going back to the original thread from Rapture Ready..
There's one post from someone who's noticed the thread has been posted on an "atheist
site."
He seems rather disturbed about it....but nice to see he's obviously been lurking over here.
I thought born again xtians were discouraged from hanging around "pagan" web sites.
This post is followed by one from a parent who seems very concerned about her children.
Apparently-they were once "with jesus"...but have since fallen away.
I could've sworn I've seen it posted on RR that once you've been saved----you're in.
It's kind of like tenure-----once they've hired you on--they can't get rid of you. Maybe not.
The lord works in mysterious ways after all.
At any rate---what a shame that a parent has to go through each day with the thought that their children are going to wind up being tortured forever.....just for not believing.
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You're very correct, Ralph, that evangelical Christians are discouraged from coming to sites like this. Most of the time, when it's learned that they are, there are those within the church who take the time to "minister" to their falling brother/sister. Basically, the church comes in and "love-bombs" them back into submission, without really addressing what's wrong, and why the individual is leaving.
The exception, of course, is people like me who were never accepted, who were always shunted to the outside. If someone like me were to slide away from "god," then it was really no big loss, as I was never a part of the body of Christ. I always thought that was rather odd, but then, it's also to be expected, once you realize just how cultic Christianity has become in recent years.
I'm hopeful the person cited in the OP is, in fact, asking questions. That's the first step to escaping the mind control BS that grips people like Kathy and so many others. The Apostle Paul is said to have told Timothy to "study to show yourself approved." Most Christians want you to think that the only books that Timothy read were scripture, but it ignores critical points, such as Paul's visit to Mars Hill, and the fact that there was very little scripture to be had, unless you were an extraordinarily wealthy Jew with access to what we now know as the Old Testament. Personally, I think a real Christian would welcome the chance to read Dawkins, or Carl Sagan, if for no other reason than for the chance to "prove them wrong."
The problem is, you can't. Not if you're honest with yourself, and honest about what it is you believe. If you can't accept that kind of honesty, you stick to reading Bob Lepine, or Lee Strobel. You continue to read people who will reinforce your preconceived notions about what awaits you after death, ignoring the evidence that once you're gone,
you're gone. It's a convenient fallacy, one which might make you feel better about denying the truth, but it results in the most damnable behavior.
What most Christians want to do, to cop a line from Mike Warnke, is polish their armor or fight each other. They aren't interested in doing what's right; that takes real work, and it means discarding a lot of illusions, such as the notion that God wants you to be a rich SOB, and requires you to deal with people who are unsightly, smelly, disagreeable, in pain, and suffering. It means Jesus' work as cited in the Bible must be continued in this age, which is expensive, uncomfortable, and sometimes dangerous. Hungry people, people who are suffering, prisoners, the naked, and the homeless, are not always the kind of company you find in a church on Sunday. They don't have Sunday best clothes to show up in.
There are Christians who do this kind of work. I knew many as I was attending churches in ages past, but I was also informed that my service was either not required, (in other words, Get Lost), or not welcome, (in other words, Get Lost.) It was part of someone's turf, and they wanted to defend it.
Not that my turf, such as it was, was safe from predation, and there were pastors who asked me to take on a task, only to do all they could to undercut me. After a while, it got old. And I was getting older, and not willing to put up with this continued bullsh**.
People like this have become obsessed about an apocalypse to come. I have no doubt that there will be one; man is far too stupid. But this isn't something I'm willing to wait for, nor is it something I see as positive. While the devout among the evangelicals are content to claim that memory of us will be blotted out once we've shuffled off to eternal misery, I never could bring myself to accept it. Maybe that's why I've been able to leave that kind of hateful lie. I am far too aware that there is real misery to be experienced by real people. I cannot turn my eyes away, and in part, the reason for this is I've seen what the members of this board can do when they get rocking. I have benefited from the help of others on this board, and I've seen how others have as well, and I can only look at the liars like Christian Dude and Kurious Kathy, DOC, Oneinchrist, and countless others who have come to preach and say simply, "You are damned well welcome to your apocalypse. I refuse to participate."
I choose to live.
Grovelling before some hairless ape who subjects the innocent to spiritual blackmail in the name of salvation is not my idea of Life. Life is making mistakes and learning from them. It's moving forward, not clinging to what's behind. It's about simplicity, not complex mind games and rituals. It's about fairness and justice, not manipulation and deceit.
It's about doing what's right, not endlessly discussing what we think is right. It's about courage, and it's about compassion. If the vicious clods who are pounding away at the author of the post cited in the OP had any compassion, they wouldn't be perpetuating the mental abuse that has become faith in Christ. There would be something that resembles hope, and nothing that would provoke a child to plead for death, a sure and certain sign that the whole business is one of abuse and cruelty.
There are better ways to live a life. I would hope the author would recognize that.
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