The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser

Tag: Hell

  • The Horrors of the Evangelical Hell

    hell

    Most Evangelicals believe in a literal Heaven and Hell. The Bible says that it is “appointed unto men once to die.” All of us will die someday, Evangelicals say, and the moment we draw our last breath, we will be transported by God to Heaven or Hell. Where we end up depends on whether we were born again/saved. Those who were saved when they died go to Heaven, and those who weren’t — atheists, agnostics, pagans, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, and Catholics (to name a few) — go to Hell.

    Hell (actually the Lake of Fire) is a place where unbelievers will be punished and tortured for their sins for eternity. Some Evangelicals suggest that the only sin people will be punished for in Hell is the sin of unbelief; as if this is somehow better than being punished for adultery, fornication, or being LGBTQ. The life expectancy for humans is 70-80 years in most of the developed world. If Evangelicals are right about Hell, this means that a momentary decision made by unbelievers to not believe the Evangelical gospel will be punished for millions, billions, and trillions of years. Think about that for a moment. Just saying no to Jesus means you will be tortured by God of “love” forever. How you lived your life matters not. What good works you did matters not. You may have been an awesome mother, father, grandparent, or friend. It matters not. You may have devoted your life to serving the sick, poor, and marginalized. It matters not. If you didn’t believe the right things (and Evangelicalism preaches a gospel of right beliefs) you will spend eternity suffering in the flames of Hell. (And yes, I am aware that a small percentage of Evangelicals are annihilationists. But even with annihilation, unbelievers are still tortured by God for a time before they are obliterated.)

    Worse yet, the natural body can’t withstand the extreme fire and heat of Hell. Those consigned to Hell would immediately melt and be turned to ashes without God doing something to keep that from happening. The Bible teaches that Heaven and Hell are actually temporary holding places. After Jesus returns to earth and defeats Satan, every human will be resurrected from the dead, judged, and then given a new body. Christians will spend eternity in the Eternal Kingdom of God. Unbelievers will spend eternity in the Lake of Fire. (I speak generally. I am well aware of the various Evangelical beliefs on these subjects.) By fitting unbelievers with bodies that can withstand the terrors of Hell, they won’t be turned to ashes. Isn’t God awesome?

    There’s no evidence for the existence of Hell (or Heaven). Ask an Evangelical to point you to where Hell is and they will point down. What? Hell is Australia? I guess Hell could be Antarctica, though its climate seems very un-hell like. All joking aside, most Evangelicals believe Hell is somewhere in the center of the earth. According to Wikipedia, the core of the earth is approximately 1,500 miles in diameter, one-fortieth of the volume of the whole earth. Today, almost eight billion people live on earth. Scientists estimate almost 110 billion people have lived and died on our planet. Evangelicals believe that the vast majority of people past and present will end up in Hell after they die. Evangelicalism is an exclusive club. Few people are actually members. Thus, we can safely say that Hell has a population in excess of 100 billion people. Imagine 100 billion people living in a space the size of the United States. Donald Trump might want to go to Hell and build high rises to accommodate all the non-Evangelicals.

    The very idea of Hell is absurd. Yet, a majority of Americans believe in its existence. According to a 2014 Pew Research study, sixty percent of American adults believe in the existence of Hell. Eighty-two percent of Evangelicals believe Hell is a real place. The literalness of Hell is deeply engrained in our thinking. Even among Evangelicals-turned-atheists, Hell often lurks in the depths of our minds. How could it be otherwise? Years of indoctrination, of being told Hell is a real place and unbelievers will spend eternity being tortured by God, will do that to you. I have received numerous emails over the years from ex-Evangelicals who are still struggling with thoughts about Hell. It is hard to shake the sermons and Sunday school lessons about Hell. When people are told a lie repeatedly, it should come as no surprise that they believe it. Undoing the psychological conditioning often takes years.

    Hell is a cudgel used by Evangelical preachers to keeps asses in the pews and money in offering plates. If threats of Hell are removed, would Evangelicals still attend church, give money, or evangelize unbelievers? Heaven is the carrot, but Hell is the stick. If there is no fear of Hell (or God), would people still devote themselves to the one true faith? Maybe, for social reasons, but if there are no worries about going to Hell, I suspect people would likely treat their chosen religion more cavalierly than they do now (more like they do in some European countries).

    Several years ago, my friend ObstacleChick had an interaction on my Facebook page with an Evangelical man named John. I doubt that’s his real name. John sent OC a private message, one that can only be described as a Hell-inspired death threat.

    Here’s a screenshot of John’s message:

    message to obstaclechick

    OC is a former Evangelical, a Southern Baptist. She attended a Christian school. OC was deeply immersed in Evangelicalism before she deconverted. I suspect what upset OC the most was this asshole calling her Missy. 🙂 OC tried to respond to John’s threat, but, of course, he blocked her so she couldn’t do so (and I blocked him on my page). I hate it when my friends face retribution from Evangelical Christians because they comment on my Facebook page or this blog.

    John believes in the existence of Hell. His words reveal that he has been deeply indoctrinated, and that he thinks it normal and acceptable to threaten unbelievers with death and Hell. Perhaps John even thinks he is doing this out of “love.” Isn’t this exactly what the Evangelical preachers do? They preach up the love of God and the awesomeness of Jesus. Yet, they also warn unbelievers that if they refuse God’s offer of salvation through the merit and work of Jesus, judgment and Hell await.

    The good news is that there is no Hell. I have seen no evidence for its existence. While thoughts of Hell may infrequently plague my mind, I know they are vestiges of five decades of psychological indoctrination. The longer I am removed from Evangelicalism, the fewer thoughts I have about Hell. Lifelong indoctrination doesn’t disappear just because you stop believing. It takes time to free one’s mind of years and decades of harmful beliefs. If you are struggling with thoughts about Hell, all I can tell you is that it gets better with time. Remember, life is a journey, not a destination. There’s no life after death, so all we have is the life before us.

    Update

    After I posted this article, I received the following email from an Evangelical man who calls himself Rev. James Makerfield:

    I hope this email reaches you well.I hope it reaches MANY in fact!
    From the “Zealots”. Or Evangelical “assholes”.  As you put it.    

    Number ONE we love you all very much. Mr Bruce you are Loved very much!
    The GREATEST HATE is to NOT bring the gospel to the lost! and we all need the gospel! Believers and unbelievers. 

    Hell is REAL place!

    It is NOT A THREAT!It’s not a fairytale!It’s not a scare tactic! 

    It is REAL!   I’d suggest googling “atheists who went to hell”.  If you want proof outside of the Bible.

    What I am going describe now is the portrait of the eternal future of EVERYONE who dies without Jesus Christ. 😭

    This includes all people who trusted in “RELIGION” (man’s attempt to make himself right with God)

    All who tries to earn salvation through good works and morality. 

    And all who fell into the trap that not even the demons fell into! ATHEISM and ANTI-THEISM/ANTI-CHRISTIANITY ( which is what a high percentage of atheists really are they’re really Anti-Christians. 

    As the Unbeliever takes his or her last breath in this life they will take their first breath in eternity pulled from their body and taken and placed in a deep hot dark pit!

    Deafening screams will be on all sides all around them!  The place will stink God awful! 🤢🤮

    Take rotten eggs, sulphur, human crap/sewage and a landfill and it won’t hold a candle to the stink of hell and burning souls! 😢

    Their body will ignite in flames! You will scream “AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!”  “NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!”

    😭😭😭😭😭😭

    You will feel pain that cannot be described in any human language!
    You will feel the reality of Revelation 20:15!“And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” Revelation 20:15

    You will scream “OH GOD!!!!! YOURE SUPPOSED TO BE LOVE!!!!”
    Then you will remember John 3:16“For God so loved the world he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life” John 3:16

    You will remember Romans 5:8“But God commendeth his love towards us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us “ Romans 5:8

    You will cry “AHHHHH!!!!! THIS CANT BE HAPPENING!!!! WHY WASN’T I WARNED!?!?!?”

    Then you will remember every person who tried to witness to you.
    You will remember every sermon you ever heard and/or preached but NEVER TRULY believed!

    You will remember finding a tract in a bathroom and throwing in the trash or on the ground.

    You will remember every person on Facebook and the internet blog,every email, every call every Avenue that Christ used to desperately get you to accept his grace and mercy. 

    Now it will be too late!

    Furthermore as the rich man pleaded in Luke 16:19-31. 

    You will have an indescribable thirst like you have never had before!  UNO ONE DROP OF WATER would be precious but you and everyone else who died in sin will NEVER get it! 😭

    You will have a desire for unsaved family and other people trapped in unbelief to come to salvation through Jesus Christ.    

    Just as the first rich man did for his 5 unsaved brothers. 

    You will pray for God to send someone to tell them the gospel!

    You will curse the day you were born!You will curse the moment you were conceived!You will wish you would’ve been squirted on the mattress!

    This pain and agony will last for all ETERNITY!

    What’s 20 years in eternity!? Less time it takes to blow a breath of air!

    If a person lives to be 110 that’s less than a 1/2 in eternity!

    900 million years will be less than 1/2 second in eternity!

    Think about the prisons on earth even in a earthly human prison there is hope that you can can get out! No one will ever get released from hell!

    And imagine being in a prison with every murderer, child rapist,vile of the vile!
    In hell you will scream right beside Satan and the Anti-Christ and the false Prophet and thousands of demons for all eternity!

    There will be no contact with anyone! Hell will be full of millions that rejected Jesus Christ and each soul will be in complete isolation!

    There will be NO REST! Not even a quiet moment!

    And yet the LOST world says that we (TRUE GENUINE FOLLOWERS OF JESUS CHRIST!) “HATE” people when we warn them of this COMING REALITY! Pfft!

    Jesus Christ loves YOU and he does NOT want you or anyone else to perish in hell. 

    What if this email is your last warning?What if you don’t wake up tomorrow?
    I STRONGLY ENCOURAGE you and anyone else reading to listen to the Holy Spirits call. 

    It sure sounds like John and James are the same person or identical twins. And now after years of comments from a certain degenerate Christian, I now believe Revival Fires is behind the John and James personas.

  • Why I Believe There’s an Afterlife

    is there an afterlife

    As an atheist, I believe in the afterlife. Yes sir, I sure do. Not in Christian sense of spending eternity in Heaven or Hell. That sort of thinking is nonsense. I have yet to have a Christian successfully defend their afterlife beliefs. There’s no scientific or empirical evidence for its existence. All Christians have is the Bible, with its contradictory pronouncements about the afterlife. Belief in the Christian afterlife requires faith; a faith I do not have. That said, I do believe in the afterlife, just not the Christian kind.

    Someday soon, I will die. Maybe today, tomorrow, or two years from now, but there’s no question that I will someday soon cease to exist. So, then what? Nothing. When you are dead, you’re dead. I will one day go the way of all people.

    What a minute, Bruce, I thought you said you believe in the afterlife. I do, but the afterlife is for the living. After-my-life-ends, my partner, children, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren will live on. That’s the afterlife I speak of. The life that is lived by everyone but you after you die. That’s why it is important to leave behind good memories for family and friends to remember. Long after you are buried or cremated, those who matter to you will have pictures and memories to remember you by. I don’t know about you, but I want those I love and behind to have a good afterlife.

    Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 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.

    Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

    You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

  • Why I Don’t Want to Go to Heaven When I Die

    heaven

    For those of us who drank deeply from the Evangelical well, we heard a lot of talk about Heaven — the place saved Evangelicals go after they die. Preacher after preacher, including myself when I entered the ministry in the 1970s, said that this life was preparation to meet God. We were told to focus on the important stuff: going to church, reading the Bible, praying, tithing, witnessing. These practices were meant to draw us closer to Jesus in preparation for the day we when draw our last breath and enter the pearly gates to meet Jesus face to face.

    According to Revelation 21:1-5 says:

    Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples,
    and God himself will be with them and be their God; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.”And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 

    Evangelicals will interpret these verses various ways, but the gist is that there is coming a day when every Christian, either through death or rapture, will be carried away to Heaven. This will be a glorious day, no more tears; no more death; no more mourning, crying, and pain. God himself says, “I am making ALL things new.” Most Evangelicals think God will make a new Heaven and a new earth. The former earth and universe will either be destroyed or renovated by fire. Christians will live in the New Jerusalem. No darkness, no night. Jesus is the light of the city. Sounds like an awesome place, right? No more pain really appeals to me, but then I think about the other things that go with an eternity in Heaven, and I quickly say, ‘No thanks, Jesus.” Bruce, aren’t you willing to “believe” if it means no more pain? No.

    I have come to understand that we believe what we believe. We don’t choose our beliefs, as if, through libertarian free will, we “choose” whether to believe in Jesus. This is patently untrue, even if it “seems” differently to us. If you really believe we choose our beliefs, I ask you right now, Christians, to CHOOSE to be an atheist. Come on, you can do it! Come to the dark side. The weather is nice, the beer is cheap, and the company is awesome. Couldn’t choose? Why is that? We only believe that which convinces us. We evaluate evidence, and somewhere along the line we become convinced of one or more propositions, and we believe. I will believe in Jesus Christ the day I become convinced that the Christian gospel and the central claims of Christianity are true.

    Two other questions remain for me:

    • Who will live in Heaven with us?
    • What will we do in Heaven for thirty trillion years?

    According to Evangelicals, ONLY born-again people will live in Heaven after death. No Jews. No Muslims. No Buddhists. And certainly no agnostics, atheists, humanists, or pagans. Only Evangelicals need apply. This means that born again Jeffrey Dahmer — a serial killer who ate his victims — will be in Heaven, but moral, ethical atheists will be in Hell. That’s some fucked up thinking, is it not? Worse, think about spending eternity with the likes of fine Christians such as Revival Fires, Jaisen, John, James, Steve, and Dr. David Tee. Can you imagine them being your neighbors for eternity? I wonder of there will be suicide in Heave? 🙂

    However long eternity is, human beings will live on in either Heaven or Hell (actually the eternal Kingdom of God and the Lake of Fire). What will Evangelicals do for eternity in Heaven? Some Evangelicals believe that eternity will be spent in community in a new Heaven and Earth. Everything will be perfect. I have heard some fantastical sermons about Heaven over the years, most without Scriptural warrant. According to this view of Heaven, life will be one long party, maybe like Mardi Gras without the beads, boobs, and booze. Or maybe Jesus will tell Evangelicals, “Hey that stuff is okay! Let’s party, brothers and sisters.”

    Another dominate view of Heaven is the idea that eternity will be one never-ending praise and worship service. Evangelicals will spend eternity like Baptist Catholics, kneeling, standing, kneeling, standing . . . and singing. Lots and lots of singing. Can you imagine listening to masturbatory praise songs ad nauseam for millions of years. Kill me now. 🙂

    How do preachers sell this nonsense to congregants? They convince themselves that an eternity of worshipping a narcissistic deity is the price one must pay for Jesus saving them from their sins.Ugh, no thanks. I might be convinced of the party Heaven if we can move Revival Fires, Jaisen, John, James, Steve, and Dr. David Tee outside the city gates, never to be seen again. Or maybe they could be tasked with cleaning the sewers in Heaven. These giants of the faith have a lot of expertise in “shit,” so it shouldn’t be too hard to teach them to clean up in the next life what they refuse to clean up in this life.

    The Evangelical Heaven doesn’t appeal to many of us. One life is sufficient, and we plan to live life to its fullest. Only one life, ‘twill soon be past, and then you are dead. Harsh? Sure, but nonetheless true. If you have evidence to the contrary, please leave it in the comment section.

    Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 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.

    Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

    You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

  • After Death, Will We Finally Know the Truth?

    calvin afterlife

    Evangelicals believe there is life after death. Every person who has ever lived will end up in either Heaven or Hell. Where you end up is determined by faith. Those who put their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior go to Heaven when they die. Everyone else goes to Hell and will be tortured forever for their rejection of Jesus.

    Setting aside the fact that people do not go to Heaven or Hell after they die (no one does until the general resurrection at the end of time), most Evangelicals have extra-Biblical beliefs about the afterlife. For example, how many sermons have you heard where a preacher told you Nana or Grandpa is in Heaven, free from pain, suffering, and heartache? You are told your dead loved ones are having a wonderful time in Heaven, running, singing, and worshipping God. Life is marvelous, better than anything experienced in life before the grave. Most people will never experience this, but, bless God, Evangelicals will. Why? They are members of the right religion. They worship the right God. Their guidebook for life is the Bible, even if they rarely read it. By faith, they believe every word in the Bible is straight from the mind of God. This supernatural book says there’s an afterlife. The men who preach from this supernatural book say there’s an afterlife. Countless authors have written books about Heaven and what awaits the followers of Jesus after they die.

    What Evangelicals NEVER provide is evidence for the existence of an afterlife, Heaven, or Hell. Not one shred of evidence is presented for these claims. Either you believe in life after death or you don’t. Either you believe Heaven and Hell are real places or you don’t. Either you believe that your landing spot in the afterlife is determined by believing the right things, or you don’t. All of these claims ultimately appeal to faith for justification. Any Evangelicals who tell you they died, went to Heaven or Hell, and came back to life on Earth are lying. Unless they provide a feature-length video of their time in the afterlife, their claims are not to be believed. Just because someone says something happened to them doesn’t mean their story is true. The same goes for the Bible. The Bible is a book of claims. Just because it says something doesn’t mean it’s true.

    People wrongly think I am an anti-theist. I am not. I do, however, expect and demand sufficient evidence for religious claims. If you want me to believe your claims, you will have to do more than quote Bible verses or tell me to just faith-it.

    I know that I will someday die, likely sooner than later. I am a sixty-eight-year-old man in poor health. My body tells me that my time on Earth is short. How I die remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure: I will die. Rare is the person, especially in the sunset years of life, who doesn’t think about death from time to time. In the quiet of late nights, I will hear our clock ticking, reminding me of my frail mortality. Eventually, I fitfully fall asleep, hoping I will awake the next day. And I do, but one day the last noise I hear in this life could be the click-click- cl of our clock. And that will be it. Then what?

    Since there is no evidence for an afterlife, I have no reason to believe that I will live on after death outside of whatever nutrients my ashes return to the dirt. When I die, that means the end of the only Bruce Gerencser on Earth. Yes, I am that special. 🙂 Do I fear death? No, not as far as it being the end of life. I know death awaits all of us, and since I am not immune to what afflicts us one and all, I’m confident that the way of all men will one day come calling for me. I do, however, at times, fear what may happen to me before I die; the pain, suffering, and loss that may come my way before my demise.

    Most Evangelicals believe that after they get to Heaven, they will be given a resurrected body, one perfect in every way, including the brain/mind. Having a new brain/mind, Evangelicals think that they will know countless things they didn’t know on Earth, and they will NOT know many of the things/people they knew before death. You might think, as an atheist, “Who cares?” And I agree, except for this one point: Evangelicals are willing to offload knowing things to the afterlife. Who hasn’t engaged an Evangelical about this or that belief, only to have the believer dismiss your claims out of hand, saying, “One day, I will know everything in Heaven. Praise Jesus!” Sadly, Evangelicals won’t know everything. Knowledge and understanding are gained only in this life. Once dead, all learning stops. Better to have lived life seeking knowledge and passing that knowledge on to others than to make oneself deliberately ignorant, hoping that an invisible deity will one day fill you in on what you missed in this life.

    Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 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.

    Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

    You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

  • Bruce, Have You Considered You Might be Demon Possessed?

    demon of stupidity

    Shannon Davis, an Evangelical podcaster who goes by the moniker Omegaman, left the following comment on Bruce, What Do You Think of the Marjoe Gortner Story?:

    Bruce, did you ever stop to consider you needed deliverance from demons? Hell is Real as is the Lake of Fire. At one point in your ministry did you realize you were operating in doubt and unbelief?

    Surely Davis knows I am an atheist, and as such, I don’t believe in the existence of the Christian God. Further, I don’t believe in the existence of Satan, demons, spirits, angels, or anything supernatural, for that matter. I live in a material world, one best explained by reason and science. Granted, there is much we don’t know about Earth and the universe, so I can’t say with one-hundred percent certainty that the supernatural does not exist. That said, all I have touched, viewed, and understood is material, and not supernatural. If you object to my claim, please provide empirical evidence for the supernatural. Not personal testimonies or anecdotal stories; actual empirical evidence. If you cannot provide evidence to rebut my claim, then it stands until you do.

    Am I demon possessed? Of course not, silly boy. There’s no devil/demon/spirit to possess me. Any possessed behavior is one hundred percent Bruce Gerencser. This is true for all of us. No Flip Wilson saying, “The Devil Made Me Do It.” Mental issues or brain abnormalities can and do cause “possessed” behavior and other irrational deportment, as can the overuse of drugs and alcohol, to name a few of the substances that can cause people to seem “possessed.” No exorcist, preacher, or Bible needed to understand this. Science and common sense give us everything we need to understand “possession.”

    Besides, what in my behavior suggests to Davis that I am demon possessed? I am a well-adjusted sixty-eight-year-old man — my medical chart says so — with a plethora of health problems, including depression. I am, by all accounts, “normal” (however one might define “normal”). Maybe the mere fact that I am an outspoken atheist and a Cincinnati Bengals fan is enough to give me the “Possessed by Demons” label. Of course, no evidence will ever be provided to justify such claims. No, the Davises of the Christian world just know what they know cuz they had a warm fuzzy feeling in their “hearts” that tells them they are right.

    Davis goes on to assert, again, without evidence, that Heaven and Hell are real. How can he possibly know this? Has he physically gone to Heaven and Hell and shot a feature-length video that shows the world the wonders of Heaven and horrors of Hell? That’s a rhetorical question, by the way. Of course not. The existence of Heaven and Hell are claims, for which Christians have yet to provide persuasive evidence.

    Now to Davis’ question, “At one point in your ministry did you realize you were operating in doubt and unbelief?” Davis makes a false assumption: that there was a point in my ministerial career when I realized I was operating in doubt and unbelief. There wasn’t. My doubts and questions came after I pastored my last church in 2003. There were five years between my last pastorate and my deconversion in 2008. It was during these five years that I reinvestigated the central claims of Christianity and concluded they were false. It was Me and Jesus until the end.

    Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 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.

    Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

    You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

  • Bruce, You Really Helped Me, But You’re Still Going to Hell if You Don’t Repent

    join-bruce-gerencser-in-hell

    Over the years, I have received many emails and social media messages from Evangelical preachers, evangelists, missionaries, college professors, youth pastors, worship leaders, and everyday church members, thanking me for something I wrote that they found helpful. This is especially true for people affiliated with the Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) church movement.

    I find it gratifying when someone tells me that my writing helped them. Often, something I wrote helps them to see the light or the errors of Fundamentalist Christianity. Typically, such people hang on to the Christian moniker, choosing, in their minds, not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. And this is the point where their praise of my writing turns into Fundamentalist judgmentalism they can’t seem to shake. You see, I may have helped them, but I am still headed for Hell because I am an atheist. Until they abandon the doctrine of eternal punishment, I will remain, in their eyes, a good man who is going to split Hell wide open after I die. Not because of how I lived my life, but for one reason alone: I have the wrong beliefs.

    Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 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.

    Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

    You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

  • We Are the Only Hell That Exists

    hell

    Evangelical Christians believe in everlasting punishment for all those who die without faith in Jesus Christ. According to Evangelical dogma, the vast majority of humanity — past, present, and future — will end up in the Lake of Fire after they die, forever tortured by God for their sin and unbelief.

    When asked where Hell is located, Evangelicals either stupidly say it’s in the center of the earth or, in a rare breath of honesty, say they don’t know. The Hell of eternal punishment exists only in the pages of the Bible. Within broader Christianity, the existence of Hell (the Lake of Fire), its purpose, and who ends up there, if anyone, is hotly debated. For unbelievers, especially agnostics and atheists, Hell is a myth, a theological concept used by clerics to promote fear among church members, knowing fearful congregants are more likely to obey their commands, attend church, and keep offering plates full. Remove the threat of Hell and I suspect scores of people will stop attending church. Without fear, they might be inclined to sleep in on Sundays, watch the NFL, and spend their tithes and offerings on personal needs instead of funding their pastors’ every whim.

    When asked if I believe in the existence of Hell, I give a two-part answer. No, I don’t believe in the existence of big H Hell, but I do believe in little h hell. Little h hell is what humans do to each other, other animals, and the planet they live on.

    Hell is a creation of human imagination. I explain it this way:

    Good News: Hell is the creation of human imagination.

    Bad News: Human imagination knows no bounds when it comes to cruelty and violence

    I do not fear landing in Hell after I die. I am confident that once I draw my last draw, that will be the end for me; that I will return to the same darkness and nothingness as before I was conceived. I do, however, fear the hell that my fellow humans can and do inflict upon our planet and its inhabitants. Come January 20, 2025, Donald Trump will become president and unleash upon the American people hell that we have not seen in many years. Imagine the hell that will be unleashed by MAGA extremists such as Tulsi Gabbard (Director of National Intelligence), Scott Bessent (Treasury Secretary), Pete Hegseth (Defense Secretary), Pam Bondi (Attorney General), Kristi Noem (Homeland Security Secretary), Robert F. Kennedy Jr.(Health and Human Services Secretary), Doug Burgum (Interior Secretary), Chris Wright (Energy Secretary), Linda McMahon (Education Secretary), Lee Zeldin (EPA Administrator), Kash Patel (FBI Director), Tom Homan (Border Czar), Elon Musk (Department of Government Efficiency), Vivek Ramaswamy (Department of Government Efficiency), and Russ Vought (Office of Management and Budget Director). These men and women are committed to enacting and enforcing Trump’s extremist social, health, education, and economic policies, regardless of the hell they cause the American people and the world at large.

    Trump relishes chaos, so we shouldn’t be surprised when his rhetoric and saber-rattling land the U.S. in new military incursions while trying to end conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East abruptly. His threat of withdrawing the U.S. from N.A.T.O. should scare all of us. Trump’s insane commitment to tariffs will certainly cause increased inflation as businesses increase prices to offset tariff costs, as will his plan to cut the social safety net. His plan calls for large-scale immigration enforcement and deportations of primarily Mexican and Latin American immigrants. Doing so will likely tank portions of our economy that rely on migrant workers (many of whom are undocumented). The new Department of Government Efficiency hopes to set much of the federal government and its agencies on fire, causing untold harm to the American people. And Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.? Left to his own devices, Kennedy, Jr. will turn HHS into a health food store, and leave us largely unprepared for the next pandemic.

    Of course, the United States is but one country out of 193, each with its dispensers of hell on earth. As of June 2024, there were 56 military conflicts in the world, involving 92 countries in conflicts outside their borders. Famine and lack of sufficient food, water, housing, and medical care remain a major problem in many countries. Increased world temperatures and weather extremes remain a threat to our very existence; that is if a nuclear war doesn’t destroy our planet.

    Hell and threats of hell abound, and all any of us can do is help put out as many fires as we can. Yes, Trump is a major hell threat, but his ability to burn everything to the ground except his bank account remains to be seen. Will there be Republicans who will stand up to his extremism? It’s doubtful, but perhaps a few of them will wake up, get their noses out of Trump’s ass, and remember that they serve the American people. The year 2026 will provide voters will an opportunity to right the Congressional boat, thus limiting the damage Trump and his acolytes can do. However, Trump has two years to pretty much do what he wants. Democrats are largely powerless, most Republicans are MAGA devotees, and the U.S. Supreme Court is controlled by right-wing ideology. Protests are sure to come, and I fear violence will follow. Sadly, this will give leave for Trump to unleash “HIS” FBI and Justice Department on protestors and anyone else on his blacklist.

    I see little that would cause me to be optimistic. We are in for hell over the next few years. I will do what I can to put out fires or at least keep them from engulfing people and institutions, while at the same time pushing back against Christian Nationalists who see Trump’s presidency as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to turn back sixty years of secular, social, and church-state progress.

    I hope I am wrong, but so far, all I see is a raging fire on the horizon. Hell awaits us, and whether we survive remains to be seen.

    Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 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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  • How Evangelicals Will Act When Seeing Their Unsaved Loved Ones in the Lake of Fire

    hell

    Most Evangelicals believe that one day the virgin-born, sinless, resurrected Son of God, Jesus Christ, will return to earth to judge the living and the dead, granting Christians eternal life in the Kingdom of God and consigning everyone else to the Lake of Fire. Christians will spend eternity worshipping and praising Jesus, while non-Christians will be endlessly tortured in flames of intense fire. Of course, the bodies of non-Christians would immediately sizzle away as the fat on a steak as it’s broiled, so God plans to give these unfortunate people whose only crime is worshipping the wrong deity, a special body that will survive torture for millions of years. What an awesome God Evangelicals serve, right?

    After believers are resurrected, they will receive new bodies. Gone will be the pain, suffering, loss, and death of their former bodies. Their minds will be wiped clean of all thoughts except those of Jesus. Gone will be thoughts of their unsaved families, spouses, and friends. The overwhelming majority of people who populated the earth will end up in the Lake of Fire. Billions upon billions of non-Christians will face untold suffering, all because they worshipped the wrong deity or none at all. Finite crimes will receive infinite punishment. It matters not if you lived a moral, ethical life. All that matters, according to Evangelicals, is that you believe the right things, pray the right prayer, and worship the right deity. Putting extra money in the offering plate helps too. The vile Dr. David Tees and Revival Fires of the world will receive great rewards from Jesus, but those who practiced the Golden Rule and followed the second part of the Great Commandment to love their neighbor as themselves will be rewarded with eternal pain and suffering, all because they weren’t Christians. What a perverse religion, yet millions and millions of Evangelicals worship this version of the Christian God.

    When asked where the Lake of Fire is located, thoughtful Evangelicals will say “I don’t know.” Others will cobble together Bible verses and reinterpret them to provide an answer to this question. One Southern Baptist evangelist, the late Rolfe Barnard, believed the Lake of Fire was located outside the gate of the New Jerusalem; that believers would see the smoke of the Lake wafting into the air like the smoke of a Burger King on a busy Friday night — a constant reminder of the punishment they would have received had Jesus not saved them from their sins.

    Barnard went on to say that when the redeemed saw this smoke, they would fall on their knees and say:

    Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God: For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. And again they said, Alleluia And her smoke rose up for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia. And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. (Revelation 19:1-6)

    That’s right, Christians will praise Jesus for the true and righteous judgments their unbelieving families, friends, and neighbors are receiving as just recompense for their sin and rebellion against God. I suspect this is why preachers tell fellow believers that their minds will be wiped clean from thoughts of their former lives. If not, what kind of people would praise Jesus for torturing their parents, spouses, children, and grandchildren? Psychopaths, that’s who.

    Is this a God worthy of our worship? Not in my book. Christianity is a blood cult, and Evangelicals, in particular, revel in the workings of a violent, bloodthirsty deity who will someday, beyond today, inflict horrific pain, suffering, and death on everyone who didn’t worship him. I have often been asked if I would worship the Evangelical God if I found out he was real, and the answer is “no.” Such a deity is unworthy of my worship, and I will not bow a knee to a deity who takes pleasure in torturing his created beings.

    Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 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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  • Bruce, Aren’t You Afraid You Are Leading Your Family Astray and They Will End Up in Hell?

    gerencser children 2023

    My partner, Polly, and I have six adult children, ages thirty-one to forty-five. We have sixteen grandchildren, aged four to twenty-three. I regularly see most of my children and grandchildren every week or two. Now that the NFL season has started, I will see several of my sons and their families when they stop by to take advantage of my Sunday Ticket Package on YouTube TV. Over the past two weeks, I have seen all our children and thirteen of our grandchildren. I have texted our granddaughters who are now in college at Ohio State University and Miami University — Oxford, respectfully. Our family is dysfunctional, but we are close.

    Because I am close to my spouse, children, and grandchildren, I naturally have some influence over them. Not controlling influence as was common during our Fundamentalist Baptist days, but influence in giving advice or sharing my opinion. And I am opinionated, as I always have been. I love discussions and debates about religion, politics, philosophy, economics, and the state of the Cincinnati Reds and Bengals. Years ago, I expected our family to be of one mind, but those days are long gone. Now I genuinely want to hear Polly’s opinions and those of my children and grandchildren. I am fascinated by how their thinking and beliefs have evolved post-Evangelicalism.

    Libertarian free will is a myth. According to Got Questions, an Evangelical site, libertarian free will:

    . . . is basically the concept that, metaphysically and morally, man is an autonomous being, one who operates independently, not controlled by others or by outside forces. According to the Pocket Dictionary of Apologetics & Philosophy of Religion (InterVarsity Press, 2002), libertarian free will is defined as “in ethics and metaphysics, the view that human beings sometimes can will more than one possibility. According to this view, a person who freely made a particular choice could have chosen differently, even if nothing about the past prior to the moment of choice had been different.” In the libertarian free will paradigm, the power of contrary choice reigns supreme. Without this ability to choose otherwise, libertarian free will proponents will claim that man cannot be held morally responsible for his actions.

    Interestingly, most of the Internet sites offering up definitions of libertarian free will are Christian. Regardless, libertarian free will posits that people operate independently, not controlled by outside influences or people. This is patently false. Free will is fiercely argued, with some philosophers believing people don’t have free will. Others believe we have free will in a limited sense. These discussions are above my pay grade, but I generally believe all of us are influenced by outside sources. From the time we are born, we are influenced by people, events, and circumstances. As an old man, I have pondered the people and things who have deeply influenced my life. Could it be otherwise for a husband, father, and grandfather?

    What I don’t have is controlling influence; influence that demands obedience and conformity. In our Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) years, I demanded my spouse and children obey me as the patriarch of the family. I believed, as did Polly, that this hierarchy was commanded by God and taught in the Bible. Post-Christianity, Polly and I adopted an egalitarian worldview. This required us setting our children free to think for themselves and make their own decisions. While I always appreciate them asking me for advice — what old man doesn’t want to feel needed? — their decisions are theirs. I may share my beliefs or opinions with them, but there’s no demand to conform. Thus, whether to believe in God (any God), go to church, or follow the teachings of the Bible is up to them, not me. Whether they end up in the Evangelical Hell is on them, not me. Yes, I am an atheist, as is their mother, but I make no effort to evangelize them. Am I happy that none of my children attend Evangelical churches, and some of them are atheists or agnostics? Of course.

    Of course, the question in the title is only asked by fearful Evangelicals; people who are afraid of being punished by God and going to Hell. I understand their fear, having walked in their shoes for the first fifty years of my life. Deconverting helped to break and dispel my fear of God and Hell. There is no God, no Heaven/Hell, no fear. All Polly and I know to do is to live a fear-free life and raise a bit of hell. 🙂

    But, Bruce, you can’t know for certain whether there is a Hell. True, but I can’t be sure Lizard People don’t walk among us either. All I know to do is to skeptically and rationally look at the central claims of Christianity (and Lizard People), and live accordingly. I live a God-free and Hell-free life before not only my family, but my neighbors. I want them to see authenticity — sans God, Christianity, and the Bible. Much as I did as a Christian, I let my little light shine. If my spouse, children, or grandchildren find an affinity with my beliefs and way of life, that’s on them, not me. They are free to live their lives as they wish. I will love and support them regardless of what they believe or how they live their lives. Our objective is for all of us to live openly, freely, and honestly.

    Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 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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  • Preachers and The Lies They Tell About Heaven

    heaven and hell
    Heaven and Hell

    Years ago, three young Ohio boys fell through the ice on the Sandusky River and drowned. What a terrible, terrible tragedy. Two of the boys were brothers.

    The pastor of the church where their funeral was held said the following: (link no longer active)

    A minister has told mourners that three Ohio boys who fell through ice and died together in a river are now playing together in heaven.

    This statement is restated many different ways during countless Christian funerals:

    • Granny is running around Heaven now with no pain!
    • Gramps is in Heaven now and doesn’t need a wheelchair to get around anymore.
    • Momma is in Heaven, where she has no more pain, sickness, disease, or suffering.

    Here’s the problem . . .

    Statements such as these are not true.

    Historic, orthodox Christian doctrine teaches that when people die, they go to the grave. They are DEAD. The body remains in the grave until the resurrection. At the resurrection of the just and unjust, those who have died will receive new bodies (1 Corinthians 15).

    So why is it that preachers lie about the present location of the dead? Why did I, as an Evangelical pastor, lie to numerous grieving families?

    Sentimentality.

    Families are grieving. They have lost a loved one. They want to believe there is a divine purpose, and they want to believe that life continues beyond the grave.

    So preachers concoct grand stories about Heaven and the immediate transport of the dead from earth to the sweet-by-and-by. Never mind the fact that the Bible does not say this.

    Belief in the afterlife requires faith. No one has ever come back from the dead to tell us what lies beyond the grave (if anything). Anyone who says he has is a liar.

    Even Jesus himself didn’t talk about the afterlife after his resurrection from the dead. His disciples did, the apostles did, but not Jesus. He told his disciples that wherever he was, they too would be someday. He never mentioned one time any of the things commonly heard in Christian funeral sermons.

    Even the notion of spending eternity in Heaven is not taught in the Bible. Search all you might, it is not there.

    What IS taught in the Bible is that followers of Jesus Christ will live forever in God’s eternal kingdom (on a new earth). On this point, the Jehovah’s Witnesses are probably closer in belief to what the Bible actually teaches than many Evangelical Christians.

    The same could be said about Hell. Those who are not followers of Jesus will NOT spend eternity in Hell. The Bible doesn’t teach that. The Bible DOES teach, however, that unbelievers will spend eternity in the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:14).

    Sentimentality allows preachers, who are supposed to be guardians of Christian doctrine, to ignore what the Bible teaches in favor of telling stories to comfort grieving families.

    I understand WHY they do it, but let me be clear: Preacher, if you can’t tell the truth when it really matters the most, how can you expect people to believe anything you say? If sentimentality allows you to ignore what the Bible teaches about Heaven (and Hell), how do we know that you are telling the truth any other time? Not telling the truth in hard circumstances results in a loss of credibility.

    As an atheist, I have serious reservations about the notion of an afterlife. At this point in life, I lack the requisite faith necessary to believe that there’s life after death. I am of the opinion that each of us had best get to living this present life because it is the only one we have. That said, if you are a Christian, you are bound by what the Bible teaches. As a preacher, you are obligated to tell the truth. In fact, you owe it to your congregants to tell them the truth, even when it is hard to do so.

    Of course, remove sentimentality from the equation and the Christian gospel and the promise of eternal life lose their luster. Telling grieving family members that Grandma — who attended church for 70 years and gave vast sums of money to the church — is lying in a grave, rotting until Jesus resurrects her a day, a hundred years, or twenty millennia from now doesn’t have as much appeal as Grandma is in Heaven right now, in perfect health, praising Jesus day after day. She can’t wait for you to die and join her in Heaven, so the family circle will be unbroken.

    Evangelicalism preaches a deferred payout. Yes, Jesus saves sinners, but the Christian life is no picnic. Life is filled with pain, heartache, and suffering. Preachers know they can’t fool their congregants about their lives. The evidence is clear: life is hard, and then you die. So, they make promises of a blissful, pain-free afterlife. The payout is immediate. Draw your last breath on earth, and draw your next breath in Heaven (or Hell). Preachers have no evidence for these promises, so they tell flowery, sentimental lies, hoping people will buy what they sell. They aim to get sinners to close the eternal life deal without reading the fine print. The fine print — which is found in the Bible — tells the purchaser that all promised rewards happen sometime in the distant future. Until then, your worm-eaten, rotting corpse will remain in the grave. Evangelical preachers have been making eternal life promises for centuries. These preachers come and go, live and die, and much like those to whom they promised eternal life, they lie decomposing in their graves. There they shall remain until Jesus returns to earth and resurrects them from their graves. Given the fact that Jesus promised to return in the first century, I think we can safely conclude that he, too, is lying in a grave, never to arise again from the dead.

    Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 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.

    Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

    You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.