Bought by the blood, redeemed, saved, sanctified, Holy Ghost filled, I know my salvation is real and my interpretation of the Bible is right, Christians frequently use what I write to “prove” their own rightness. By deconstructing my life and pointing out the errors and flaws in my life they self-righteously remind themselves that they are a true-blue, real deal, Christian.
Armed with an inerrant Bible, an infallible mind, and a God who whispers in their ear, they measure every word I write by their own beliefs and interpretations of the Bible. They arrogantly, without a doubt, KNOW they are r-i-g-h-t.
Today, the Galatians 4 blog is the newest critic of the life of former Christian pastor turned atheist Bruce Gerencser.
In a post titled, The IFB Pastor Turned Atheist: Those Who Fall Away, a blogger by the name of Bible Believer uses my writing to show the error of my past Christian life. His post is not overtly critical but there was a comment on the post that really got my attention.
An anonymous commenter wrote:
Well I am a Zionist, as I am certain the Bible teaches me to be so.
Regarding the other issues, this “former pastor” sounds like he was always angry. It sounds like he was working for salvation the entire time. He was trying to be good enough, discovered on the inside that he is not good enough (no one is), and just put on the “Christian clothing” to fool everyone. Got tired of it, and revealed what he was the whole time: an unbeliever.
Either Jesus gives eternal life based on what He has done, regardless of our future conduct and bad behavior. Or, you really do have to be “good enough” for salvation. But nobody can be “good enough”.
I am forgiven all sins past and future, even if I blow it horribly bad for the rest of my life, I will be in heaven. It doesn’t sound like he ever believed that. His acceptance of the lie of “lordship salvation” will take him to hell.
This comment can be summed up in a few words:
I am right, he is wrong, I am a “true” believer, and he never was, I am going to heaven and he is going to hell.
May their God forgive them for they know not of what they speak.
That anon commentor has the perfect excuse to act like a sociopath. I am already forgiven for whatever I may do! I can commit any crime and consequences be damned, I’ve been forgiven…! Psh. What about contriteness and striving to be more Christ-like? Nada nada don’t need personal responsibility…
- disgruntded ex Christian
Correct. When I was a Christian I despised this kind of thinking. I knew a few preachers who lived by this philosophy, an Antinomian, the more I sin, the more grace God gives me, kind of thinking. It is almost like they glory in their sin because God gets the greater glory.
I note that the blogger at Galatians 4 says “… how many fall away from the faith watching the parade of nonsense out there in some of the churches?”
Oddly, that’s not what caused me to fall away, or most of the people I know who have left. When I was a Christian (and I definitely was– I was absolutely certain I was a genuine follower of Jesus) I expected the church to have problems and for odd doctrines and practices to pop up all over. No big deal, no reason to throw out the baby with the bathwater.
Instead — at least for me — Christianity simply stopped making sense. I could not ignore problems with the origins of the scriptures, church history, conflicting teachings, the lack of morality in the OT God, and the conflict between science and fundamental religious teaching. The change was very gradual– no ‘de-conversion’ experience, just a slow realization that Christianity no longer was rational or reasonable.
However, I can understand the Galatians 4 blogger. I was there at one time, trying to understand how most of my Christian friends ‘fell away’. You have to come up with some ‘box’ to put all those ex-Christians in, either that, or really find out what happened.
No matter how often we tell them they will never believe we were “real” Christians. Like I have said many times…no one, out of the thousands of people who heard me preach,out of the dozens of pastors, professors and Evangelists I knew, NONE of them ever doubted that I was a Christian.
Either I was an expert deceiver or my critics are full of shit. I think I will go with the latter.
I understand where they are coming from too. They went out from us because they never were of us. For if there were of us they would have continued with us.
It all made sense as long I was in the bubble.
It’s hard to leave christianity because it has built-in failsafes to handle most objections.
“No one can leave the faith, but if they do they were never real Christians” is one.
Another is all the denominations. If you are “dry” or “empty” then maybe the lord is leading you to a better denomination. Or you just need to wait for revival. Brilliant! It keeps you on the hook. It’s “the check’s in the mail” excuse.
It’s a little ironic however that the blog is titled Galations 4… 4:16 too. Also ironic the bit about being deceived without the Holy Spirit…Reminds me of my fav Christian author CS Lewis. In the last book of the Chronicles of Narnia, some dwarfs just do not see they are free and are in the land of Aslan. Who btw didn’t condemn those who worshipped Tash but judged on their heart and deeds (or “Satan”). Instead the dwarfs believe they are still in the filthy stable, bound and in darkness.
Little word error…am typing on my phone. meant to say that Tash was Narnia’s “Satan” and Aslan was “Jesus”
Hi Bruce,
I left a comment over at this Galatians 4 blog but I don’t think it will be posted. I cannot remember what I exactly wrote but I will paraphrase.
“Hi Galatians 4,
You should have read more of Bruce’s blog before jumping to conclusions as to why he left the Christian faith. If you do read further, you will discover that, after much study and examining different points of view, Bruce came to the conclusion that the bible is not the Word of God.
I am writing as a progressive Christian and I too, like Bruce, no longer believe that the bible is the Word of God.
Shalom,
John Arthur”
Thanks for attempting to put in a good word for me.
Of course, to them, atheist? progressive or liberal Christian? Both the same.
They have what I call AW Pink syndrome. AW Pink was a noted Calvinistic pastor/evangelist/writer. Later in his life he came to the conclusion that there were no churches good enough for him. He moved to an island and pretty much stopped going to church. Most of his writing was done during this time.
I also call what they have the Elijah syndrome. (1 Kings 18,19) Elijah was convinced he was the only true prophet of God left.
I understand their thinking. Been there, done that.
Hi Bruce,
Apparently the author known as “Bible Believer” is a woman. It isn’t , by any chance, that hyper Fundamentalist that goes under the moniker “Unworthy One” called Lyn who is an ardent fan of A.W. Pink?
Shalom,
John Arthur
Hi Bruce,
it is not UnworthyOne. The author is not a Calvinist.
hppt://galatiansfour.blodspot.co..au/search/label/Calvinism/.
Shalom,
John Arthur
http://galatiansfour.blogspot.com.au/search/label/Calvinism
Christians seem to attribute everything about the Christian’s life to some kind of biblical explanation. They never take into account human psychology or a person’s personality. For example, extroverts are probably good at evangelism. Type A personalities of course do a lot of good works. Laid-back personalities don’t have much to show for themselves. Stuff like that-all ignored, never taken into account when evaluating people.
I had started reading about cognitive behavioral therapy, and how black and white thinking is a cognitive distortion, and that made so much sense to me. In contrast, Christianity is totally black and white. I think this was one of the things that helped me to slowly begin to hang up my faith, because it helped to produce the first cracks in my rigid way of looking at things.
“Only the Sith deal in absolutes” – Obi Wan
I even heard a Christian say they were a ‘Sith’ once, because of this scene in Star Wars.
I’ve no doubt that many Christians think that those of us who’ve fallen away, did so because we were in IFB. If we’d been a Calvinistic Presbyterian, we wouldn’t have fallen away.
You know the hell thing really gets my goat every time! I mean do people ever really stop and THINK about where they are trying to consign most of the population? A sadistic god with sadistic children!
Yes– infinite punishment for finite sins. And even for the sin of not being born in the right place or time.
Pardon me for interrupting but I stumbled across your blog and after reading a bit I thought I might add a few comments. A little background: I am a “new” Christian, <2 years, who barely made it out of high school but after recently hitting the half century mark I thought it might be a good time to reevaluate my life, i mean who would have thought they would live this long living as I did. So in my limited knowledge these are my comments.
As for any doubt that you were once "real" Christians I can not argue but I do believe that your situation was specifically dealt with by Jesus with the parable of the sower and the seeds. Luke 8:4-15.
While in my human mind i do find the idea of people condemned to hell extremely offensive I do understand that I have no concept of His righteousness and how offensive sin truly is on levels I can not perceive. I am convinced that the injustice is not in those condemned to hell but in those who are saved from it. Romans 9:6-26 is the Biblical text for this. While thinking that being born in the right place at the right time etc.. is a normal consideration I think you are overlooking the fact that He chose every detail of your birth from before time began.
As for believing the Bible as Gods word I personally have found Peters statement where even though he was an eyewitness he held more firmly to the prophecies in the Bible as proof of who Jesus was. 2Peter 1:16-21 than the fact that he was a witness to everything.. Personally a study of the Book of Daniel where all the kingdoms of the gentiles are foretold extremely accurately with details we were not even able to confirm until recently to revealing the VERY DAY that the Messiah would be presented in Jerusalem were hard to refute.
And finally as for no Church being good enough, boy does that hit home. I made the excuse that I was better off alone, then went to a "biker" church ( yes I am an ex jarhead biker type who just ran a Tough Mudder race so try and find a category for that lol) and then a couple other churches looking for the perfect fit. There isn't one. I came to realize that being a Christian requires being part of a community no matter what. I feel and my own pride and individualist attitude was keeping me from it. As I said I am new to this so the church I am in now is still new to me but I am sticking with it no matter how much people "who don't get me" drive me crazy lol.
I realized that all of gifts of the Holy Spirit are meant to be used in community and there is none given for the Lone Ranger so that is where a Christian must be no matter how much it hurts. Notice that even though the Temple was totally corrupt at the time of Jesus, both Simeon and Anna were both still there. Luke 2:25-
Please don't think I had any sort of self righteous attitude when I wrote this as I am easily among the worst of sinners but I only wrote what immediately came to mind as I read the comments.I feel more like I have probably just jumped into the lions den than Daniel being tossed in.
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God Bless You
I don’t judge my past or present life by an ancient book written by unknown authors. Nor do I judge my past or present life based on the interpretations people have of that ancient book. No two Christians agree on what the Bible says. How do you know YOU are right and WHY I should I accept your interpretation as accurate?
I judge my life, past and present, based on what I know. I know I was a Christian and now I know I am not. I find it interesting that Christians judge their lives the same way…that is until they meet someone like me and then they start quoting Bible verses to show why I never was a “real” Christian. I find this approach quite offensive. Who better to know what I was or what I am than myself? Either I was a real Christian OR I was an expert deceiver that deceived thousands of people who heard preach and deceived dozens and dozens of pastors, evangelists, and college professors. Over the course of twenty-five years not one person ever raised a doubt about whether or not I was a Christian. Not one. Thousands of people filled with the Holy Ghost, dozens and dozens of God-called men, and not ONE even had an inking that I never was a Christian.
Most all religious belief is culturally determined. This is an indisputable fact. All you have to do is look at the concentration of the major religions around the world to see that people generally adopt the religion of their culture. This is why the United States is overwhelmingly Christian.
If God planned every detail of my live as you assert, then my apostasy was also a part of that plan. As was the World Wars, 9-11,Hitler killing six million Jews, etc. Not much of a selling point for a God.
As far as the veracity of the Bible is concerned. Have you ever read Bart Ehrman? If not, please do so. I think you will find his books on the Bible quite insightful. Every Christian should be required to read his books before commenting on the Bible.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce