Tag Archives: Evangelicalism

The Sovereign Grace Ministries Scandal Continues

…”Character assassination.” That is what one megachurch pastor accused us of 2 years ago when we wrote and begged him to talk to his friend, CJ Mahaney. Deb and I had been reading SGM Survivors and SGM Refuge blogs for several years and had become deeply concerned about the numerous reports on those blogs surrounding the response of leadership to reports of child sexual abuse. We had never been a part of SGM but the numbers of stories, which seemed to constantly escalate, indicated to us that there appeared to be a serious problem. You can link to some of these stories on our home page.

Pastor after pastor, along with NeoCalvinist groups have defended and supported CJ Mahaney and SGM despite these allegations. In the meantime, we, at TWW, were roundly condemned for our expressions of concern about this group. Once our readers see these allegations we hope that they might question the discernment of those who accused us, and others, of character assassination.

Today, the 2nd Amendment to the lawsuit has been released. If you think the last one was bad, you are forewarned. What is included in this released suit will turn your stomach…

…Many will ask why we feel it necessary to post these difficult accusations. We do so because some people do not understand the depth of depravity involved in child sexual abuse. Many prefer to believe in a common caricature of a pedophile as an unkempt old man wearing a dark trench coat who quickly exposes himself to someone or looks under a little girls dress while she swings and then runs away. That is not what we are talking about here.

This past week, I had the opportunity to talk with a group of Christian health professionals. Most of them believe that the problem of pedophilia is found in the Catholic church because priests can’t marry. As you will see, marriage does not cure pedophilia. We have far too many incidents within the Protestant tradition to be casting stones at our Catholic brothers and sisters.

For the attorneys: Everything from this point forward is “alleged.”

1. Five of the alleged victims have, to use a Star Trek term, uncloaked. TWW recognizes their particular courage while at the same time applauding all who have joined this lawsuit.

2.(32-39) James Roberts was molested by David Adams on CLC property. Roberts, @ 8 yrs old, reported this to John Loftness who was the principal of the church’s school, later pastor at CLC, recent member of the SGM Board and current pastor of SGM’s Solid Rock Church. He asked the child to reenact the molestation for him. He did not report this to the boy’s parents and forced the child to meet and forgive Dave Adams.

Adams, along with Loftness who covered up his actions, would go on to molest other children, including his own daughter. Roberts would go onto be molested again by Nate Morales, who was arrested in Las Vegas recently for this. Apparently, some other teens disclosed to Roberts that they, too, were bothered by Morales at school. Grant Layman was alerted to this discussion and did not report it.

Today, Loftness issued a statement denying any participation in child sexual abuse at this link.

3.(42-46) A daughter of David Adams wife, Peggy, reported that her father molested her from the ages of 11-14. This was reported by her sister Dara Sutherland. The unnamed daughter remains psychologically disabled.Peggy, the mom, reported these assaults to church leader Dave Mays who reported this to John Loftness and Gary Ricucci. Peggy was not informed of the previous molestation of Plaintiff Roberts by Adams.

Ricucci claimed that Adams was not a pedophile because Adams was not attracted to his 11 year old daughter but to the “woman she was becoming.” Apparently the defendants then hired an attorney for Adams instead of helping the victims.The defendants even suggested to Peggy that she send her daughter away so that she could bring Adams home as the “head of the household.” …

Please see my October 2012 post on this scandal.

The Wartburg Watch has also provided a pdf link to the lawsuit.

I have long said, based on my intimate knowledge of Evangelicalism and its secret, ugly underbelly, that Evangelicalism, has just as big of a problem with sex crimes, pedophilia, and child abuse as the Roman Catholic Church.

As more and more victims come forward, I suspect we will see a horror just as great as those found in the Catholic Church. Evangelicals love to point to the debauchery in the Catholic Church, ignoring that they have their own debauchery. The disconnectedness of Evangelicalism has allowed vile behaviors to go undetected. Thanks to brave victims speaking out and the power of the internet, Evangelical predators and their enablers can no longer hide.

Thanks to the Wartburg Watch for shining a light on the evil that is done in darkness by men and women professing to be followers of Jesus, the Christ.

Thanks to Twitter follower Fendrel for sending me a link to the Wartburg Watch article.

BTW, I was a big supporter of Sovereign Grace Ministries in my Calvinistic pastoring days.

Link to Sovereign Grace Ministries website.

Sovereign Grace Ministries statement on the amended lawsuit:

With a heavy heart, we write to update you on the civil lawsuit filed against Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM).

The suit has been amended a second time. It claims that several members of Covenant Life Church and Sovereign Grace Church of Fairfax were the victims of egregious sexual abuse by a number of alleged perpetrators at various times and places. It further alleges that a number of pastors from those churches conspired to cover up the alleged abuse.

Named among these alleged perpetrators is pastor John Loftness, former Chairman of the SGM Board of Directors. John Loftness has denied the allegations and has offered a statement which is available at http://solidrockchurch.net/.

The charges in this amended complaint are serious, grievous, and difficult to read. The thought of such alleged abuse is extremely disturbing. Because of our resolve to see truth and justice prevail, we continue to work closely with legal counsel.

Our careful review of the allegations to date has not produced any evidence of any cover-up or conspiracy. If we discover otherwise, our Board will immediately report it to the authorities and see that it is prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Without minimizing the serious nature of these allegations nor the grievous harm individuals may have experienced, we understand that it is possible for people to be wrongly accused. We thank God for the judicial system where these allegations can be brought, a defense made, and a verdict rendered through a fair and just process.

Thank you for your patience as these legal proceedings take place. Please continue to pray for God’s will to be done and for SGM to work through these challenging circumstances in a manner that honors him and that demonstrates that our hope and trust are in him.

I Saved Myself

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My friend Zoe wrote:

My Catholic friend will be – MCF

Her Catholic friend will be – HCF

I’ll be myself. Albeit a really tired rendition of me.

So, MCF shared with me her concerns for HCF and what she believes and how that plays out in her everyday life. MCF considers herself to be a liberal/progressive. Her faith is very meaningful to her. MCF considers HCF (also very dedicated to her belief) to be uninformed and prone to mostly black and white thinking. Dogmatic. The entire conversation as I listen reminds me of my Christian years. Yes, we were to evangelize the lost. Those without Christ. But . . . for the most part we seemed overly preoccupied with one another, our fellow Christians. Seems to me we could have seen more added to the kingdom if we stopped the back and forth about one another. Hindsight. Besides I’m out of the kingdom now.

As MCF despaired over HCF and her rather primitive belief ways my heart felt heavy. Ironically I am in a position to defend HCF. Though never Catholic I did with sincerity and a well-intentioned heart throw myself into what ended up being a very narrow, uninformed way of believing. I yearned for black and white. I wanted dogma. In other words, “been there done that.” I understood and understand how and why HCF believes the way she does.

After listening at length I decide to enter the fray by saying that I actually identify with HCF having once believed or tried to believe just like her. You could hear a pin drop. I continued. I even shared other stories of my attempts to believe and how I wrestled with things like Christmas trees and Santa and Halloween and Satan. I shared that if during my fundamentalist (commonly referred to as conservative evangelical back in my day) years one of my children had left the faith and been married outside of the church I would have been shattered too. I could and do understand HCF’s grief. Her world has been turned upside down

I shared many details of my former way of believing and I wasn’t really sure how it was coming across. At one point MCF said, “Yes but you got out of it. How?”..

…I told her that there was always two Zoe’s. One was shattered and broken and didn’t have a sure foundation. She needed firmer ground. She was drawn to the need for absolutes and who better to provide them then God. The other Zoe was the part of me that asked questions and she never stopped asking. In the end, the Zoe that asked all the questions, got me out. In other words, I saved myself….

…In the end I think MCF was stunned to hear how it is I once believed. The thing is she sees the way she believes in a much more healthy way than HCF and me. She can’t see the forest for the trees. She doesn’t see that she still believes many of the things HCF believes and many of the things I use to believe. It’s ironic to me to hear her explain how the Catholic church is evolving somewhat and how many Catholics and even the Pope leave’s room for non-Catholics in heaven. And I thought to myself, ‘Oh that makes me feel better.’ Not to mention that she’s still making an absolute statement. That being that Catholics are the one true faith. Just like HCF believes.

I hope you will meander over to Zoe’s blog and read the entire post.

Zoe speaks of their being two Zoe’s: one that needed certainty and absolutes, and the other that never stopped questioning. I suspect many Evangelicals turned atheist/agnostic were just like Zoe. They had a deep need for certainty and absolutes, but in the still of the night, away from the church and its pastor, their mind raced with questions that their Evangelical faith had no answer for.

Like Zoe, I was a devoted, committed, sold-out follower of Jesus Christ. I had a questioning mind too, but my questions tended to stay within the boundaries of orthodox Christianity. My trajectory was more one of moving from Evangelicalism to liberalism, and it was out a liberal Christian belief system that I ultimately apostatized.

I know pastors who are proud of the fact that they have been preaching for twenty, thirty, or even fifty years and they still believe what they believed when they started preaching. They started with a core set of beliefs and practices and have not wavered one bit. I often wonder, do they ever have doubts or questions? Do you they ever consider that they “might” be wrong?”

Zoe said of her journey, I saved myself. I know some Evangelical readers will see this as proof that Zoe was never a Christian. I am to the place in my journey where I just say
w-h-a-t-e-v-e-r when people say the same about me. People who say this are ignorant and lack the capacity to truly understand anyone or anything that does not neatly fit in their small, defined Fundamentalist box. We waste our time casting our pearls before such swine, to quote the Good Book.

Like Zoe, I saved myself. My path was a bit different from hers, but both of us had questioning minds. When you have a questioning mind, you seek answers, and when the particular religious sect you are a part of doesn’t provide answers to your questions, you start to look elsewhere.

Over the years, I have had a few former pastor friends and parishioners tell me that my reading habits were my downfall. They suggested that I stop reading books and go back to reading ONLY the King James Bible. In other words, ignorance is bliss.

Here is what I find interesting about this argument. When I was their pastor or part of the preacher fraternity, they applauded my reading habits. When they walked into my office they were surprised at how many books I owned. More than one person asked, have you really read all these books? Smile Yes, really…I have. (I know pastors who take great pride in NOT having a library. All they need is the King James Bible, a Concordance, and a Dictionary. After all, that is all Jesus had.) Smile

In the Evangelical circles I ran in, I was considered the intellectual pastor. Pastors would call and ask my thoughts on this or that passage of Scripture. But now, since that same study and worth ethic has led me to renounce my faith, suddenly, the problem is that I read too many books. (BTW, my devouring reading habit started in elementary school)

I spent most of my life in the Christian Church. Who and what I was were swallowed up by Jesus, the Church, and the Bible. I lost any sense of self-identity. After all, Jesus said, Let a man deny himself…and I took the word of Jesus seriously.(please read my posts The Denial of Self and Living in Denial) For decades, I lived according to the Evangelical mantra, Jesus FIRST, others SECOND, yourself LAST. In fact, I thought that if I put Jesus FIRST and others SECOND that I didn’t matter.

This coming Thanksgiving, it will be five years since I declared, I am no longer a Christian. Over the course of the last several years, I have seen a secular psychologist on a regular basis. He has helped me rediscover who and what I really am. He has helped me to reacquaint myself with Bruce Gerencser.

Bit by bit, Jesus, the Church, and the Bible, have been shoveled, one broken piece at a time, out of my mind. At times this has been quite painful. Becoming reconnected with who and what you really are can be frightening. Learning that you really do have emotions can be quite unsettling.

I remain a work in progress. I have no Jesus to rest in, no faith to cover myself with. I have no final authority to appeal to. I must face head-on every question that comes my way. I can’t go back and I can’t go around, so I must stop and squarely face the question in front me.

There are times I secretly yearn for the certainty of the past. I wish I could consult the Christian divination book and parse all the issues that confront me. To NOT think and just say, The BIBLE says_________________________, certainly has its appeal.

But, I know better. I know that certainty is an illusion and that finding answers to the questions I face requires hard work. No deity is going to find the answers for me. My personal salvation is not found in a religion or a divine text. The only person who can save Bruce is…Bruce.

The Human Condition According to Evangelicals

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According to Evangelicalism, ALL humans who are not saved are:

Born into the world with an inherited sin nature (from Adam)
Created in the image of God but that image has been marred by sin
Deceitful and desperately wicked
The enemy of God
The children of Satan
Dead in trespasses and sin
Taken captive by Satan
Unable to do good

And this is just off the top of my head.

Now, when a person is saved, born again, asks Jesus into their heart, puts their faith and trust in Jesus, supposedly they become a new person. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:17:

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

This verse is clear, A saved person, a person who is IN Christ:

Is a new creature (creation)
The old things of their life pass away
All things become new

Of course, anyone who knows anything about Christianity in general and Evangelicalism in particular, knows that, for the most part, Christians are no different from their non-Christian counterparts in the world.

According to the Bible:

Christians have a new life
Christians have the Holy Spirit living inside them
Christians have the Holy Spirit guiding them
Christians have the Holy Spirit teaching them
Christians have the Holy Spirit convicting and correcting them
Christians have the mind of Christ

Surely, based on these things, EVERY Evangelical Christian should be a super-saint. After all, according to the Bible, the Evangelical Christian has the righteousness of Christ imputed to him and they are sanctified. Why is it then that Evangelical Christians are no different than atheists, agnostics, humanists, Buddhists, pagans, or worshipers of the Spaghetti Monster?

The truth is, Evangelical Christians are human just like we ALL are. They have the same passions, the same desires, the same ability to be good or bad, as we all do. The only difference between the Evangelical Christian and the non-Christian is what they do with their time on Sunday Morning.

What we have in the West is cultural Christianity, a Christianity that is good for births, deaths, and weddings. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Imagine a world where Christians took every command in the Bible literally and made every effort to live by and enforce those commands?

The Bible demands there be no king but Jesus and no law but the Bible. Yes, God allowed Israel to choose their own king, but God was very clear that this was NOT his plan. Theocracy is always the goal when the Bible is taken literally.

Non-Christians in America should be glad that they live in a secular state. If Evangelicals ruled America we would be pushed to the margins and many of our behaviors and words would be deemed blasphemous and punished accordingly.

As a humanist, I reject what the Bible and Evangelicals say about the human condition. Each human has the power to be good or bad. Each human has the power to be a blessing or a curse. We are the final authority not a God.

When the Evangelical looks at the humanist he sees an evil person. (if he is true to the teachings of the Bible) When the humanist looks at the Evangelical he sees a person with potential. The humanist sees a person who has the capacity for love and goodness.

As a humanist, I do not divide the world into two groups like the Evangelical does. I see us all as one, each of us with a vested interest in the furtherance of the human race and the future of our planet.

Yes, I think religion gets in the way of progress. Look at how things are here in America. Evangelical Christianity is never far from the center of our political debates. It drives the culture war. It is what is behind attempts to keep women chained to the stove with 10 children around their feet. It is what is behind attempts to promote ignorance in the public schools through the teaching of creationism and abstinence-based sex education.

There is no easy way to say it…Evangelicalism, with its Fundamentalist tendencies, along with other sects like the Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Islam, and the Catholic Church, do their best to impede progress. Fidelity to a certain interpretation of the Bible or the pronouncements of a Pope is more important than progress, freedom, and liberty.

While we can not (and should not) keep people from believing what they will religiously, we must not let their religious beliefs stand in the way of progress. They are free to worship whomever and however they wish within the four walls of their church and home, but when it comes to public policy and the common good, their religious beliefs and practices have no standing.

All people of faith are welcome to take part in our democracy, but, when they demand their sect be given preferential treatment or demand that their Holy book be used as the standard for our laws, they must be rebuffed.

The U.S. Constitution begins with the words, WE THE PEOPLE. Not, we the Christian people. We as a people decide what kind of country we want to have and what laws we want to govern us, It would be great if Evangelicals would join us unwashed, uncircumcised heathens in an attempt to make our country a land where hope, peace,love and justice reign supreme.

Help! My Fundamentalist In-Laws are Driving Me Crazy

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Guest Post by Lydia who blogs at On the Other Hand

In-laws can be an ongoing source of tension in extended families that haven’t established or don’t respect appropriate boundaries. The good news is that this doesn’t have to be the case. With a few adjustments religious differences do not have to be the focal point of your get-togethers.

Make Sure You’re on the Same Page as Your Spouse.

Each spouse should be responsible for communicating potentially tricky messages to their own family of origin so that the person who married into the family isn’t seen as an interloper. You two are a team and nothing should separate you under these circumstances.

Also consider picking code words or non-verbal signals ahead of time that will let your spouse know that:

- You’re ready to leave.

- You’re ok.

- They need to step in.

Visit on Neutral Territory.

By that I mean spend time at a park or restaurant instead of at your extended family member’s house whenever possible. It helps to eliminate the this is my home and you’ll do things my way syndrome. Plus, spending time in public spaces reduces the likelihood that they will push the conversation into religious topics.

Keep Visits Short and Sweet.

My Fundamentalist extended family members are usually ok for a couple of hours. Any longer than that and they tend to slip back into bad habits.When in doubt it’s better to leave a little prematurely than stay too long and risk ending the visit on a sour note. You can always come back later.

Have an Itinerary.

Pose for professional family photos. Go for a walk in the park. Play a game. Show them that cute thing your kid or pet learned how to do. Eat out. Do anything other than sit quietly and stare at one another.

Visit Less Often Than They’d Like.

People who miss you are less likely to bring up potentially divisive topics (especially if they know that you’re only visiting for a few hours today and that they won’t see you again for X number of weeks/months/years).

Make a List of “Safe” Topics

…and stick to them.

I imagine that I’m actually speaking to, say, a stranger I just met on public transportation. In those cases am I going to talk about God, politics, or my sex life? Hell no!

I’m going to talk about neutral stuff like the weather or ridiculously cute animal videos on YouTube.

Choose Your Battles.

Sometimes sticking to neutral topics doesn’t work, though.

“The Bible says…”

“Come to church with me this weekend.”

“I want to teach your kids about God.”

“You’re going to hell!”

There’s nothing wrong with ignoring statements like these if your in-laws do bring them up. Not every thread in a conversation needs to be tugged on.

Remember the acronym J.A.D.E. If you don’t want to talk about something, never Justify, Argue, Defend or Explain yourself. Someone who refuses to let a topic die will never be satisfied by any reason you give for not wanting to do, say, or believe X.

It’s also a good idea to decide ahead of time what your hill to die on is and how you will respond if the in-laws go there.

Topics I haven’t covered because I don’t have kids and don’t like to debate :

How do you argue politely with Fundamentalist in-laws?

How do you raise non-religious kids when their grandparents want to convert all of you?

Readers, what would you recommend?

Other Guest Posts by Lydia, The Prayer Problem and Unintended Message in the Book of Eli

24 Questions From the Search Logs

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I love reading the search logs for The Way Forward. I find it interesting how people end up coming to this blog. The following searches brought people to this blog on March 26-27, 2013. These are but a fraction of searches that returned The Way Forward as possibly having the answer to what they were searching for. (there were over 1,100 searches that brought people to The Way Forward over the past 48 hours.)

WARNING! Humor and irreverence ahead. If you are easily offended, please do not read this post.

Are gays habitual masturbators?

Of course they are. Gays masturbate 25 hours a day. They masturbate so much that they have calluses on their hands and have carpal tunnel.

What if Quiverfull means not having the ability to have children?

You will never be treated with respect in the Quiverfull movement unless you have children. As long as you are childless you will be an outsider who people think is really using birth control or is under the judgment of God.

Do Evangelicals have rules?

Yes, lots of them. They have written and unwritten rules and woe unto to you if you transgress. Evangelicals don’t take kindly to those who break the rules. Here is how you can test this….Next Sunday, stand up during testimony time and say, Praise Jesus! All Glory to God! I want everyone to know I am gay, I voted for Barack Obama, I had an abortion when I was 14 because my pastor father raped me, and I read Bart Ehrman’s latest book this week!

Let me know how long it took for them to throw you outside of the church and remove you from the membership roll. My money is on 2 minutes.

If I fail all my exams does this mean God is punishing me?

No, it means you didn’t study hard enough or you are not well-suited for the classes you are taking.

What happened to the old pastor of First Baptist Church in Hammond?

Which one? Megalomaniac, control-freak, adulterous Jack Hyles is dead. Megalomaniac, control-freak, adulterous Jack Schaap is in prison.

Does the Bible teach God does what he wants?

It sure does. God is the creator of everything and he has the right to do whatever he wants. God kills, maims, and destroys because he can and according to the Apostle Paul, you have no right to question what God does.

Is Ken Ham bankrupt?

As far as I know Ham is not financially bankrupt.

I think my Mum may have mental illness. What should I do?

Love her, support her, and help her get the professional help she needs.

And here is what not to do. Pray for her, quote Bible verses to her, berate her, or tell her that her problems are not real.

Mental illnesses are like all illnesses and should be treated by competent medical professionals. Your pastor is NOT a competent medical professional. Your mum needs real help and magic spells from the Bible will not help her.

I am looking for information on Jack Schaap, Jack Hyles and David Hyles.

Please read the series, Jack Hyles and Jack Schaap. Afterward, you will need to take a long, hot shower. Please use lots of soap.

I am looking for Linda Murphrey’s letter to First Baptist Church of Hammond.

Please read my post on this subject.

What should I do? My spouse doesn’t want to go to church with me?

The first question you need to ask yourself is why your spouse doesn’t want to go to church with you?

Do you love and respect your spouse enough to allow them the freedom to NOT go to church with you? If not, you better consult a divorce lawyer because your marriage will soon be over.

Love and respect means we allow others to be who they are. I know this is not easy to do, but if your marriage and family are important to you then you must allow your spouse to be who they are.

And if you are aren’t willing to do this and you end up divorced, I hope you will be honest with people when you are asked about your divorce. I hope you will tell them that you are divorced because you loved God more than your spouse and family.

Is the pastor the “decision maker” in the Independent Baptist or Southern Baptist church?

Yes. In most Baptist churches the pastor is the CEO, boss, final answer, and his decisions are final. He is the Man of God and he has a special relationship with God that YOU don’t have.

Pay attention…and you will notice that God’s will for the church always agrees with what the pastor wants to do. Don’t you find that a little convenient?

I broke my wife into submission!

What a man you are…abusing and misusing your wife so you can be the head of the home. You should be proud of yourself. I know God and your church are.

Don’t be surprised if you awake one night and find her gone or your bed is on fire.

What verse in the Bible says not to judge?

Matthew 7:1. However, the Bible doesn’t really teach you are not to judge. Please read my post, The Bible Says Thou Shalt Not Judge.

Does Ken Ham have faulty theology?

Yes and no. As a fundamentalist Christian who is a literalist, Ham’s theology is quite consistent with fundamentalist Christian theology. However, Ham’s theology is rejected by many Christians and is considered simplistic and cultic.

As an atheist, I think all Christian theologies are correct. Anything can be proved with the Bible, as 2,000 years of Christian church history clearly shows.

Ham is bound to a literalistic interpretation of the Bible that contradicts what science tells us about the world. It is up to you to choose who to believe. Me? I am going with science.

Where is God when you need him?

This question shows up quite often in the search logs. As I have stated before:

Where IS God when his children face suffering, deprivation, and death? For many of us, this is one of the reasons we left the Christian faith. We came to see that God was like Baal in 1 Kings 18. 1 Kings 18:27 says:

And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked.

Pretty well sums up how many of us see God. Too busy to make himself known, too busy to help when people REALLY need him. (but never too busy to help sports players win a game or help a preacher get more money from people)

Sad to see Evil in the church. What can be done about it?

Nothing. Human beings have the capability to act good or bad and going to church ,praying , reading the Bible, or becoming a Christian does not change this fact.

In fact, not going to church might actually make you a better person. Many Christians are quite self-righteous and they spend a significant amount of time judging those who do not measure up to their moral standard. The antidote for judging-disease is to leave the church and rejoin the human race. Washing from the same bowl as everyone else is sure to make you a better person.

How do I preach the gospel to an atheist?

Please read my post, How to Witness to an Atheist.

I am looking for information on psychological manipulation in the church?

Please read the series, Does Evangelical Christianity Cause Emotional Damage and my post, The Psychological and Emotional Consequences of Authoritarian Religion.

What rights did women have in the Old Testament?

None.

Why do people hate Independent Baptists?

Simple, most Independent Baptist preachers are self-righteous, arrogant assholes who think they are absolutely right and expect everyone to believe exactly like they do.

And you ask why Independent Baptists are hated?

Where is Jack Schaap?

In prison.

What is David Hyles doing these days?

Pretending he wasn’t a serial adulterer. Please read, Serial Adulterer David Hyles has been Restored and David Hyles, A Lurking Sexual Predator.

Who was the girl Jack Schaap had sex with?

Why? Does it matter? She was member of First Baptist Church and attended Hammond Baptist High School.

Here is what she was. She was vulnerable and an easy target and Jack Schaap, a grown man, took advantage of her.

What are the consequences of hating God?

None.

I hate the Pittsburgh Steelers, yet my life has never materially been affected by my hate for them. Outside of causing me to swear when they beat the Bengals, my life is not affected in any way.

God is a mythical being and hating God is just as silly as hating Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. As an atheist, I don’t hate God because I don’t hate mythical beings. I do, however, hate what many Christians DO in the name of the Christian God.

How Inerrancy Turns Christians into Haters

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This is a picture of a retired IFB pastor in the nursing home.

Evangelical Christians believe the Bible is the inspired (God breathed), inerrant Word of God. They believe that the text of the Christian Bible is without error and they are certain that every word in the Bible is the very words of God. (either spoken by him or inspired by him)

While many Evangelical pastors and professors don’t really believe the Bible is inerrant, they continue to preach the inerrancy myth from the pulpit and in their college classrooms. These Evangelicals, late at night, get out a flashlight, pull the covers over their head, and secretly read one of Bart Ehrman’s books. They will never tell anyone about this lest they lose their job.

When it comes to the people in the pew, I have never met an Evangelical Christian who didn’t believe every word in the Bible is true. They are certain that the leather-bound Bible they carry to church every Sunday is the very words of God.

Evangelical Christians are told from their youth up that the Bible can be understood by anyone, even a child. Why then are there so many theology books if the Bible is so simple it can be understood by a child?

The fact is, the Bible is anything BUT a simple book. It is a book that must be interpreted and this is where Evangelicals get themselves into trouble. They think, The Bible is God’s Word, it is so simple a child can understand it, I have read it, and I understand it, thus my interpretation of the Bible is exactly what God said.

This kind of thinking leads to arrogance. When a person is absolutely convinced they are absolutely right, they no longer have to consider competing ideas or interpretations.

This kind of thinking is at its worst in the Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) church movement. All Evangelicals are theological Fundamentalists. The doctrine of inerrancy requires the Evangelical to have a Fundamentalist view of the Bible. In the case of the IFB church movement, not only are they theological Fundamentalists but they are also social Fundamentalists.

Social Fundamentalists take their inspired, inerrant Bible, often the King James Version, and strictly apply it to every aspect of their lives. They believe that everything in their lives is governed by what the Bible says. This is why IFB churches have strict codes of conduct, often called church standards. Everything, from what clothes they should wear, to what they should listen to on the radio, is determined by their peculiar interpretation of the Bible.

IFB pastors are known for being hellfire and brimstone preachers. They scream and holler, step on toes, beat church members with the sin stick, all because they think they are divinely called by God to tell people exactly what God says in the Bible.

As a God-called man, no women need apply, the IFB pastor thinks he has a special relationship with God. God speaks to the IFB preacher and the IFB preacher then speaks to the people in the pew. Just like the Pope, the IFB pastor, stands between God and church member.

Though the IFB pastor will deny what I have written above, saying, WE BELIEVE IN THE PRIESTHOOD OF THE BELIEVER, the truth is they only believe in the priesthood of the believer when the believer’s interpretation of the Bible agrees with theirs.

In the IFB church, as it is in most Evangelical churches, diversity of belief is discouraged. In many churches it is forbidden. After all, if the Bible is inerrant then there can only be ONE correct interpretation of the Bible.

Eleven years ago, we saw Fundamentalism at work in the George Bush administration when they decided to wage war against Iraq. George Bush and his administration were certain their beliefs about Iraq, Saddam Hussein, and weapons of mass destruction, were infallibly right. And here we are a decade later, and hundreds of thousands of deaths later, trying to extricate ourselves from another failed war. Yet, to this day, George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld, refuse to admit they made any mistakes. They are certain that their beliefs were/are correct, and, in the case of George Bush, the Christian God was/is on our side.

Most IFB church members are not only theological and social Fundamentalists, they are also political Fundamentalists. They are certain their Bible is God’s words and that their interpretation is infallibly true. Since they apply the Bible to the minutest details of their lives, it should come as no surprise that they have exacting beliefs about politics.

I have never met an IFB pastor or church member who was not a Republican or a Libertarian. I am sure there are a few IFB church members who are Democrats, but they, like gay or bisexual IFB church members, are way in the back of the closet. IFB church members are told to vote their “conscience” but everyone knows that voting your conscience means voting exactly the way God the pastor tells you to vote. To vote differently means going against the man of God, the Word of God, and God himself, and no one want to do that. right?

Disobedience and rebellion are not permitted in IFB churches. Those who think for themselves or believe differently than the pastor, are told they are not right with God or that they are backslidden. They are told their “discerner” is broke and that they need to listen to their pastor.

Those who refuse to conform end up marginalized, disciplined, or asked to leave the church. IFB churches are notorious for turning over their memberships, and generic Evangelical churches are not much different. There is a constant stream of people going out the back door as new people come in the front. (with most new people coming from other churches)

Is it any wonder that this kind of thinking turns people into haters? Is it any wonder that people raised in this kind of environment lack the necessary skills to make sound, reasoned judgments about the world they live in?

Everything is, THUS SAITH THE LORD. Everything is black and white. Nuance or gray areas are called compromise and God HATES compromise.

It is this kind of thinking that breeds the nasty, hateful comments you read on this blog. It is what causes people to send me nasty, hateful emails. Rarely does a day or two go by that I don’t receive a nasty, hateful email from an Evangelical Christian.

Just today, the husband of Jeannie Williams, (see here and here) David Williams, an IFB pastor, took it upon himself to email me and tell me about some blog posts he had written about morality. I wrote him back and told him, in no uncertain terms, that I was not interested in reading anything he had written, he replied:

I did not attack you so if you don’t want to read truth, they that is your choice. The moral law is a law of choices. It is the law of love. The only way to truly love is to know God. If you don’t know Him you are immoral. No one that is immoral can point their finger at anyone else. That is all!

In a follow-up email he wrote:

Here are some points to consider. You may not like me, you may hate Jack Hyles but you have a duty to be moral as well as any other being in the universe. It is a law that applies to all. Moral law is not the command of God or a product of the will of God. It is a priori, something that every living person knows is just and right. It is the law of love.

To sum up what David Williams is saying…anyone who disagrees with his view of morality is immoral. Like Matt Nye, James Spiegel, and countless other Evangelicals who have written me, atheists are immoral.

Most decent, thinking people believe that Fred Phelps, the Phelps clan, and the Westboro Baptist Church, are arrogant, bigoted, nasty, hateful people. However, there is little difference between the beliefs of Fred Phelps and Matt Nye, James Spiegel, and David and Jeanie Williams.

While Matt Nye, James Spiegel, and David and Jeanie Williams put a better “face” on their beliefs and don’t go to the extremes that the Phelps’s do, their beliefs are pretty much the same. It is their belief that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of God that leads them to the conclusions they come to.

The only only way to reach people like this is to attack their foundational belief that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of God. If they can be brought to see that the Bible is not what they claim it is, there is hope for them.

Don’t count on it. Most people who believe in inerrancy keep this belief until they die. When you take a high road position like inerrancy it is hard to back up. To admit that the Bible is not inerrant is to admit you are wrong and Evangelicals rarely admit they were wrong. Those who do, do so on their way OUT the doors of the Evangelical church.

While I am not an evangelist for atheism, I do encourage people to leave Evangelicalism. Any religion that demands conformity and fidelity to a certain interpretation of a religious text is certain to harm people intellectually and emotionally. Any church or pastor who demands everyone think the same way and who considers doubts and questions to be a challenge to their authority or a work of Satan are not places where a personal can intellectually and emotionally thrive.

The Evangelical Preoccupation with Sex

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Warning! Frank talk about sex. if you are easily offended, stop reading now!!

If there is one thing that Evangelical preachers like to talk about it is sex. In fact, Evangelical preachers and their congregants are quite interested in who is screwing who and when and where are they doing it.

Where do Evangelicals get this sex obsession of theirs? From the Bible. It seems that the Evangelical God is quite obsessed with sex too.

The Evangelical God created humans and gave them a powerful sex drive. Most humans are driven to copulate by strong biological urges. While these urges tend to weaken a bit as we get older, I think I can safely speak for the aging among us…we ain’t dead yet. We may not be able to have marathon sessions in the bedroom but we are still capable of short sprints around the bed.

Why did God give humans the biological desire to copulate and then turn right around and say, do not act on this desire unless you are with a person of the opposite sex that you happen to be married to?

Evangelicals are quite specific about what constitutes proper sexual behavior. One man, one woman, married to each other with the primary reason of copulation being the furtherance of the human race. Yes, God made sex pleasurable, but pleasure is secondary to being fruitful and multiplying.

All other forms of sexual expression are sin. In fact, if Evangelicals are faithful to what the Bible says, all other forms of sexual expression lead to hell. According to the Bible there will be no adulterers or fornicators in heaven. People who give in to their God-given sexual desire before marriage are showing that they are not really followers of Jesus Christ. While some allowance may be made for a solitary slip into immorality, wallowing in sexual immorality, like a pig in the muck of the pig pen, is a sure sign that a person is not a Christian.

Yet, for all their talk about waiting until married, most Evangelical couples are not virgins when they get married. No matter how many girls make purity pledges, Evangelical boys still seek Evangelical girls to have sex with. While they may feel guilty afterward, their guilt does not keep them from fornicating the next time their sexual passions are aroused.

Many Evangelicals believe masturbation is a sin. Yet, how many Evangelicals are there that have NEVER masturbated. I suppose there might be a few women that have never masturbated, and since I am not a woman I certainly don’t want to speak for all women. However, I am a man and I am pretty sure 99.9% of all men have spanked the monkey at one time or the other.

It is no mystery why people masturbate. I would think Evangelicals would understand this. Their God created humans with sexual desire. What are they to do with this sexual desire until they marry? Especially now since young adults are often waiting until their mid to late twenties before they marry. This means they reached puberty upwards to 15 years before they married.

There is only so many cold showers a person can take. After awhile the need for sexual release becomes so powerful that something must be done. Thank God for masturbation, yes?

What is it that makes sex a sin for the unmarried? Is petting Ok? Is mutual oral sex OK? Is it really sex if no seed is passed from the man to the woman? Does “real” sex require the insertion of the penis into the vagina? If so is anal sex “really” sex?

All these questions, so I can readily see why the Evangelical prohibition against all sexual behavior except male, female copulation within the bounds of marriage is so appealing. Quite simple isn’t it? Don’t do it unless you do it with the person you are married to.

But, Evangelicals do do it just like the rest of us. The rate of fornication and adultery are just as great within the Evangelical church as outside it. Regardless of what the Bible says, Evangelicals are having sex just like everyone else.

So what’s the problem then? Evangelicals live in denial over what is going on sexually among Evangelical church members. When reality makes it to the front page of the paper, they say that so and so’s moral failure is an aberration and not a normal occurrence.

Many of us former Evangelicals find a sense of perverse pleasure when the dirty sexual laundry of Evangelicals is aired for all to see. Who can forget the scathing sermons about adultery and fornication? Who can forget being constantly reminded that true love waits and that no boy worth marrying would ever ask a girl to put out? So much guilt. So much feeling dirty.

So when we find out that people like Jack Schaap, Jack Hyles, David Hyles, Ted Haggard, Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker, Paul Crouch, Benny Hinn, Paula White,Dinesh D’Souza, Earl Paulk, Eddie Long, the preachers on the Freedom From Religion Black Collar Crime Blotter, and a host of other unknown Evangelical preachers, deacons, and church leaders have given in to their sexual desires, we smile and say, hypocrite.

Instead of preaching a morality standard that few can keep, why not preach sexual responsibility? Why not openly admit that Evangelicals are not morally superior to non-Evangelicals, that Evangelicals have just as much moral and immoral sex as atheists do? (though the atheist likely has a lot less guilt afterward)

The Evangelical attitude towards sexuality and their inability to keep the very sexual standard they expect others to keep is one of the biggest reasons non-Christians want nothing to do with Evangelicalism. They can understand and appreciate an earthly, worldly Episcopalian priest a lot better than they can an Evangelical preacher who outwardly lives on Mount Zion but inwardly, and in private, descends down into the gutter with unwashed, uncircumcised Philistines.

How about you? Does Evangelical preaching and moralizing bother you? Do you think they are hypocrites? What moral standard, if any, do you think we should have.? None of us would say, anything goes, at any age, so where do we draw the line when it comes to sexual behavior? Please use the comment section to share your view.

Let me end this post with a little humor:

Evangelicals and Their Use of the Word God

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When Evangelicals speak of God, they often do so in ways that give people the impression that God is a generic deity that is the same regardless of what the name of the sect is. When it suits Evangelicals, they will appeal to the Gods of other sects as proof that their God exists.

Evangelicals point to supposed universal moral traits in the various world religions as proof of the existence of God. They point to the various creation myths and flood myths found in many sects and suggest the universality of these stories is another proof that God exists.

Don’t be misled by the subterfuge of the Evangelical. While they may speak of God in a generic way and appeal to other religions as proof that God exists, they really don’t believe this. Don’t listen to their public talking points, points used when they want to convince the public they really are nice people who just want to get along with everyone.

Go to your local Evangelical church and listen to the preaching. Behind the closed the doors of the sanctuary, the Evangelical pastor no longer has to play nice. He is free to say what he really thinks about the Gods of other religions.

I can tell you what you won’t hear. You won’t hear about a generic God or the universal commonalities that the religions of the world have, Oh no, you will hear that all other Gods but the Evangelical Christian God, are no God at all.

A commenter recently asked me to write a post on how Evangelicals view other sects. Simple. All other sects, but the Evangelical Christian sect, worship false Gods. There is but one, true, and living God, and that God is the Evangelical God.

There is some movement within Evangelicalism to be more inclusive when it comes to other sects, but at the heart of Evangelical belief is the notion there is one God , a triune being, revealed to humankind in the 66 books of the Christian Bible. There is no other God but this God.

The Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists, Quakers, Unitarian Universalists, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Roman Catholics, and Greek Orthodox all worship a false God. Some Evangelicals even go farther and suggest that unless a sect holds to a certain soteriology, they too are worshipping a false God. Calvinists often make this claim about Arminians.

In the days of the Roman Empire, Christians were considered atheists. Why where they considered atheists? The Romans had a plethora of Gods and they worshiped all of them. The Christians would have none of this. They were monotheists, rejecting all other Gods but their God.

In recent years, I have charged Evangelicals with being atheists. They either bristle at this or ignore me altogether. But, the fact remains that Evangelical Christians are atheistic to all other Gods but theirs.

Ask the Evangelical, do all roads lead to Heaven and they will emphatically say no. There is one road that leads to Heaven and life eternal, and that road is the road bought and paid for by the Evangelical God.

This road is a narrow road that few people travel. Most of humanity will not go to the Evangelical heaven when they die. (in the strictest sense neither will the Evangelical. No one goes to heaven until the resurrection of the dead) Most of humanity will go to hell and be tortured for all eternity by the Evangelical Christian God.

Evangelicals are quite Fundamentalist when it comes to God. And Evangelicals who are not? They most likely are not really Evangelicals. An increasing number of Evangelicals, influenced by the emerging church and liberal/progressive politics, are becoming more inclusive in their view of other sects.

These days, it is not uncommon to hear Evangelicals say that while Catholics, Mormons, and Seventh Day Adventists, to name a few, are heterodox, they are still Christian sects.While this is good news, it is a betrayal of core Evangelical beliefs.

Evangelicals who are more inclusive have one foot in the Evangelical church and the other foot in the liberal/progressive church. I suspect inclusivists will, in the future, leave Evangelicalism altogether and join up with mainline liberal/progressive Christian sects.

Are you a member of a non-Evangelical Christian sect? The next time you have a discussion with an Evangelical about God, just remember they think your God is no God at all. Don’t be tricked into thinking that their use of the word God includes your God. It doesn’t.

This is why Evangelicals are so evangelistic. Since they worship the one, true, and living God, members of every other sect but theirs, are evangelistic targets. What every human being needs, is to know, in a personal salvific way, the Evangelical Christian God. A refusal to do so means spending eternity in hell.

If you happen to be an Evangelical and are reading this post, please explain to me why you do not call yourself an atheist? The ONLY difference between you and atheists like me, is that we have one more god on our NO GOD list than you do. You think every other God but your God is a false God. Be honest enough to admit this and be honest enough to tell the majority of the human race that they are going to hell to be tortured by your God for all eternity unless they start worshipping your God.

No, well only God knows who is going to heaven or hell, copout. This is not what Evangelical pastors preach on Sunday. Their sermons make it very clear who is worshipping the true God and who is not. If this is your belief too, then why not proudly own it? Why not proudly wear a button that says, My God is the only true and living God or God chose me but not you?

And if this is not what you believe, then why are you still sitting in the pew at the local Evangelical church? Are you not condoning their exclusivism and bigotry by continuing to attend an Evangelical church?

What Evangelicals Think They Know About Atheists

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Evangelical Christians have all kind of ideas about what an atheist believes and what kind of person they are. Where do they get these ideas? From Evangelical apologetics books, pastors, Sunday School teachers, Fox News, and fellow Christians.

They usually don’t know any atheists. After all, there are no atheists in their church. (though they would be surprised to find out there are likely secret atheists sitting near them in church every Sunday) Evangelicals tend to surround themselves with people who think and act like they do, so they are rarely exposed to people who hold to beliefs different from theirs. (and this is common for all groups, including atheists)

This is the same criticism homosexuals have of Evangelicals. Evangelicals rage against the sin of homosexuality, yet they don’t personally know any homosexuals. All they know is what the pastor says, a TV preacher says, or what they read in a Christian apologetics book.

When Evangelicals actually come to know a homosexual, they are forced to rethink their beliefs. When a face is put on their beliefs, they are forced to deal with the humanity of the homosexual. Often, when Evangelicals actually meet and get to know a homosexual, they often soften or abandon their belief about homosexuals being sinful, wicked ,deviant, child-molesting pedophiles.

So it is with atheists. Evangelicals have little in-person, up-close, contact with atheists, and until they do they will continue to say and believe outlandish and untrue things about atheists.

So what do many Evangelical Christians think they know about atheists?

They think atheists are a monolithic group, where everyone believes exactly the same thing.
They think atheist practice the religion of atheism.
They think atheists hate God.
They think all atheists oppose religion of any kind.
They think atheists have a secret desire to live immoral lives.
They think atheists worship Madalyn Murray O’Hair.
They think all atheists are ignorant of the Bible and Christianity.
They think atheists are out to steal the souls of children.
They think atheists are agents of Satan/Lucifer/Beelzebub/Barack Obama.
They think atheists revere men like Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin.
They think all atheists are politically liberal and they all voted for Barack Obama.
They think atheists are out to destroy America and turn it into a godless state.
They think all atheists are pro-abortion.

And in every instance, Evangelicals are wrong about what they think they know about atheists. Atheism is the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. From this point, atheists head off in many different directions. Yes, most atheists are likely political liberals, but many atheists are Republican, Pro-life, Libertarian, or supporters of the right to own guns. Unlike Evangelicalism, the atheist spectrum is quite broad.

Are some atheists ignorant of the Bible and Christianity? Sure, and as an atheist, I am embarrassed when they open their mouth and expose their ignorance. However, many atheists are like me, raised in the Christian church, taught the Bible from our youth, and we know the Bible inside and out .

Like I told one commenter who suggested that since I was not a Christian and didn’t have the Holy Spirit living inside me, my understanding of the Bible was wrong…does this mean the moment I said, I am an atheist, 25 years of intense Bible study and knowledge immediately left my brain?

If Evangelicals really want to understand atheists, they are going to have to set aside their presuppositions and actually get to know a real, flesh and blood atheist, Most Evangelicals are unwilling to do this. They are like James Spiegel…they have made up their mind that atheists are in rebellion against God and they secretly desire to live a life of immorality.

To actually get to know an atheist might force them to rethink their beliefs and we can’t have any of that. To admit that an atheist is a kind, loving, decent human being means that the Evangelical claim that only Jesus can make a person kind, loving, and decent is not true. To admit that atheists are as moral as they are is to rob the Evangelical God of his power.

The Evangelical can not stand being “just like everyone else.” They have been told their whole life that they are unique, special, a new creation in Christ Jesus. To admit that an atheist is just like them is too much to handle and invalidates the foundation their life is built on.

And so Evangelicals continue their attack on atheists, refusing to realize that the atheists they are attacking are a figment of their imagination.

Jesus is Coming Soon, It Could Be Today

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Eschatology, a branch of theology concerned with the end times and the ultimate destiny of humankind, plays a prominent part in the thinking of most Evangelicals. Jesus could come today, Evangelical pastors tell their congregations. Evangelicals are encouraged to be looking and waiting for Jesus to return again. They are encouraged to be busy working in God’s vineyard lest Jesus come and find them caught up in the pursuits of this world.

Many Evangelicals think that the next eschatological event to take place is the rapture. The rapture is when Jesus comes in the clouds and secretly spirits away every saved person. After the rapture, the world faces the judgment and wrath of God for seven years.

For seven years, God tortures and kills those who remain on the earth. They had been warned, the Evangelical says, and now they must face the consequences of their rejection of Jesus Christ. During the Tribulation, there will be a chance for people to be saved. Jews and those willing to be martyred in exchange for salvation, will have the opportunity to be saved. However, the Tribulation will not be a period known for mercy and redemption. As the book of Revelation makes clear, the Tribulation will be known for God’s judgment and wrath against unbelieving humanity. (most of the human race)

At the close of the Tribulation, Jesus, riding on a white horse, will physically return to the Mount of Olives and rule and reign over the Earth for one thousand years. During this time, the Law of God will be strictly enforced.Since Satan has been bound, humans will have no reason to not keep God’s law. And so it will go for one thousand years.

At the end of this period, popularly known as the Millennium, God will let Satan loose for a season. Satan will deceive countless humans, causing them to rise up against God. God will wage war against Satan and the humans following him. God ultimately wins this war.

After this war, Satan and Hell will be cast into the Lake of Fire. Every human being that ever lived will be resurrected from the dead and brought before God to be judged. Christians will be given an eternity with God in his Kingdom and all non-Christians will be given an eternity in the Lake of Fire with the devil and his angels.

After the final Judgment, God will destroy the heavens and earth with fire and will then make a new heaven and a new earth. On the new earth will sit the New Jerusalem, the city of God. Every Christian will have a place (room or mansion depending on the Bible translation) in the New Jerusalem and will live in the presence of God for all eternity.

The Bible, in Revelation 21, describes the New Jerusalem like this:

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven…And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof.And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal. And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel. And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones…And the twelve gates were twelve pearls: every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass…^.

The New Jerusalem is built like a cube, 1,500 miles long, 1,500 hundred miles wide, and 1,500 miles tall. (furlong=660 feet) Around the New Jerusalem will be a 288 foot wall made of jasper. (a cubit=2 feet, depending on the male forearm used for measuring.) This wall will have 3 gates made of pearl on each wall. The street (not streets) of the city will be made of pure, transparent gold,

Sounds like a wonderful movie script, yes? Yet, millions of Evangelical Christians believe that everything I have mentioned above is literally true. They believe that, before we draw our next breath, or before I write the next word of this post, Jesus could come to rapture up every Christian, setting into motion everything I mentioned above.

This fall will be the twenty-fifth anniversary of Edgar Whisenant’s booklet, 88 Reasons the Rapture will Occur in 1988. Whisenant predicted that the Rapture would take place between September 11th and September 13th, 1988.

Whisenant mailed 88 Reasons to 300,000 ministers in the U.S. and an additional 4.5 million booklets were sold and distributed throughout the English speaking world.

The church I pastored in 1988 had a large uptick in attendance on the Sunday before Whisenant’s Rapture prediction. Even though I hade taken a stand against 88 Reasons, the booklet was read by most everyone in the church and many of them were convinced that Whisenant was right.

And yet, here we are, twenty-five years later.

While Evangelicals still think that Jesus could come back at any moment, their lives betray that they really DON’T believe Jesus could come back any time soon. Rapture prognosticators like Jack Van Impe, John Hagee, Tim LaHaye, and Hal Lindsay, have sold millions of books and live the comfortable life of a millionaire. The Left Behind series, written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins from 1995-2007, sold sixty-five million copies. (seven of the book made it to number one on the New York Times Bestseller list) The book series gives a fictional account of what might happen in the future. Many Evangelicals think the Left Behind books are more fact than fiction. Speaking of the Left Behind series, Jerry Falwell said, “In terms of its impact on Christianity, it’s probably greater than that of any other book in modern times, outside the Bible.”

I live in an area where Evangelicalism dominates most everything. Yet, I see no real urgency in the lives of Evangelicals. They go about their lives rarely thinking about the second coming of Jesus. I see them bowing their heads to pray in the restaurant and then they conversation turns to family, jobs, or sports. If Jesus really could come back in the next second, wouldn’t Evangelicals have an urgency about them? Shouldn’t they be busy getting their spiritual house in order and trying to get as many people saved as possible? (most Evangelicals never share their faith one time)

Consider, for a moment, the Evangelicals that frequent this blog, defending their version of the Christian faith. If Jesus could come at any moment, is it really a best use of time commenting on an apostates blog?

Most Evangelical pastors believe that Jesus could come at any moment and that we are living in the last days. Yet, look at how they live. Their lives betray they really don’t believe Jesus is coming back any time soon. In every way their life is no different from that of the atheist. if this is not so, where are the Evangelical pastors who have sold all their worldly goods and are busy, day and night, trying to get people to become Christians? Surely, they should be like Noah, preaching repent and believe on Jesus lest you are left behind when he comes again.

What I see, in church after church, all across America, is professional pastors who are more concerned about making a living and having status in the community than they are the imminent return of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

I am sure more than a few Evangelical Christians and pastors will howl over my portrayal of them but, before they protest too loudly, I would ask them to give an accounting of how they have lived their lives over the past month. Remember, people live out in their day to day lives what they REALLY believe. It is all well and good to preach the second coming of Jesus on Sunday, but how has this belief affected how Evangelicals live?

The evidence is clear. Evangelicals may intellectually believe that Jesus is coming again at any moment, but their lives show they are not much different from the non-Christian. If an Evangelical REALLY believed Jesus could come back at any moment, (since we in the last days) shouldn’t they do without sleep, recreation, and even church, in order to warn the world to flee from the wrath to come?

2,000 years ago, the followers of Jesus believed their Lord and Savior would come back before they died. They died, as have the hundred generations after them, and Jesus still hasn’t returned. Maybe it is time to admit that Jesus exited stage right and he isn’t coming back.

Note: I am aware of ALL the eschatological variations within Evangelicalism and Christianity. I deliberately wrote broadly lest this post become ten thousand words long.

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