By Daniel out of the Lion's Den ~
When a Christian attempts to convert a person to their religion by preaching the Gospel, then introducing the need to make a decision to either reject or accept their man-god, Jesus, into the would-be convert’s heart, they are exercising logic. Most Christians hate that word, since it is the application of logic to the tenets of their religion that result in many people leaving the faith. Nevertheless, they are in fact, knowingly or unwittingly using logic. They will say you have to make a decision: Yes or No. There cannot be a maybe; there is no gray area. The answer must be binary… 0 or 1, on or off, black or white, yes or no. Furthermore, they will extol the simplicity of this divinely hatched plan. All you have to do is say yes, and your eternal fate is sealed: Destiny Paradise! An answer of “no” results in dire consequences: Eternal Burning. Such a simple plan of salvation, it must be God-breathed. It doesn’t take much to illustrate this simple plan in a logic decision tree diagram. You can imagine Saint Peter standing at the Gates of Heaven with the key that Jesus gave him, using this simple, logical method to determine whether he should unlock the gate or not:
Yes, such a superficial, candy-coated plan would be simple, and possibly thought of as divine, were it not for the Christian Scripture, the Inerrant Word of God: The Holy Bible. You see, the multiple authors of the books in the Bible, who never thought their works would be compiled into one large collection, each took it upon themselves to expound upon this simple plan. And since in the 4th century C.E., the Eastern European church authorities decided the compilation of books are indeed God-breathed and divinely inspired, then not one verse in the compilation can be wrong. So when someone 2000 years later decides to map out this simple, divine plan of salvation in a logic decision tree diagram, well, all the God-breathed caveats to this plan create a complexity that appears somewhat less than divine.
For the Christian reading this, please save your breath. You will pick out this verse and that verse from the diagram and claim how it doesn’t apply to salvation, or is a special case, or is really talking about the Christian walk, or is referring to people who never really believed. You need to ask yourself, “Why do all these verses in this harmonious compilation of God-breathed writings need me to explain, to apologize, to guide people to the real meaning – at least what I think is the real meaning? And why are there so many different denominations that interpret the verses differently?” I say that each verse implies an eternal consequence, and I was taught this very thing for each verse at some point in the different churches I attended throughout my life.
Christians will say that their god’s plan for salvation is not based on works, but a closer examination shows that, according to the Bible, there are many works that you need to do in order to ensure your spot in heaven, and other works that most certainly will keep you out. In addition, while they say, “Believe in Jesus, for there is no other name by which we must be saved,” there appears to be several “loopholes” by which souls can indeed get into heaven, even though they have rejected or never heard of the god-man. Compared with the “simple” plan of salvation that is pitched to would-be converts, the term “Bait and Switch” comes to mind. I won’t editorialize, each verse should be taken at face value – isn’t God clear when he speaks? But I will say that since each verse is in the Bible, and as such is God talking directly to us from his own mouth, that I had to include verses used by many branches of Christian theology – from Calvinist to Armenians, from Catholics to Baptists, from liberals to conservatives. Now again, imagine Saint Peter standing at the Gates of Heaven with the key that Jesus gave him, using THIS decision tree diagram to determine whether he should unlock the gate! I don’t think those hinges would get exercised very often (click on image for full size):
Yes, such a superficial, candy-coated plan would be simple, and possibly thought of as divine, were it not for the Christian Scripture, the Inerrant Word of God: The Holy Bible. You see, the multiple authors of the books in the Bible, who never thought their works would be compiled into one large collection, each took it upon themselves to expound upon this simple plan. And since in the 4th century C.E., the Eastern European church authorities decided the compilation of books are indeed God-breathed and divinely inspired, then not one verse in the compilation can be wrong. So when someone 2000 years later decides to map out this simple, divine plan of salvation in a logic decision tree diagram, well, all the God-breathed caveats to this plan create a complexity that appears somewhat less than divine.
For the Christian reading this, please save your breath. You will pick out this verse and that verse from the diagram and claim how it doesn’t apply to salvation, or is a special case, or is really talking about the Christian walk, or is referring to people who never really believed. You need to ask yourself, “Why do all these verses in this harmonious compilation of God-breathed writings need me to explain, to apologize, to guide people to the real meaning – at least what I think is the real meaning? And why are there so many different denominations that interpret the verses differently?” I say that each verse implies an eternal consequence, and I was taught this very thing for each verse at some point in the different churches I attended throughout my life.
Christians will say that their god’s plan for salvation is not based on works, but a closer examination shows that, according to the Bible, there are many works that you need to do in order to ensure your spot in heaven, and other works that most certainly will keep you out. In addition, while they say, “Believe in Jesus, for there is no other name by which we must be saved,” there appears to be several “loopholes” by which souls can indeed get into heaven, even though they have rejected or never heard of the god-man. Compared with the “simple” plan of salvation that is pitched to would-be converts, the term “Bait and Switch” comes to mind. I won’t editorialize, each verse should be taken at face value – isn’t God clear when he speaks? But I will say that since each verse is in the Bible, and as such is God talking directly to us from his own mouth, that I had to include verses used by many branches of Christian theology – from Calvinist to Armenians, from Catholics to Baptists, from liberals to conservatives. Now again, imagine Saint Peter standing at the Gates of Heaven with the key that Jesus gave him, using THIS decision tree diagram to determine whether he should unlock the gate! I don’t think those hinges would get exercised very often (click on image for full size):
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