Posts

The Second Cyrus and his court eunuchs.

Image
By Robert Conner ~ L ately we are informed by some of America’s leading Evangelical High Muckety-Mucks that Donald John Trump is literally the fulfillment of Bible prophecy. Not, as you might logically expect, the Whore of Babylon or the Beast of Revelation bearing blasphemous names, but Cyrus the Great, the Persian monarch who established a policy of repatriation following his conquest of the Babylonians. Deutero-Isaiah calls Cyrus Yahweh’s anointed and the books of Ezra and 2 Chronicles claim the tribal god of Israel impelled Cyrus to release captive Jews, although an authentic reflection of ancient Persian belief, the Cyrus Cylinder, proclaims the god Marduk as the source of Cyrus’ inspiration. Just as ancient Jewish scribes rewrote Persian history to suit their theopolitical ends, modern evangelicals, busy as ever putting the “mental” in fundamentalist, have predictably glommed onto Old Testament prophecy. Lance Wellnau, a prophet and “leadership coach” who hails from Dallas,...

Honestly

Image
By Carl S ~ P erhaps most of you on ExChristian were attracted to the “opposite” writers, and found yourself, as when in love, enhancing your life. “They” weren't opposite after all; they spoke to the real you. You were tempted to go into forbidden territory. Personally, I like temptation, no lie. It's the people who are in denial who rant the loudest against it. Temptation tells you what your real inclinations are, and in itself does no harm! You found out when you were a child there's nothing more tempting than challenging “Don't.” The bible may be “the world's best selling book,” (though there's no way to fact-check that claim), but the largest market in the world has to be pornography, and I bet the religious are “faithful”consumers. I'm for temptation, but I'm for self-control too. One major problem with Christianity is that it doesn't teach self-control outside of dogmatic constraints. As soon as most adults begin to suspect the dogmas ar...

On the Attraction to the Not Really Contrary

Image
By Carl S ~ M any years ago, a British book was published about studies to determine if “opposites attract.” The conclusion: a person is attracted romantically to another who is like oneself. It makes sense, since ' like oneself ' feels familiar, and who wouldn't want to spend time and effort on someone who enhances and offers the future of fulfilling your own estimation of yourself? The Roman poet Horace had an idea: a man and woman are half persons, each needing the other to become a complete person. Bosh. I was idealistic in my first marriage and thought about such fusion becoming real, long before “soul mate” became popular, but time proved we were each individuals. I've been married for 23 years to a churchgoing woman who identifies herself as “a Christian.” If she entered a room with Pat Robertson, the pope, or any of the evangelical politicians, she would quickly turn and leave. She and I see ourselves as complete and equal individuals with equal rights. Ne...

Putting Out the Fires of Hell

Image
By Andrew Jasko ~ H ell exists as a real place of torture in the minds of those who feed its imaginary fires through their fear. It is only religious people who suffer from the real hell, and those escaping religion who are still in recovery from hellfire trauma. Hell really exists for the millions of people who believe in it, in the form of terrifying flash-visualizations, nightmares, and psycho-somatic sensations of burning. They suffer because they believe it exists and because they believe people who don’t believe in it are going there. It is a psychological hell that burns and exists solely in the mind through the faith of fear, inspiring religious devotion through sheer terror. In an effort to save the world from hell, the religious spread hell to the world through evangelism, exposing vulnerable minds to its fearful seduction of eternal safety. Hell is the manipulation that if you live in fear and spread that fear to others, you will escape being consumed by it in the afte...

It all fell apart in Genesis Chapter 1

Image
By Keith ~ I have been a closet atheist for 35 years. I kept my non-belief a secret from everyone to avoid rejection and condemnation from my friends and family. I can't live a lie anymore, so I have made the decision to tell my family and friends and face whatever consequences lie ahead. I was raised in a very strict Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) home. We were at church every time the doors were open, and sometimes when they weren't open. The LCMS believes that the bible is the inerrant and infallible word of God, and is to be interpreted literally. The seeds of my doubt were planted in the fourth grade, when a Sunday School teacher said anyone who died without being baptized would spend eternity in hell. I raised my hand, and asked if a newborn baby died before being baptized if they would go to hell. The teacher answered in the affirmative. I wondered to myself how if god was merciful and forgiving, how he could let an innocent baby who was incapable of d...

Going through the motions

Image
By Fay ~ L ike many people, I grew up going to church every Sunday since I was a baby. I went without arguing with my parents or questioning this - it's just what we did every week. As I got older my parents would say: "As long as you live under our roof, you are to attend church every week". I love my parents and I didn't want to disobey them, so I wouldn't put up a fight - unlike other teens that I knew. I noticed other kids around my age fighting with their parents about going to church, acting rebellious and it made me very uncomfortable. I did not want that kind of relationship with my parents, even though I wanted so badly to not go to church. "Just suck it up and go", I'd say to myself. Don't get me wrong, I think I once was a Christian. I was "born again" when I was around 13 years old, at a youth conference one weekend. It was during an evening service and the youth pastor gave a speech about how all of us are broken, and...

Why did the biblical canon close when it did?

Image
By Michael Runyan ~ W hich books constituted the Christian biblical canons of both the Old and New Testament was generally established by the 5th century, despite some scholarly disagreements. Following this time, there were a few alterations made by various groups of Christians, but, universally, it was agreed that no contemporary writings could ever be added and further that nothing written after about CE150 was eligible. The question is why was this artificial cut-off time enforced? Why couldn’t God or the Holy Spirit inspire a more modern person to write, or dictate, an update from God that could then be placed in the Bible? Some Christians point to to the following verse to argue this point: I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll. And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree...

My Amazing Release

Image
By Gerald M ~ I was raised in the Baptist church until about age 16. I had asked Jesus to save me at the age of 13,of which I believed He did. We quit going to church as a family, but I always held to my belief in God and His Son. Fast forward to when I was 35. I became extremely involved in giving up my life for Christ's sake. I loved Him more than life itself. I quit planning for the future, since God was to be my provider. The New Testament is plain in regard to building a future so that you can take it easy. Jesus said to forsake all and follow Him, and I did my best to do just that. I lived by all His words and became an ordained minister when I was 50. After a few years in ministry, I became very discouraged by what the Bible said about answers to prayer. Jesus said ask, seek, knock and I did. No answer. I asked for many things, mostly for the lives of others, but again, nothing. This went on until one day at age 55, I was pondering why God did not communicate ...

An Apatheist

Image
By BeeJay ~ I prefer the appellation “Apatheist”. I'll explain: I grew up in the Church of the Brethren, a church in the German Baptist tradition which includes Mennonite, Amish and others. The COB has always been more concerned with service and stewardship over evangelism. We were in the forefront of the civil rights and anti-war movements. In my family it was also environmentalism and gender equality, helping the poor and treating everyone civilly. The Golden Rule and the Beatitudes were every bit as important as the 10 Commandments. We were liberals. In my teens I started to realize that the purely religious parts didn't make much sense, were contradictory, and just didn't seem to mean anything to me. I thought there was something wrong with me so I tried harder but just couldn't work up any enthusiasm for the rituals; prayer, communion, etc.. Eventually I decided that Christianity was the wrong religion so I started looking at other religions; Isla...

God of platitudes and excuses

Image
By John Draper ~ “God’s promises never fail.” O uch. Just saying stuff like that makes my teeth hurt. It’s so candy-coated. Believers say things like that just to placate people who ask legitimate questions. The truth is that God’s promises almost never come true. Deal with it. Let’s say you’re a believer and you find you have Stage 4 cancer. Your well-meaning Christian friends gather around your hospital bed and tell you to be strong. “Remember,” they say, “God has promised us in His word, ‘Truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven’” (Matthew 18: 19, 20). “So we’re just going to  agree in prayer  for you and watch God act,” they will say, laying hands on you in your hospital bed and praying. But the healing doesn’t come. Your Christian friends advise you to be patient. God’s timing isn’t our timing. They remind you, “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thous...

Committing adultery in your heart?

Image
By Shaolin ~ W hen I dumped the belief in God and subsequently the belief in Jesus, I began to revisit the things he supposedly said in the gospels. I realized he said some bizarrely stupid things. His rule on adultery is in my top five list. Jesus, the “greatest teacher” offers nothing educational about human sexuality except this ridiculous rule: “If any makes looks upon a women lustfully, he has committed adultery with her already in his heart.” Adultery is defined as, “voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and someone other than his or her spouse.” According to Jewish law, adultery is a capital crime and calls for the death of both parties. Jesus upheld the whole law. So if a man THINKS about having sex with a married woman, he has sinned against God and is to be punished. Am I interpreting it correctly? How is such a rule enforced? How would anyone (but God allegedly) know what you’re thinking, unless you’re stupid enough to tell someone, as if it was th...