Christianity is breaking down from within. I was always taught that religion and especially Christianity would be attacked by the outside world and would suffer great persecution by people Like me “Non-Believers” and that this would bring down religion or at least make it very difficult for it to remain out in the open. Those believing would have to “stand strong in the faith.”
Since I have been standing on the outside for a number of years I have seen that this is not what is actually happening. I thought I would put into words what I see happening and you all can contribute what you like.
1. Immorality is taking many members out, so it becomes difficult to maintain the guidelines that many Christian beliefs stand by. This would of course include; paedophilia, homosexuality that is considered debased by Christians, and the very high divorce rate. Addictions also play a big part. Again, it is hard to maintain a righteous standing if one cannot overcome their addictions, and this world is rampant with it. Many though, stay in religion and create a self-righteous façade, and to protect it; do a lot of performance or service work to draw attention away from their; sins under the carpet – “behind a closed door behaviour”.
2. Societal views and influence. It is no longer “cool” in many of the eyes of society to be religious so it casts doubt on the believer.
3. There are countless different Christian views that play a big part in dividing the Christian masses and the adage; “We have the Truth and YOU are misguided!” I read a lot of books by many scholars and theologians. One particular Christian apologetic by the name of: Hank Hanegraaff wrote, “Christianity in Crisis.” I liked aspects of his discussion on why Christianity is indeed in crisis. He broke down all the reasons he believed this is so, and he blames other Faith theology for it.
“This cancer has been triggered by a steady diet of “fast –food Christianity” – a Christianity long on looks but short on substance.” He also says, “Under the banner “Jesus is Lord,” multitudes are being duped by a gospel of greed and are embracing doctrines straight from the metaphysical cults…Eternal truths from the Word of God are being perverted into bad mythology- and all the while Christianity is hurtling at breakneck speed into a crisis of unparalleled proportions.”
I found there to be some truth in what he said, but as is often the case – he attacked other theologians pointing out the splinter in their eyes but not the rafter in his own! Unfortunately, in reading his book there is the self-righteous and superiority attitude that the religious, and especially its leaders have, and one that won’t allow doubt.
4. Many are leaving religion because of the hypocrisy that one views while as a member. That was certainly my case. The so-called love that Christianity promotes is a counterfeit one. I have to mention; that we can certainly see that here on Face Book. How often do we see a thread that starts out as one questioning religion, or controversies with religion, and it turns into a “bait & lure” routine? The OP can be bait to capture interest, while you are lured into the trap of discussing Christianity and its beliefs, and when it makes all the non-believers angry, the Christians scream – “Persecution!” It creates victim situations.
5. Many leave Christianity and other religions for that matter, to search for more accurate truth. Many like me are searching and wanting to learn new information. IMO the apocalypse has been going on for a long time. Apocalypse = a revealing, another words: new light or new information coming out. I have noticed and read many books that have been out the last couple of decades and many that are newer, that reveal contrary information to that of Christianity. Many of these writers are Biblical scholars, and some of them have had to re-adjust their beliefs in light of new discoveries.
Biblical scholar; Bart Ehrman wrote “Misquoting Jesus – The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why.” He started out an evangelical Christian but gained enough insight and information to cause him to question everything he had been taught. Being able to read ancient Greek, Hebrew and Latin and also given access to the ancient writings, gave him more than enough to grapple with.
It was quite astounding for him to learn that there were no original manuscripts of the New Testament! Everything in existence is a copy of a copy of a copy, countless times over, “What we have are copies made later – much later. In most instances, they are copies made many centuries later. And these copies all differ from one another, in many thousands of places…there are more differences among our manuscripts than there are words in the New Testament.” Imagine that! This caused quite a conundrum for him.
Even more so when he discovered that the doctrine he was raised with, the trinity, was added much later to the manuscripts by the theologians living in the 16th century and was a teaching not found in the earliest Greek copies of the NT. A faulty edition would be the foundation of the KJV. He acknowledges that most scholars know this information, but choose to overlook it, or have given up on it. He lists far more in his book, and I recommend all to read it who are interested and those who are not fearful of a challenge!
Add to this: the new understanding of the last couple of decades as to who the actual authors of the Gospels are (or at least 3 of them)! Some of the books in the New Testament are not written by said authors, and this includes Paul(my name sake). So many discrepancies are to be found, now, with the Bible.
A last point from him; “I came to think that my earlier views of inspiration were not only irrelevant, they were probably wrong. For the only reason (I came to think) for God to inspire the Bible would be so that his people would have his actual words; but if he really wanted people to have his actual words, surely he would have miraculously preserved those words, just as he had miraculously inspired them in the first place. Given the circumstance that he didn’t preserve the words, the conclusion seemed inescapable to me that he hadn’t gone to the trouble of inspiring them.”
He and I differ on this! I believe that God inspired the Bible but not for the orthodox reasons that we are taught – and that is: to allow the misquoting of words and the dysfunction of its translations to be a tool that would separate the spiritual from the religious and would eventually cause Christianity to implode!
Let’s please keep this discussion civil and understand that we may not agree. I have been a fundamentalist in my past and can appreciate how hard it is to swallow what I researched and wrote. I am not interested in the religious view as I am very familiar with the reasoning and tactics (about 40 years worth). Actually I am interested in those who have similar findings so that it may broaden my perspectives even further. Many of you are very bright and open, and so I appreciate what you may have to say. Thanks for your attention.
Bright Paul
Since I have been standing on the outside for a number of years I have seen that this is not what is actually happening. I thought I would put into words what I see happening and you all can contribute what you like.
1. Immorality is taking many members out, so it becomes difficult to maintain the guidelines that many Christian beliefs stand by. This would of course include; paedophilia, homosexuality that is considered debased by Christians, and the very high divorce rate. Addictions also play a big part. Again, it is hard to maintain a righteous standing if one cannot overcome their addictions, and this world is rampant with it. Many though, stay in religion and create a self-righteous façade, and to protect it; do a lot of performance or service work to draw attention away from their; sins under the carpet – “behind a closed door behaviour”.
2. Societal views and influence. It is no longer “cool” in many of the eyes of society to be religious so it casts doubt on the believer.
3. There are countless different Christian views that play a big part in dividing the Christian masses and the adage; “We have the Truth and YOU are misguided!” I read a lot of books by many scholars and theologians. One particular Christian apologetic by the name of: Hank Hanegraaff wrote, “Christianity in Crisis.” I liked aspects of his discussion on why Christianity is indeed in crisis. He broke down all the reasons he believed this is so, and he blames other Faith theology for it.
“This cancer has been triggered by a steady diet of “fast –food Christianity” – a Christianity long on looks but short on substance.” He also says, “Under the banner “Jesus is Lord,” multitudes are being duped by a gospel of greed and are embracing doctrines straight from the metaphysical cults…Eternal truths from the Word of God are being perverted into bad mythology- and all the while Christianity is hurtling at breakneck speed into a crisis of unparalleled proportions.”
I found there to be some truth in what he said, but as is often the case – he attacked other theologians pointing out the splinter in their eyes but not the rafter in his own! Unfortunately, in reading his book there is the self-righteous and superiority attitude that the religious, and especially its leaders have, and one that won’t allow doubt.
4. Many are leaving religion because of the hypocrisy that one views while as a member. That was certainly my case. The so-called love that Christianity promotes is a counterfeit one. I have to mention; that we can certainly see that here on Face Book. How often do we see a thread that starts out as one questioning religion, or controversies with religion, and it turns into a “bait & lure” routine? The OP can be bait to capture interest, while you are lured into the trap of discussing Christianity and its beliefs, and when it makes all the non-believers angry, the Christians scream – “Persecution!” It creates victim situations.
5. Many leave Christianity and other religions for that matter, to search for more accurate truth. Many like me are searching and wanting to learn new information. IMO the apocalypse has been going on for a long time. Apocalypse = a revealing, another words: new light or new information coming out. I have noticed and read many books that have been out the last couple of decades and many that are newer, that reveal contrary information to that of Christianity. Many of these writers are Biblical scholars, and some of them have had to re-adjust their beliefs in light of new discoveries.
Biblical scholar; Bart Ehrman wrote “Misquoting Jesus – The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why.” He started out an evangelical Christian but gained enough insight and information to cause him to question everything he had been taught. Being able to read ancient Greek, Hebrew and Latin and also given access to the ancient writings, gave him more than enough to grapple with.
It was quite astounding for him to learn that there were no original manuscripts of the New Testament! Everything in existence is a copy of a copy of a copy, countless times over, “What we have are copies made later – much later. In most instances, they are copies made many centuries later. And these copies all differ from one another, in many thousands of places…there are more differences among our manuscripts than there are words in the New Testament.” Imagine that! This caused quite a conundrum for him.
Even more so when he discovered that the doctrine he was raised with, the trinity, was added much later to the manuscripts by the theologians living in the 16th century and was a teaching not found in the earliest Greek copies of the NT. A faulty edition would be the foundation of the KJV. He acknowledges that most scholars know this information, but choose to overlook it, or have given up on it. He lists far more in his book, and I recommend all to read it who are interested and those who are not fearful of a challenge!
Add to this: the new understanding of the last couple of decades as to who the actual authors of the Gospels are (or at least 3 of them)! Some of the books in the New Testament are not written by said authors, and this includes Paul(my name sake). So many discrepancies are to be found, now, with the Bible.
A last point from him; “I came to think that my earlier views of inspiration were not only irrelevant, they were probably wrong. For the only reason (I came to think) for God to inspire the Bible would be so that his people would have his actual words; but if he really wanted people to have his actual words, surely he would have miraculously preserved those words, just as he had miraculously inspired them in the first place. Given the circumstance that he didn’t preserve the words, the conclusion seemed inescapable to me that he hadn’t gone to the trouble of inspiring them.”
He and I differ on this! I believe that God inspired the Bible but not for the orthodox reasons that we are taught – and that is: to allow the misquoting of words and the dysfunction of its translations to be a tool that would separate the spiritual from the religious and would eventually cause Christianity to implode!
Let’s please keep this discussion civil and understand that we may not agree. I have been a fundamentalist in my past and can appreciate how hard it is to swallow what I researched and wrote. I am not interested in the religious view as I am very familiar with the reasoning and tactics (about 40 years worth). Actually I am interested in those who have similar findings so that it may broaden my perspectives even further. Many of you are very bright and open, and so I appreciate what you may have to say. Thanks for your attention.
Bright Paul
