don't pretend I know them. Other belief systems have the same dilemma and I don't think Christianity is alone. Personally, I don't consider the tough questions to hinder my faith... I find that when I explore them and have doubts, my faith actually comes out stronger.

B. I suspect that the Christians who find questions heretical are the ones who are the ones who have weaker faith although they would claim the opposite. If they're afraid of being proved wrong, it shows they're not very confident about what they believe.

C. Jesus said "Seek and you will find." In the New Testament he finds people with questions and answers them... and sometimes he doesn't even give them the answers. He'll ask another question and leave them to go off and ponder it for themselves.

There are a lot of misconceptions about "doubting Thomas." I (and a lot of other Christians) think the poor guy has been slandered a lot in the Church. Jesus didn't chew him out for wanting proof. He says to the effect "Well here are my scars, you've seen them for yourself, you can stop doubting now."

I'm aware of the controversy about the biblical canon and dates and authors, etc. I'm also aware that many intellecutally honest people including C.S. Lewis, Josh McDowell, Lee Strobel, to name a few, started out looking for proof against Christianity... only to acknowledge it was true and come to believe it. They have written their fair share of books on the subject.

As for historical atrocities, I guess it depends on what people WANT to find, and what is a Christian. Western Europe was dominated by nominal Christianity, and since we learn a Eurocentric view of history, the wars and atrocities we come to know are the ones commited by those Europeans. All religions and cultures have done both bad and good. Also, when you look closer at the motives for such atrocities, there is a difference between those who claimed (as progressive Christian Jim Wallis put it) "God is on our side" - the people instigating genocide against the Native Americans, for example - and those who asked, "Am I on God's side?" - the ones who pursued Biblical justice, from MLK Jr. to Abe Lincoln to Mother Theresa.

If Christianity is true, what does God want of me? I think this is a question many people are afraid to ask, and some points I've been afraid to ask it.

I haven't personally been involved in ILBP but I've brushed up against some weird teachings within Christianity... and I ask, if this is true, does God want me to submit and be just "another brick in the wall?"

And God just says, "Give me more credit... I'm more creative than THAT!"

- Vara Sundaisy

[Andy]

Encourager:  

“I personally feel that we should not treat Gothard as if he were reflecting all of Christianity.”


Andy:  

I too do not believe we should regard Gothard as reflecting all of Christianity.  Although, for him to have risen to the level he has does indeed deserve some deeper thought that, heretofore, has received a huge response of . . .  a vacuum?? . . .  from the general Christian community.  What is going on?  This lack of at least a deeply thoughtful reflection by the general Christian community is not only alarming, in my opinion, it is terrifically dangerous to the Christian faith.  Arguably, this reflects the dark side that the Christian church as a whole simply refuses to acknowledge.  Ego—it is killing us by the day.  Pride.  This is a literal & true cancer in every sense of the word—but much worse.  The cancer patient is the Christian church, but this patient will listen only to, “a close nit group of friends.”  This patient turns a deaf ear on true, “friends,” that have been a part of his life that now tell him there is so clearly a disease that may cause him great harm or possibly kill him.  This patient has tremendous pride and will not listen.  

Hopefully, this, “patient,” i.e., the Christian church, will survive from this.  Let us say the church does survive.  That’s great, but Gothard is simply one man.  There will be many, Gothard’s,” after him.  Let there be no doubt.  What will the Christian church do then?  Allow me to go out on a limb & be so bold to say that the Christian church will do nothing--just as they are currently doing with Gothard as we speak.

And that is the true problem.

So what is happening in the Christian church that we have gotten to the point of absolute denial?  

Call me a broken record, (and some have), but we as a church are not only repeating history in the worst way, we are even now creating even worse history for our children to read about.  That’s great.

Good job Christian church.  Ego.  Gigantic Ego.


Encourager:

“If Christianity has hurt people it is because man's pride got in the way of the work of the Holy Spirit.”


Andy:

Absolutely.  There is no more question.  The time for being subtle or coy about this is entirely over.  Pride is destroying the Christian church.


Encourager:

“Yes, there are false teachers within the realm of Christianity, but that doesn't mean we reject the one who wants to save us, heal us, and restore us.”


Andy:

Of course, there will always be false teachers in any major religion/faith.  Yet, we as a whole, (faith), will not even discuss there is a problem.  In my opinion, this reflects a much deeper, inherent problem that is in fact disturbing.  
 
How many nightmare stories need to be told before the church at the very least demonishes such people?  Is the number 5,000?  Maybe 10,000?  Will it be 100,000?  Much, much more??  

How many fractured souls, (the tiny few willing to talk about it), does it require to wake up the great Christian church?

Is there a magic number???

What is going on?  

Denial.  Denial.  Denial.


Encourager:

“I would like to understand why we believe what we believe and why the church does what it does.”


Andy:

From my life experience, you are not light years, you are warp speed ahead of 99% of the Christians I have ever met in my lifetime.  You are researching, reading, listening, asking questions, and sincerely trying to understand truth.

I only wish others would even consider this.  Most like to be spoon fed.  This is not only ignorant, this is dangerous.  Perhaps because of such people before us, this is why we are on this board & not enjoying other things.  Indeed, this seems to be the reality in which we now find ourselves.


Encourager:

“I don't think that the purpose of the church at beginning was to control and manipulate people or to take away their free will.”


Andy:

Maybe so.  I hope the purpose of the church, at the beginning, was not to assume they had all the answers, create a box, and then judge everyone else based upon this box.  God did not create this box.  Man did.  And it seems that is where we find ourselves today--many man made boxes that people are supposed to fit in.

Yes, there are clear guidelines in the bible.  But there is no box.  Man created this.  


Encourager:

“The reason why we have different denominations is because there was someone who disagreed with the previous church movement and wanted to see change or reform. They couldn't change their old church, so they had to start a new one.”


Andy:

Yeah, the church keeps repeating history--not learning from it.  People through history have read the Bible, interpreted it in a different way than the current church, & split.  I believe we should give the church a break on this.  Putting all this information together is not simple.    

I sometimes have to remind myself that, throughout recorded history, most people were illiterate.  So, throughout the history of all churches, people in mass simply had no ability to question much of anything—they could not read.  (Only a tiny minority could read & write).  It has only been in the last 100 years that this has changed.  Now people can read, they can research on a massive scale, (if they stop watching, “American Idol,” for a few minutes), and now the masses have the opportunity & indeed the ability to try and understand mistakes the church has made.    This is never easy, nor pleasant, especially for older people who do not understand, or better stated, refuse to listen to any thing other than what they have been told.    

Ego.  It is entirely overwhelming in the church.  

I believe it is enormously critical we understand that the Bible is not in error.  People are.  And many people in the church have absolutely overwhelming egos and will NEVER even begin to sincerely approach this.  Why?  Let me answer why—because these people literally have their lives invested in what they have been taught.  Anything else will, in fact, require them to admit mistakes.  They will not do this.  Why you ask?  Because it is difficult.  Those very few in the ministry who actually do the research, understand mistakes have been made, (because we are human beings), and attempt to bring this up will no doubt be drawn & quartered by their own.  Realistically, they will be told to shut up or they will lose their career.  Most of these tiny few will shut up—they have families & bills.  The even tinier few who do not shut up, well, good luck to them.    

Most in the church, allow me to venture 99%, cannot, nor will they ever attempt to answer the most basic questions of the Christian faith which I have presented on this board.

Can anyone else?

Again, can anyone answer these basic questions of the Christian faith presented in my previous post (May 12, 2006)?

[Andy]

It has been almost one month since I posted some elementary questions about the christian faith.  Posted on Fri May 12 2006, 03:04AM.  For those unable to answer these questions, I have some suggestions.  

(1)   Print these questions out, take them to your pastor or religious leader, and ask him/her to answer these questions.  If your pastor/religious leader is unable, cannot, or will not answer these questions, well, you obviously need to find a faith/leader who can answer these most fundamental, (undeniably simple), questions about the religion in which you have invested your soul, and the souls of your family.

(2)   Print these questions out, and take them to your local public library.  Go to the library help-desk, and hand this print-out to the library employee.  (Tell them you are doing a research paper or something if that makes it more comfortable—whatever floats your boat).  These people will help you.  They are NOT going to think you are weird.  Remember, the Da Vinci Code is popular right now—so asking questions about the bible is not unusual.

(3)   Use a keyword search via Google, Yahoo, or similar.  From the questions I presented, just type in, (or copy/paste), the question(s) in the browser box.  (You may, obviously, want to shorten/simplify the questions.  For example:

From when to when was the Bible written—the Holy Bible as we know it today?

You might want to shorten this to:  from when to when was the bible written?

However you choose to phrase it—it doesn’t take too much effort.  You will find a great deal of information.  


All of the questions I posted are easily accessible through the web.  And there is nothing wrong with finding the answers to these questions through the web.  While using the internet, it is sometimes a good idea to click on multiple, (different), sources to help ensure accuracy.  Of course, the best way of researching is to look at, (and listen to), every available source over a period of time.  But the internet is the easiest & quickest.

For clarification:

Not long ago, I was unable to answer any of the same questions I, myself, posted.  I was raised in an absolutely huge Christian church, in one of the largest cities in the U.S---a church that did not believe these questions were appropriate.  Today, (6-10-06), my home church has not changed.  (And please note, I will not mention that church's name; although I should have from the beginning--it is time to stop hiding.  However, this is not about one church--this is nation wide, indeed global).  

I am no better than anyone else.  I am struggling every day to understand truth.  I have much to learn.

Again, would anyone please answer these most elementary questions about the christian faith posted on:  Fri May 12 2006, 03:04AM?                  

[DryGuy]

I'll do my best to answer your questions Andy.
The general ones are more subjective than the others, so I don't presume to offer anything more than my opinion regarding them.
A- I would say most in the church think Biblical history is dry and uninteresting. This lack of interest leads to ignorance. They just aren't challenged to think outside of their comfort zones.
B- This ignorance eventually leads to fear of the unknown. They do know that what they don't know could hurt them. They prefer not to think about history and recoil in fear when uncomfortable questions are asked.
C- Of course not! God gave us brains for a reason. The power of knowledge must be taken up and used for defense of faith.

Now on to the 7 specific questions

1- Genesis was traditionally held to have been written by Moses sometime during the forty years of wandering between 1446 B.C and 1406 B.C. Revelation was written around 96 A.D. by John while he imprisoned on the Isle of Patmos.
2- Different believers used different Bibles with different books in them. Wikipedia has an excellent article on the New Testament Apocrypha. The list is quite extensive.
3,4- The New Testament Apocrypha got kicked out of the Bible. The Catholic church leaders cleaned the Bible up with the Seven Ecumenical Councils around 300-397 A.D. The Old Testament Apocrypha got whacked during the medieval and reformation periods.
5- I think they were inspired by God. I have a hard time believing that God in his sovreignity would allow his true Word to go unheard.
6- They wanted to clean it up, reduce divisions, and ask hard questions about what people thought the Bible was.
7- There were three tests for canonicity for the New Testament.  
Doctrinal- was the book doctrinally consistent with the rest of the Bible?
Source- was the book written by an apostle?
Accepted- was the book generally recognized by the church leaders of the day?

Also, the Catholic Bible has 14 more Old Testament books than the Protestant Bible. Protestants do not accept the these extra books because they are never quoted in the New Testament and never claim to be the Word of God. Early Jewish Christians did not accept these books as inspired, and did not include them in their Bibles.

Thanks for the questions Andy. I spent quite a while researching number 2. I learned a lot of specific information from it, but not anything to really doubt my faith.

[floydian7]

1. From when to when was the Bible written—the Holy Bible as we know it today?
~1400 BC – 90 AD
2. What collection of books, (early bible), did Christians commonly read before the bible, as we know it today, was put together?
Which Christians are you talking of?  Early Christians just after the resurrection had the entire OT.  As they were written, Pauline epistles were passed around as were gospels, and other epistles written by Peter, John, Jude, and James,  and whoever wrote Hebrews.  Those were copied and recopied and quoted in many letters written back and forth between leaders of various churches.  Rather than copy all of this out, here are a few great websites
 www.bible-researcher.com/canon.html
www.anabaptists.org/history/howwegot.html
www.ucmi.org/ucmi/chap1.htm
www.ouruf.org/d/sv_authority.pdf

3. What happened to this collection of books that early Christians regarded & accepted as the bible?
4. Who decided which books were chosen to go into the bible as we know it today?
5. Were the people who chose which books went into the bible--the bible we know today, inspired by God?
6. What was the motive of the people who chose the books of the bible—the bible as we know it today?            
 7. What was the general process of how a book was deemed to go into the bible—the bible as we know it today?
I think the last five questions can be answered from the above websites.  You raise questions that take time answering.  These websites above are a good start.  They will do a much better job than I can in a forum.  

General Questions:

A. Why are many Christians, (just about every one I have ever met), completely unable to answer these most profound, fundamental, basic, & truly inherent questions about their very own faith?
IMHO, the seeker friendly church movement has so watered down the Word of God so as not to offend anyone, noone is taught scripture and the defense thereof anymore.  Rather than teach Christians how to study their Bibles and KNOW scripture, churches today are relying on men whether Gothard, Charles Stanley, Rick Warren,  Beth Moore,  Joel Olsteen, Gary Ezzo, John McArthur, or anyone.  I am NOT saying that these men are bad!!  Nor am I saying they lead men astray.  I AM saying that people follow a man’s teachings blindly rather than digging through scripture themselves, consequently, they make a weak church.  For the most part, what I hear in church is “well so and so says this” rather than scripture says THIS.
 
B. Why do many, (literally every one I have ever met in my life in person, not on this board), Christians find such intrinsic questions as heretical, as showing a lack of faith, and just wrong?  
Are you sure these Christians are not reacting to you personally and not to your questions?  I do not consider the questioning wrong.  I do react to attitudes and will not hesitate to call heresy, heresy if their teaching contradicts the cannon. If someone approaches me with questions, I try to discern whether they are asking just for argument’s sake or if they really want answers.  If they do want answers, I will ask if we can get together at a later time and I can show them the vast amount of research I have collected and take time to really answer their questions.  Most people just want to argue, and I have more important things to do.
C. In your opinion would Jesus find a person who is sincerely, from their heart, asking/researching/contemplating the above questions to be backslidden, weird, heretical, or showing a lack of faith? NO unless they already had their questions answered in a respectable way and rejected it.
 

[floydian7]

Lol, Dry Guy did a great summary of all of your questions while I was formulating my response.  I am not good at summarizing!  All my research papers in college were long.  Sorry it took so long to get back to you.  I haven't had computer access for awhile and had not read all your latest posts.  I have been one to call people heretical when they contradict scripture.  Paul did this so as not to confuse new believers and destroy their faith.  When those who have been hurt by Gothard come here, I would rather try to strengthen their faith in Jesus Christ and who He really is rather than tear down that faith.   That is how they will ultimately find healing.

[Andy]

Thanks to DryGuy & floydian7. I found both of your posts to be truly thoughtful regarding, "the ten," questions asked. (Good to hear from you floydian7).

While, (I hope), others will attempt to research, if necessary, or simply answer these elementary questions of the Christian faith, here is a link I found while researching on the web that I thought some may find interesting, perhaps on a lighter side, regarding such questions. Look at answer #16 on this link--does historical fact back up what this person is commenting? (Hint for anyone who cares: look at objective historical fact and you will quickly find the answer). Here is the link: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/?qid=1006051007266

floydian7 commented:

"When those who have been hurt by Gothard come here, I would rather try to strengthen their faith in Jesus Christ and who He really is rather than tear down that faith. That is how they will ultimately find healing".

Andy:

I could not agree any more--I am one of those profoundly hurt by Gothard, (actually carried out & enforced by my parents), you speak of. I was deprived & shunned from asking the most basic questions from a tiny child to a grown man by my own parents & church--a truly gigantic, "mainstream," church. In my life, I have found that the truth embraces questions. The truth embraces questions and asks for more. The truth does not hide. Answering basic questions about the Christian faith will tear down no ones faith. Many on this site & other sites have repeatedly, over & over & over, mentioned how they were told to, "do as you are told & do not question." Again, I am one of these people. Ultimately, people will find healing in truth--the truth begs to be asked questions. Indeed, by seeking truth, their faith in Jesus Christ will tremendously be strengthened.