Getting Christianity Right

I have a very good friend who's told me many times that though he always believed in His existence, when God started to really work on him his response was "God, I'll do anything You want. I'll follow any religion. Just please don't make me a Christian."

When he elaborates on that he says that he had many misconceptions about what Christianity really was because of errors in content and because of bad examples of Christians in his life. As a result, God was fine, but he wanted nothing to do with Christ at all.

I think this is the idea behind these words from Augustine's Confessions (click here to read the quotes in context at chap. XI.18):

"...the things in the Church's books that appeared so absurd to us before do not appear so now, and may be otherwise and honestly interpreted. ... A great hope has risen up in us, because the Catholic faith does not teach what we thought it did, and vainly accused it of."

Before a person can reject Christianity they should have an accurate understanding of it.

Therefore, it is imperative that we take the time to study the Bible and sound doctrine so that our words do not give people reasons not to believe.

And, we should take the time to examine our lives, especially with the help of Scripture and other Christians, so that our actions aren't giving people reasons not to believe as well.