Free Will

This video sums up the frustration that is the free will/ hell argument using paying taxes as an example. It reminds me quite a bit of the whole "Way of the Master" approach to evangelism that I actually thought was pretty effective at one time.

Of course there are others who don't believe in free will. That creates a whole other set of problems, mostly with the character of God. The Calvinistic approach paints God in a very shadowy way, a way in which one can never fully trust him. 

Flu

Hey everybody:)


It's been a couple of weeks since I've posted, it seems. Work, school, blah, blah. I also got a nice flu virus that knocked me out for about a week, that was fun.



I really, really hate being sick. It makes me MAD.




I don't know that I really need to do anymore failed prophecy posts for now. The point has been made to a certain degree I think. In my searching some things out, I found this testimony from a former member of Jews for Jesus, and what he said at the end made me smile:

"Looking back I have certain mixed feelings. I left in most ways with a sigh of relief. I could begin to think again. I could feel for the pain of others apart from the question where were they going to spend eternity in heaven or hell. I could experience the pain, but also the joy of making choices."

I'm not limited in my thoughts anymore and that I don't need to fear or avoid anyone or anything. There are choices now that fall squarely in my own lap- no God, no Plan, no Destiny. It's up to me. It's thrilling and terrifying, but that's life now. I don't think I would want it any other way. 

More on Mythicism- Definitions

I've been doing quite a bit of researching and thinking and stuff this week. In the last post, I submitted a video, the gist of it being that Jesus cannot be a prophet since what he predicted did not come to pass. The maker of the video recounts the various ways that we get around the fact that the end of the world did not come to "the generation" Jesus was talking to in Luke chapter 21 and Matthew chapter 24.  We are left with three options, saying it did happen, but in a non-literal manner, push it into the future continually, or put it aside and focus on other aspects of the faith.


So, in my studies off and on over the last several months, the idea that Jesus (as portrayed in the gospels) may have not existed at all has been increasingly interesting to me. Not that Christianity didn't exist, but the Christ that the very first Christians worshipped was not an earthly figure. This Christ was revealed to Paul from the very pages of the Old Testament.



An intriguing video series is here. It does start out a bit confusing, but when you get to understanding what is really being said, it makes some sense in explaining why Paul is even there. Have you ever wondered that? Why after Jesus sets out his 12 that walked and talked with him personally, did we need a complete new apostle on the scene? Paul's letters were the first Christian documents, even before the gospels.

From the blog Jericho Brisance 





 I will be searching this out more. 

This Generation

I found this video that well articulates some of the thoughts I've been trying to put together lately (especially after being asked why I gave up Universalism for disbelief). Trying to get back to those days in early 2013 when it came tumbling down, I have to say it was still a huge struggle trying to make the Bible make sense, not in the why God sends people to hell, but what the heck does all this apocalyptic stuff have to do with anything.  I've been researching again after putting all this stuff away for a time. I've been so influenced by my extreme bias over the last couple of decades, that I need to hone my critical thinking skills.



When I first started believing, back in 1995, I was immediately fascinated by prophecy. The teachers on T.V. excitedly proclaimed that Jesus fulfilled oodles of  Old Testament prophecies and that the time of the End, prophesied by Jesus himself, was most certainly at hand. I bought it without question. I didn't check the scriptures, or church history, or secular history, I just believed it. Sure, I would read the pertinent passages in the way the teachers presented them to me, but I just didn't do the research.



It's about 40 minutes long. I listened to it on my phone as I cleaned the house, the audio is well enough to get the meat of it.

The God Concept

This is an introduction to Evid3nc3's masterfully done deconversion series. I revisit it from time to time. This time the idea of graceful degradation stuck out to me, as I am now researching the ins and outs of belief and the whys of deconversion. For example, how is it that some can not take the bible literally and still hold faith, while others see it differently?



Graceful degradation is the ability of a computer, machine, electronic system or network to maintain limited functionality even when a large portion of it has been destroyed or rendered inoperative. The purpose of graceful degradation is to prevent catastrophic failure.  (google)


As he says in the video the concept of God is a mega-belief held together by several smaller beliefs, and it's only after enough of these smaller beliefs are challenged that the system does break down.