Monday, October 23, 2006

Out of Fundamentalism

I have received an essay by a man who has recently come out of fundamentalism. I include his essay sharing the reason for his change in beliefs at Out of Fundamentalism.

10 comments:

Pastor AL said...

Mickey Williams...you must be Tigernooga. You still haven't given God your sorrows? Well, misery loves misery.

I think you purposely study the Bible to find fault with it. Therefore, I will not go into detail explaining what simple layman already know or could easily know...that the Old Testament is a covenant with God and Israel and the new Testament is a new and better covenant with God and the gentiles.
The Old Testament does not hide man's evil heart or sins. It does not mean that God approves of all what men has done.
Yes, God did command for sinners to be destroyed along with their families and animals because they had a different spirit. God is a jealous spirit. I do not defend God nor does God need me to defend him for he is God and will have his way with us...but you need to realize that God is God and he will do whatever he wants and who can stop him...you or Merle?
God is God and if he wants to sent us all to hell for eternity...can you stop him? We can curse him in hell for all eternity...we can tell him he is unjust...that he is supposed to be love, kind, a pushover for mankind's wishes...but will our curses and blaspamies silence the screams of the damned souls or lessen the agony of the fiery pit or the terror and solace of outer darkness that he will cast us into?

If you were clever enough to escape death, I would understand your right in cursing God, but you do not have a clue that you and all those who have come before you since the beginning of mankind are only walking dead men and you will find yourself standing before God. What will you do then? You don't believe that there is life after death? You don't want to believe even though NDE have been proved scientifically even more so than evolution. Keep wishing that there is no God but your time on earth will soon expire. Do you really believe that we have given a free will to make decision and that there won't be a Judge to judge us? Keep on whishing.

There is no wisdom in fighting with God, there is no wisdom in pride...wise is the man that humbles himself before God in this life time. Whether it be this lifetime or the next, men will be humbled before God.

God is not your fairy godmother. God is God and will do what he pleases. You forgot to comment on the following verse when all of humanity, since the beginning of mankind until the end of mankind, will stand before God with eternity at the horizon knowing that they rejected and belittled the blood of Jesus Christ. "And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the heaven and the earth fled from away and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things that were written in the books according to their works...and whosoever was not written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." Rev. 20:11-15

Keep on laughing, keep on wishing, keeep on living in your current fantasy reality but time will soon be over for everyone.

Noogatiger said...

Pastor Al,
Get off your smug holier than thou horse. You assume way to much. I am not cursing God, I am not fighting with God, I am not angry with God, I am not looking for some heavenly fairy Godmother, and I am no more living a fantasy than you are man.
I don't know if there is a God or not, I just know that an intellegent being did not write the Bible.
Al, why don't you go question by question, and give me the answer to the Bible quiz.
Basically Al, what you just told me is that if God wants to kill babies, have women raped, allow men to abuse women, and allow men to be held as slaves, or even send people to burn in hell for eternity, then he can do this and still be a righteous, loving, caring, perfect being. Surely even you can see that this is an oxymoron, Al.
What I am saying Al, is that this is proof that MEN wrote this stuff, and that is why it is so inconsistent.
This book is by men, about men, and the God they made up.

Pastor AL said...

Mickey,
We will soon find out if you are correct or not.

If it is not the word of God, why do you care? What is driving you to study the bible to find fault and set up a website against it? If it is not the word of God, then why can't you just move on with your life?

I don't care about being holier than you. It is not in my interest to judge you. Out of love, all christians share the good news of salvation. Now, is the best time for all of us to humble ourselves before God. We are in this same boat called life, we are in this together. Your lack of faith will not help me or humanity.

Noogatiger said...

Al, I care becaue of all the abuse of peoples emotions. I care because some people have used this scripture to abuse women. I care because we are setting up a false hope, and when people, usually at the lowest moments of their lives, find out it is all lies, it drives them even to deeper despair. I care because this scripture is used like a club against non believers who are told that they are going to hell, when none of it is true. I care because there is a better way to live. I care because there is freedom from this type of opression. I care because people do not have to feel like they are lower than God, and that God is telling them that they are that way, and then somehow yet God loves them. I care because so many things in life which I had been told were sins and made to feel guilty about were lies. I care because the real search for truth has been crippled and held back by narrow minded adherence to a book which cannot possibly be the truth. I care because I hate stupidity. I Care because I am human and care for other humans, and can be moral, kind, compastionate, and loving without a book which is none of those things.

Noogatiger said...

Correction, the sentence should have read:
I care because people are made to feel that they are lower than dirt, and God supposedly tells us we are that way, and yet God is love.

Pastor AL said...

Mickey,
What if you are wrong?

Noogatiger said...

Christians do always come back to that one.
What if your wrong Al, and Islam is the one true way? Shouldn't you adopt Islam just in case? What if your wrong and go to hell because you didn't believe in the God of Islam? Shouldn't you cover your bases as well, Al? Are you using your human logic to be skeptical of the Quran, Al? Should you do that. I mean us humans can't understand the vast intellegence that is God, so the Quran may be the way Al.

Why is it unfair of me to ask that something which is supposedly from the all powerful creator of the universe, who is perfect and infallable, to have left some small irrefutable proof that this Word is actually from him, especially since it is such a horribly written document, full of errors, falsehoods, myths, and moral inconsistencies.
What if I choose Christianity again Al, and we are all wrong, what then?

Anonymous said...

TigerNooga,
I agree with your comments. And I really want to know what Pastor Al thinks abt your question that what if Islam is the TRUE religion? I actually thought about this before. And I even thought just as a safety precaution I might as well believe in all Gods that humankind has ever known. Hehe..

I saw a comic in a Malaysian newspaper many years ago. It's quite funny because a man was depicted praying to a Chinese god with joss sticks. Then in the next figure, he was praying in church. Then in another figure, in a mosque. Then when he died and reached, the Chinese god, Jesus and Allah were each pulling his limbs their way. :D

--julnee

LorMarie said...

Pastor Al said:

"God is God and if he wants to sent us all to hell for eternity...can you stop him?"

Us all? Even those who do what He says? Do you think that would be fair of God Pastor Al?

I think Tiger asks some pretty good questions...especially number 13.

Pastor AL said...

lomar,
That is the point. God can do anything he wants and we as humans cannot stop him. However, he is just, because although the wages of sin is death, he sent his son to take our place so that whoever believes in Jesus Christ will inheret eternal life. If you believe in Jesus Christ, you will deny yourself, carry your cross, follow Jesus and become his disciple.

God is just because everything that is going to happen in your future, he has already told you. We are told that we live once and then we stand before him in judgement. Now, if he already told us prior, what excuse will we have when that day comes? We cannot say we did not know.

However, we are informed in advanced so that we can prepare our lives for such a day. In that day the spiritual wise will be rewarded but if we only loved ourselves on earth more than God then we will know that we will receive a just punishment.

Man is smart enough to prepare for retirement but man is not wise enough to prepare for eternity. So the bible makes us wise and teaches us how to live this life in such a way that when we stand before God, we will have nothing to be ashamed.