Over the past decade, I have received numerous emails from Evangelicals filled with Bible verses and warnings. These zealots want me to know that there is a special place in Hell for people such as myself. These threats and warnings are supposed to make me realize the error of my ways, leading me, then, to repentance and faith. What Evangelicals don’t realize, however, is that this approach NEVER works. I don’t believe in the existence of the Christian God, nor do I believe in the existence of Heaven and Hell. No God, No Hell, No Worries®. But Bruce, the BIBLE says . . . And your point is? The Bible says lots of things, but I reject its supernatural claims, including the notion that Jesus was the virgin-born son of God who was crucified on a Roman cross, resurrected from the dead three days later, and then ascended back to Heaven. I don’t believe the teachings of the Bible as Evangelicals do, so threatening me with a bunch of Bible quotations doesn’t work. I am immune to such proof-texting. In fact, I likely know more about the Bible and its teachings than the people quoting verses AT me. Come on, give me some credit for learning a thing or two over the 50 years I spent in the Christian church or the 25 years I spent in the ministry. I know the Bible inside and out. Yet, I reject its teachings and view it as no different from any other book. Sorry, Evangelicals, the Bible has no authority, power, or control over me.
Yesterday, Bill Wiese released a video warning to atheists. According to Wiese, today is the day of salvation. Death and Hell are coming, and we will one day regret not believing in Jesus. We may mock God/Bible now, Wiese says, but there is coming a day when we will bow our knees before Jesus and confess that he is the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. In other words, Jesus is gonna git you some day!
Wiese, who allegedly spent 23 minutes in Hell, said:
What is the price of a decision? I won’t address those that mock the things of God, deny Him, or completely ignore His existence. Some of these people have no fear of Almighty God and have such arrogance toward Him. We all must be informed of what we will face one day. This is a loving message, because it’s a message of warning. One day you will stand before the one and only, holy, awesome, eternal God in heaven with all His infinite power and His millions of mighty warrior angels at His side. On that great judgment day, God will reveal your every thought, action, and motive. Everything you have ever done will be shown to all and nothing will be hidden. You will be found guilty of your sins and you will have no excuse. There is a payment required for those sins. Did you trust in Jesus to pay for them?
You might not believe this now, but it says in Romans 14:11, “As I live sayeth the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God, so then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.” Your knee will bow. You will then be drug off into an eternal hell by hideous, wicked demons and thrown into a furnace of fire for all eternity. It won’t be God’s fault. He warned you over and over throughout your entire life by sending people to tell you the way to heaven. In addition, we have the Bible, we have churches, we have the internet, TV, and radio proclaiming Jesus is Lord and Savior. He even gives dreams and visions to man to keep back his soul from the pit. As it says in Job 33, “but you ignored it all.” You won’t be able to accuse God of being unloving or unfair.
Wiese needs to realize, to quote Solomon, that there is nothing new under the sun. Most atheists have heard this kind of Christian drivel countless times. We know, we know, we know, and we — are you ready for it? — don’t give a shit. We are confident that we have one life to live and then we die. End of story. No God. No Heaven. No Hell. No matter how often you threaten us, pray for us, or quote the Bible, the fact remains that we are atheists out of conviction. We are atheists because we have carefully examined and rejected the claims of Christianity. We are not ignorant or ill-informed. We know what you know, and more, yet we still say, nah baby nah, there is no God.
About Bruce Gerencser
Bruce Gerencser, 61, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 40 years. He and his wife have six grown children and twelve grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist. For more information about Bruce, please read the About page.
Bruce is a local photography business owner, operating Defiance County Photo out of his home. If you live in Northwest Ohio and would like to hire Bruce, please email him.
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It took me decades to get over the irrational fear of hell that was thrust upon me through childhood indoctrination. As I studied science, history, archaeology,and the writings of scholars who have studied the Bible (not from exegesis but the how it was written and rewritten), the existence of any God or gods, particularly the mean, vindictive, convoluted Christian evangelical god, made absolutely no sense.
Throw your cherry picked bible verses at me, dude. Most of those references to hell are actually the valley of Gehenna which looks like a pretty decent place in 2019. So….ok
I just keep reminding myself that if such a place actually exists, it will be populated by far & away the cooler/ more interesting people!
I mean HELL, the chance to hang out with the likes of Hendrix,Bowie, Mercury, Cobain, Zappa, Lavay, Garland, Carlin, Robin Williams, Richard Pryor etc…..etc. (who by all X-Tian accounts would of course be there) VS. Evan G. Ellikal and his gang of Turgid Turds……..NOOOOOO…..FUCKING………CONTESSSSSSSST!!! :v
Hugh Young: So true! And so ugly a prick of any Gawd to refuse folk some Hendrix on the golden streets. All that George Beverly Shea would constipate!
I remember carpet shopping once with my parents. In the parking lot were pro-Islam bumper stickers on a van, “Don’t be caught dead without Islam!” Inside was a family traditionally dressed in Islamic garb, so I figure it was their vehicle. Either way the message was met with only a chuckle. If you’re in a culture that doesn’t adhere to a religion and no one is raised to respect that religion, a chuckle is the only effect it evokes…I find that interesting. The test for the veracity of any theology is how well it plays when there is no home field advantage, and invariably it doesn’t play very well. This is similar to threats of hell fire and brimstone, if you aren’t raised hearing that the best it can evoke is a chuckle.
Thanks for that observation, Troy. I often feel, after several years of religio-sobriety, that the kind of talk given by Wiese must be very offensive to people who have not been harmed throughout their youngest years with the incredibly ignorant disrespect of evangelical threats and warnings. They are very simply child-abuse as I see it and at very best rude to an adult, far more insideous than coarse language in expression.
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I was taught that in hell, you would be in utter darkness yet perpetually on fire without contact or knowledge of any other fellow hell sent sinner. Ohhhhhhh, I’m scared, pastor!
How Bill Wiese can say all that with a straight face confounds me!
Reminds me of a “reverse” story I heard from Jack Hyles about John R. Rice. One evening as Rice was walking to his hotel he was accosted at gunpoint and was demanded to give up his watch, wallet and ring or be killed. To which Rice responded, “You can’t scare me with heaven!” Given it’s a Hyles story it probably never happened but it is a bit funny.
In spite of the fact we live in a world of thousands of religions, with each one saying that they are the true path to God….there are two simple questions to ask, to determine which religion is indeed the way.
Is there a God Who has actually judged sinners in real history?
With which holy book is that God associated?
All I actually know for sure is that I will die someday, and that my Creator installed a moral conscience in my soul. That strongly implies that I will be judged for my failures to live according to that moral conscience. Judgment Day.
To find the true God then, one must find the Greatest Judge of sinners.
In this, we discover the God of the Bible is different than all other pretend deities. Only the God of the Bible has pronounced judgment on sinful cities and civilizations, and then history has shown that those pronouncements of judgment have come true.
The God of the Bible pronounced specific judgments on the cities Jerusalem, (Luke 21, 20-24) Nineveh, (Zephaniah 2:13-15) Samaria, (Micah 1:5-9) Tyre, Exekiel 36) Ashkelon, (Zephaniah 2:4-7) Capernaum, Chorazin, Bethsaida, (Matthew 11:20-24) and many others.
In every case the pronounced judgment came true. Sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly, but they came true.
The God of the Bible pronounced specific long term, or permanent judgments on the Hebrew civilization, (Ezekiel 36-38) the Edomite (Ezekiel 25:13-14) civilization, the Philistine civilization, (Ezekiel 25;15-17) and many others because of their sins.
Once again, history confirms that the pronounced judgments came true.
There are many religions that tell me to fear their gods.
But there is no God, except the God of the Bible Who has demonstrated that He actually judges sinners in real life.
He is the only God to follow. And He is to be followed according to the book He has judged sinners by, the Holy Bible.
So you are the one squirrel that has found the one true acorn. Good for you. sigh You have zero actual evidence for what you claim in your sermon. None, nada, zip. You quote the Bible, and expect atheists to fall on their knees and confess your version God is the one true God. Gonna have to better than that, Michael.
Geez, this hardly seems like a very rigorous assessment of the ancient punishments ostensibly doled out by various deities. Michael, you didn’t even bother to list the various atrocities meted out in the Torah, the Quran, or various other religious texts across the world. Nor did you try to eliminate the god-crimes shared across these faiths. How are we supposed to know which god is truly the nastiest if you won’t do a bit of math?
Not that I’d worship such a monster. Nor would I join you in proclaiming a human work inerrant, thus putting it above God, regardless whether such an entity exists or not. No thank you, Michael.
“Is there a God Who has actually judged sinners in real history?”
No, Michael, I don’t think so.
Do you have any idea at all how easy it is to write “judgements” into works of fiction? Do you have any idea how little the Bible stories conform with real history?
I’m not going to even consider following your alleged god. As far as I’m concerned, there was never anything there to follow.