A couple of years after I renounced my former faith and accepted the fact that I was an atheist, I started to think about the concept of salvation. Christianity claims absolute truth when it comes to their beliefs, and they view other religions as false "delusions" of the world or Satan; in order to trick the world into not believing the "truth" as taught by their texts and beliefs.
As a fundamentalist evangelist my go to text to affirm the above beliefs was John 14:6 where Jesus supposedly said: " I am the Way; I am Truth and Life. No one can come to the Father except through me." This verse cites one way and that one way to salvation is only through Christ. Obviously it excludes all other beliefs and religious systems. The biblical God is the one and only true god despite the probably thousands of gods and religions that preceded both Judaism and Christianity. This makes this claim from Christianity not only arrogant but exclusive. There is no such thing as freedom of religion for Christians unless that religion is their religion!
This is made apparent by what is considered to be one of the pillars of Christianity in John 3:16,17 where the author of the gospel of John states: 16 'For this is how God loved the world: he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
17 For God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but so that through him the world might be saved.' According to these verses the fate of the world rests entirely on the person of Christ and his so called "sacrifice" for the sins of mankind.
There are certain words in Christianity that I personally think are not real words and would not make any sense outside of a religious context. One such word is sin; sin is nothing more than doing those things that are offensive to God. For sin to have any meaning you would first have to believe that God as defined by Christianity exists. Once you become an atheist this and many other words lose sense or meaning. In order for me to be "saved" for instance, I would have to accept that I am a poor, lowly, pathetic sinner in need of salvation and of God's approval.
According to the scriptures I would have to give up my reason and common sense and accept that Jesus Christ rose from the dead! In 1 Corinthians 15:17 it states the following: 17 and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is pointless and you have not, after all, been released from your sins. So the death and resurrection of Christ is key to Christianity and salvation. Based on what I have shown here; in order to be saved you have to believe in the improbable and the absurd.
Salvation as taught by Christianity when analyzed critically is a problem that originated with God and ends with your belief in his so called solution to the problem of his own making. But that's is a story for another post some other time. But once you reject a belief in the biblical God, sin, and the need for salvation then you don't need it. I don't feel the need for an imaginary sky daddy to grovel and cry to in my times of despair. I don't see myself as corrupt or vile but rather as a great guy and a moral person without a belief in God or gods.
In conclusion, I have to ask what do I need to be saved from? Let's see, I need to be saved from Christians trying to make their ridiculous beliefs and divine laws part of my country's laws. I need to be saved from believers trying to shove their delusions down my throat every day of every hour. I need to be saved from discrimination caused by my lack of belief in our nations largest religious group. The biblical God is not a threat to me, it's his believers that I have to deal with on a daily basis and they are the ones I need to be saved from!
I stumbled upon your blog a few weeks ago. Keep up the good work. I enjoy the observations you make. This particular post has a few very good points. Would like to express similar concerns I have regarding the absurdity of the fundamental nature of the "sacrifice" that was deemed necessary. But maybe in a future comment when I have more time. Keep it up!
ReplyDeleteThe book of "John" (not by John) seems to be the one book that most supports or caused fundamentalism. The other three gospels are very very different. If it could be demonstrated that John was a forgery, what would be left of their take on Christianity?
ReplyDeleteAgreed, LadyAtheist. That is why John is not considered a synoptic gospel, it's not the same as the other three. It stands out as a totally different doctrine all on its own. All four gospels in my opinion are forgeries because they are not first hand accounts to what they claim occurred. Finally, those gospels originally appeared as anonymous works and were later attributed to the names appended to them sometime in the mid second century.
ReplyDeleteMany theists will declare you need to be born again, But according to the Bb, god chose us many millinia before we were born, how could god have made such a terrible mistake in which we need to be cleansed from gods' his mistake that he made himself by choosing us to begin with??? DUH!!!
ReplyDeleteSteven, when they refer to being born again they are referring to being born again of the Spirit. John 3:5,6 5. Jesus replied: In all truth I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born through water and the Spirit;
ReplyDelete6.what is born of human nature is human; what is born of the Spirit is spirit.
The part about being born of water refers to baptism by water and subsequently also a rebirth of the Spirit.
The ritual of baptism as practiced by Pentecostals refers to burying the old man of the flesh, and rising out of the water a man of the Spirit.
Bible the word of God? or do we find the word of God in the Bible?
ReplyDeleteFor 'a former Pentecostal evangelist' I find your take on what the
word of God is, lacking in perspective.Surely history reflected in
the Bible is not the word of God nor are the chapters reflecting
genealogy.The Jews had the habit of introducing their family history
by writing down their genealogy.
You most probably taught your congregation 'thou shall not kill'
the correct translation is 'thou shall not murder' murder being the unlawful act of taking a life, killing allowed in the act of self defense if no other option is available and self defense not to exceed the threat posed by the attacker.
If scriptures teaches that we should obey the 10 commandments the
message is that we should not trample on same.As an ex evangelist you
should know that the Hebrew language contains no comas making translations extremely difficult and hence the many translations.
You have not answered my question whether or not mankind is able to obey any of God's laws.The answer is 'no' because humans are born
with the capacity to do evil because it is part of our nature to rebel.
Man finds it difficult to obey the laws of their legal rulers and transgress on a daily basis.If man finds it difficult to obey
the laws imposed on them by man they can see and reason with
you'll understand that it is impossible to obey the laws of God
they cannot see and deny exist.
It is that inborn capacity to rebel, to disobey that has to be reborn and ,that is why it is written in Romans 3:23 'for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;'So we all miss the mark and fail in duty and transgress the laws of God in thought,word and
deed.
Ask yourself just one question, why is it that all man's efforts
to bring everlasting peace on earth fail' is it not because of man's
inborn rebellious nature? 99,9% of all man's misery on earth is caused by his fellow man.If you experience problems a quick analysis will reveal the truth of the aforementioned.
I did answer your question about man not being able to follow your gods laws. I answered in the negative affirming that those laws were in fact impossible to obey. I answered that question where it was asked not here. That man has a rebellious nature has nothing to do with the truth of the bible. Man has been at war with his own kind since the beginning of his existence. In fact, the biblical God is actually an invention of man and a reflection of man. Your God has all of the negative qualities of mankind which the scriptures claim he abhors, He gets angry, he is jealous, he expresses hatred for certain sins, he has murdered unjustly mind you, and not in self-defense because we are not really a threat to him if the bible is true.
ReplyDeleteFinally, mans "inborn rebellious nature" does nothing to prove that your god exists or that the bible is true. Quoting scripture is nothing but an exercise in futility because I don't see anything divine in them that cannot be learned through simple observation and experience.