Evangelicalism Archives

Is Christianity a Blood Cult?

Bruce Gerencser April 11, 2019 Evangelicalism 14 Comments

blood of jesus

A cursory reading of the Bible leads to only one conclusion: Christianity is a blood cult. The universe was only a few weeks old before Adam and Eve listened to a suggestion from a walking, talking snake and partook of fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of God and Evil. Before breaking God’s one command, Adam and Eve strutted around Eden sans clothing — the original nudists. The strange thing here is that Adam and Eve didn’t know they were naked. I don’t know about you, but when I’m naked, I know it. But, Adam and Eve didn’t; that is until they committed a big no-no by eating an apple from God’s private orchard. Immediately afterward, Adam realized, for the first time that Eve had a vagina and Eve realized her significant other had a penis. Thus began Puritanical Christianity. Adam and Eve sewed together fig leaves to use as aprons to cover up their genitals. Many artistic depictions of Eve wearing her fig leaf Versace apron covered her breasts too. Adam was free to show his mammary glands to the world, but not Eve. Thus began the sexualization of female breasts.

According to Genesis, God came to earth and took a stroll in the Garden of Eden. Which God? I ask. There are multiple Gods mentioned in Genesis 1-3. If, as Christians say, God, the Father is a Spirit and the Holy Spirit is a Ghost, was it Jesus who came to Earth to get in his Fitbit steps? If it was, that leads to yet more questions. I thought the first time Jesus came to earth was at his incarnation? Was Jesus some sort of alien, visiting earth on and off over the centuries before he made his grand entrance as a Holy Spirit-inseminated egg in the womb of a virgin girl? Again, so many questions . . .

According to Genesis 3, God was not happy with Adam and Eve. He had created them as perfect beings and placed them in a luxurious Garden. All they had to do was tend the Garden and stay out of his apple orchard. But kids will be kids, and Adam and his Rib disobeyed God. Dammit, God thought, now I am going to have to go to Plan B and kill some innocent puppies. And God did just that, killing and skinning some innocent puppies so he could make fur aprons to cover Adam’s and Eve’s genitals. Doesn’t this make God the original animal abuser? Imagine if PETA had an office in the Garden of Eden. Why, God would have been labeled a blood-thirsty puppy killer. And he was. From Table of Contents to Concordance, the Bible tells us that not only is the Christian God — including Jesus — a violent psychopath who relishes blood-letting, he also demands his followers do the same.

God could have kept Adam and Eve and their progeny from sinning, but he didn’t. He could have chosen a bloodless way of “saving” the human race. but he didn’t. Instead, the God of the Abrahamic religions patterned his religion after other extant blood cults. Christianity is hardly the only blood cult. History is replete with stories about cultures that believed only blood sacrifices could satisfy their deity’s wrath and atone for their sins. Some cultures would sacrifice humans, others would use animals. The followers of the Christian God did both, using animal blood sacrifices until God issued a new memo saying that he was going to come to earth himself, be born of a virgin, live a sinless life, brutally die on a wooden cross, resurrect from the dead three days later, and then ascend back to Heaven. Since that time, Christians have been preaching up the blood, the precious blood of Jesus. While technically it was the DEATH of Jesus that provided redemption and the forgiveness of sins, Christians choose to focus on the bloody aspects of Christ’s death. Evangelicals literally fight among themselves over whether it is Jesus’ “blood” or his “death” that redeems lost sinners. Years ago, Fundamentalist megachurch pastor John MacArthur said:

It was His death that was efficacious . . . not His blood . . . Christ did not bleed to death. The shedding of blood had nothing to do with bleeding . . . it simply means death . . . Nothing in His human blood saves . . . It is not His blood that I love . . . it is Him. It is not His bleeding that saved me, but His dying.

At the time, MacArthur was crucified by fellow Fundamentalists over his view, and to this day many Evangelicals believe he is a heretic. MacArthur may have been technically correct, but what’s a blood cult without blood? The Bible is hardly ambiguous on the subject:

For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.(Leviticus 17:11)

And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it . . . And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. (Exodus 12:7,13)

Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. (Acts 20:28)

Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; (Romans 3:25)

Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. (Romans 5:9)

In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; (Ephesians 1:7)

In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: (Colossians 1:14)

And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. (Colossians 1:20)

For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Hebrews 9:13,14)

And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. (Hebrews 9:22)

Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. (Hebrews 13:12)

But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. (1 Peter 1:19-21)

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 5:7)

And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, (Revelation 1:5)

And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; (Revelation 5:9)

Just read Leviticus. It is one long bloody Quentin Tarantino movie.

Here in the land of God, Guns, and Republicans there’s a local Evangelical church that goes out of its way to remind locals that Christianity is all about the blood of Jesus. Free Christian Church of God in Continental, Ohio annually presents an Easter production called “Journey, The Story of the Blood.” Thousands of area Christians pay $5 a pop to be reminded that Christianity is all about Jesus’ bloody death. While the resurrected Jesus will certainly make an appearance in this production, make no mistake about it, Free Christian and the cast of over 200 people want viewers to know that divine blood sacrifice is required for the forgiveness of sins.

According to a feature article in the April 10, 2019 edition of the Defiance Crescent-News, James Fry, pastor of Free Christian said:

The message of the Bible is linked from Genesis to Revelation, with God telling us the same story over and over again in many different ways so that we will understand the relationship He desires to have with us, and the length he will go to in order to save us from our sin and restore that relationship. Everything is connected. Only God could give us such a wonderful book.

We are trying to make clear that Jesus is the Ark of Covenant and it is his blood that falls on the Mercy Seat where salvation is found.

During the show, the audience becomes part of the production, which enhances the experience. We don’t just want people to watch ‘Journey,’ we want them to feel part of it because this isn’t just a Bible story, but it is ‘our story.’ The ending is my favorite part. We want the audience to leave on a high, and what could be better than to get a glimpse into what God has in store.

Pastor Fry wants people to know that:

The Easter season isn’t about bunnies and eggs . . . but it is about the culmination of 4,000 years of history taking place with the death and resurrection of Jesus. It is God showing us that the only way to atone for the sin-curse of man is through the shedding of blood. Without it, there is no forgiveness of sins. May we never trivialize the greatest event in human history.

In other words, either buy into the myth or go to Hell. Either you let Jesus wash you clean with his blood or you’ll go through life as a dirty, filthy sinner and then spend eternity in the Lake of Fire being tortured by God (Jesus?) for not believing one of the most absurd stories ever told.

Fry cautions people to never “trivialize the greatest event in human history.” Only cult members believe Jesus’ death was the greatest event in human history. Indoctrinated from a young age, Christians accept the Biblical narrative about Jesus’ divinity, human life, blood sacrifice, and resurrection without question. It’s just true, most Christians think, believing that the only way for them to be happy and have purpose and meaning is to continually wallow in the blood of a dead man. We perhaps can excuse Abraham, Moses, and first century Christians for buying into this nonsense, but, come on man, it’s 2019!

bucky katt and garfield

How dare I mock the blood of Jesus, Christians might indignantly say. However, before their righteous indignation hits a TEN, I want to ask them, what about other cultural religions that have blood sacrifices, even human sacrifices? Should we not accept their religions as truth? After all, Christianity rests on a foundation of human sacrifice. Why shouldn’t we accept other blood-based cults as equally valid? What makes Christianity superior to that of other religions? What if on Garfield’s birthday (who shares a birthday with me) I slit the throats of ten dogs and offered their blood as a sacrifice to my God, Bucky Katt? Would you be okay with that? After all, Christians want me to accept their Bronze age blood cult’s beliefs without question, going so far as to threaten me with eternal torture and damnation if I don’t. Of course, no Christian would be okay with me killing ten dogs, yet they don’t think twice about teaching their children about a God and his ancient followers who slaughtered countless animals just because a delusional man said God told him to tell them to do so. Perhaps what Christianity really needs is a new Bible and new narrative. The current one is way too violent and bloody for modern sensibilities.

I am sure this post will be met with outrage. I have no doubt that I will be reminded of the fact that the B-I-B-L-E says:

Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? (Hebrews 10:29)

I plan to keep on trampling under my feet the blood of Jesus. I no more fear the Christian God than I do any of the other countless deities created by human minds. Sorry, but I’m more afraid of my wife than I am your God. You can take THAT to the bank.

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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Christians Say the Darnedest Things: Michael Knowles Blames Society’s Ills on Atheism

Bruce Gerencser April 10, 2019 Religion 4 Comments

michael knowles

For the first time in history, atheists constitute the largest religious group in America. [All praise be to Loki.] According to the General Social Survey, the number of Americans who have no religion has increased 266% over the past three decades and now account for 23.1% of the population, just barely edging out Catholics and Evangelicals as the nation’s dominant faith. Mainline Protestant churches have suffered the greatest collapse, declining 62.5% since 1982 and now comprising just 10.8% of the U.S. population

….

As religiosity has declined, social ills have abounded. [Knowles plays loose with statistics, choosing to focus on single categories, and not Christianity as a whole. Christianity is still the dominant majority religion in America.] Nearly one in five American adults suffers from anxiety disorders, which now constitute the most common mental illness in the country. One in six Americans takes antidepressant drugs, a 65% surge over just 15 years. The problem is particularly acute among younger Americans. While depression diagnoses have increased 33% since 2013, that number is up 47% among Millennials and 63% among teenagers. Coincidentally, suicide rates among American teenagers have increased by 70% since 2006. American life expectancy declined again last year, as Americans continue to drug and kill themselves at record rates. [And the majority of these people profess to believe in the Christian God or some other transcendent being. Again, Knowles twists the data to fit his narrative: Atheists are destroying America.]

Social scientists have long since established the link between religiosity and life satisfaction. As social psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky observes, people who attend religious services several times each week are nearly twice as likely as those who worship less than once a month to describe themselves as “very happy.” Such psychologists simply state the obvious: the belief that God loves you and that you will live with him in eternity offers greater consolation than the view of death as a dirt nap that stiffens you into worm food. [In other words, better to believe a lie than to accept life as it is. No thanks.]

….

The misery epidemic threatens not merely American households but also our halls of power. The late Andrew Breitbart observed that politics is downstream of culture, and culture in turn is downstream of religion. “Cult” and “culture” are etymologically related, and a culture is defined by what it worships. A materialistic culture worships wealth; a licentious culture worships sex; a godly culture worships God. But “our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people,” as John Adams wrote to the Massachusetts militia in 1798. “It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

A miserable politics awaits us when the irreligious rot flows downstream. Who but God can help us now? [God is dead, so Knowles and others who think like him better figure out a way to work with non-Christians. God ain’t coming to save us. We alone have the power to “save” our society; the world. Humanism, not Christianity, is the way forward.]

— Michael Knowles, The Daily Wire, God Help Us: Atheism Becomes Largest Religion In U.S., April 8, 2019

Christians Say the Darnedest Things: Pete Buttigieg Makes a Fool of God Says Steve Van Nattan

Bruce Gerencser April 10, 2019 Evangelicalism 45 Comments

steve van nattan

AND GOD SAID, “LET THERE BE FAGGOTS.” You will not find that statement in Genesis, Chapter One. But, Democrat Pete Buttigieg is sure God makes faggots.

If God made Pete a faggot, God is a blithering idiot.

….

Pete’s god is not the God of the Bible.

God created Pete a sodomite, and then God called for Pete to be stoned to death for sodomy, according to the law God gave Moses on Mount Sinai. This sort of talk is considered good edification only in the B Ward of the State Hospital.

Pete’s logic makes a great fool of God. God gave the law against sodomy, and then God made Pete a queer. Not lately, dim bulb.

This is a perfect illustration of the Satanic and demonic power in the lives and thinking of modern leaders in America. This raging beast, Pete, claims that sodomy has brought him closer to God. The only faggot god I know of that would cuddle up to Pete is Shiva, the faggot god of Hinduism.

— Steve Van Natten, Baalam’s Ass Speaks, And God Said, “Let There be Faggots”, April 8, 2019

Christians Say the Darnedest Things: Peter Jones Says We Must Return to Patriarchal Family Structures

Bruce Gerencser April 10, 2019 Evangelicalism 3 Comments

peter jones

Christian believers must make known with care and respect that destroying patriarchy eliminates the reality of fatherhood, without which there is no family. It is also a rejection of the amazing revelation taught by Jesus regarding God as loving Father, which is at the very basis of the Christian message. Fatherhood is the basis of the success of the Western Christendom, which, with all its faults, has lasted down the centuries, based on a belief in God as Father and Creator. Rejection of patriarchy is a form of Gnosticism, since the Gnostics rejected the given-ness of creation for their own subjective views of reality. Philosopher Eric Voegelin (1901–85) noted: “All gnostic movements are involved in the project of abolishing the constitution of being, with its origin in divine, transcendent being.”

As Christians, we must show by our lives and our words that distinction-making is the objective, Twoist key to the created cosmos and is the only way to approach God the holy Creator and Redeemer. The temptation is to “self-censor” by falling silent. But to demand silence of believers is like asking the early Christians to burn incense to Caesar as Lord in an active expression of polytheism. We must show love to “non-gender” people while loving our Creator and Father first. We must explain to our Christian children the god-denying essence of “a-sexuality” while teaching them to respect every human being, since they are all made in God’s image. Christ’s love is available to all. The church must show the love of Jesus to homosexual and “a-gendered” people, even if our testimony means losing one’s job or reputation. In a time of deliberate rejection of homes and fathers, may we use our families as places of welcome for those in need. The Christian message must not be silenced, but it must be accompanied by courageous acts of love and bold expressions of care. Though this post-patriarchal culture may be unlike any we have known, it is the place where God has put us to preach the gospel with great clarity.

This utopian culture, headed for dystopia, will only be a utopia for God-denying progressives who feel called to save their world by eliminating all creational structures. It will fail. It will implode. Thus, we need to pray that God will have mercy on us, use our courageous witness to his truth, and bring about a hunger in the culture for his Word, his Will and his Honor, from which derives all human dignity. One day the final utopia will come in the marriage supper of the Lamb, where Christ the husband and patriarch will take his bride, the church, in a renewed reality that will bring eternal glory to God its Creator and Savior. In that day the concluding words of Scripture will be heard ringing throughout the cosmos from the lips of the renewed family of God:”Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created”.

— Dr. Peter Jones, Truth Exchange,The End of the Family, April 5, 2019

Christians Say the Darnedest Things: Lori Alexander Glories in Ignorance

Bruce Gerencser April 9, 2019 Evangelicalism 20 Comments

Women, do you know that God’s chain of authority is for our good? Yes, women are more gullible than men. Recently, my husband and I were out front with a few couples from the neighborhood chatting in the street together. Ken brought up that I had been deceived into thinking my brand new iPhone was “free” by the salesman. Then my daughter saw that we were being charged $25 more a month until the $650 phone was paid off! One of the wives said that she would have easily been deceived in this way, too, but said her husband never would have. My husband would not be either, but he was out of town and my phone broke so I needed a new phone and they guy assured me that my monthly costs wouldn’t go up. I am wondering if the Apple sign of the bite into apple is a sign to remind their salesmen that women are more easily deceived…

Men are for our protection, women, in more than one way. God created them to be our protectors and not as easily deceived as we are. Women were created to be soft, trusting, and nurturing in order to be home and raise children. Women coming out from under the authority of men has caused chaos!

I mentioned in the chat room that I cringe every time I see women as policemen, firefighters, or in the military. They are dressed as men and act masculine but they aren’t men! They have been deceived into thinking that they can do a man’s job as good as men can but they can’t. Men are the ones who are to be in the protective roles in culture. This doesn’t make us second class citizens. It makes us women who should be thankful for their protection.

— Lori Alexander, The Transformed Wife, Are Submissive Wives Second Class Citizens?, April 9, 2019

Songs of Sacrilege: Set Your Monster Free by Quiet Company

Bruce Gerencser April 9, 2019 Atheism 1 Comment

quiet company

This is the two hundredth and fourth installment in the Songs of Sacrilege series. This is a series that I would like readers to help me with. If you know of a song that is irreverent towards religion, makes fun of religion, pokes fun at sincerely held religious beliefs, or challenges the firmly held religious beliefs of others, please send me an email.

Today’s Song of Sacrilege is Set Your Monster Free by Quiet Company, an American rock band from Austin, Texas.

Video Link

Lyrics

Daughter, I once thought that I had angels in my room. They were sleeping on my fan while I was dreaming of you. And daughter, I once had such desire to believe that our lives had been planned out by an unseen deity, but you don’t have to waste your time holding on to beautiful lies

Daughter, I once knew that everything that I believed was good, and fair, and true, and consistent with my needs. But daughter, I am wrong almost as often as I’m right. So daughter, just be strong enough to make up your own mind, because you don’t have to waste your time, holding on to beautiful lies

Stuart the Evangelical Asks Bruce the Atheist a Theological Question

Bruce Gerencser April 9, 2019 Evangelicalism 19 Comments

naked adam and eve — Comic by Hilary Price

The most-read post on The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser is the post titled, Why I Hate Jesus. Written four years ago, this post is also the most misunderstood post. Many Evangelicals wrongly believe I hate the man, myth, and legend named Jesus Christ. Bound by a literalistic approach to life, they fail to see that the post is really about their religion and not a flesh and blood dead man named Jesus. As I shall make abundantly clear in an upcoming post, there are many, many, many Jesuses; that every generation of Christians shapes and molds Jesus into their own image, according to their peculiar theological, political, and social beliefs. To deny this is to deny reality. To suggest that you worship the first century Jesus and practice Christianity (Judaism) just as the Apostles did in 35 CE is ludicrous and a denial of 2,000 years of Church history. Christianity started evolving the moment Jesus called twelve illiterate men to be his disciples. These men and other followers interpreted and reinterpreted the life and words of Jesus, fashioning their own versions of Christ and what it meant to be a follower of him. This evolutionary process continues even to this very day.

An Evangelical man by the name of Stuart left several comments on the Why I Hate Jesus post. Standard Evangelical stuff. I tried to blow off his first comment with a bit of snark — suggesting I was a porn star — but Stuart was bound and determined to put in a good word for Jesus. In his second comment, Stuart wrote (in response to Zoe, a fellow Evangelical turned atheist):

I no longer believe in the existence of Santa, therefore i wouldn’t go to the trouble of creating a website explaining how i came to no longer believe in Santa, simply because it would attract attention from people who do believe in Santa. And frankly i have no appetite for engaging with such people.

Bruce, by creating this space has invited interest from the vast internet audience on the matters he discusses on this site. It would be naive to think compassionate Christians would not do their duty and offer support in the only way they know how in trying to heal the wounded or help pick up the fallen. Bruce knows that, you likely know that, so really, what else do you expect?

If i didn’t believe in something i wouldn’t waste a single moment on it. Atheists are a different breed though. They are evangelical in their denial and latent hatred of God. Personally i love engaging with intelligent people regardless of their ideology or belief. I have yet to meet ANY atheist with any meaningful grasp on theology.

But I guess when even atheism’s poster boy Dawkins is a theological illiterate there is little hope for anyone following in his footsteps.

There was only ever one Jesus, there is currently only one Jesus and there will always forever be only one Jesus. Anyone who tells you different is like an atheist – they simply fail to understand Scripture

And Bruce’s story isn’t wrong, but it is clear he has been deceived. And knowing that there are many many more like Bruce is honestly heart breaking to me.

I responded thusly:

I grew up in the Evangelical church, attended an Evangelical Bible College, and pastored Evangelical churches for 25 years. Yet, according to you, I have no meaningful grasp of Christian theology. I spent thousands and thousands of hours studying and reading the Bible, yet, according to you, I don’t have a fundamental understanding of Christian belief. Surely, you see how irrational and stupid such a statement sounds.

The real issue here is that you don’t like my interpretations and conclusions. Thus, instead of meaningfully interacting with them, you rage against Bruce, the man.

The purpose of this blog is to help people who have doubts about Christianity or who have left Christianity and are looking for support. You, my friend, are not my target audience. I let people such as yourself comment because you provide reminders to ex-Evangelicals of the arrogant, self-righteous beliefs we left behind.

Please keep preaching your gospel, Stuart. People such as yourself win more people to atheism than I ever could.

Earlier today, Stuart sent me a question: Why were the fig leaves not acceptable? I assume his question is some sort of test to see if I really know anything about Evangelical theology. What follows is my answer.

The Bible says in Genesis 3:1-7:

Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

In Genesis 2, the Bible tells us that Adam and Eve were originally created naked, without sin, and unashamed before God. In Genesis 3, a walking, talking snake came to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and questioned the command God had given them to not eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The snake — whom Evangelicals believe was Satan — said, “Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” Eve replied, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.” The snake replied, “Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” Eve looked at the Tree’s beauty and saw that it was good for food and would make her wise — the Ginkgo Biloba of the Garden. She picked a fruit from the Tree, took a bite, and gave it to Adam to eat too. And just like that, Adam and Eve plunged the entire human race into sin. Since that fateful moment, every human is born a sinner, alienated from God. Humans have no choice in the matter. We are forever doomed by a man and woman we don’t even know taking a bite from a piece of fruit. Or so the story goes anyway.

adam and eve wearing fig leaves

Immediately afterward, Adam and Eve realized for the first time that God had created them with genitals. Ashamed that they were naked, Adam and Eve gathered some fig leaves, sewed them together, and made themselves aprons to hide their genitals. Later, God came to the Garden of Eden and took a stroll in the cool of the day. Fearing God, Adam and Eve hid among the trees, hoping that God would see not see them. Alas, God, after playing a quick game of Where’s Waldo (Wally), found them. Adam said to God, “I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” Wait a minute, I thought Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves together for aprons. Why weren’t they wearing them when God made his appearance in the Garden? Maybe the leaves caused chafing, and Adam and Eve decided to return to their natural state. Whatever their reason, God was none too happy. To the first man and woman he said, “Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?” A rhetorical question? Or did God not know? Regardless, Adam replied to God, “The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.” Ladies, want to know where Evangelical men blaming you for everything comes from? You need look no further than Genesis 3 and Adam blaming Eve for his errant fruit-eating.

talking snakes

God then turned to Eve and asked, “What is this that thou hast done?” A rhetorical question? Didn’t God know what Eve had done? Regardless, in classic Flip Wilson style, Eve responded, “The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.” In other words, the DEVIL made me do it! God, pissed off at Adam and Eve’s bad behavior, cursed all humans and cursed the earth. Ever had to pull weeds from a flower bed or garden? God’s doing. Worse, God condemned all humans to death; instead of unending life, we would now have a fixed time to live and die. And then, to put an explanation point on his anger, God killed a bunch of puppies, skinned them, and made fur loincloths for Adam and Eve. The first person to shed blood of earth was God, not man. In fact, it can be argued that God has shed more blood than all of humanity combined. Either by direct action or commanding his followers to do so, God had slaughtered millions and millions of people. Yet, Evangelicals say he is a God of love, peace, and guacamole.

Genesis 3 ends with God throwing Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden, leaving them and their progeny to fend for themselves. That is, until God got tired of having no one to play with and decided to make Abraham and some of his descendants his playthings. Or so goes the story anyway.

Stuart wants to know, “Why were the fig leaves not acceptable?” The correct answer from an Evangelical perspective is that Adam and Eve sewing fig leaves together to cover their genitals was a picture of human self-righteousness; an attempt by Adam and Eve to cover up their “sin” on their own terms. The thrice holy God would have none of that. According to a plan cooked up by him from before the foundation of the world, sin had to be atoned for with blood; that Adam and Eve’s sin could only be covered through God killing and skinning some puppies and making fur loincloths to cover their sins. The Bible says in Hebrews 9:22, 27-28:

And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission . . . And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

The Abrahamic religions — Christianity, Islam, and Judaism — are, according to the Bible, blood cults. You can come to no other rational conclusion IF you read the Bible as most Evangelicals do — literally. Now, if you see Genesis 3 as a fictional story meant to impart a greater meaning, well anything is possible. It’s 2019, and thanks to five centuries of literalistic interpretations of a book they believe is an inspired, inerrant, infallible text written by God, Evangelicals are forced to defend all sorts of absurdities. And I get it. People such as Stuart have to preach the party line. Otherwise, they are admitting that Evangelicalism is built on a foundation of lies and misinterpretations. Without a real Adam and Eve created by God in October 4004 BCE, the Evangelical house of cards comes tumbling down. A real New Testament God-man requires a real Adam and Eve. The Last Adam needed a First Adam for the Evangelical gospel to make sense. Without original sin, there was no need for Jesus to take a thirty-three-year vacation on earth. If Adam and Eve were metaphors as liberal and progressive Christians allege, then it can be argued that Jesus was a metaphor too. Upholding what Christians will celebrate come Easter Sunday requires a literal reading of the Bible. Without it, the Christian gospel of atonement for sin and redemption makes no sense — at least to me, anyway.

Now, this hardly means that Evangelicals are off the hook. Literalism can be a real bitch. In fact, I don’t know of one Evangelical who is truly a literalist from Table of Contents to Concordance. All Evangelicals — when it suits them — spiritualize scriptures that don’t “fit” their literal reading and interpretation of the text. Evangelicals have what I call theological schizophrenia. Granted, Evangelicals try to make their peculiar interpretations mesh with one another. Countless Christian books have been written about Bible hermeneutics, systematic theology, and harmonizing the Biblical text. Try as they might, however, Evangelicals fail at this task. The Bible is an incoherent mess of contradictory texts, and if taken and believed literally, they lead to all sorts of nonsensical and harmful beliefs.

Yet, when I challenge Evangelicals to take EVERY word of Genesis 1-3 literally, they either say they do or start making excuses for while they don’t. I have challenged countless Evangelicals to let the words of the unknown author of Genesis stand on their own, and in doing so see that it is impossible to square Trinitarian Christianity with the text. In fact, honesty demands admitting that there were actually at least THREE Gods mentioned in Genesis 1-3, and that Christianity does not, in fact, rest on a monotheist foundation.

I double-dog dare Evangelical readers of this post to read the Bible as it is written, and not let theological presuppositions get in the way of what the text says. Read each book by itself and ask, “what is the author is trying to say?” Dare to ask yourself, as the talking snake asked Eve, “yea hath God said?” Just asking this question is the first step towards intellectual freedom; the first step towards freeing oneself of Evangelical bondage.

If you are an Evangelical who has stumbled upon this post, I am so glad you stopped by. Let me recommend several books you might find helpful as you weigh some of the claims I make in this post. If the Bible is “truth,” surely it will withstand intellectual investigation. Don’t take your preacher’s word for it. To quote the Good Book, seek and ye shall find . . .

Books by Robert Wright

The Evolution of God

Books by Bart Ehrman

The Triumph of Christianity: How a Forbidden Religion Swept the World

Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why

How Jesus Became God : the Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee

Jesus Before the Gospels: How the Earliest Christians Remembered, Changed, and Invented Their Stories of the Savior

Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don’t Know About Them)

Did Jesus Exist?: The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth

Forged: Writing in the Name of God–Why the Bible’s Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are

God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question — Why We Suffer

About Bruce Gerencser

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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The Sounds of Fundamentalism: IFB Evangelist Larry Brown Preaching Against Television

Bruce Gerencser April 4, 2019 Evangelicalism 12 Comments

The Sounds of Fundamentalism is a series that I would like readers to help me with. If you know of a video clip that shows the crazy, cantankerous, or contradictory side of Evangelical Christianity, please send me an email with the name or link to the video. Please do not leave suggestions in the comment section. Let’s have some fun!

Today’s Sound of Fundamentalism is a video clip of IFB evangelist Larry Brown preaching against television. This sermon was preached years ago at First Baptist Church in Hammond, Indiana. At the end of this clip, Brown advocates threatening your wife with an axe if she objects to you destroying the TV.

Video Link

Bruce Gerencser, 66, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 45 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen 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.

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The Sounds of Fundamentalism: IFB Evangelist Larry Brown Preaching Against Booze

Bruce Gerencser April 4, 2019 Evangelicalism 8 Comments

Today’s Sound of Fundamentalism is a video clip of IFB evangelist Larry Brown preaching against booze. This sermon was preached years ago at The Crown College of the Bible.

Video Link

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You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

The David Hyles Saga

Bruce Gerencser April 4, 2019 Evangelicalism 1 Comment

david-hyles-new-man

Over the years, I have written numerous articles about David Hyles, the son of IFB preacher Jack Hyles. David was the youth director at his father’s church, First Baptist Church in Hammond, Indiana, until scandal forced Jack to send his son to a new church, Miller Road Baptist Church in Garland, Texas. David was forced out of Miller Road Baptist due to, once again, sexual scandal. What follows is a recorded interview of Paula Hyles, the former wife of David Hyles.