Friday, September 19, 2014

Stuff I did as a Christian

When I was a Christian, I did some and believed pretty outlandish things in the name of faith. I thought that by doing these things, I would be obedient to "the will and the word of god."

These scriptures played a major role in how I exercised my faith. (All scriptures from King James Version unless otherwise noted)

Luke 6:38
38 Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.

1 Samuel 15:22-23
22 And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice(emphasis added), and to hearken than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king.

2 Chronicles 20:15,17, 20
15 And he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the Lord unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's.(emphasis added)
17 Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you(emphasis added), O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed; to morrow go out against them: for the Lord will be with you.
20 And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper.(emphasis added)

Mark 11:22-23

23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart(emphasis added), but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.
24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.(emphasis added)

By using these scriptures as models, I would give money, time and resources to the church I belonged to at the expense of my finances and family. I did not want to be rebellious since this act was equated to witchcraft. I simply wanted to be in God's will and obey. If being in God's will meant giving up things and listening to his mouthpiece, then I was willing to do that.

I wanted to have the kind of power where what I spoke would come to pass. I thought by following this prescription, this would happen for me and my family.

One time in church after a sermon, my former pastor asked the congregation to reach into their wallets or purses and pull out money. He said that the people who had enough faith should take out their money, wave it in the air and walk around the church eight times. By doing this the walls that are blocking your finances would fall like the walls of Jericho. I only had 20.00 in my bank account and wrote out a check for that amount because I believed that God would do something miraculous.

My pastor would tell me that "sacrificial giving hurts because it's a sacrifice. By giving in this way, you honor God and he will not forget your obedience." My former pastor was correct because it hurt not only my bank account but it hurt my family because it made providing for them even more difficult.

I am happy that I "walk by sight and not by faith." I live a live based on reason and rationality, no longer depending on useless faith to guide me into rash decisions.


2 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Dear BlackFreethought,

    I came here from you post here...

    http://new.exchristian.net/2014/09/reflections-of-my-former-self.html

    I have been researching "supernatural" phenomena for about three decades or so. May I ask you a question regarding "tongue talking"? Please do not feel that you need to have an answer, I am just researching, as I have wondered about this for decades although I do not do this myself.

    You say...

    "I was a blood washed, tongue talking, prophesying, tithing, church attending christian"...

    I find that Fundamentalist Christians are generally those who practice what they call "tongue talking" - and for whatever reason, it seems to verify their belief for them.

    I was wondering what you now think that this phenomena of "tongue talking" is, after having become freed from Fundamentalism.

    Personally, I think that believing that Jesus Christ had to "shed His Blood" to "appease" God is a disgusting concept. I think much of the early part of the Old Testament is imagined to fill gaps, or legendary and put together by Ezra and his scribes without any original records to refer to.

    But I do believe Christ was put to death, although I believe that He never meant for His disciples to imagine that He was a human sacrifice. That was their cultural upbringing, in my opinion.

    However, I do follow Jesus Christ as the perfect example of a human being - a guide which I personally believe shows me the perfect pattern by which to aim to live my life, as I believe in consequences for good and ill against others.

    I abhor dogmas and find they wrap a person up like a spider's web wraps up a fly. I am aghast that apparently normal, highly intelligent sentient people can believe that this little earth was created six thousand years ago or so.

    So, do you have an explanation for the phenomena of "tongue talking"? Do you think it's a psychological effect? The talking-in-tongues in the Bible (Pentecost) is a different phenomena where people understood words spoken by people who did not know those languages - this is not the "balbbaa-blanda-balda-blert" I have heard in modern churches.

    Please do not feel that you have to answer. Thank you.

    Kindest Regards,
    Tony B.

    [PS. I removed the first comment because I omitted to tick the "Notify me" box first time...]

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