From a Christian man named Joseph:
Why not just love the real Jesus instead of hating the false jesuses? It seems to me you hate the hypocrisy and greed of false prophets who misuse the gospel for their own selfish purposes. There are many followers of the true Jesus working in the poorest and most disadvantaged places in the world as followers of Christ bringing His love and hope. Christianity has brought much good to this world, and many of the things you seem to blame Christianity for, are, in reality, the result of man’s dark heart and evil intentions. There is no hope or love in what you put forth as rational. Only live for myself! There is no life here.
Round two from Joseph:
Do you ever wonder why we are here, where we have come fom, and what is the purpose of this life, this world? For me, it all points to a creator and master designer whose purpose goes far beyond our brief time on earth. I’ve thought long and hard about this, and nothing makes sense without God. Even the great physicists can’t explain what was there before time began. Stephen Hawking, the great physicist called it “imaginary time” and said it really doesn’t matter because we could never understand it anyway. But something was there. This is undeniabe. For us who believe in a Creator, we call this time before time began eternity, a time that has no beginning and no end. And yes, it is beyond our finite minds to comprehend “eternity”. Without the recognition of a Creator with a mind greater than any man could imagine and with a purpose beyond what we can see and know in this life, I find no rational hope or reason for this world and universe, for this life.
From a Christian man named Kenny:
27 years a pastor and now an atheist? We’re you ever saved? Or did you climb over the fence, avoiding the straight gate?
I politely responded to Kenny. He then sent me the following braggadocios email, complete with photographs:
So, you’re where Saul of Tarsus was, hey? And what about Nicodemus’ book knowledge?”
Well, the One that everyone’s knee will bow to put it this way, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.” And…” Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
See below the billboards we display for all passersby to see. I was saved at 29. At 47, due to a looming career change, I sought the Lord on what I should do with my life. I thought he might be calling me to full-time Ministry but alas! He had something else in mind.
With His leading I established Signs and Wonders Ministry. Later He arranged for Mobil Oil Corp to sell me a division I had started for them 20 years prior. After purchasing tank, van trailers and tractors from them I began Wonder Transport Company….. a liquid bulk over the road truck operation. We tithe the profits from the trucking entity to support the many billboards posted.
My point is simply this…….Believers don’t have to wear a collar, robe or even a halo to do the work of God. Satan trapped you Bruce into believing Christians and Evangelicals have to behave and live a certain way. It’s one of his old, very old tricks. It’s all about Jesus, Bruce. His love for us and our love for Him.
P.S. When shopping out my loan to make the purchase I met with two vice presidents from Mellon Bank. As they perused my business plan, they noticed that I would call my new company Wonder Transport. They inquisitively asked why I chose that name. My answer was, “Do you know who Fanny Crosby was?” One piped up, “Yes, she’s the Republican chairwoman over in Sewickley!”
I replied no. “She was one of the most prolific hymn writers ever and she wrote a hymn titled, “To God Be The Glory.” They then asked, “What does that have to do with Wonder Transport?” I told them the last verse of that hymn goes like this:
Great things he hath taught us,
Great things he hath done,
And great are rejoicing through Jesus the son;
But pure and higher and greater will be,
Our wonder our transport when Jesus we see.Their comment, “Kenny, we’ll be glad to loan you the money!”
All I hear is the same broken record playing over, and over, and over again.
So many evangelicals swear blind that there is no such thing as a Christian de-convert, asserting these Heathens – like you – were never saved in the first place, thus could never have genuinely joined the ranks of True Christians. I was wondering, therefore, how does this affect those who have been led to faith and who have confessed their sins and acknowledged Jesus of Nazareth(where?) to be their Saviour, Amen, by such Not-Really-And-Never-Were-Christians!
This would be even more critical from the point of view of a Christian(not) Minister.
For example, here’s you (Bruce), preaching the word for all you are worth for decades, leading dirty rotten sinners to the light and righteousness when meanwhile, according to certain Evangelical Criteria, you are misguided at the very least, and an outright fraud in all likelihood.
For how can an unsaved (You, for example) lead another … or lots and lots of others to salvation when all along you are merely a sheep in wolf’s clothing?
Or maybe an old goat who enjoys the TV and his recliner?
Does this mean that all those people you preached to, baptized, converted, tithed, sold bibles to,
held bible study for, engaged in mission work, went to bible camp with, prayed with, sung hymns with, said grace with, broke bread with, maybe even buried a few are still wallowing in sin and before they die and go to Hell really really need to ask you for a refund, spiritual or otherwise?
Just asking.
🙂
I ask the same questions. I often ask, if I was a false teacher, a wolf in sheep’s clothing, how is it that NONE of my congregants or ministerial colleagues spotted it? I’m a terrible liar, so I know it would have been impossible, even with Satan’s help, to fool so many people. I’m just not that good. ?
1) who is the “real” Jesus? We just have gospels written decades after Jesus (purportedly as we don’t have other corroboration) lived. Even the gospels aren’t in 100% agreement.
2) I literally do not understand why people want to feel that each individual is here for a purpose outside their own control or design. I do things that I feel are purposeful- that is, I choose to do things or not to do things and hope to impact others positively. But I don’t feel the need to try to figure out a silent invisible deity’s “plan” for me.
3) Kenny loves “no true Scotsman”. He also never learned Jesus’ teaching to be humble and modest. Guess his Jesus is Blowhard Jesus.
Blowhard Jesus is quite a popular Jesus these days. ?
Love your hate mail Bruce! ROTFLMAO!
I don’t get as much of it as I used to, but I still regularly hear from zealots who want to set me straight. I used to answer them, but I’m tired of casting my pearls before swine. ?
Me too, love the peanut gallery. I lurk on other atheist sites to just to enjoy the often very clever take-downs of trolls. I love it how they think they are telling you, Bruce, and the rest of us something new. Some of us studied the bible, read theology and worked our socks off for jesus for decades. It’s like someone going onto a vegetarian blog and putting a recipe for roast beef and thinking they’ll convert everyone to carnivorism at a stroke cos no vegetatian has ever thought of, or understood how to making meat meals!
So wait was he called to a ministry or did god have other plans? At the end of one paragraph he says that he wanted ministry but god called him to something else. Then in the next paragraph he says he started a ministry. Which is it? Did he start a ministry god didn’t want him to start, or did god not have other ideas?
With a business plan based on a somewhat corny verse from a nondescript hymn I can say categorically that he wouldn’t have even been considered for a loan when I worked for a bank. In fact I’d say, and this is absolutely serious, any overt reference to religion by an applicant, especially mortgage applicants, immediately raised a fraud ‘red flag’, and additional scrutiny was applied.
Just reading this column tonight. Especially the largemouth bass, ” Kenny “. When he mentioned both Mobil Oil Corp and Mellon Bank, I remembered hearing news about these two companies here and there over the years. Both of them are guilty of criminal activity. I wouldn’t brag so much on these loans,etc. if I were this guy, lol.