Castiel233 Posted October 12, 2014 Share Posted October 12, 2014 The Church in decline Generally mainstream churches will not and dare not preach the central doctrines of the Christian faith. That God is an extremely violent and sadist power tripper who intends to send the vast majority of human beings, including children to everlasting fire and suffering on account of the crime of being born in the first place. This message will not sit well. A case in point, here in the UK we have a show called “Songs of Praise” a vapid and tedious program devoted to offering viewers a feel good, isn’t Jesus nice brand of Christianity far removed from the flesh and humanity hating Jesus of the Gospels. Given that churches have to repackage the faith in order to sell it (WBC loons being an exception) does it not occur to them that in watering it down they are accepting how harmful it is? Or is it a case that they really believe it is a nice and fluffy religion based on love. Another couple of cases in point. Again in the UK a couple of years ago Christians hand cuffed and shackled themselves as an apology to the slave trade. This “apology” implies that God was wrong to approve of slavery, denying then the authority of the OT. Churches (some of them) are accepting of gay men despite The Bible calling for them to be killed for being abominations. So the Church moves with the times despite its “authority” being founded on The Bible which is the eternal and immovable word of God It seems to me they are practising a form of non Biblical Christianity based on what they think the Bible teaches or what they think God wants, despite Biblical texts to the contrary. Some hard core Christians will say the central message is Salvation. Yet in the next breath will say that Salvation is a gift and you cannot earn it. God chooses to gift it, or He chooses to withhold it His ways are not our ways. All that we do is rags to Him. He will only answer prayer He approves of. A life devoted to Christ may still mean an eternity in Hell as Jesus says He will deny people even if they work in His name. Given these parameters, what is the fucking point of being a Christian? It s either presented as a wishy washy "how cool is Christ" religion or as a "God has already chosen you for Heaven or Hell" version of a rigged game you cannot win. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellinas Posted October 12, 2014 Share Posted October 12, 2014 The "hard core" Christians to which you refer would usually say that liberal Christianity is not Christianity at all. Your title to this thread would be a nonsense to them - they would say there is no such thing as a non biblical Christian. But of course, this is all a matter of interpretation. Most Christian sects will try to justify their ideas via the usual selective reading of texts and tortuous apologetics. On that basis, no form of Christianity is non biblical - just more or less "literal". And that, of itself, begs the same question you ask in your penultimate sentence. What's the f*****g point, indeed... Christians can't even agree on what they are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikey101 Posted October 12, 2014 Share Posted October 12, 2014 Generally mainstream churches will not and dare not preach the central doctrines of the Christian faith. That God is an extremely violent and sadist power tripper who intends to send the vast majority of human beings, including children to everlasting fire and suffering on account of the crime of being born in the first place. That is your interpretation of the Christian faith. A fundamentalist will think hell is a real place of torture for eternity for everyone who isn't with us, and see others who don't agree as 'denying the truth' or whitewashing the truth. But that's just the truth according to them. Many people see Chritianity very differently than modern fundamentalists. This focus on literal interpretation of the bible started only about 100 years ago. There are actually many different interpretations that don't see it that way. But if you believe you are right and they are wrong about the bible, then to you, your interpretation is truth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Castiel233 Posted October 12, 2014 Author Share Posted October 12, 2014 This is part of the problem, Christians can't even agree on Christianity, what hope for the rest of us! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikey101 Posted October 12, 2014 Share Posted October 12, 2014 Personally I wouldn't want to live in a world where everyone agreed. Diversity is a good thing. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orbit Posted October 12, 2014 Share Posted October 12, 2014 In its defense, I will say that as a refugee from liberal Xtianity like this, my deconversion was a lot easier that people who were in a Bible-based church. It does do less damage, so I'll defend it on those grounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikey101 Posted October 12, 2014 Share Posted October 12, 2014 You're lucky. But one good thing about being steeped in fundamentalist bigotry and one-track mindedness is once you escape you can value things like diversity and 'shades of grey'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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