Imagine a person much like yourself who grows up in a normal family somewhere in America. He goes to church all his life. Perhaps he takes his religion more seriously than most people do: he actually studies the Bible, even learning to read it in its original languages (Hebrew and Greek). By the time he’s 38, he owns more than twenty translations of the Bible, and has memorized over 400 verses … he can quote them verbatim AND tell you the chapter and verse. Sermons become boring to him; as he listens to them, he is making mental notes about how he would do the sermon better than the preacher. His Sunday School teachers are nervous when he attends class because they know that if they make a mistake or misquote the Bible, he’ll pick up on it. He understands the fine points and intricacies of Christian theology, and can explain them better than the “professionals.” You’d pass him on the street and never give him a second glance. There’s nothing memorable about his appearance. He’s just another face in the crowd.
One day he realizes that he’s interested in the occult, not because he thinks he’d ever like to participate in it, but out of pure curiosity. He begins an intellectual study of witchcraft, Wicca, neo-Paganism, the Goddess, and related subjects. He starts keeping notes about what he’s learning.
After about 18 months, he becomes aware of a few things: Wicca is not evil, it’s just a different way of looking at the world, and it’s not repulsive to him. Yes, it seems possible that there IS more than one god (or goddess); it makes sense that the creative force, the sustaining force, of the universe would be “female,” since on our planet, the female is the source of life.
He understands why ancient peoples intuitively attributed creative and nurturing aspects to a FEMALE deity who was wise and powerful and loving.
He takes a new look at the Hebrew god, the god of the Bible, who says that there are no other gods. He sees an entity whose personality is repulsive: the god of the Bible is a petty, hateful, mean-spirited, vengeful, spiteful being. The Hebrew god declares that he is a jealous god, and does not allow the worship of any other gods. This Hebrew god creates a lake of fire where “sinners” (those who break his rules) will go after they die, to be tortured for all eternity. And who are “sinners?” The Bible says it’s EVERYBODY (Romans 3:23).
In other words: (1) God creates a category, and calls it “sinners;” (2) he defines the category so that it includes you, me, and everybody else in the entire world; and then (3) he creates a place of ETERNAL TORTURE for those people.
And yet in his Bible, God says, “I am love.” (I John 4:8)
Other religions don’t have anything like God’s hell. Well, except Islam. Only a twisted mind would come up with something so hideous and hateful … endless, endless torture.
Can you think of even one person whom you hate enough that you would want him to be tortured FOREVER? God hates ALL of us that much.
And Biblegod is extremely picky — apparently, if you don’t believe EXACTLY the right doctrine, he’ll send you to hell, even if you’re the pastor of a church or a missionary.
Well, back to our middle-aged man. All of this sinks in, and he realizes, almost to his amazement … that he isn’t a Christian anymore. He didn’t feel it happening, but over the passage of time … when he wasn’t even looking … he became a Witch.
He never made a conscious decision to walk a new path … he just looked up one day, and he was already on it. He didn’t DECIDE to be different … he found out one day that he WAS different. He had changed, profoundly, while he was paying attention to something else.
For a long time, he hadn’t been “fitting in” at church. He found himself getting into doctrinal arguments with other Christians whose knowledge of the Bible was close to zero. He quoted the Bible to them (and gave them chapter and verse, in case they wanted to check it for themselves), trying to be as reasonable as possible. His opponents, cornered, out-gunned, responded with “Well, you’re not really a Christian !”
He began to think, “If this guy is a true Christian, maybe I don’t want people thinking I’m a Christian.”
And the main reason that he finally rejected Christianity was that he realized that he himself was more moral than the god of the Bible. He found himself mired in a bloody, gory, human-sacrifice religion. He decided that he didn’t want to participate any longer in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead expose them (Ephesians 5:11).
His Christian, believing soul froze for just a moment while the rest of the universe swivelled around into a new position.
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