ILLOGICAL CHRISTIANS BY A CHRISTIAN
JLD, 6/1/10, Revised: 6/4/10
Inconsistencies in our belief systems come from dozens, hundreds or even thousands of years of mixing & blending of old ideas with the new. We often fail to be consistent and we veer off track, especially when we find that our model of the world has exceptions, inconsistencies and flaws. So we make something up, take something from our enemies’ propaganda script and voila--all better!!
But, shucks, now we have created an illogical belief system, but instead of losing followers we gain many more. How can this be, are human beings comfortable and most at home in contradiction? It would seem that we love that tension between our beliefs and reality. This tension gives us freedom, the freedom to create our own amendments to our belief system. We maintain our independence; because you can’t expect us to follow the morality of a flawed system, can you? I’ll just do what I desire, rebel a little and I will seem like I’m my own person, not under the control of anyone. No one may control me unless they are paying me and it is work related. God is no longer in control, not especially through any religion, spirituality, or morality. Let's be careful, because God requires obedience.
[Exodus 20:10, Deut. 5:10, Neh. 1:9 & John 14:15]
THE ILLOGIC OF AMERICANS FOLLOWING HINDUISM
OR NEW AGE SPIRITUALITY
HINDUISMS SAY:
My ego, my I, my very name & self awareness is causing me to believe that I am a mortal human being. How silly, to believe in reality for I am actually a part of God’s dream. God is an energy field and He is not moral in the judgmental sense. He lets me sin and do good and I am reborn until my reincarnated body is so pure I become a guru and maybe I become an Avatar or merge with God. It’s like I’m a drop of water and I merge with the ocean or water unwelcomed, unneeded, unheeded. So the self or ego is bad and God doesn’t have an I, He is not I Am, but an It and we must strive to be like It. God has no body, so bodies are probably bad, that’s where our problem lies. So we must strive to purify our generic soul, human, animal, male or female, it’s all one soul. So our fellow human beings should meditate, like me and mind his/her own business. You should not expect too much charity or assistance from me, because your karma says, you must be prepared for the next reincarnation and helping you would only hinder your path. You must suffer it’s your destiny and probably caused by your own sins from past lives.
AMERICANS & HINDUISMS
Americans, influenced by Hinduism or fatalism want to be more selfish, since they’re such a generous people, and they have so many things to buy, so much education to pay for, so much to learn, so many social experiences, so many sexual experiments and so many vacations to experience. Believing they are God or a god helps them to violate the morality of their past religion or present religion. God can’t sin, "It" does what ever comes naturally, so we can forgive & justify our foolish and self destructive behavior. Actually sinning will help us to get rid of the desires to sin, according to karmic sciences. We sin so excessively that eventually we’ll experience on a deeper level how foolish it all was and we won’t do it anymore and in the next life the issue won’t come up again. Yeah! We have guilt free sinning, as long as we can believe the Hindu story, even though there is no earthly scientific proof that it’s true.
The Hindus take their philosophy of Hinduism very seriously and they have multiple rituals and life stages that an American would find abhorrent, but that’s okay, the Americans just take what they want and leave the rest behind. They don’t want to bathe in the Ganges, be stuck in a caste system as an "untouchable", be vegetarian, have an arranged marriage or be a woman, who are second class citizens. Americans retain their belief that, “We only have one life and we better live it to the full”, even if they believe in reincarnation. They choose their own wedding partner or choose to live without marriage, with or without sex or outside sex partners. They are concerned with their material wealth instead of focusing on the spiritual health of society and themselves. The practicing Hindu would consider that a selfish attitude and an assault on society.
THE FLOW OF LOGIC OF EACH SEPARATED STRAND OF FOREIGN BELIEF WILL LEAD TO
A DIFFERENT CONCLUSION THAN OUR BELIEF SYSTEM TEACHES.
"GOD IS A FORCE, AN 'IT' & IT IS NOTHING MORE."
If God is an It, the Force is neither good nor bad, therefore there is no reincarnation, therefore no karma, no rebirth, no need to develop the inner spiritual life, no need to hate the body or assume that there is a pure spirit within us, but just an impersonal Force. We die and the force either goes into the animation of another human or creature or it goes back to the god Force. We can spend our lives in criminal or saintly behavior and we die our body rots and we’re just a life force that moves on.
CONCLUSION
This theory that God is impersonal found in the philosophy of Hinduism, Buddhism, Existentialism & Atheism destroys the need for discipline, morality, rewards or punishments or facilitating the merging with God. Why would you try to improve yourself, because eventually after enough reincarnations you would become good enough to merge with God? Then God must be directing your pathway to the good & so He can't be impersonal. If He is personal then, you would want to befriend & even love Him. Jesus is loving & personal & He is my God.
SOCIETY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE INDIVIDUAL
Hinduism, Marxism, Socialism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam all say:
Our Society is above the individual. If society collapses then the selfish, weak & unorganized citizens will be at cross purposes, chaos results and greater suffering will result. We will be primitive, superstitious and not advance any societies’ or any religion’s cause. God is an organizational God. Religion is organizational. Atheism is organizational. Humans desire organization. Humans will worship themselves, which is pointless unless others are forced to worship them too. Humans will worship humans, like in ancient Rome, Greece or modern Communism. Humans will worship gods or God. No matter which societal system it is, it often includes forced labor, mind control and domination to motivate humans to great feats of wonder and terror. Too much freedom breeds individuality and laziness, selfishness and aimlessness and societies suffer. Christianity does a terrible job at controlling most of it's followers, whether the motivation is love or fear of Hell. Although compared to other systems of control, Christianity still shines as the best & cheapest method to create lawfulness & cooperation. You'll need less policing & imprisoning if you create & enforce the Christian morality with or without the cooperation of Christians.
CONCLUSION
Society is more motivating and successful in developing and completing great projects by getting individuals to work together efficiently. If great project are beneficial then society is necessary.
If, individualism is the best thing then society is a curse and should be forbidden.
Hinduism is for Hindus, Buddhism for Buddhists, Jainism for Jains, Taoism for Taoists and they are all incompatible with American individualism, materialism, and beliefs in one life. Why do Americans & Europeans raised as Christians meditate if they don't believe in an afterlife. If life is so short & there is no hell it's a waste of time? These Eastern philosophies of living might be used to lower materialism & the break up of the family, but you can do that with a Western religion or on your own. Even though New Age Americans say they believe in reincarnation, their fear, anxiety and depression expose their self-delusion. For, if they were truly unattached from their ego & the material world they would escape from the "rat race". If they realized they were spirits, souls or gods they would love poverty or any situation, for the good of society, family and their spiritual growth. Americans shouldn’t play with alien religions. They make a mockery of Hinduism & Buddhism & so it’s not beneficial for them in the long run.
THE ILLOGIC OF CHRISTIANS BELIEVING THAT RELIGION IS ILLOGICAL
THE CHRISTIAN BIBLE IS THE ONLY AUTHORITY FOR PROTESTANT CHRISTIANS
That’s easy to disprove. When a theologian or seminarian goes to Bible College is the Bible the only book they need for all their courses? No. Case closed. You study the Bible, plus: the ancient texts, plus the Bible languages in secular and religious history, you study the writings that didn’t get accepted or were written after words, for example the Church Fathers, Ignatius of Antioch, Justin Martyr, Origen, St. Augustine. You might read the extra Biblical books: The Didache, The Letter of Barnabas, The Shepherd of Hermas, etc. The doctrine of Sunday, as the Lord’s Day is established as the habit of the 1st century Christians, but in the Bible it’s not as definite. Historically it wasn't written into law until Emperor Constantine in the 4th Century, so they were following the traditions of those around them. Did they all have printed Bibles? No, they memorized as much of whichever book or piece of Scripture they could buy, borrow or memorize in synagogue.
You might also study, for direction and inspiration, the founders of the Protestant movement: Martin Luther, Zwingli, Calvin & Wesley for past doctrines of the Protestant churches, which are usually slightly modified or rejected today. Luther prayed to the Virgin Mary and considered himself a Roman Catholic, even after he renounced their errors in doctrine and practice. Modern Protestants say it's idolatry or Mariolatry to pray to Mary, but Luther did. If he was so changeable why should you follow him? I mean he decided that his belief in the Roman Catholic Church was wrong & that his judgment had been faulty....If a theologian discovers any new doctrine that violates the codes, covenants, catechisms, dogmas or doctrines of the church then a duly formed Official Board of experts must work all of it through to maintain the specific brand of Catholicism or Protestantism, modernize it according to scientific and social advances & find their conclusions based in the Bible. Well, you may object that, "The Holy Spirit inside the individuals keep us on track, we don't need churches & theologians". The individual has the Holy Spirit yet unless he's on a committee that is writing the new edition of the Bible or on a doctrinal team at the highest levels of his Church organization then he/she won't come to the same conclusions as the those chosen by God for this specific & very important work. Yes, that is a good argument, since who knows the plans of God. Changes in church tradition & doctrines might seem chaotic to us but, maybe that's for God's greater historical purpose. Maybe God wants so many individual church groups that split and separated to ultimately come back together again. Maybe there are so many individualistic Christians that God allows for so many new denominations. The understanding of the Bible has evolved for the good and sometimes for the bad. The modern world is facing challenges to religious faith, because of technology, the expansion of the middle class, the confusion caused by so much knowledge that can't be fully understood, the busyness of modern life & the fall of Jewish & Christian morality in that used to have a positive influence on all societies all around the world.
Is the individual American Christian concerned more with this first or the next second life?
“We only one mortal life to live” or the Bible’s proclamation that, “There is a second perfect immortal physical life coming”?
SOME SIMPLE CHRISTIANS TEACH THAT ALL LYING IS EVIL
[A PET PEEVE]
Some teach that to find Salvation, you just have to believe in Jesus Christ and you will be saved.
Then, they tell you,
“You have to be baptized, then you have to confess Jesus to others, then you have to forgive others, then you have to confess your sins and repent, then you…but you can’t work or do anything to merit Heaven.”
This is double talk either you have to believe, repent, be baptized and do other works or you don’t. This is a deception, a lie, a simplification, not called for by Jesus in the Bible. This is a lie. Stop lying and maybe your beliefs will be logically consistent. Don’t start evangelizing by lying. The part of Billy Grahams' preaching I like is when he says something similar to this (Paraphrase):
“I don’t fully understand the Trinity or why someone dies young or the Fall of Satan or Adam & Eve, but I have faith that the Bible is the truth and Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.
My finite mind can’t understand the infinite mind of Christ as a fact, but only by faith”.
I like his humility and he doesn’t apologize for doctrines that we don’t like. We are sinners. God is a personal God. Our body is good, but we can’t use it to sin or we risk separating it and spirits from God. In the New Testament the churches & laity were struggling to maintain their morality and correct doctrines of Jesus. All humans & churches sin & all lie. Nitpicking by me may be helpful or harmful but, let’s be perfect, because God is perfect and He's our example. Holiness is close to Godliness.
SCIENCE, SELFISHNESS AND CHURCH DOCTRINES
We first have to define science into two branches: Hostile Atheistic Science and Non-Philosophic Science. The first one is hostile to all religions and is competing for the minds and hearts of individuals. The second one doesn’t create myths, stories of philosophies about the results of a test tube experiment in the basement of a college, it just reports statistical results.
NON-PHILOSOPHIC SCIENCE
Non-Philosophic Science is neither, the friend nor the enemy of any religion, philosophy or spirituality. It does its work, oblivious to the net effect its discoveries and theories will have on the religious. It neither approves of nor condemns anyone’s religion, because it does not study metaphysics or religion in the test tube, only physical matter.
If religion fails to explain the modern discoveries of Psychology, Anthropology, Genetics or Medicine to its church people then they are solely to blame. Religion's job is to make religion relevant and to give it meaning. “Why did God allow this discovery and how can we use it in accordance with our beliefs?”
So this type of science is a neutral agent, operating with free will, with an agenda to discover more about the physical world.
HOSTILE ATHEISTIC SCIENCE
This is a philosophy and religion that has co-opted science and incomplete theories to destroy all religion, philosophy and spiritual beliefs on earth. This could be called the Vodka Religion of Despair, for that is what it leads to. The only way to keep from killing yourself with drugs, unsafe behaviors and foolish thoughts is to keep busy attacking the majority of people in the world that worship God. Churches must understand this evil and eradicate & vaccinate against this flawed and viral logic in all of their church members.
Sunday Schools and Home Church Groups must focus on making religion relevant and defending their faith with real logic and memorized statements, etc. Church organizations care more about their congregations living in the suburbs & having a secular college education than Jesus. God is dead last in most Christian Churches. Sunday is a day to soothe the guilty conscience or even berate the congregation without expecting them to put God first, ever.
AS LONG AS YOU BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST
YOU ARE SAVED FROM ETERNAL DEATH
We must stop speaking sentences that are easy to misinterpret. Most Christians, even some liberal ones will say that Jehovah Witnesses, Muslims, Hindus, New Agers & Mormons believe in Jesus, but they have a few doctrines wrong, but the mercy of God intervenes.
Belief in Jesus Christ is not the only criteria for even the demons believe and yet they are all going to Hell.
Let’s divide Christianity into two camps the Liberal Modernists and the Conservative Orthodoxy.
LIBERAL MODERNISTS
The Liberal Modernists, though they come in many flavors, for simplicities’ sake they generally believe:
“The ancient people were unlearned & superstitious nin-com-poops who didn’t understand Jesus and wrote flawed interpretations of him called the 'Gospels' or Good News". Modern sciences have proved the Bible is a pre-scientific book, full of errors, inconsistencies with many fantastic and false stories, which are really simple allegories. There are no true miracles. Jesus wasn’t born of a virgin. God didn’t come to earth in Jesus, as a man, in any way differently than a guru who says he has God in him. Further more, the customs of the time were ignorant and evil. They became frozen in time in the pages of the Bible. We have foolishly incorporated them into modern life with disastrous results, people believe they are sinners, but now we must correct these injustices. We now believe that sex before marriage is okay, divorce is necessary, contraception is practical & religious literalism is harmful. The individual communicates with God directly and doesn’t need a church, never needs a Pope and the Bible is not to be taken too seriously. Women must be fully incorporated into the church. Sexual deviations from the norm must be accepted into the church. Sciences must interpret and temper our understanding of the Bible, because religion and science are equally real and must agree with each other. All religions must be accepted and not forced to believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to Heaven or even that sin or evil exists".
CONSERVATIVE ORTHODOXY
These are the several groups, including Catholics, that in general, believe some fundamental things must be true otherwise Christianity will be destroyed and it is being destroyed. The Bible doesn’t have to have modern scientific values and methods to be true, but it must have historical, anthropological, theological, scientific and religious accuracy and truth for their time period. Some ultra conservative groups are trying to conform the Bible stories to our modern interpretations, as if the cultures, two thousand years apart, meant the same things when they used similar words. Most Christians have accepted that slavery is wrong, but it was the custom of the Biblical times, but it was never praised as a virtue. Many are not so sure that women should preach to men, but there are TV evangelists that are female & even a nun--Mother Angelica. There are “Don’t ask don’t tell” policies that were in place in the 1960’ & 70’s Catholic Churches regarding homosexuality in the priesthood, but now that compromise has nearly destroyed, what modernization hasn’t destroyed. The church must believe that Jesus was fully God and fully man, born of a virgin, died to forgive our sins, opened the gates of Heaven to our spirits; the Trinity, the resurrection, repentance from sin & confession are necessary, abortion is murder of God’s children (Or it is not murder or a human, but a fetus-a potential human, depending on the religion), freedom of religion is as necessary as free will, faith in God’s promises and redemption, baptism, sex only in Christian marriage between a husband and wife, not previously divorced for any non-Biblical reasons & holiness, justice and truth must prevail.
Most people in and out of the liberal Christian Churches will compromise their belief that the Bible is the only true record of spiritual realities. The Christians who are: Catholics & (Protestants) Evangelicals, Conservatives, Pentecostals, Charismatics and Orthodox have realized, on some level, that without sin, redemption, resurrection & even Jesus Christianity would be just another pagan god & a myth. Keep on fighting by presenting the truth till the end.
Courage Brothers and Sisters!
Christianity will fall into sin and error and God's spirit will leave the liberal churches, as it left the Jewish Temple, when Jesus was crucified. Those who truly believe in Jesus' teachings will be an underground minority soon and that is truly sad. We must practice shouting and dancing for joy when we are persecuted for our good works and true preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!! That is a sign that Jesus will come back to earth as King of all earthly Kings and that is a great hope and it comforts Christians everywhere.
Mara natha!! Come Lord Jesus!!!
