CHRISTIANITY DEFROCKED | |||||||||||||||
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Introduction:
There is renewed interest in spiritual matters in this country at the
moment. One of the side effects of a recession and financial uncertainty
is that people begin to question their lives. God often chooses such
times to reveal himself to those who seek him. People all around are
becoming dissatisfied with their lives and are looking for alternatives.
Many more would be interested in God if it weren’t for the myths and
misunderstandings that perpetually do the rounds under the guise of
truth. This whole web site is aimed at busting some of those myths.
Below is a list of the ten most popular beliefs, comments and arguments
that I personally have encountered while chatting to people about God. I
have answered in the same way I reply person to person. I hope you find
this interesting. “If you use this argument do you intend to believe it for the rest of your life?” If the answer is “Yes”, then we have just saved ourselves hours of fruitless debate. If you are not sure, can I make a suggestion? Try it out. Try reading the Bible. Pick it up and say to God, “If you do exist, please speak to me as I read this book”. It might not happen straight away, but God does promise that everyone who seeks him will find him. What have you got to lose? At the worst you will have a bit more knowledge to bring to the debate. At the best you could have your name written in heaven. I have written more on how to read it in the section on the Holy Bible. 2. Religion causes all wars. I can’t begin to tell you how many times I have heard this one. Sorry to say this is not true. War is mostly caused by men (rarely women) or groups of men who want power, wealth or land. Men who hate and are full of evil and have the power to unleash that hatred and evil on others. Well why not blame religion and give it all some respectability? Why not use religion so we can manipulate people to fight for their faith against the enemy, rather than give their lives fighting for a despot? Sometimes men do go to war for right reasons, those reasons being to bring about the downfall of evil regimes, so innocent people will not be slaughtered and abused. But I wouldn’t say that religion causes those wars. I know we can debate how in the Old Testament God told his people to go to war so they could take the Promised Land. How he was ruthless in his instruction not to allow any survivors. This was because of the awful practices these people took part in, such as child sacrifice, worship and prostitution to demon gods and God did not want his chosen people corrupted by these practices. These days God calls his people to go to war on their knees, using prayer as the tools for change. We ask, “How can God allow this to happen to me?” Let’s turn this around and ask “Why does God allow me to do wrong to others?” If you have never hurt anyone, stolen, cheated, lied, fought, cursed or gossiped about anyone, then you are excused from this question. But if we are totally honest we all know that somewhere down the road we have caused someone suffering. So why didn’t God stop us? How would he have stopped us? Would we have wanted him to stop us? “But it was only a little thing”, you argue. “But it was only a few times. But they wouldn’t have missed it. But they deserved it.” Whatever we say, we have caused suffering. It’s just that some of us have got more power so we can cause more suffering. Some of us have enormous power and we can cause suffering to lots of people. If God was to stop everyone from causing suffering to others, then we would all be in trouble. 6. Christianity is for women and children. There is a perception that Christian men are wimps. It is true that some Christian men are gentle but what they lack in macho image they often make up for in honesty and security in who they are. Jesus himself was gentle, but not afraid to say the most outrageous things and brave enough to die on a cross when he could have opted not to. At one church we had an American Football team and we played local pub teams. I remember one match where the opposition mistakenly thought we would be gentle and it remains a fond memory of all the nose bleeds and groans of pain as bodies emerged from the very first scrimmage. There is a kind of belief in our culture that it’s good for men to be aloof, macho and uncaring. God doesn’t agree with that. He is looking for heroes – always was. For more see God and Men. 7. I’ve been christened. I think it’s good when newborn babies are prayed for and committed to God. But this does not make anyone a Christian. Many people fill in hospital forms etc by ticking Church of England. Unfortunately Church of England is not an option in the Bible, neither is Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, Salvation Army, Pentecostal etc. God only recognises born again committed Christians. People who have chosen to believe in Jesus, repented from their sin and been baptised (not infant baptism). See How to become a Christian. As a committed son/daughter of God you can then ask him which denomination he wishes you to become a member of. 9. I believe in God. 88% of the world’s population believe in God. But believing in God is an active thing. Truly believing in Jesus means you have to act. There was a tightrope walker who crossed over the Believing in God is not enough. Satan and all of his fallen angels believe in God. But only people who believe, and repent of their sins and get baptised will be saved. 10. My faith is personal. If you don’t want to talk to someone about God and Jesus this is your perfect excuse. There is no real answer to it without calling some a liar. But a Christian who is living by the Bible will never say this, as Jesus told his followers to go into the entire world and tell everyone. God does understand if you don’t want to be preached at, but he really does want your faith to become a lot more personal. You and him. Father and son/daughter. |
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