You seem to be deliberately ignorant and tone deaf. Last week, I publicly responded to your email. Please see Another Day, Another Evangelical Tells Me I’m Going to Burn in Hell — with All the LGBTQ People if you have forgotten what I said.
Since then, you have sent me several more emails:
I appreciate your response.
Sadly friend and I am not trying to be unkind but it appears that you spent 50 years trusting in your good works and position as a pastor for salvation.
Then I don’t know you read something or someone planted a seed of doubt or what that’s between you and the Lord.
Good works can’t save anyone not even a pastor!
I’m a deacon and street evangelist and neither of those make me holy or righteous only by the grace of Jesus Christ through his suffering and death and resurrection do I have any righteousness!
Heaven and hell are real and there is more proof for the resurrection of Jesus Christ than there is for napoleons defeat at Waterloo.
It exists whether a person believes or not.
Salvation cannot be earned it is only by the grace of God through Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2:8-9,Titus 3:4-6.
Jesus Christ was beaten to bloody shreds and was crucified to pay the penalty for sins (and yes sin exists if it doesn’t I encourage you to leave your door standing wide open the next time you go away for a few days and post that in the blog!)
Jesus rose from the dead to give eternal life in heaven and salvation from sin and hell.
Romans 6:23
1 Corinthians 15:1-4
There is only one way and it is through Christ by realization that you are a sinner and need him Trust in him and him alone for eternal life
Millions will face him one day and will offer up how good they were and it won’t matter.
A person can do a million good things with one sin they are unclean before Christ who is Holy and righteous.
It’s like making a delicious 4 egg omelette with three fresh eggs and one nasty rotten egg.
Unacceptable to serve to you or anyone.
Or making a cake and adding just a small ounce of dog crap. Again disgusting ! And unacceptable to serve to anyone.
I encourage you to seek Christ and turn to him by genuine faith and receive his gift of eternal life.
and:
It is truly sad how the prince of darkness has blinded all of you to the truth.
The lake of fire is NOT a threat it is a real place where real people who die in their sins without Jesus Christ will spend a real eternity!
I would strongly suggest you watch the movie HEAVEN’S WAR.
Blessings,
CRW
Do you remember me saying to you:
Randy,
If you want to have a discussion on these, and other, issues, please take it to my blog. You will find plenty of people willing to engage you.
If your goal is to preach — and it seems it is — please stop emailing me. You are not going to say anything I haven’t heard before (or said myself).
Thank you.
Bruce Gerencser
And what did you do? You sent me another email that said:
Ok I will respect your wish and not email again.
I appreciate your response.
And may come to blog for discussions later.
I do hope you will sincerely accept Jesus Christ before it is too late.
Atheists and Anti-Christians will one day wish they were at a water park……
I tersely replied:
Yet, you emailed me again.
You just can’t help yourself — signing off with another cute threat of Hell.
Why would I want to be like you, Randy?
Bruce
And, contrary to your promise to NOT email me again, you did:
Ok I’m only responding to answer your question.
I don’t want you to be like me. Be like the one who created you Jesus Christ. And who you evidently pretended to serve for 25 years.
Hell is not a threat it is a PROMISE and WARNING.
The eternal lake of fire in torment for Satan,the demons and each soul who chose to reject the gift of eternal life.
And religion is man trying to reach GodJesus Christ is God reaching out to sinful man through his grace and mercy and death and resurrection.
Blessings.
My “question,” Randy, was not a question I wanted you to answer. What I wanted is for you to think about your behavior. I wanted you to do a bit of soul searching, asking yourself whether your approach with me and other non-Christians is effective and whether your words reflect well on you, Jesus, and Christianity. Did you read the comments on the aforementioned post? Only “Asshole for Jesus,” Dr. David Tee/David Thiessen/TheologyArcheology, agreed with you. You are in rare company, Randy — and not in a good way.
Do you seriously think attacking my character, saying I’m a liar, and threatening me with Hell are effective ways to evangelize me? Or is the real issue this: you can’t square my story with your peculiar theology?
It seems that your Christian faith is based on cliches. You have sure used enough of them in your emails. Let me give you one more: “You are the only Jesus people see.” Your ill behavior, threats, and attacks speak volumes about the Jesus you say you follow. If the best transformative work the Holy Spirit can do is you, Randy, why would anyone want to follow your version of Jesus? Are you so obtuse that you cannot see how your words drive people away from Jesus and not towards him? I don’t understand your behavior and that of others like you. Your fellow Christian, “Dr.” David Tee, frequently shits on my doorstep, finding joy in being as hurtful and mean-spirited as possible. Granted, you seem to be a tad bit nicer than Mr. Tee, but neither of you (and scores of other Evangelicals) reflects the fruit of the Spirit:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. (Galatians 5:22,23)
Note what the Bible says: the fruit of the Spirit IS [present tense]. This is not an ideal, something to strive for. A True Christian® evidences the fruit of the Spirit in his daily life. Perhaps instead of calling my Christian past into question, you might want to look at your own life. Are YOU a Christian?
Want to win me back to Jesus? Want the readers of this blog to at least think admirably about Christianity, even if they choose not to believe? Change your behavior. Walk in the footsteps of Jesus. Ask yourself WWJD?
I would love to talk to you about your beliefs. However, before we do so, I want to offer to send you one of Dr. Bart Ehrman’s books. All I ask is that you read the book before we talk. I warn you that Ehrman’s books have led countless Evangelicals away from Christianity. Are you willing to risk your faith, or are you so certain that you are right that no amount of new information will change your mind? Surely, you and the Holy Spirit can withstand the words of a lowly NT scholar. Anyway, if you are interested, please email me your address.
My final admonition is this: Do better, Randy, do better.
I ask that any further interactions with me take place in the comment section of this post.
Saved by Reason,
Update: Randy deleted his email account so I couldn’t respond to him. I can now check to see if someone is blocking me instead of deleting their account. Randy’s account no longer exists.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 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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