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My church downfall was actually reading the Bible. In addition I would study the historical record that coincided with the various writings in the Bible. The irony is I was doing this to become a better Christian.
In my case, I was reading it to help some childhood friends (who had "led me to Christ" years earlier) deal with the grief of losing their mother. There I was looking for passages to comfort them which inevitably led me to the Book of Job and that was all she wrote or at least, started to take the wheels off my chariot to heaven.
In my case, I was reading it to help some childhood friends (who had "led me to Christ" years earlier) deal with the grief of losing their mother. There I was looking for passages to comfort them which inevitably led me to the Book of Job and that was all she wrote or at least, started to take the wheels off my chariot to heaven.
If a person wants to maintain belief in what I call American-style Christianity then they have to stay away from the book of Job.
My favorite speaking in tongues moment came from W.V. Grant who I always thought was the most entertaining among all the '80's TV evangelists. He was delivering a sermon about the "Nine Signs of a Divinity Blessing." The first eight were all things which by happy coincidence, applied to W.V. The ninth sign, Grant continued, was speaking in tongues. This was followed immediately by Grant going stiff and suddenly barking out "Graph smegla boglia warsen yaboller twellden...etc"
I loved it, he got hit with the ninth sign just as he was talking about it, another happy coincidence I imagine. Grant incorporated the speaking in tongues at least once on each of his subsequent shows, and I noticed that none of the tongues with which he was seized, was ever a recognizable one. He never suddenly started speaking French or Chinese or even Latin. It was always "Zegla hofmal gragolez boyoraga calcrum etc."
As for Copeland, I liked about 2 songs from him. As a bass player, THIS song from him caught my attention because of the wicked bass line during the interlude around the 2:23 mark:
1. I used to actually listen to Bob Larson (BARF!)
2. I sucked up Mike Warnke's story (which turned out to be a lie)
3. There was a brief moment in my life when charlatans like Kenneth Hagin and Kenneth Copeland were heroes
4. I believed the bible was the PERFECT word of a perfect god
5. I used to mumbled some nonsense and claimed I was speaking in tongues. I an still do it today with ease.
6. I wasted a good chunk of my life sitting in a pew on Sunday thinking I was actually doing something productive.
7. I believed there was some deity out there interested the most mundane items in my life
8. I believed there was a boogeyman known as Satan out to get me
9. I believed the Jews were God's special flowers.
10. I believed the Soviet Union was going to invade Israel and usher in Armageddon.
11. I wasted thousand of dollars buying Christian material (concordances, bible dictionaries, lexicons, chain reference bibles, Christian books by Christian authors and Christian apologetic books)
12. I used to pray, an exercise in futility.
13. I believed Christians were being persecuted
14. I thought heavy metal rock music was all about Satan worship and that backmasking was evidence. LOL
On the bright side, I never used to tithed so I don't feel too bad about giving thousands to anyone's church over that time period in my life.
Going to Church does not make one a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.
I do not believe you were truly Christian, as the modern church does have false converts. Which means they are not born again and not have a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Going to Church does not make one a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.
I do not believe you were truly Christian, as the modern church does have false converts. Which means they are not born again and not have a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Straight out of the "Reasons people deconvert" book Christians are handed to explain right someone would EVER feel the need to leave that faith.
There a bunch of people on here who could tell you they could that one coming. You are not sharing some groundbreaking information. SOme of us, including myself, used to say the same thing when people left the faith. You are not scaring anyone or guilt tripping anybody so try again.
Straight out of the "Reasons people deconvert" book Christians are handed to explain right someone would EVER feel the need to leave that faith.
There a bunch of people on here who could tell you they could that one coming. You are not sharing some groundbreaking information. SOme of us, including myself, used to say the same thing when people left the faith. You are not scaring anyone or guilt tripping anybody so try again.
If a believer were to admit it is rational to not believe, their whole religion would crumble. So they have to invent all sorts of non-rational reasons for non-belief: desire to sin, secret sins, hating god, the work of the devil, original sin, rebelliousness, etc. To maintain their belief, non-believers must be demonized or seen as fundamentally defective in some way. "The sinful mind is hostile to God" and all of that.
It's one of the reasons religion can be so destructive: those outside the fold are seen as subhuman and deserving of righteous wrath. Just ask the natives of North and South America how that works.
God judges the content of the heart. Here's an interesting thought experiment.
Imagine you are a Christian living in Nazi Germany. You are hiding Jews in your home. The SS come around, and ask if you've got any Jews in there. What do you do? I'm a Christian, and even though there's a commandment against lying, in this case I am lying my ass off.
Another one.
You have no money, no way of getting any short of pimping yourself (lol). You have kids to feed. Is it ok to steal food to feed your kids? I have to say in this case, yes. Though the Bible says never to steal.
I don't believe it's possible, actually.
You do know nazis were Christian?
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