Guest r3alchild Posted April 9, 2013 Share Posted April 9, 2013 I have heard this term before and I have been told in order to follow god you have to completly surrender your will to god. But even when I tried I never could, is surrendering to god real, what does it do to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HymenaeusAlexander Posted April 9, 2013 Share Posted April 9, 2013 I suspect you’ll get different answers from each Christian that uses that phrase and none of them will be that precise or helpful. My guess is that “completely surrender your will to God” for most simply means to be willing to do whatever it is they think Christians are supposed to do according their interpretation of the Bible. I think it just serves as a foundation for one-upmanship on other people who claim they are Christians, but really aren’t. As for what it does to a person, I guess that depends on what that person thinks it means. I would think it probably makes one less likely to question the validity of whatever mandates one thinks Christianity requires. “Follow God,” “completely surrender your will to God” or “give yourself to God” are just nebulous clichés that get bandied about in Christian circles. Similarly you have other phrases like, “you need to have heart knowledge and not just head knowledge” or “the difference between knowing who Jesus Christ is and knowing him as your savior is 18 inches” [there’s an inappropriate joke in there somewhere]. Another one is the “you need to make him lord of your life” or it’s variant “He’s either your Lord and Savior, or he’s neither your Lord nor Savior.” Even the oft-repeated “ask Jesus into your heart” or “it’s a relationship, not a religion” phrases are annoyingly undefined. Those phrases sound pious and seem to impress people, but good luck on getting a precise and consistent definition of what any of them really mean. Even when you do get precise definitions, like the Reformed distinctions between kinds of faith - notitia, assensus and fiducia - it’s still mostly arbitrary and confusing. I found I was often hard-pressed to get good explanations of even what it means to repent and believe and more importantly to what extent that repentance and belief had to be executed in order to be certain of salvation. Everyone seemed to have a different answer and none of them were that helpful. After a while one gets the impression that nobody really knows what they’re talking about and they’d really appreciate it if you’d stop asking for clarification, shut up and just pretend like you know what those things entail just like everyone else does. That crap used to drive me nuts when I was a Christian. Now I really don’t care because I see that they’re all ultimately meaningless. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest r3alchild Posted April 9, 2013 Share Posted April 9, 2013 What you said was very insightful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravenstar Posted April 10, 2013 Share Posted April 10, 2013 It means you get to be a christbot and stop thinking for yourself. There are good uses for this kind of thing. It's used in addiction counselling (AA etc..) to help an addict let go of old ways of thinking and destructive coping mechanisms and learn new positive ones... but it can easily be twisted for cult purposes. (one 'motto' used in addiction circles is, "Your best thinking got you here." - referring to the coping mechanism of using drugs or alcohol to deal with life) Unless the org., ideology, philosophy or person you are handing your will over to (and only in the short run) is trustworthy - there are serious problems with this. CBT is pretty much the same thing, in a psychological sense - but that's a positive application and doesn't denigrate the person applying it.. the christian view does. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chikirin Posted April 10, 2013 Share Posted April 10, 2013 “Follow God,” “completely surrender your will to God” or “give yourself to God” are just nebulous clichés that get bandied about in Christian circles. Similarly you have other phrases like, “you need to have heart knowledge and not just head knowledge” or “the difference between knowing who Jesus Christ is and knowing him as your savior is 18 inches” [there’s an inappropriate joke in there somewhere]. Another one is the “you need to make him lord of your life” or it’s variant “He’s either your Lord and Savior, or he’s neither your Lord nor Savior.” Even the oft-repeated “ask Jesus into your heart” or “it’s a relationship, not a religion” phrases are annoyingly undefined. I'm reading a book called Believing Bullshit and the author calls this kind of talk "pseudo-profundity" because it sounds profound at first but then falls apart once you try to define what it actually entails. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Moderator florduh Posted April 10, 2013 Super Moderator Share Posted April 10, 2013 It basically means doing what the pastor tells you, since the pastor actually exists. Surrendering to God, or doing God's will, is a mechanism that relieves one of responsibility. It simply provides an excuse for hating gays/loving war/bombing women's clinics/voting Republican/feeling justified in whatever you do or think that's in line with the dogma at hand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HymenaeusAlexander Posted April 10, 2013 Share Posted April 10, 2013 “Follow God,” “completely surrender your will to God” or “give yourself to God” are just nebulous clichés that get bandied about in Christian circles. Similarly you have other phrases like, “you need to have heart knowledge and not just head knowledge” or “the difference between knowing who Jesus Christ is and knowing him as your savior is 18 inches” [there’s an inappropriate joke in there somewhere]. Another one is the “you need to make him lord of your life” or it’s variant “He’s either your Lord and Savior, or he’s neither your Lord nor Savior.” Even the oft-repeated “ask Jesus into your heart” or “it’s a relationship, not a religion” phrases are annoyingly undefined. I'm reading a book called Believing Bullshit and the author calls this kind of talk "pseudo-profundity" because it sounds profound at first but then falls apart once you try to define what it actually entails. That book is on my (long) list of stuff I want to read. For now, I settle for subscribing to his blog. His takedown of Plantinga's Evolutionary argument against Naturalism is one of the better ones I've seen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RipVanWinkle Posted April 10, 2013 Share Posted April 10, 2013 I think the bottom line of the idea of surrendering to god is that, since there is no god with whom humans actually can communicate, one is really surrendering to a human or humans who tell you what god means and what god wants from you. This person or these people may or may not belief what they say. bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
midniterider Posted April 11, 2013 Share Posted April 11, 2013 I have heard this term before and I have been told in order to follow god you have to completly surrender your will to god. But even when I tried I never could, is surrendering to god real, what does it do to you. Is it real? No. It doesn't mean shit other than "allow me to tell you how to behave." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burny Posted April 11, 2013 Share Posted April 11, 2013 Stop reading my posts and telling my parents. This site is supposed to be confidential. You're a jerk and a jack ass whoever you are. Thanks also for hurting my folks. Good Christian actions. NOT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest r3alchild Posted April 11, 2013 Share Posted April 11, 2013 Others have stated the outcomes of "surrendering to god" but what I always understood it to mean, was basically center your worldview around him. For example if you "surrender your children to god" this means that no matter what happens to them, it's god's will and you shouldn't question it. This leads to depression in many christians because their god ends up letting them down so much. Then they walk around feeling guilty because they don't "have enough faith" to see what he's trying to shape them into being. Here's a great quote to demonstrate what christians think they mean by "surrendering to god"; I asked for strength... I asked for strength and God gave me difficulties to make me strong. I asked for wisdom and God gave me problems to solve. I asked for prosperity and God gave me brawn and brains to work. I asked for courage and God gave me dangers to overcome. I asked for patience and God placed me in situations where I was forced to wait. I asked for love and God gave me troubled people to help. I asked for favors and God gave me opportunities. I received nothing I wanted I received everything I needed. My prayers have all been answered." Author Unknown In other words? God didn't give me anything I asked for but since I've surrendered to him I will find stupid-ass excuses to cover for his lack of action... That just scared me a bit, I used to say much of that shit to myself when god was leaving me to fuck myself up more, all while I was crying out, jesus! jesus! help me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burny Posted April 11, 2013 Share Posted April 11, 2013 Others have stated the outcomes of "surrendering to god" but what I always understood it to mean, was basically center your worldview around him. For example if you "surrender your children to god" this means that no matter what happens to them, it's god's will and you shouldn't question it. This leads to depression in many christians because their god ends up letting them down so much. Then they walk around feeling guilty because they don't "have enough faith" to see what he's trying to shape them into being. Here's a great quote to demonstrate what christians think they mean by "surrendering to god"; I asked for strength... I asked for strength and God gave me difficulties to make me strong. I asked for wisdom and God gave me problems to solve. I asked for prosperity and God gave me brawn and brains to work. I asked for courage and God gave me dangers to overcome. I asked for patience and God placed me in situations where I was forced to wait. I asked for love and God gave me troubled people to help. I asked for favors and God gave me opportunities. I received nothing I wanted I received everything I needed. My prayers have all been answered." Author Unknown In other words? God didn't give me anything I asked for but since I've surrendered to him I will find stupid-ass excuses to cover for his lack of action... That just scared me a bit, I used to say much of that shit to myself when god was leaving me to fuck myself up more, all while I was crying out, jesus! jesus! help me! Yeah I hear ya. That sort of CRAP is awesome because once again - GOD ALWAYS WINS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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