Author: Adam

Categories
reflections

Are you orthodox?

For many years I have prided myself on calling my belief system “fundamental Christianity.”

The concept of fundamentalism has bad connotations today. The media love to use them wherever they talk of terrorist attacks so sometimes it sounded better for some people when I called myself “orthodox” instead of “fundamentalist” , and although these words are similar in meaning, are not identical.

Fundamentalism emphasizes fidelity to the foundations of something, and religious fundamentalism would mean fidelity to certain foundations of faith. Orthodoxy – from Greek – means exactly “good faith”. In practice, movements claiming to be orthodox tend to pay more attention to the doctrine itself -the principles of their faith, while those that claim to be fundamentalist tend to focus on how beliefs are to manifest in everyday life.

Simply put, orthodoxes will argue over which Bible translation is better, and fundamentalists will argue whether women should wear pants and men should wear long hair😺

This is of course a huge simplification and theoretically orthodoxy and fundamentalism mean more or less the same, I just wanted to introduce both terms a bit and explain that a fundamentalist does not mean a terrorist and an Orthodox does not mean a member of the Orthodox Church (Orthodox is a word that is a literal translation of the word “Orthodox”).

For many years, therefore, I prided myself on my orthodoxy … I considered myself better, because I adhered to the principles that God had set, and others … did not.

At the same time, I had an interesting phenomenon during my disputes with atheists or “dissenters” – I was terribly nervous. It happened that one of the atheists I knew expressed his opinion andI got so nervous that my voice started shaking and I felt like passing out!

After years of learning about myself, I’ve learned that emotions are generally the way most of our mind – the subconscious – communicates with us. They tell us that something is wrong.

There were many logical inconsistencies in my beliefs, many things didn’t make sense, but I tried not to think about them, and I felt great talking to people who shared my opinions, but when someone expressed something else – I felt threatened because more than once this opinion was more consistent and logical than mine.

And suddenly I understood.

Orthodoxy is impossible.

To be orthodox, one must adhere to the principles of “good faith” – and the problem is that there are almost as many types of faith with all its dogmatic nuances as there are followers.

And what I believed in was not the result of my search for God, but only what I heard from someone else.

The “someone else” initially was my parents and the church to which I was forced to attend regularly, and then different people, the ones I met or the authors of books, who were able to convince me of their opinion. In any event, my need to belong to a certain group – something built into each individual – kept me focused on repeating clichés, completely excluding critical thinking.

I also realized that my beliefs were shaped by my surroundings – whether we like it or not, we constantly experience a brainwashing, trying to make us believe in someone else’s opinions and views.

Neither my parents nor any of the people I know encouraged me to rediscover anything. On the contrary. When I participated in Bible study groups and had different opinions than should have, I had only two options – either to stand on the perch and perhaps be called a heretic, and maybe even be expelled from the community, or … pretend to myself that I was wrong , and agree with the rest.

Fortunately, I have a kind of rebel in my genes and, slowly, slowly, I rejected everything I was told to believe, but it took me several dozen years before I really started to think for myself in the field of religion.

Of course, I am not able to define with certainty which of my views were not heard somewhere – with the flood of information from all sides today it is really difficult to say or think something completely original – nevertheless I do not identify myself fully with any philosophy, any current, any theory .

Let me say that again – orthodoxy is impossible.

In order to find out which set of beliefs is the best, we would first need to know all the religions of the world very well … which is probably as feasible as learning all the languages currently spoken worldwide 😹  

We may of course have a set of dogmas that seem most consistent and logical to us, but we must remember that this is not the best faith in the world – only the best for us . It does not give us the right to be above others because we have to remember that we owe our beliefs largely to the place where we grew up.

We can debate whether the Catholic Church or one of the Protestants is better, but if we were born in Egypt, our only dilemma would almost certainly be whether it is better to belong to Shi’ites or Sunnis.

Many scientific theories can be tested experimentally, but faith is not one of them.

During my theological studies I learned that I was an evangelical Christian professing post-tribulation pre-millennialism – these views seemed to me the most correct at that time. I also believed strongly in the so-called rapture – the view that at some point Christ would literally “snatch” His people to heaven and only unbelievers would remain on Earth. I was convinced that this was what Jesus and the apostles taught. The brutal truth was different – this view was formed only in the nineteenth century by a certain John Nelson Darby, and the whole doctrine is based on one and only phrase from 1 Thessalonians.

I have stopped describing myself with any labels, especially that almost all of them are understood differently by different people. Even the term “Christian” for a hundred randomly selected people will have 100 slightly different definitions.

So my orthodoxy, my “good faith” was not identical to that of the apostles!

Jesus and the apostles paid much more attention to how you should treat your neighbor, not what particular dogmas you believe in!

Remind all of this, bearing witness in the face of God, so that you do not fight for words alone, because it will be of no use, / will only be / to the death of the listeners. (2 Tim 2:14)

Blind guides who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel! (Mt 23:24)

If Jesus’ mission was to create an organization in which everyone professes identical dogmas, he would probably write them down in points, clearly and without leaving room for many interpretations. Jesus, on the other hand, quoted the commandments almost only when He wanted to show that those who shout the commandments loudest, obey them least.

He said that he was the Son of God (John 3:18) but also the Son of man (Matthew 19:28); He said “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30) but also said that the Father is greater than He (John 14:28). In general, every Christian tries to understand it somehow, and there is nothing wrong with it, but it is wrong if we put our understanding above others and call them fools or heretics.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t end there, and as history shows, doctrinal differences led to wars and genocide.

Maybe you also profess post-tribulation premilenialism? Or maybe dispensational? Maybe you recognize that post-millennialism is real?

That’s great! However, you fool yourself if you think you are definitely right and others are wrong.

Your views are your views. Many of them, maybe most, may change someday. And what?

God loves heretics.

Jesus was one hundred percent heretic – he preached things different from any religious group that existed at that time.

Paul describes it beautifully in Romans 14. This is one of my favorite Bible passages, although it is rarely discussed in the churches… Think why.

I will end with a few fragments of it.

Who are you who dare to judge someone else’s servant? (…) Let everyone hold on to his conviction (…) So why do you condemn your brother? Or why do you despise your brother? … And keep your own conviction to yourself before God. (Rom 14)

Categories
logic

The only reason you believe in Hell

 

If you believe there is a Hell … why do you believe it? How do you know it really exists?

Did you read about it in the Bible?

Has anyone told you?

Maybe God himself revealed it to you?

Have you read it somewhere?

Is this your own idea? You came up with it by yourself?

Maybe… a little bit of everything?

Many people who believe in the existence of Hell will probably answer ‘yes’ to many of the above questions, but what if the truth is much simpler?

Of course, I will not say with a 100% certainty why you believe in Hell but what I can do is to say why I did.

I believed in Hell for almost 40 years of my life.

I believed in Hell just because…

I was born in Poland.

And no, it’s not a joke. Perhaps just a simplification.

The actual underlying reason is not of course the country you were born, but we’ll get to that soon.

In the second half of 20th century Poland was almost 100% Roman Catholic. The fact that the Pope was Polish did help a lot in maintaining this status quo for many years.

(the caption should actually be ‘a map of Catholic churches in Poland…)

Until I was 20 I hadn’t met any believers who weren’t Catholics, perhaps except for a few Jehovah’s Witnesses and other “sectarians”, as everybody was calling them.

So…  I simply believed in Hell because I was born in a Roman Catholic family at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, and it was in a country that was almost 100% Catholic.

Until I connected to the Internet, which was when I was 21 (yes, the Internet got to Poland quite a few years late, comparing to the USA), I did not even know people who believe otherwise. I knew they existed but they were spoken about as outcasts and treated with contempt.

And believe it or not, you may have been born in the USA, perhaps much later than me, and you were still in the same situation.

If you are religious, especially of any kind of orthodox faith, it’d bet a $100 it was your family, not you, who chose it.

In my country almost 100% people were of the same religion. In your country it might be 30% or maybe even 5%. It doesn’t actually matters. What matters is how many percent of your family and friends were of the same religion.

Very probably it was also close to 100% or just.. all.

 

Religious people usually marry only people of the same religion, and choose friends in the same church they go to. Your religion might be a small minority in your country, but when you were growing up, when your worldview was being formed; you could still be surrounded by 100% people having the same religious beliefs.

Our brain would die of exhaustion if we tried to question everything around us. We learn that if everyone else thinks something’s normal, it is normal.

Have you ever questioned the necessity to breathe?

Is everyone I know breathing? Yes, then I don’t have to think about it, I breathe and that’s it.

Does everyone I know believe in Hell? Yes, then I don’t have to think about it, I believe and that’s it.

But let’s make a little thought experiment.

Let’s change almost any detail in my curriculum vitae:

Let’s move my birth several thousand miles in any geographical direction.

Let’s move it in time a few hundred years back, or just a few decades ahead.

Let’s change my family’s religion.

My chances of believing in Hell drop from 99% to 1%.

I would probably not even hear of Hell! If I was interested in religions perhaps I would just know that there are people out there who believe that after death God will punish them.

And if you heard about Hell for the first time, when you were already an adult, and if someone told you that God is infinite love, teaching all people to forgive everything without limits, turn the other cheek and pay back good for evil… How come this merciful God created a lake of fire where most of His beloved children will fry endlessly, sending the rest of the people to Paradise, where they will feast without ceasing, perhaps graciously taking away their memory of their family and friends suffering indescribable torments …

And if someone had told you all this …

You would say it is

the stupidest story you’ve ever heard!

Inconsistent, pointless, and that there’s no way anyone normal in the world would believe it.

Well, someone does. According to statistics, over 2 billion people are Christians.

Of course – today there are many liberal factions of Christianity that reject the idea of ​​Hell altogether, and even among members of the greatest churches that teach Hell, such as Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, and Baptist – there are more and more people questioning the idea. Not out loud, of course.

Religion likes getting more members. Some members have 2, 3 or even more children – how to make sure they will not run away?

Let’s convince them that all other religions are evil.

Our dogmas sometimes contradict each other… some, maybe lots of things are illogical… well we can’t make them unable to think but we can also try to convince them that doubting is evil as well.

Something you were taught last Sunday didn’t make sense? How can you even say that? Millions of others have believed this for centuries, do you think you’re smarter than them?

These tricks were made to keep you there, to keep going to church, pay your tithe, and some years later – to bring new believers.

My most serious error was believing that God hates it when you question His holy laws.

Stop. The laws are not His. They’re made by people. If God could hate…

He would never hate asking questions

He’d hate that we don’t use the brain He gave us!

 

Everything that was essential I had to say is contained in this one sentence:

 

I only believed in Hell because I was born in Poland.

Categories
Bible

In God’s Image

Do you know the story of a wedding where several participants suddenly passed out?

The priest announced that one of the altar boys would read two verses from the Bible, the first of which was to be especially dedicated to the bride, and the second – to her chosen one.

The latter was never read, because as soon as the altar boy finished reading the first, there was a great commotion in the church. People fainted, screamed, and a few laughed hysterically.

The reason was as follows. The altar server had it written that he should read the verse marked “1 John 4:18.”

He thought it was one verse from the Gospel of John. He did not know that “1” changed its meaning from “John’s Gospel” to “First John” by the name of the book.

The difference was .. more than subtle.

He was to read:

There is no fear in love, but perfect love removes fear (1 John 4: 18a)

And he read:

For you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. (John 4: 18a)

 

Okay, it was supposed to be a joke 😺but it was also supposed to illustrate what disregarding the context leads to. To understand any statement, spoken or written, you need to know its context.

The same word or sentence can mean the most recent things in different contexts. The verse about five husbands was not surprising in the context of Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman in John chapter four, but it caused a panic about the wedding.

I have read seven million books on theology, religion and spirituality in my life. Maybe I’m exaggerating a bit. Top Six Million 😃Anyway – I have read many times how one confession spits on another, accusing him of his theology “taking verses out of context.”

I remember a somewhat primitive example, when one Church accused another of ripping verses out of context, and to illustrate that, they included a cheesy example that was supposed to be funny (I admit that I at the time I did consider it funny).

Throwing silver coins towards the sanctuary, he left, then went and hanged himself. Jesus said: Go, and do likewise! (Mt 27: 5 + Luke 10:37)

LET ME RIP SOMETHING OUT OF CONTEXT AS WELL

Let me do something similar, i.e. put two verses next to each other from completely different places in the Bible.

So God created man in his image, in the image of God he created him: male and female he created. (Genesis 1:27)

God created man in his image.

God is love. (1 John 4: 8b)

So what is man like?

Religion answers – man is a sinful worm, unworthy of being in God’s presence, and the fact that God keeps him alive at all is only due to the fact that God’s mercy is so great that… it is even greater than human abomination.

Today such words are hardly used anymore, most of the churches have revised their language for political correctness, but the theology has remained the same. If, as theology teaches me, eternity awaits me in hell, whether I am called only a “sinner” or “a hideous, unworthy sinner,” the meaning remains the same. There is something very wrong with me if I deserve eternity in a place of torture.

What makes sense to me is that if God created man in his image and likeness, and God is love, then man should also be…

LOVE?

Pure, perfect, perfect love?

That sounds like heresy, doesn’t it?

Now that we’re heretics, be .

Since God created man in his image and likeness, isn’t man, in short…

DIVINE?

If that sounds ridiculous to you, it probably sounded even more ridiculous to the “scribes,” or theologians of the time of Jesus. Not only absurdly, but blasphemously as well, with which they explained their repeated attempts to kill him.

Consider a rather rarely studied passage from the Gospel of John:

Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, You are gods? If / Scripture / calls gods to those to whom the word of God was directed – and the Scripture cannot be rejected, then how do you say: You are blaspheming because I have said: I am the Son of God?
(John 10: 34-36)

Jesus quotes Psalm 82. This Psalm begins as follows:

God arises in the assembly of the gods, judges in the midst of the gods (Ps 82: 1)

In the original language we find the word that is most often used to describe God – Elohim , and is used three times, once in the singular, and twice in the plural. Interesting fact – it does not coincide with the translation, because the number of the word God is often used in a completely different way than in the English language.

God [ Elohim – plural] arises in the assembly of gods [ El – singular)], in the center of the gods [ Elohim] is judged (Ps 82: 1)

Only in the latter case do the grammatical number in Hebrew and English match. Elohim , in addition to the usual plural, is also used as the so-called majestic plural, used to honor someone in a stylistic way.

Psalm 82 is about “judges,” although the translation is misleading. The role of the judges was mainly military; perhaps a better translation would be “generals” rather than “judges”.

Nevertheless, it was about mere mortals who are surprisingly called… gods! I suspect that in the Middle Ages I would have been burned at the stake for simply studying this text😀

This looks squarely blasphemy!

But who is the author of this Psalm putting this blasphemy in his mouth?

God Himself.

It is God who calls people god / gods!

It seems to me that Jesus wants to cut the discussion of the term of titles as it is not beneficial for anyone to argue about words… After all, it is people who give words meaning, and we understand words based on our experiences and knowledge, which are different for every person… quarrel which word is blasphemy and which is not therefore makes no sense.

Even the term “blasphemy” is understood differently by everyone. However, if Jesus has not condemned any blasphemy anywhere, I suggest following His example!

Let’s go a little further in this crazy reasoning. Let me ask a seemingly stupid question.

Are children human?

This is a rhetorical question, but the idea behind it is, I think, worth rethinking.

A forty-year-old man with a doctorate who climbed Mount Everest, is an honorary blood donor and fluently speaks five languages, has a child who at first cannot even speak… Does anyone question the quality of this child? Does anyone say the child is inferior to its parent?

Nobody in their right mind and even a cursory knowledge of the world questions that the quality or nature of a person depends on his skills, health or skin color.

Is it not somewhat strange that religion paints a picture of man as someone quite different in character from that of his Father in Heaven, his Creator?

A human child is a human being, not some vile caricature of him.

So why does religion treat man so badly?

If you don’t know what’s going on, it’s about money.

 

Religion teaches us that we are worthless, sinful, and loathsome, and deserve the worst pits of hell, and our only chance of salvation lies in obeying religious commands and prohibitions.

Of course, they are often complex, contradictory or even impossible to implement… It is not the point, after all, for a man to come once and learn everything. It is important that he comes every Sunday and throws it on the tray.

Which version do you find more logical?

  • God is love, and our Creator and Father, so we are dirty, sinful, unworthy even of His gaze.
  • God is love, so we are too.

Most religious people will identify themselves with the first answer. And changing such thinking is… finding the right word is not easy here… because ordinary “difficult” is too banal… extremely, hellishly, extremely difficult.

Everyone brought up in religion, especially those who are devoted to religion, have a kind of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). If you are told from childhood that you are evil and sinful, it will be engraved in your consciousness very, very deeply. Like their parents’ children, who are often called stupid, they are very rarely successful in science.

 

Do you know the book by Robert Fulghum “All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten“?

Its title carries a truth that developmental psychology has only learned in recent years:

Man’s worldview is formed in the first 6-7 years of life.

Of course, since the child lacks the ability to think abstractly, little is understood deeply, but the child has already entrenched in both consciousness and subconsciousness such issues as “are people good or bad?”, “Is this world friendly to me or not?” – and most importantly, “am I good or bad?”

Even when years later, a person rejects harmful religious dogmas, they can be so deeply imprinted in the mind that help, for example in the form of therapy or hypnosis, will be necessary, but the first step is to realize that as children of God we are like Him!

Not only beloved, not only accepted, but similar to HIM, just like children are like their parents!

Man, yes, is capable of doing enormous evil, but paradoxically, religion very often contributes to it – if we are told from the cradle that we are dirty, sinful and evil… won’t we behave like that?

For in him he chose us before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless before him (Eph. 1: 4)

We are holy and unblemished not because of what we do or do not do – otherwise we would lose this status and regain it every now and then, depending on what we have just done or thought, which is a total absurd! We are holy and blameless because we are God’s children!

 

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Categories
Bible

Parable of the Lost Son

 “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. (Luke 15:11-12)

I love the precision in the Bible!

You won’t find a word that is there by mistake. And usually there’s more than meaning to everything. Most passages can be studied many times and each time something new can be discovered!

On top these multiple interpretation levels there are also mystical levels, impossible to get to through regular studying! But let me get to the point.

I have always considered the Parable of the Lost Son (PLS) to be one of the greatest stories in the Bible. It is also known as the parable of the Two Brothers, Loving Father,  Forgiving Father, or of the Prodigal Son, the latter being most popular, but in my opinion also being the worst, putting emphasis on what’s not the most important there).

Every now and then I got to discover some new level of the story… Initially I only understood that the parable was telling us that no matter how bad we screw up, if we repent – whatever that word meant – God will forgive us.

Then, thanks to one the books, I can’t remember for sure but I think it was John MacArthur’s, I realized that if the father in the story is to depict God… then God is much more loving that what’s preached in churches. At least the churches I went to.

Father runs to meet his son (Luke 15:20b) though in those times running in public was regarded as lacking dignity and was considered faux pas. Basically only slaves ran.

Here however I’d like to focus on some other details. Three little details which helped me change the way I see God.

DETAIL 1
“I don’t need your apologies”

 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

“But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. (Luke 15:21-22)

The son prepared an apologetic speech. We can all probably identify with this and many a time we have prepared one for someone we mistreated.

If we wronged someone really bad – like the parable – the process of apologizing may look like this:

    1. Person A hurts person B
    2. B is offended at A
    3. A apologizes B
    4. B feels too hurt to forgive and doesn’t feel like listening
    5. After some time A repeats their apology (sometimes points 3 to 5 repeat many times which may last many years)
    6. B officially forgives A though still having a grudge and the relationship between them is not how it used to be (and this as well may last years)
    7. B forgives A from the bottom of their heart, doesn’t remember the fault and the relationship comes back to the original state (and this unfortunately may never happen)

This is how it looks between people.

What really struck me in PLS one day is realizing the points 2-7 from the above list never took place!

“The son said to him”.. But the father isn’t listening! Interrupts his son! The son had decided to give a speech how unworthy he is and then ask for letting him work but not as a son but as a common worker. The father isn’t letting him finish though.

He’s not answering, not even listening, just yelling to the servants “bring him some clothes and shoes!”

His heart is filled with joy!!!

A religious god would say, “Well, you have sinned badly and now for some time you’ll need to work hard to atone for your sins… let me “bless” you with a few illnesses, and after you suffer a lot here on Earth I will also lock you in purgatory for 5 million years, and after you’ve paid for your sins, I will take you back”.

It is not happening.

God’s heart is filled with joy when He sees us… when we speak to Him… actually, anything we do! He doesn’t remember past issues!

 

Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more (Hebrews 10:17)

 

DETAIL 2

“Everything I have is yours (Luke 15:31)

 

I am pretty sure that these words aren’t without a deeper meaning!

 

One of the words that are on almost everybody’s mind is LACKING. I lack time, money, health. I lack, I don’t have enough or… don’t have at all. Marketing departments of the largest companies in the world are mostly responsible for this. No one will buy something unless they realize they LACK IT.  Lack something they badly need.

It seems we totally lost the difference of meanings between the words “need” and “want”.

I need a car to drive to work. Not any car because it wouldn’t be reliable and might break. Nor a battered or my neighbors will laugh at me. Not a cheap one or I won’t be able to show off. Not older than 5 years or my kids will be ashamed of me as I pick them up from school.

My work is only 5 minutes on foot. What I need is legs. A car is something I want.

 

We are told by omnipresent advertisements that we need cars, watches, brand clothes, vacations in exotic countries, sophisticated dishes and such a comfort that we won’t even have to get out of bed to get anything we want.

This culture of lack, apart from advertising, is also proclaimed by religion. The churches have learned that they will best attract us to them if we are persuaded that we are lacking many things that these churches are supposed to help us obtain.

We’re told we lack God’s forgiveness, God’s grace, love. We ourselves are deficient; we lack good deeds, a pure heart, and love for our neighbor.

God is telling you – that’s not true. Everything that is mine is yours. If you needed anything, it would mean that I am either an unloving Father or a weak Father!

And I am perfect and infinitely loving.

Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present nor future, nor powers, nor high, nor deep, nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 8: 38f)

 

DETAIL 3
you are worthy!

“I am no longer worthy to be called your son” (Luke 15: 19a)

“we will feast and party because this son of mine …” (Luke 15: 23b-24a)

 

My fault, my fault, my very great fault…

Lord, I am not worthy for you to come to me…

 

These two passages are repeated hundreds of millions of times in different languages ​​in churches around the world every day.

People are taught that they are loathsome worms, and that the most logical thing to do is for them to be trampled by God, but God, however, in His infinite goodness, decided not to trample us… if we fulfill some quite difficult conditions.

God the Father in PLS , however, is different. He doesn’t even comment on his son’s words “I am not worthy to be called your son” – because they are so preposterous – a son is a son and will always be worthy to be called a son, and nothing will change that! Legally speaking, even here on Earth sonship cannot cease… One can cease to be someone else’s husband or wife, one can renounce the citizenship of a given country, but no one can cease to be a child of their parents!

So how could a perfect God stop calling His children children? How could he turn away from them, forget about them, throw them into some hell and torture them without listening to their pleas for help and rescue?

Only a religious idol is capable of such things. But it’s not real. It doesn’t exist.

The God that exists is the God that Jesus told us about. God who sends rain on all thirsty people, regardless of their religion, education, skin color or number of offenses committed.

He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. (Matthew 5: 45b)

PLS has many more threads. The attitude of the second son is also fascinating. Later his father comes to him, too, although according to local customs it was also surprising. But that’s a topic for another article, and many books can be written about PLS. Which, moreover, was done. God is a loving Father. Love is the opposite of fear. So God is the last person in the world you are to fear.

Smile! You are safe in  the Hands of Love!

Categories
Bible

I was wrong

Feeling and faith speaks louder to me
than the wiseman’s glass and eye
(Adam Mickiewicz, a Polish poet from the 19th century)

I’ve been doing computer programming since I was a child. Yes, really, I was 6 or 7 when I started. Thus, programming is very close to me and without realizing this, I often try to implement its rules in all of my life.

It’s usually beneficial!

The most important part of programming is the idea. Then you need to dissect it into all smallest possible steps, and then write the code, which really is the easiest part of the process.

I have been trying to apply this MO to the way I read and interpret the Bible but I forgot about one little detail.

According to the common rules of biblical exegesis you need to make sure, that the text is translated correctly, then you need to get to know its historical and cultural context.

I was sure it was enough.

I was wrong.

It seems 2+2 is always 4, at least this is what a vast majority of people would answer.

Not all, though.

Mathematicians would ask which numeral system we’re talking about. For decimal one 2+2 = 4, but 2+2 in a ternary one is actually 11.
Most people would never think that 2+2 can be read in a system different than decimal. The numeral system was a detail, a detail barely anyone would care to ask.
Well, there is a detail which should be taken into consideration while reading the Bible.
This detail is…

MYSTICISM

I used to dislike this word. When I heard it I thought about a boring, ascetic life, where there is only one interesting, though not a very pleasant one, aspect – paranoid visions.

But it doesn’t really define mystics. They are people who, apart from analyzing all “hard facts”, i.e. facts which can be validated in a repeatable way, also analyze information from the spiritual world.

They get the information by various ways – through intuition, messages from “other worlds”, divination etc.

There are many ways one can practice mysticism, but all mystics agree in one thing:

To be able to understand, or at least hear, mystic knowledge, you need to find a way to separate yourself from this world.

Praying, meditation, fasting, looking for answers in dreams, using some psychoactive substances – it all opens (to be precise – it is able to open) our mind to information which we normally would not be able to understand, or even be aware of.

Mystical practices were a part of lives of all…

…biblical writers!

I used to think that having all these wonderful tools that today are offered – biblical programs, interlineal translation, lots of great Internet websites – I can erase the abyss that divides my world and the world of people who wrote down the Bible, and this – understand it well.

I was wrong.

Knowledge about language and culture can definitely help but there is one small detail left..
As little one as the numeral system of the equation I was talking about.

We can create a lot of equations which will be true in both decimal and ternary system: 1+1=2, 2*1=2, 1+0=1, 2/1 = 2 etc.
And also many biblical messages can be easily understood by people having nothing to do with mysticism.

Some can’t, though.

My perspective entirely changed after I had a mystical experience. Some passages that I hadn’t been able to understand – suddenly became clear.

You don’t have to understand all of the Bible to be happy. But, if would like to understand it – especially, if there are some passages you’ve given a lot of work to which still confuse you – I wholeheartedly encourage you to practice things which will bring us closer to the state of heart and mind that belonged to the people who were its authors.

I was wrong then… assuming that all you needed was enough of “computing power” which means analyzing facts.

Am I wrong now? By all means this is absolutely possible! My only belief that I never question is that I… question all of my beliefs!

I started this blog with a quote, but to be able to really agree with it I would need to change one word. Science and mysticism are not contradictory, they complement each other!

Feeling and faith speaks more to me
than the wiseman’s sole glass and eye

Adam Nonmickiewicz 😺

 

Last edited – 13 January 2022

Categories
Bible

who stands firm to the end will be saved…

Everyone has their eureka moments. Something that was not understood suddenly seems simple. A philosophical concept that sounded ridiculous is now obvious. A religious dogma one was forced to believe now flows from their heart. Calculus is comprehensible.

(I wish the last thing were fully true for me).

One of my eureka moments took place when I understood what Jesus was talking about when he mentioned “standing firm to the end.”

These words are often mentioned when the subject of salvation is discussed. To be clear – salvation understood as not going to hell and living happily forever in Paradise.
Most Christians, especially those of the Protestant part of the Church, claim that once you believe in Jesus – you’re saved. But…

what happens then?

There are 3 main options.

 

  1. You can’t lose salvation. No matter what you do, you’ll be saved.
  2. Your salvation depends on your faith. If you stop believing, you won’t be saved anymore.
  3. You salvation depends on your works (or faith and works) – if you choose to keep on sinning, you will lose your salvation.

 

Those who believe that the third (sometimes the second) option is correct will usually quote these words:

who stands firm, will be saved

This subject, unlike lots of others discussed on this website, is really simple. All we need is a quick peek in the Bible.

The phrase is found 3 times in the Bible, twice in Matthew, once in Mark.

 

You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. (Matthew 10:22)
but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved (Matthew 24:13)
Everyone will hate you because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. (Mark 13:13)

I studied these passages in their original language, and – sparing you the details – there’s nothing unusual there, all 3 texts use the same Greek words. The verb “hupomeno” means to stand, persevere, endure and there are no major differences between various translations.

Plain vanilla.

The next step is to study the context of the verses. And here we also get a very similar set and setting in all 3 verses. Let’s take a closer look at the context of the first example, from Matthew 10.

Jesus calls the 12 Apostles, giving them the power of healing and casting out evil spirits.
Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.
These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions:

Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel.
Matthew 10:1.5-6

It seems pretty exciting! The power of healing – wow! There is one big problem, though.

Persecutions.

From verse 14 Jesus foretells rejection, false accusations, court trials and even death. Amongst these… he says these very words: “he who stands firm to the end will be saved.”

Then he adds, “When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another.”

Can you see any evidence Jesus is talking about afterlife?

I can’t.

Clear as daylight, Jesus talks to THOSE very people, not us, about THOSE times, not “the end of times”, THOSE specific persecutions, not hellfire.

 

The word “salvation” is mostly used in the religious sense but in Greek this word is as common as the verb that it’s coming from – to save. Saving has as many meanings in Greek as it does in English and only context can tell if I am saved from hell, from death or from a silly inconvenience.

 


Or from something that has to do with computers 😺

In the context of the passages containing the phrase “stand firm to the end” there is not a single hint indicating it may refer to afterlife.

What it is about then?

In the beginning of year 70 the army of Titus surrounded Jerusalem and, after 7 months of fighting, conquered the city, destroyed its buildings (including the Temple) and murdered a shocking number of people – different sources vary much, from almost 100,000 to over a million, but anyway it was a terrible massacre.


Many scholars, mostly these studying works of Joseph Flavius, an ancient historian, claim there were no Christians among the victims because Christians believed in Jesus’s words and escaped the city before the slaughter happened.

Hmm… Believe Jesus and you will live. Does it ring a bell?

What if… just what if… Jesus never talked about the eternal life?

Read these 2 passages carefully again:

Be on your guard; you will be handed over to the local councils and be flogged in the synagogues. On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

“Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. (Matthew 10:17-22)

But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. They will hand you over to synagogues and put you in prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. And so you will bear testimony to me. But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. Everyone will hate you because of me. But not a hair of your head will perish. Stand firm, and you will win life.

“When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country not enter the city. (Luke 21:12-21)

 

There are too many similarities to find this all coincidental! Without doubts in all passages above mentioned Jesus is talking about the same event! Beginning from Luke 21:20 Jesus is warning about  the siege of Jerusalem and tells his listeners to flee!

It is not about hell may find yourself in one day. It’s about the siege of Jerusalem.

Yes, the salvation he mentions is not for your soul. It was for Jews that were in Jerusalem in AD 70.

And none of this has anything to do with us.

These parts of the Bible are often mentioned in books and used to scare people but I do not personally think we are in danger of the attacks of the Roman army!

For many years I strongly believed Jesus talked about the end of the world but it’s not anything I myself figured out after studying the Scriptures! I was given the interpretation accepted by Church and mocked every time I tried to question it.

All I needed was to open the Bible and spend a few minutes reading with an open mind. But why would I question something literally everyone I knew believed in?

 

When almost 100% of your friends and relatives have the same religious beliefs, stepping up is a challenging task. No one wants to be rejected, no one wants to be publicly mocked. And there are still many countries where changing your religion brings a risk of imprisonment or even death.

This fear from possible persecutions turns off our thinking.

 

Free thinking has been more and more popular recently but it will probably take decades till the old patterns die out.

 

You don’t have to wait for others though. You don’t have to believe what your Church says just because she says she’s trustworthy. And you don’t have to trust this article no matter how brilliantly it is written and well-argued (just kidding 😊)

Just open the Bible, imagine you have never read before..
…and read.

As the result they may kick you out of your Church. Maybe someone will stop talking to you. Many people are very proud of their religious beliefs and they identify themselves with them so any attempt to change them will be treated as a murder attempt.

Don’t give up though! You may never be happy living in the world that was created by someone else!

Religion is a jail but no one keeps you there anymore unless you let them!

Last edited 3/14/2022

 

Ps. Google automatic translations became recently so good that I decided to add them to my main Polish blog – www.pewnosczbawienia.pl – it has many more blogs than this one – feel free to check it out!

Today: 11 Total: 246139
Categories
Bible

The Sacrifice of the Cross


Sebastian thought he had to start over. He had no other choice. After his partner stole all their money and disappeared his past due rent was getting bigger and so was his almost maxed credit cards.

Then out of blue he met a guy, Andrew, and when Andrew heard about his problems he said it wouldn’t be a problem to lend him the sum that was just about right.

It was actually more than he needed for covering the debts and he was able to open a new company.

Unfortunately it was a terrible time for business. His company went broke soon. And it turned out Andrew wasn’t the guy’s real name. Perhaps it was Andrei, or Andi, or… something else. It turned out he had a lot of friends and at least half of them were behind bars or wanted by the FBI.


Sebastian started getting visits, emails and phone calls from random people. With serious threats concerning himself and his family.
And then a miracle happened! Grace, Sebastian’s wife, met a close friend she hadn’t seen in years. It turned out the friend got married to an incredibly rich guy and when she found out about Sebastian’s problem, she didn’t take no for an answer, just cut the check for all the money that was owed.

 

Sebastian cashed the check and brought the money to Andrei.

 

Andrey seemed happy. He opened his safe, put all the money inside and looked at Sebastian.

 

– All right, I forgive you your debt – said Andrei
– Say what? – Sebastian thought he didn’t understand
– I forgive you your debt – repeated Andrei
– What debt? – Asked Sebastian – I had one debt with you and I just paid it off
– I don’t know where that money came from, if it was stolen or whatever, but it doesn’t matter now, I told you – your debt is forgiven! I’m a good guy! By the way, can we be friends now? You haven’t introduced me to your wife and kids yet!

 

Sebastian didn’t understand anything Andrei said. Forgiven debt? Good guy? Andrei had threatened to break all his bones.
Stop for a second. Read what Andrei had just said one more time. Does it make any sense at all?

Nope.

It’s not hard to conclude.

But there is a theory with a very similar logic that is accepted by literally hundreds of millions of people.

 

Various theologians call it differently, mostly penal substitution or ransom theory of atonement. It is supposed to explain the reason the sacrifice of the cross took place.

 

This theory claims that God is infinitely just and can’t just disregard human sin. Humanity is then doomed for eternal punishment (somehow theologians can’t come up with any shorter idea of a punishment) but God finds a way out! Because he is also infinitely merciful and doesn’t want to send all people to hell, he sends Jesus Christ, who sacrifices himself and because he was sinless, God accepts his atonement and declares people justified.

Declares some people justified, to be exact. Vast majority of Churches adds some conditions – like faith, confession, baptism or other things. Makes me wonder why Jesus didn’t fulfill these conditions as well to make it simple because right now it seems very complicated.

Jesus died to justify me – but am I justified already?

Not yet.

The list of conditions… varies tremendously and some Churches change it quite often.

 

I had believed this theory for lots of years. I preached it to others. I had never questioned the Bible itself or the existence of God but somehow… this theory always produced some kind of anxiety within me.

And I had lots of questions no one knew how to answer. Examples:

  • What’s with people who were born before? They can’t fulfill any conditions, for example they can’t believe in Jesus
  • What would happen if Jews turned out to love Jesus and he wouldn’t have gotten killed? Would all humanity be doomed?
  • How did Jesus bear the punishment we were supposed to be punished with? We were supposed to go hell for eternity; Jesus just dies and came back to life after 3 days.

 

I won’t try to answer these questions because I don’t think there are answers that make sense

 

A breakthrough in my life was created when I came up with one more question:

Does God really forgive us anything?

The question may sound shocking. What do I mean “anything”, isn’t God infinitely merciful?

Let’s think for a moment. What’s necessary for one person to forgive another one?

You may think remorse is necessary. Or apologizing. Or restitution.

But it’s not pure forgiveness then.

The definition of forgiveness is to stop feeling angry or resentful toward for an offense.

No conditions.

If someone wronged me and didn’t feel any remorse, I will always then have this angry feeling toward them. I will be hurting myself.
Pure forgiveness can only have condition – a will to forgive.
According to the ransom theory of atonement entire humanity would end up in hell if Jesus hadn’t died.

[cross pictuew]

Had Jesus not died, we would have been punished.

But it’s not pure forgiveness. Someone did get punished.

If this this “infinite justice”… I think I don’t understand something.

Like in the story about Sebastian and Andrei, nothing is really forgiven. The debt is paid off.

 

We may be shocked at the attitude of Andrei who speaks of friendship, but what do they teach people in most of Christian churches?

 

God is merciful! Really? According to religion he doesn’t really forgive anything, he makes someone else pay the debt!
God is our best friend! But as Andrei threatened with breaking Sebastian’s legs, God threatens us with something way worse – being an eternal deep fried human nugget. The threat is still real, by the way, unless we fulfill some conditions like faith or repentance.

 

I believed this theory but not because I was convinced about its validity, but because I was indoctrinated before I learned to think critically.

This is what happens in most of religious families. Children aren’t really given any choice; they believe everything parents tell them.

Psychology discovered quite recently that our main idea of the world is set when we’re 6 or 7. What’s worst, at this age their abstract thinking doesn’t really exist – when we tell them “if you believe and repent, you will go to heaven after you die” they are not capable to understand any of it – they can just memorize it and it will become deeply engraved in their mind – both its conscious and unconscious part of it – and future changes in unconsciousness usually require therapy.

 

I went to church since I learned to speak, I attended religious classes since the age of 6, I got totally programmed and this is one of the reasons I struggled for so many years to get rid of these believes.

 

And there is one more reason it’s usually tough to change the believes you grew up with.

Swimming against the current.

 

It is extremely hard to change your opinion… when this opinion is not just yours, and almost everyone you know believe the same thing.
When I tell you breathing is not necessary to survive you will reject this idea without a second of hesitation, but not because you understand all about breathing. Even if you had no idea what oxygen is you would simply reject because everyone believes the opposite.
According to my current knowledge necessity of breathing is true and ransom theory is not but millions of people are still convinced they’re both the same true.

It’s hard to swim against the current.

 

It’s almost impossible to believe “I’m right and they’re all wrong”. Recent discoveries in neurochemistry show us that our brain is programmed to prefer facts which confirm what we already know and get blind to the others. Google Andrew Huberman.

 

Plus thinking that I know better may seem too prideful, but history teaches us of many cases where entire nations were completely wrong. Think for example of Germany before the World War II. Most people believed Jews were not fully human and deserved to die.

At the time swimming against the current could mean persecutions, including death, so we’ll never know how many people believed Hitler and how many were too scared to open their mouth.

 

Today you most probably will not get killed if you say you don’t believe in the atonement theory but you may get ostracized by your family or friends. We are made to be social so our brain tries to prevent this from happening, including trying to turn off logical thinking.
I see something in the Bible that is a contradiction to the teachings of the Church I’ve been going to for 30 years and where most of family and friends are? Let’s skip the passage, forget about it and everything will be fine.

Back to the point.

Does God forgive us sins, then, or not?

The awesome truth is… He always has.

Even before Jesus came to this world.

 

Punishments in Old Testament had nothing to do with God’s love or his attitude toward people. There were making it possible for people to live with each other. They were never about afterlife.

 

The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; (Exodus 34: 6b-7a)

Compassionate! Abounding in love! And these words were spoken at the time Moses was receiving the commandments!

 

But the verse ends with speaking of punishment. How come?

 

Israel had their moral norms pretty steep to be easily distinguished from pagans and the rules and rewards/punishments served the same purpose as today’s police and judiciary system. They were supposed to protect people from others hurting them but they had nothing to do with vengeance and absolutely did not mean God was angry at anyone!

A murdered will be murdered – so that he wouldn’t keep killing.

Luke at Luke (no pun intended)! Friend, your sins are forgiven. (Luke 5:20 b). Jesus didn’t say “Your sins will be forgiven after I am punished in your place”.

What’s also interesting is that Jesus didn’t mention his death on cross until the very end of his mission! In the Gospel of Matthew for example the death is first mentioned in chapter 16 and is a big shock for all listeners (Matthew 16:21 and further). Jesus first came and preached the Kingdom of God – and preached it to Jews only.

 

One might think…
… that Jesus didn’t come here to die.
Why was then he killed?

The shortest answer – he was killed by a common agreement by Jews and Romans because he his presence was not comfortable for both nations. He undermined the religious authority of Jews and Romans were trying to kill any sign of revolution inside the nations they ruled over.

 

There is of course a cosmic, infinite reason for the death of Christ. It was an event that shook the Universe.

But I’m not here to tell you why Jesus was killed.


I am here to tell you God didn’t need his death to forgive you sins because God is indeed infinitely merciful, not the pseudo-merciful, the way religion describes him.

People don’t like the idea God can forgive “just like this” because they think he is like them. They create God after their own image.
And one of the reasons Jesus came to this world is to fix these false beliefs.

Jesus didn’t punish anyone. When his disciples wanted to punish people for rejecting Gospel, he rebuked them (Luke 9:52 and further). He loved all people and was especially close to those who were considered “bad”. He preferred to be surrounded by them, rather than by the great righteous people, priests and teachers.
The death of Jesus is an example of an infinite altruism and love. I am not sure if I fully get it but I think I know what it wasn’t. It wasn’t a sacrifice that God the Father required.


God didn’t need a ransom. God has everything. In abundance. He also has love and forgiveness for us –all of us. Because he’s God. And I am proud to believe in such God.

last edited 3/7/2022

Today: 9 Total: 246139
Categories
Bible

God loves you but…

A young woman went to her psychiatrist and told her there might something wrong with her. Even though it hasn’t been long since they got married, she doesn’t feel any love to her husband. Actually the only thing she feels about him is… fear.

The therapist asked the woman if she experienced any problems in their marriage. The woman said that her husband does love her… he keeps telling her how much he loves her and that will never leave her…

BUT…

“if you’re ever unfaithful to me or you won’t love me the way I want or just refuse to do what I tell you, I will put in in our basement, tie you up and I’ll be whipping you with my belt day by day unless you apologize and promise to do better”.

Should the therapist focus on the therapy…or just call the cops?

One more silly story… a few year old kid yelled at his dad that he hates him. Dad tied him up, kept for a few days without food or drink and tortured him by burning his body with cigarettes.

Do you have any doubts that in these two stories the ones who are in the wrong are grownups, not the kids?

I am sure you don’t! But still… if you are an orthodox Christian then…

Religion is telling you to think God is like the grown ups in these stories.

Like the abusive husband and the dad.

 

God loves you but… if you don’t love him back, he will cast you into hell for everlasting torture.
God forgives all of your sins… but if you mess up one little detail, let’s say fail to believe Jesus is God… bye bye heaven, welcome hell.
God accepted you into his family… but if you mess up your life too bad  you will be kicked out for good.
God loves children… but there’s a problem when they reach the age of accountability, after which they must quickly make their choice… TURN OR BURN!

God – doctor Jekyll or Mr. Hyde?

Today I can barely understand how someone can believe in God who is at the same time love and a tyrant monster, throwing at people punishments that are totally blown out of proportions.

Well, I believed in such a god for decades…

When a human father does good things to his children we call it love.
When a human father hurts his children we call it pathology.

When our heavenly father does good things to his children we call it love.
When our heavenly father hurts his children we call it … still love.

Or maybe… “justice”.

But God is always love, everything he does is love, so…

Our minds can’t go on when we have an internal conflict, therefore we made a distinction between human love and God’s love.

All healthy and mature people know what love is. We don’t need it written down, we don’t need commandments. I’ve never inserted a fork in my wife’s eye even though I didn’t have any commandment not to do it.

I just knew.

And you know too.

If you saw a mother beating senselessly their children and telling them it’s out of love you will know she’s insane. But somehow everything God does is called love, no matter how insane that looks.


I just read the Bible – and have been doing this for 40 years – and I just can’t find anything there about God being the author of human suffering.

I also believe we have love written in our hearts. Of course, there are mental problems, toxic parents, bad influence of environment and lots of other reasons that can make us forget what love is and behave in the opposite direction, but given our childhood is normal – we will be able to love and to tell what love is.

 

Let’s take the most simple example – the way parents love babies. They’re tender, delicate, soft, and there’s nothing a baby can do to lose their love. Even a baby who “maliciously” poops their diaper 10 times a day, in the worst possible moments will still be loved and cherished and won’t even get a bad word.

And most wouldn’t disagree that anyone who’d try to punish a baby for anything would have to have their mental health checked.

Later as the child grows some things will slightly change but most shouldn’t. The more the child understands, the more parents will demand from them to teach them how to adapt to society and lead their lives in a positive direction. Certain kind of correcting actions, you may call – punishments – may be overtaken – but not as parental revenge, but to teach.

Most of these “punishments” should just be natural consequences of child’s actions. You lost your toy? You don’t have it. You rode your bike a little carelessly? You fell and got hurt.

This is such a far cry from the way religion portrays God’s ways!

God will love and accept you fully only after certain conditions and the worst thing is… we can never be sure if he really forgave us. And if we’re not forgiven… the punishment will be unbelievably cruel. And this punishment is NOT going to be a correcting action and is NOT to teach you anything as you will NOT even have a chance to come back to society.

It seems as a pure revenge.

It’s way worse than human jails.

Whose love seems better, God’s or human parents’?

Yeap, of course, human! Can we, people, love better than God?

Is it a blasphemy?

Maybe I do blasphemy indeed, but not against real God. I blasphemy against the god created and taught by religion.

GOOD NEWS – FOR WHO?

“Gospel”, in the original Bible language – euangellion (we get the word evangelical from it) literally means just “good news”.

When you stop and thing about Christian teachings, is your heart filled with joy?

When you meet someone and introduce the gospel to them… do you speak with joy? Do your listeners react with joy?

No?? How come? This is… the Good News!

But who is it good for?

I think it would be super good if you were…. totally sinless.

Plus… actually… let’s assume you are sinless… most Christian denominations seem to teach your sins won’t matter to God if you only believe… in a specific way… and the WAY can vary…

When I was studying at the Bible college I had once a few hours long conversation with other students and the teacher debating if we can still be saved if we don’t believe the Holy Spirit is a person.

Here’s how smoothly religion puts it:

You are a sinner. Sin separates you from God and you are on your way to hell. But salvation is free, therefore you don’t need to do anything.

Wait a second. You don’t need to do anything but… you need to believe.

Salvations if not from works, but from faith.

Isn’t faith a work?

A work is everything we do or say.

Faith is a work then.

 

So the fact is religions is telling us nonsense: “you don’t need to do any works to be saved – except for this one – believing”.

That’s theory, lots of denominations will also indicate certain works that must show in your life to prove that your saved.

Some denominations will also remind you your faith will work as a saving agent as long as it’s alive, active. The moment you stop believing – you’re in danger of eternal hell as well.

With hundreds of variants of what a real faith is… the Good News is the most confusing news in the history of the Universe.

It drove me crazy for many years. How to tell if I’m saved? I was a Catholic where I was taught for each “mortal” sin I will be sentenced to hell.

An example of a mortal sin? Skipping a Sunday’s mass.

Then I became a Baptist. I was taught the salvation is free, from faith, as long I have the kind of faith specified by the church.

And lots of Sundays I was read this passage in church:

Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you-unless, of course, you fail the test? (2 Corinthians 13:5 )

OMG! How do I test myself? Is Paul telling me to perform some kind of test, maybe a few times a day. to check if I’m still saved?

And what if it turns out I fail? Am I doomed forever? Can I somehow… redo my faith?

Because if I can’t… HELLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!

Terrifying.

Plus… how can I know the Baptists have it right? Maybe Pentecostals? ASG? Mormons? Jehova’s Witesses?

How about… none of them has it right?

2 of the most common questions that come up in philosophical or theological disputes about God are as follows:

  • How can merciful God allow so much suffering in the world?
  • How come merciful God allow eternal suffering in hellfire?

I won’t come up with the answer to the first questions. I do have an idea and I think we have more free will that we think but it’s not the place for this.

I will come up with an answer to the second question though. You may like it.

If your hole life you have been thinking that there is something wrong in the picture of receiving eternal suffering from the hands of loving God…

You are right. It’s wrong.

Listen to your own logic, your critical thinking. Don’t listen to stupid explanations like “God doesn’t throw anyone in hellfire, people themselves reject Him and choose hell”. There has never been a human being that would like to sit a flame and continue doing this after a few minutes… nah, rather seconds… and is religion trying to convince me people CHOOSE it for eternity?

If logic and critical thinking is not game changer, how about the Bible itself?

It may not be a well known fact, at least not among orthodox Christians, but…

The Bible doesn’t mention hell at all.
Not even once.

Click to read more about hell – here and here.

 

Lots of Christians react very emotionally when you try to deny existence of hell. It may seem weird… aren’t we supposed to be happy to get a chance to debunk hell and to stop worrying about our eternity?

If the idea that there is no hell causes your anxiety… try to think hard WHY that is so.

Some of the reasons I believe are fairy common are:

  1. Deep down we ourselves are convinced the idea of hell makes no sense.
  2. We can’t fathom God forgiving all people because we paint God after our own image and we can’t forgive.

Instead of listening to religion, take a moment and look at the world! We have been created after God’s image! Look at a mother hugging a baby! Look at a pair of love birds who have seen each other after a long break! Watch the loving, full of amazement, gaze of a proud parent who is witnessing their child’s first steps!

Or check these 80 year olds who take a morning walk, holding hands, looking at each other with such love as if they were teenagers!

What you see is just a mere shadow of the kind of love God has towards us.

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. We love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:10.19)

US doesn’t mean Christians or Catholics or Protestants. US means also unbelievers, cult members, and also… murderers… all the “baddest kinds” of people we can imagine.

His love means one crucial thing.
We don’t need to worry expecting a punishment.

If you have doubts that God has problems with forgiving us… look at the best example.

Jesus.

 

One day He was brought a paralyzed man (Mark 2:5).
Jesus didn’t not tell the man to confess or promise to be better or to become a Christian.

He forgave without even being asked to.

 

And this is what God’s love is like.

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Bible

Free gift of salvation?

Almost every Christian is proud to point how Christianity is so much different than all other religions. If a star was born every time I said it to someone, we’d have another galaxy in the sky!

The main distinct feature of Christianity is, as it is believed, that in other religions people must do things to please God while in Christianity it is God who does everything and salvation is a free gift. You don’t need to do anything, you don’t need to deserve it.

 

NOW please note this article is not about salvation per se. It only discusses what religion claims – that Christian salvation is a free gift.

 

TRADITIONAL CHURCHES

 

In most of traditional Churches – like Roman-catholic, orthodox and some protestant ones – they teach that that salvation is a gift from God but God gives us a lot of aids. Children should be baptized, then depending on denomination – different rites like holy communion, confirmation, confession etc. Plus you need to try to live well, forgive others “so that you’d also be forgiven”. Pray regularly!

 

And when you die… it’s good to have some friends and family members who will intercede with God or some dead holy people (saints) who have superpowers of hearing lots of praying people at the same time and somehow they will make your chances of salvation better.

 

Oh, and of course, obey the commandments. Each Church has their own set and none of them have clear rules on how many commandments are important for Christians and how many times can you break them before you’re called lost.

And if you do all these things… then you have a big chance getting to heaven! Just a chance though, never a certainty, because afterall salvation is in God’s hands and He is to speak last about it.

 

But of course! Salvation is a free gift! By God’s grace!

 

This is how most Churches believe.

 

Millions of people try to believe this message. Try, because it’s simply too inconsistent to be believed.

 

Millions of people live in constant fear of damnation and eternal suffering in hellfire. They are told to love and worship God who is mostly feared, not admired.

 

It used to be worse though. For most of Christian history it was a common belief was only by total ascetism you can get close to being saved from hell so lots of people were self mutilating, starving themselves and did other terrible things to get this “free gift of salvation”. Look at Symeon the Stylite.

MODERN PROTESTANT CHURCHES

Protestant Churches seem to have less rules than the traditional ones, which doesn’t mean their rules are easier. Number of rules doesn’t determine their difficulty. I could ask you to jump over a tall tree which is just one, straightforward task but you can’t say it’s an easy one. Not unless you live on a planet several times smaller than Earth.

 

On of the worst rules humans came up with is called Lordship Salvation (LS). Lots of people say it’s an obvious truth, many oppose, but most Christians in fact believe it this way or another. LS says that salvation can be your only when you make Jesus an actual Lord s

LS says that repentance and submission to Christ accompanies saving faith and continuation in the faith and spiritual growth are necessary evidence of saving faith. If you don’t grow, if you have habitual sin in your life and do nothing about – then your faith is futile, you probably never really believed.

 

Why won’t you try to find LS in the Bible though? Good luck. If LS was a real doctrine the Apostle Paul would have to warn Corinthians, that they were going straight to hell. Corinthians were going to prostitutes, committed incest and idolatry, got drunk in churches and so on. Yet Paul calls them God’s sacred temple, God’s field (1 Cor 3), he says they are all the Lord’s people who will judge the angels… There’s no word of warning, “Behave or you will burn”.

 

If the devil was to make doctrines, I’m pretty sure he would author LS. LS makes Christians live in constant fear, as you never know if today you won’t happen to commit something that will question your status.

Most of LS believers I met actually were saying boldly that their lives are free of habitual sin… this usually ended our conversation as I was scared to stain them with my sinful presence 😺

 

LS will make everyone bitter, anxious and focused on their performance, constantly comparing themselves to others thinking if they’re not better, if their behavior isn’t better evidence than hours that they are saved, not us.

 

LS believers will deny that they works are necessary for salvation, they say that faith simply changes the convert’s life and the works are just a mere result. There is one problem though. Virtually everyone has a different definition of a changed life. If someone stops drinking heavily but still smokes and curses… is his life changed? If someone cheats on their spouse a few times a week but after becoming Christian does it just a few times a year… wow the change is huge, isn’t? Qualified for heaven?

 

I had very short periods of life when I was close to believe LS was real, but most of my Christian life I couldn’t fathom how irrationally judgmental you must be to be able to determine whose life is an evidence of being saved and whose isn’t.

I, for example, for almost all of my Christian life smoked cigarettes and shortly speaking – Polish Baptists don’t smoke – it is regarded as a a very fleshy thing and even though Baptists officially reject LS, when they see someone “sinning” openly they may wonder out loud “are they even saved?”

I tried to talk to some fellow Christians, how can they think smoking is such a bad thing and everyone says it’s such a carnal thing while most of Christians don’t see anything wrong about making clicks at church, taking crap about people behind their backs or wasting 6 hours a day to watch shows.

 

They just looked at me weirdly.

 

To avoid judgment and being gossiped about I smoked in secret.

Many Christian denominations introduced other… conditions of unconditional salvation 🙂 Baptism, speaking in tongues, abstinence from alcohol or other drugs… the list is long.

 

Yet they all call it free salvation…

While both Catholic and Protestant option to me seem as free as the paycheck I get from my employer.

 

Let’s sum it up before I get to something I find actually to be most important.

 

Virtually all Christian Churches preach a totally illogical theology of “free salvation” where you actually need to work really hard, still never being certain if one is successful. Speaking of free salvation is nonsense as long as there are conditions to it!

 

If I say “move your finger and you’ll get a million bucks”, however strange it sounds, the million dollars won’t be free. It will be wages. Big without proportion, yet wages.

 

If Churches wanted to be consistent, they should either stop calling salvation free or get rid of all conditions of it.

 

But this was not all that hilarious comparing to what I am about to say…

 

There is one more condition… of free salvation…

 

FAITH

 

How could I not see this weird for so many years that you can’t claim you need to “believe to be saved” and still call salvation free!!!

 

One of the fundamental Christian doctrines lacks logic and no one cares?

 

When I started questioning things and asking my fellow believers uncomfortable questions I was often told that just because I don’t understand something doesn’t mean it’s not true… that God’s ways are higher than hours… that “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise” (1 Cor 1:27a) but if this is supposed to mean “no logic in dogmas”, why even bother formulate them?

 

With time I came to a firm statement:

God isn’t offended when we ask questions.

If he could take offense at us (I don’t think he could), he would – for not using the brain he gave us.

 

If your church talks about free gift of salvation but adds conditions to it, even as “small” as faith, their dogmas have contradictions.

And if your church contradicts itself with main, crucial doctrines… what makes you think it doesn’t with all the others?

 

And by the way… “small” as faith? “SMALL”? Having someone believe that God came to Earth 2,000 years ago, looked as a human being, made thousands of bread loaves from a few, raised the death and got back to life after being crucified… this all is not a small thing.

The biblical word of Gospel is euangelion – literally “good news”. Bible writers and their original readers had no problem understanding this, no one questions it anywhere. This news is supposed to bring you peace. If it doesn’t, it means you don’t read what’s written. You read into it the ideas what religion wants you to think.

 

And the goal of religion is to control you.

 

 

Ask any dictator. Can you control without causing fear? Of course not.

Last, but not least… if salvation is free, then all people will be saved, right?

No?? Then it’s not free.

 

Read the Bible again, my friend! No one worries there about their fate after death, neither should you!

 

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. (Colossians 3:15a)

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Categories
Bible

Salvation – what’s that thang?

If we were able to write down and count every word spoken at a Christian church during one Sunday, I’m pretty sure in most cases the absolute top words would be “salvation” and “save”.


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Most Christians think it is also one of the most common words in the Bible.

Wrong.

Not even close.

The 5 most common words (except for prepositions, pronouns, conjunctions etc.) are:

  • Lord (about 7400 times)
  • God (4300)
  • Man (2700)
  • Israel (2500)
  • People (2300)

Several hundred positions down are save (241) and salvation (171).

Could this be a hint indicating that the Bible does not necessarily focus on what Christianity likes to focus today?

 

Regardless number count in the Bible, the subject of salvation is probably the most commonly spoken about in Christendom.

 

“Once you believe, you’re saved.”
“There is no salvation apart from Jesus.”
“All people in the world are either saved or not saved.”
“Salvation is by faith.”
“How can people get saved?”

Now if we ask Christians what it means to be saved, close to 100% of them will say it’s about going to heaven rather than hell after death.

Does the Bible say that, too?

Let’s look.

SALVATION IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

In Hebrew, the word for salvation is YESHUA (sounds familiar?). These are the first 5 occurrences of “Yeshua” in the Old Testament.

I look for your deliverance, LORD (Genesis 49:18)
Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. (Exodus 14:13)
The Lord is my strength and my defense he has become my salvation.(Exodus 15:2 a)
Jeshurun grew fat and kicked; filled with food, they became heavy and sleek. They abandoned the God who made them and rejected the Rock their Savior. (Deuteronomy 32:15 a)
Then Hannah prayed and said: “My heart rejoices in the LORD; in the LORD my horn is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance.(1 Samuel 2:1)

 

We can see that New International Version prefers the word “deliverance” rather than “salvation” (which we find in almost all older translations), and we may discover soon why they did this. For now let’s have a closer look at the verses.

 

The first one, from Genesis 49:18, it’s a kind of interlude spoken by Jacob in his last moments as he blesses his children and prophesies about the future of the tribes. We actually can’t tell for sure what kind of deliverance Jacob was talking about there. Probably from enemies like other nations, tribes.

The next two verses are only a page away from each other and we have no doubts what they are about – Egypt is oppressing Israel and salvation or deliverance means getting free from it.

In the fourth verse, from Deuteronomy, the discussed word is a part of the title given to God and is pretty general.

In 2 Samuel, Hannah praised the Lord for giving her a son after a long period of barrenness. The salvation she is talking about is then her restored fertility.

These are just 5 first examples of the term “salvation” in the Old Testament but I did check many more. The phrase salvation (literally “saving”) cannot be bound to a single meaning; it has a wide range of meanings, similar to English. A doctor can save someone’s life. I can save someone’s problem by fixing their mistake. Signing a peace treaty can save millions of people from distress or death that follow a war.

 

There is not one verse in the Old Testament that suggests salvation has anything to do with afterlife.

Let’s go on, then.

SALVATION IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

We’ll be looking at the first 5 occurrences of the word “sozo” – save.

She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. (Matthew 1:21)
The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” (Matthew 8:25)
She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.” (Matthew 9:21)
(the same word is used in the following Matthew 9:22, so I’ll skip it)
You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. (Matthew 10:22)
But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me! (Matthew 14:30)

“Save” and “salvation” are very popular words in the New Testament, so there should be no surprise that the first 5 occurrences are in one book! Regardless, the context the word is used in is very different in almost all of the 5 cases.

I have suggested above that the Hebrew word “Yeshuah” should sound familiar… You may have heard it from a messianic Jew as this is how they often call Jesus. His Hebrew name would actually be “Yahushua” and means “Yahweh saves”, and this explains the word “because” from Matthew 1:21 (by the way, it would be nice if translators found a way to let us know about it).

The verse says that Jesus is going to save people from their sins…

but what exactly does that mean?

 

People will sin no more? There will be no punishment for sins? Nothing will be considered as sin? The verse and its immediate context don’t conclude that. Let’s look at the place sin is mentioned the first time in the Bible:

but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die (Genesis 2:17)

The idea that the sin is punished with death is repeated through the whole Bible, and is summarized by Paul in Romans (famous “wages of sin is death” – 6:23″).

What kind of death is it about?

Lots of Christians see eternal condemnation in hell – but you won’t find a single biblical verse that says that.

It’s not a physical death, either – Adam did not physically die when he ate the forbidden fruit.

Adam got separated from God – and this is the kind of death that explains both Genesis and Romans, and this is I believe what Jesus saves people from.

The second and fifth verse talk about saving from drowning. When we see a drowning person screaming, “Save me”, I don’t think anyone would start telling that person how one can go to heaven when they die.

Clearly – the context says nothing about afterlife.

In Matthew 9:21 the context is very clear – “sozo” means heal, and “heal” is the word most of current translations use.

No afterlife, either.

Now, let’s stop for a moment longer with 10:22.

“Who stands firm to the end will be saved” is a Biblical phrase which is pretty popular among theologians, mostly in context of the question whether a saved person can lose their salvation or not. There is a doctrine called “OSAS” – once saved, always saved – and Matthew 10:22 is one of the key arguments against it. You need to stand firm in your faith/deeds (depending on theological option), or you will go to hell.

Let’s read the context of Matthew 10. What is Jesus talking about?

Chapter 10 starts with giving the 12 apostles powers of healing and driving out demons, then Jesus tells to preach the message of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Beginning with verse 16, Jesus starts warning the apostles about persecutions they can meet – flogging, imprisonment, even death – this all can happen to them for proclaiming the Gospel. Let’s look at the verse with its immediate context:

Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another. Truly I tell you, you will not finish going through the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes (Matthew 10:21-23)

Is this paragraph giving you any hint Jesus speaks about afterlife?

I know, this is what’s preached in the very most churches and what the very most Christians believe. But who cares about majority? Just because billions of flies enjoy licking feces, does it mean that we should do it as well? Truth counts, not what others believe or do.

Before we understand any part of the Bible, we have to abandon our previous beliefs and notice exactly what the text says, reading it as if we never read it before. Otherwise, we won’t be reading the Bible. We’ll be reading our beliefs into the Bible. And that is the main reason for the existence of so many Christians denominations.

The most common way to understand Matthew 10:22 is “who stands firm in their deeds/belief system till they die will be saved from eternal punishment in hell” but note, such words are not there. Note the context! No one is asking, “Lord, what will happen when we die? Shall we fry when we die? Is there a way out from the eternal suffering after we die?”

Jesus is sending the apostles for a mission, here, on earth; He is talking about persecutions, here, on earth.

It should be clear by now that the words “save” or “saving/salvation” do not have one specific meaning, as in Greek, as in English. If I say to you, “Save me!” it may mean lots of things, depending on situation – lending money, feeding me, clothing, talking to someone about my situation, giving me a ride – I can go on and on. To tell what “saving” means, we always need to see the context!

 

And the context applies to a very specific time, place and people. In Matthew 10 it’s quite simple: the time – first half of first century; place – Near East (we could be a more specific, but it is in the Near East for sure); people – Jews.

Nothing applies to us.

 

One of the interpreting rules of the Bible (and not only the Bible) is that we do not read more than the text says. The largest part of the Bible is the stories – and while from them we can always draw conclusions and lessons for us, we can’t apply all words directly to us. Matthew 10:22 is exactly the case.

Jesus was talking about fleeing death and persecution, not hellish fire!

Many theologians (like J.W. McGarvey, Albert Barnes, F.F. Bruce, D.A. Carson or Theodor Zahn) believe Jesus is talking about the First Jewish-Roman war, with its culminating point – destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.

I can’t find a better explanation. There are many hints in Matthew 10 – and other parallel passages like – Matthew 23-25, Luke 17) indicating beyond doubts that all the warnings and threats Jesus told indeed regarded situations that were supposed to happen within some years – not millenniums – from then. Let’s read this verse:

Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation. (Matthew 23:36)

Christian theologians show an amazing amount of imagination by trying to explain to us how “this generation” can still apply today. They say it can mean Israel as nation… people in general… Look then at Matthew 16:38:

Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom (Matthew 16:38)

Could it be said any clearer? I don’ think so. And if you read whole chapters 10, 16 and 23, you will see they all contain very similar warnings to the followers of Jesus and woes to enemies of the Gospel.

The conclusion is simple – in Matthew 10:22 the word “saved” again has nothing to do with something that will happen after we die. It is about being rescued from what is going to happen in about 40 years.

Please, take some time to look up the word “save” in Concordance or on a website like “Biblehub.com” or “Biblegateway.com”. Look in the whole Bible and find one – just one – reference – where beyond doubts it means salvation from suffering after death. Just one!

You won’t.

 

What then does the term “save” mean?

There isn’t just 1 answer. There are many.

In the Old Testament, salvation usually meant a physical rescue from an enemy, In Gospels – fleeing from the deadly siege of Jerusalem, in some of the Epistles – restoring a love relationship between people and God. In the whole Bible, “save” and “salvation” lots of times refer to healing from a sickness.

If you were taught to believe the common Christian theology, it will definitely take some time until you stop seeing “salvation” as saving from hellfire. It took me years. But it’s definitely worth it. The Bible should make much more sense then.

If I were to name the most helpful thing that ever happened to me, I would say – it was when I realized that the Bible was much more focused on its direct listeners, not us.

Have you ever seen the acronym “BIBLE = Basic Instructions Before Leaving earth?” It does mention earth… but in the sense of leaving it. Most of Christians like to see afterlife as the “real” world and life on earth as a prelude, introduction, something we should not focus on. The main focus is, as the acronym points out, what it’s going to be when we leave earth. Shall we be saved or not? Salvation – that’s what it’s all about.

The numbers I gave in the beginning – about the most common words in the Bible in comparison to the words “save” and “salvation” bear an important message. Even if salvation was about afterlife, we can’t see much focus the Bible gives to it. History and narration make 60% of the Bible – all about this life! End times prophecy is only about 2%, and there is a growing number of theologians who believe this number is actually close to zero.

 

Let’s face the facts! The Bible has instructions how to live on earth and make this life meaningful, hardly mentioning the obvious fact we need to leave one day. One more time – no one in the entire Bible worries about afterlife!

Most of Christians do not have a problem calling “irrelevant to us” the passage that tells us to stone to death for adultery (Leviticus 20:10) but they are quick to call me a heretic or misled when I say that the mission of Jesus was directed only to Israel even though Jesus Himself said it (Matthew 15:24).

I do believe the Bible is trustworthy but the very, very most of it is not directed to us and only after a thorough exegesis and interpretation we can formulate lessons for our lives.

 

Do you agree that the commandment of stoning for adultery is not directed at us?

 

Good! The same with the warnings Jesus gave about upcoming destruction! The same about the 7 letters to Churches at the beginning of Revelation!


Today millions of devoted Christians have problems falling asleep, thinking, “Am I saved?”. Please, sit down for one minute and carefully note this simple fact – no one in the Bible asks this question. No one worries. And many verses indicate today no one can answer, “No” to this question anyway. Jesus is called the Savior of the world (1 John 4:14)!

 

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