New Creations In Christ?

[Brother Jeff]

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. – 2 Corinthians 5:17 KJV

 

 

 

This is one of the first things new Christian believers are taught after they get sucked into the fundamentalist Christian cult, is that they are new creations in Christ, and that their old sin natures are dead and gone, crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20). New believers soon find out, however, that though they are religious now, their old “sin nature” keeps cropping up and interfering with their good intentions to live an exemplary Christian life. The Christian life is depicted as a constant battle between the flesh (the old dead sinful man) and the Spirit (the new man, the new creation in Christ). Paul discussed this spiritual battle at some length in Romans, chapter 7. And Paul reminds us in Romans 8:11: “But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” In Romans 12:1-2, Paul advises us to renew our minds and not to be conformed to the world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

 

But is any of this actually for real? Is there such a thing as spiritual rebirth (John 3:3-7) and transformation (Romans 12:1-2), or is it just something that sounds good on the surface but isn’t actually real? Unfortunately for Christians, the latter happens to be the case. There is no God, and therefore there is no such thing as salvation or spiritual rebirth. There is no Christ to be made new in, and no Holy Spirit to transform their lives and lead them into all truth (John 16:13).

 

So, the Christian life, rather than being a real battle against real spiritual forces (see Ephesians 6:12) (a forged book, by the way) and the old sin nature, is a battle to try to live up to impossible standards. Christians are expected to be “perfect as their Heavenly Father is perfect (See Matthew 5:48). And, of course, every time a Christian believer fails to “be like Christ” and falls far short of the ideal perfection of God, which of course is often, religious fear, guilt, and shame set it. It’s a never ending roller coaster of managing to live right for a while by sheer willpower (though the claim is that it is by the power of God), until, inevitably, a sinful thought or act occurs, and then the believer must ask forgiveness. And then, inevitably, they will sin again, and once again the religious fear, guilt and shame set in, and the believer has to ask for forgiveness. And, of course, believers sin all the time, because nothing about them has changed, expect for the addition of religious beliefs that have the potential to do them a great deal of psychological harm.

 

God is not for real, there is no such thing as sin, and there is no such thing as salvation. Humans have no spirit or soul that needs to be saved or “reborn”. Fundamentalist Christianity is a miserable roller coaster ride of trying and ultimately failing to please God, and the result is many trips through the hellish depths of religious fear, guilt, and shame.

 

No matter how much religious activity a believer engages in (prayer, praise, worship, Bible reading), the result is still exactly the same. After the religious high wears off, it’s right back to the miserable roller coaster ride from hell. Real, lasting positive transformation rarely occurs, and if it does, it is of course due the the person’s own efforts to improve themselves rather than the Holy Spirit transforming them from the inside out.

 

Of course, rather than living lives that are victorious in Christ (see Romans 8), believers are left with the disappointment of still being exactly what they were before they got “saved” — imperfect, fallible human beings. The forged book of 2 Peter claims that we are partakers of the divine nature of God (2 Peter 1:4). But, yet again, it is another false belief and false promise. There is no divine nature to partake of, so believers are left high and dry once again, to live with religious fear, guilt and shame on the spiritual roller coaster from hell.

 

If you are a Christian who happens to be reading this, then please think about it! Aren’t you tired of the sin/repentance sin/repentance roller coaster of religious life? Isn’t it time to jump off of the religious roller coaster from hell, embrace the world as it really is, and live a life of JOY and FREEDOM? The ironic thing is that religious believers are promised a life of blessings and happiness in Christ, but happiness only actually comes, in most cases, when believers walk away from the faith and face the world as it actually is head on, and they learn to accept themselves as they are — imperfect and fallible, but good. There is no God. There is no such thing as sin. There is no such thing as salvation, and there is no Christ to be made new in and grow in.

 

I couldn’t possibly be happier these days as an ex-Christian atheist! I am no longer on that religious roller coaster from hell, and I haven’t been for fourteen years. I am FREE, and you can be too! Glory!

 

LINK: http://religionisbullshit.me/new-creations-in-christ/

[UnFundEd]

Beautifully articulated, Brother Jeff.

 

I attended an evangelical church this morning, and a good share of the service was on this topic - totally, 100% surrendering your life to christ, following Jesus, and getting set free from sin as you do so. The problem is, I did that repeatedly for 50 years - every chance I got, I renewed my total 100% commitment to follow Jesus. I could go into great detail about how totally I bought into this. I was completely sincere throughout that whole process.

 

The problem is, nothing ever really changed. I just learned to repress stuff that wouldn't go over well in a church crowd. And repressing stuff indefinitely does not work in the long run. At the end of the day, it never worked as advertised.

 

The other problem is that "following Jesus" is a ridiculous catch phrase. What it would really mean is that you quit your job without giving any notice, leave your family behind, and then wander around the countryside trying to get disciples to do the same, trying to gather little groups around you so you can share your wild-eyed religious ideas for days at a time without food or water, heal a few people, do a miracle now and then, make end-times predictions that don't come true, tear up a church building occasionally, argue with any religious leaders who oppose you, and generally make such a nuisance of yourself that they eventually arrest you and do whatever to you. That is what following Jesus would really mean. So they don't mean that, they mean something else - be well-behaved and keep your job so you have money to tithe to our church with, etc., etc.

[Margee]

Brother Jeff, Fantastic post!!

 

This is exactly what fucked me up in christianity. I would pray and pray and pray and pray and say the sinners prayer 1,000 times thinking that my heart was not sincere enough. I was so fucked up with this that I left the church and joined the party crowd for 8 years until I lost everything and went back crawling to god to please help me. The next 30 years were the same. Never feeling good enough. Never feeling like the scriptures were for me. Then being told by pastors that I was lukewarm, sitting on the fence, allowing satan to have control of me and on and on and on........

 

I am so happy to be free of that shit today.  I've always tried my best to be loving and kind.  I am  good enough. I always have been. There.....I finally said it!!!!  Thanks for allowing me to pat my own back today Brother!!

 

We're all good enough!!