After leaving a comment on Sean Carroll’s blog relating to the debate he had yesterday with William Lane Craig, I received this comment in the thread under my article Why I Quit Christianity:
Hey Richard,
I found this website through your comments on Sean Carroll’s blog. After learning about The Bible Wheel (TBW), I must say that I am fascinated! What an interesting concept!
What I am really curious about, however, is this: why leave TBW website up? Are you happy knowing that Christians can still use it to defend their faith? Or, do you have a hard time pulling it down because you spent countless hours on it? Maybe you leave it up in hopes that people will find “version 3.0″ and leave the faith like you did? I am guessing reason #3 as you clearly go to great lengths to address all of the Christian comments that are clearly aimed at re-saving your soul. Maybe you are hoping to further introduce doubt?
Am I way off? Is there another reason?
Thanks,
Mike S.
Those are good guesses but yes, there are other reasons. The main reason is because it is a rare and highly detailed record of the process of deconversion. I began this site in 2001 when I was a fully convinced believer who described himself as a “a non-denominational blood-bought Bible-believing Trinitarian Christian” (see my old FAQ). My transformation, which was a slow process that spanned a few years, is recorded in thousands of articles and posts here on my site, blog, and forum (which began in 2007 and now has about 56,000 posts). It is a very rich resource for personal insight as well as the psychology of belief. I am particularly interested in the role cognitive biases play in the maintenance of unjustifiable beliefs. This has been the focus of many of my recent articles, see particularly The Art of Rationalization: A Case Study of Christian Apologist Rich Deem. Consistency is key to avoiding cognitive bias, so I try to apply the same standards to myself as those I criticize in my articles. Was I simply deluded as so many Christian apologists seem to be? This site provides a lot of raw data to help answer that question. I may, of course, find myself hung by my own petard. If so, so be it!
This leads to my second reason: the Bible Wheel remains a mystery. Most if not all of the evidence I collected over the span of fifteen years remains valid as far as I can tell. The only thing that has changed is my interpretation of it. When I review my old arguments they seem to be based on objective evidence and good logic. So I am mystified. I totally reject any interpretation of the Bible that attempts to justify the abominable and irrational behavior of Yahweh and I cannot believe that he is the “true God,” yet I cannot reject the evidence that there is some sort of “design” in the Bible that was not put there intentionally by the folks who put it together. So it demands an explanation. I have explored an evolutionary explanation based on a scribal selection process (which could have involved both conscious and unconscious elements) but I am not really satisfied with that solution. It seems promising because the Bible Wheel is not nearly as good as it could have been if it were designed out of whole cloth by an intelligent agent, yet it does appear to be optimal given the sixty-six books. This is similar to the kind of “design” we see in biological organisms that evolved but I don’t think it can account for all the evidence.
Another reason I leave it up is because I do a lot of online debating and it provides good evidence that I really was a Christian and I reference much of what I wrote when defending my reasons for rejecting the faith.
And another reason to leave it up is because it is a part of the “global mind.” It’s been thoroughly indexed by Google and so the information will remain in the public sphere no matter what I do. By keeping it up, I have a better chance of informing people of where I now stand, and why.
Finally, you asked “Are you happy knowing that Christians can still use it to defend their faith?” My answer is no, I am not happy about it but neither does it concern me. My book was based on logic and facts and I wrote it in the integrity of my heart and mind. If it catches on amongst Christians it may influence them to think in terms of integrity, evidence, logic, and facts and that is never a bad thing. So if it has any influence amongst believers, perhaps it will function as a logical “Trojan Horse,” causing them to accidentally think before they realize the danger that poses to their unjustified beliefs. There is no way to know the ultimate effects our intentions; the best can lead to horrible results, and vice-versa. And besides, there is nothing I can do about it anyway since the information is already out there. So the best thing to do is to accept who I was and roll with who I am in the integrity of my heart and mind. That’s what makes me happy.
Richard:
I really feel your heart-felt explanation here! I think that because you are so up front and honest about your doubts and because you feel more genuine as a non-believer I think more people will be drawn to the truth as it should be known if only they can take the blinders off and see the light,
Namaste,
Mystykal
There are many good reasons for leaving the website…it is a resource beyond Christian doctrine and the
obvious anthropomorphic misconceptions of YHVH. One is reminded of the expression “leaving G-d for G-d”.
Richard, do you do radio interviews? I do a Sunday Morning show here in Ruston, La. on ESPN 97,7 called ‘Groundrules from The Playbook, with Rick Godley’ because some rules never change.
Are you interested waking up early out there on the coast one Sunday morning to discuss the Bible Wheel?
E mail me and let me know. Thanks so much!
It would be very interesting to know what you would classify as “obvious anthropomorphic misconceptions of YHWH.” I suspect others would think the same things to be “essential doctrines of the faith once delivered to the saints.” It would also be very interesting to know how the Bible Wheel get’s “beyond Christian doctrine” since when I was a Christian I saw it as a strong confirmation of such doctrines as the Trinity and thought it fully cohered with the ancient creeds.
Your comment exemplifies the problem with the Bible. It’s so ambiguous that most devout believers cannot agree about what it means.
Thanks Mystykal! I really appreciate your good words.
You are so close to discovering the Kingdom of God RA McDonough.
You should converse with me.
The OT is filled with lies and more lies about the Creator and the Creators love, and then, the parts of the NT past the Gospels is filled with even more lies about the Creator and the Creators love.
If you read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, with a pure heart, assuming first before starting to read, that Jesus is completely righteous, you can interpret each passage as completely righteous, and that is what the text is looking for, a pure heart. A pure heart will see the light and you will be illuminated.
A homosexual atheist woman teacher who does truth in words and agreement in actions is a true Christian.
Everybody I have ever said this to, it seems to go in one ear and out the other, but that is fine.
You see, there are two things in this world, truth, and hypocrisy. God and Jesus are truth. Jesus said he was before Abraham and said that the OT was full of shit. Why don’t you hear Jesus when he says that the OT is full of shit? When Jesus says he was before Abraham and that Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness (ie Numbers 31) he was condemning most of the OT?
A dumb shit such as myself, with only a vocational certificate in computer repair, why do I see the light of Jesus, but those with PHDs do not? Why is the world like this? Why?
I’m going to show you truth and hypocrisy, and you can refute what you want, using only Jesus’ words from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and I will refute your replies also using Jesus’ words from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and we will distill and distill until the truth blossoms, and you will see that this is the blossom, believe in Jesus, the pure Jesus, not the anti-Christ Jesus so many believe in, who Jesus will say to “depart from me, I never knew you”:
*****
What you want done to yourself do for other people also. Ask anyone in the world two questions: Do you prefer to be told the truth or to be told lies? Do you prefer that people do things to you either with or without your agreement? Everyone on Earth answers the two questions the same way. We all love truth and agreement to be done to us. Before you speak you have two choices and before your actions you have two more. You can either tell the truth or tell lies and you can either do things to other people that are based on agreement or not based on agreement at all. One path is truth and the other is hypocrisy. Even the hypocrites answer the two questions the same way so let there be no confusion about what a hypocrite is, if you want truth and agreement to be done to you, then if you don’t also do it for other people, you are a hypocrite. The True Golden Rule is truth and not hypocrisy. Follow through on truth, so when and where you can, what you would want done for yourself in a similar situation ask other people in that situation if they want it done for them also, and then if they agree, do it. Men and women, those who are religious and those who are not, all races and nationalities, those who are heterosexual and those who are homosexual, all harm no one and do The True Golden Rule. If you harm them based on their group identity then it is you that is wrong and that will be restrained.
A belief, such as a religion, is just a belief and is neither true nor false, but The True Golden Rule is not a belief at all, and therefore is just truth. For instance if someone steals something that is not theirs and then calls it their own, then it is a lie and will not stand because the owner does not agree to the trespass. Learn the difference between what is truth and what is belief. You can debate belief but know that it is only belief. Truth is tangible and provable.
And when you have failed, ask for forgiveness from the one that you lied to or trespassed against, and then find a way to not fail the same way again. And when forgiveness is asked of you, give it.
Jesus Christ said it this way, “Blessed is the lion that the man consumes, and the lion becomes man. And cursed is the man that the lion consumes, and the man becomes lion.” The lion is all religious texts ever written. Blessed is the person that reads them and doesn’t lose their humanity, but rather finds it.
If anyone tries to force this upon you, that you must do it, they will be restrained, not you, though your lies and trespasses will be restrained. If anyone tries to tell you that you must associate with those whom your beliefs forbid you from associating with, however unjust your beliefs are, then it is them that will be restrained, not you, but know this, that your beliefs that discriminate against these groups, are just beliefs, and are not truth.
*****
If you know what truth is and what hypocrisy is, and if you know what compassion is and what sacrifice is, you will know that God is all about truth, and compassion, not hypocrisy, and not sacrifice.
God is not only righteous, but also cool. God does not care what you do all alone, when your harm no one, but God wants you to also take care of yourself, that your body is a temple. And I have to admit that I fail somewhat is this regard, but before my words I have two choices and before my actions that affect other people I have two more, I choose truth and agreement and I’ve not only experienced God but have seen God also. God is real and not a delusion.
Just because the OT “God” is unrighteous and in the parts of the NT past the Gospels it says that the Holy Spirit killed people for lying about money, homosexuals go to hell, women shouldn’t teach, and that governments of the world are ordained by God, does not mean that Jesus in the Gospels is not pure. Read it with a pure heart. He is truly Gods Son, the Messiah. The truth shall set you free.
-Who is like God? A follower of Christ. Looking out across the plain.
Your comment mystifies me. Why should anyone think that four books of the Bible are perfectly true while all the others are filled with lies? That makes no sense to me at all, and it is self-contradictory because Jesus affirmed “every jot and tittle” of the Torah! And speaking of the Old Testament, he said that “Scripture cannot be broken.”
@R.A. McGough,
Let me ask you, did Jesus say that lifelong-until-death atheists, lifelong-until death homosexuals, and lifelong-until-death people of other religions besides “Christianity”, when they pass, did he say that they are judged the same as so-called “Christians” or does “God” judge them also on their behavior that harmed no one (homosexuals), or their beliefs (atheists and people of non-“Christian” religions)?
The words that Jesus spoke are only filled with truth. There is not a lie in them. He never did non-agreement with his actions towards other people. This is what I mean about perfection in the Gospels.
If you judge Jesus on his words and his actions, then his words are all true and his actions are all done in agreement. This is what he said we are to judge each other on also. There is not a lie in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, about God and his true nature and his his true compassion. Even when Jesus kicked the moneychangers out the temple, surely they wouldn’t have agreed to it, but the agreement is that the temple is a place of God, not of mammon, so he kicked them out, a form of restraining them, thus justly and righteously judging them.
If you asked Jesus if God told Moses to kill all the male children in Numbers 31, Jesus would tell you that indeed, no, God did not tell Moses to kill children at all, but the book indeed says that God sanctioned it. For Jesus said that whosoever should harm a child would be better off hanging a millstone around their neck and killing themself, so one has to wonder who is more righteous, Jesus who wouldn’t harm a child or the “God” of the OT who sanctioned it? Should “God” then tie a millstone around his neck and drown himself? Of course not! God did not sanction killing children at any time in history! Jesus said that he was before Abraham and with God at the beginning of the world, for God never at any time sanctioned killing children!
And the three unwise wise men who blabbed their mouths and told Herod about Jesus birth, and were warned to not go back to him by God, and then Herod killed all the male children under two when the three wise men didn’t return to him: Is it God who killed the children, or was it Herod? Should God of told the three wise men not to go to Herold in the first place in order to save children? Should one put these killings on God, seeing as God put up a star, which was the first supernatural act attracting the attention of humans, then leading the three wise men and their big mouths to Herod and eventually to Jesus, and then God intervening not before they saw Herod in the first place but rather after the fact, which makes all the difference in the world with regard to those babies lives: should one say that God killed children in the Gospels? The answer is no, because the story shouldn’t be there. Step 1: God intervenes in human affairs by putting up a star 2. Wise men follow it and blab their mouths 3. Herod talks to wise men and says to them to return to him with info on Jesus’ location 4. God warns three wise men in a dream not to return to Herod 5. Herod feels mocked and kills all the male children under two years of age. If God would of said not to go to Herod in the first place then God would of been righteous for saving children’s lives. Since “God” said only after the fact not to return to Herod, then God is labeled unrighteous, because all the children are killed. And God doesn’t sanction killing children, not baby Jesus, and not those other children, therefore the parable is crap. But look at Jesus’ words and Jesus’ actions, for they are pure. THE KINGDOM ENUNCIATED BY JESUS IS PURE.
Jesus, when asked by a disciple who had been denied speaking in one town, if they should pray to God to destroy it with fire, and Jesus replied, “ye know not what spirit ye are of”, which means that in the Hebrew scriptures God did not send fire on whole cities, which be very definition contain at least some innocent people and children. You see, we are judged individually, not according to our group, such as the group of people we live with in a whole city.
Jesus said Matthew 5: 7Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 18For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. 19Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus said the two great commandments are the only ones that matter, love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and love thy neighbor as thyself. And atheist who loves everyone as their neighbor and as himself loves God also with all his heart, soul, and mind! That is Jesus’ whole message! The Parable of the Samaritan might as well be called the Parable of the atheist for we are judged on our words and our deeds not on our beliefs. The two great commandments and Jesus third’, and the ten commandments are encompassed in my comment above, in the three things, love, truth, and agreement. The only one of the Ten Commandments that is not represented is the Sabbath day.
Not being raised Jewish and not being raised with religion I’ve never taken a “holy day” in my life and have no plans to, because every single day and every single second is a holy day for me. When you do love, truth, and agreement, everyday is a holy day. I could not care what day it even is. And yet I still do the Kingdom of God things, truth in my words, agreement in my actions that affect other people, help people in need, stay humble and don’t put myself above anyone around me at all times, and ask for forgiveness when I mess up and give forgiveness when it is asked for, expressed as three things, love, truth, and agreement. An atheist who says and does these things, and teaches these things, and that loves doing them loves God and doesn’t even realize it. And they are great in the Kingdom of Heaven! These things hold value beyond the value us humans regretfully give to them, because they belong to God. When an atheist speaks the truth it is done in the spirit and presence of God, and God acknowledges it, and tallies it, just like he does when he judges a “Christian”, although I tell you today that an atheist who makes a commitment to always speak the truth is a true Christian indeed.
John 10: 31Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. 32Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? 33The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God. 34Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? 35If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; 36Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God? 37If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. 38But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him. 39Therefore they sought again to take him: but he escaped out of their hand,
He ate his food with dirty hands and taught men to do so by not teaching them to use clean hands, He told the Jews that it was justice to not stone a woman who had committed adultery instead of stoning her. Did Jesus accept every “jot and tittle” if he said it was injustice to stone a wife who was an adulterer? If one does the three Kingdom of God things, love, truth, and agreement, you bring yourself back to God, you are part of God again. You are not “a God” but you are indeed “part of God”. It is when we lie, and when we do non-agreement actions to one another (trespass), that we separate ourselves from God. This is what is judged. In the quote in the paragraph preceding this one, Jesus says to believe in the “works” that he did, not to judge him on his “beliefs”, which are that he is the Son of God, which the Jews were offended by and wanted to stone him for, but judge him on his works, which were truth and agreement.
Jesus also said that one cannot own slaves, if you hear him correctly: Matthew 18:19 “Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven”. A slave does not agree to be a slave. There is at least an initially non-agreement “laying of hands” done upon the person who is to be a slave, and for most slaves I would imagine it would be a life-long trespass that they would want to get rid of, and to be free. In the OT it says that slaves can be owned, and that is the law. So you tell me, how does one say that non-agreement can be done (which Jesus clearly said it cannot be done in Matthew 18:19), and call it anointed by God, when God only does agreement between people according to Matthew 18:19? When Jesus says that the bad spirit is the father of lies, he means it. When we lie we separate ourself from God and have become a destroyer and no longer a creator. A creator speaks the truth and his goals are built on a rock.
If Jesus was just coming just to validate the OT then what was his purpose? His purpose was to say that a lot of the OT things attributed to God are not to be attributed to God at all! Jesus said that there are two great commandments and a third, “love one another”. When you “love one another” you “love thy neighbor as thyself”, you speak truth in words to them, and do agreement in actions to them, because that is WHAT EVERYONE ON EARTH (WE’RE ALL MADE IN GODS IMAGE) wants done to themself, so we are told to also do this for other people also, “love thy neighbor as thyself”, is saying to say and do truth, not hypocrisy, and to help other people where if we were in their situation that we would appreciate help also. Jesus’ whole purpose was to enunciate how not to be a hypocrite and how not to judge people on beliefs, but rather to judge people on functional truth and functional agreement. Truth is provable. If I own something it is mine and I can prove it. If someone steals it and they are caught red handed with it I can prove that it is mine. This is what Jesus testified to. This is what we are judged on.
The “light” that Jesus says we come to when we speak truth and do agreement is the light of day that all truth tellers and agreement doers come to if called to account for what they have done, whereas the liar and trespasser seeks darkness to hide from their accuser. And the final judgment, about clothing those who are naked, and feeding those who are hungry, that is the judgment of “helping people in need” according to each of ours subjective level of willingness to help our fellow man. And it is subjective, because some people who walk by homeless people without helping wouldn’t want help themselves if they were in that situation. This is truth. We are judged on truth in words (functional truth, not beliefs), agreement in actions (functional things), and helping other people in need.
In essence, one either has TRUTH written on their hands and feet and stamped on their forehead, or they have HYPOCRITE written on their hands and feet and stamped on their forehead.
Hello Richard, i hop you will be back soon to Jesus 🙂
Alex
Greetings Michael, the story should be there because the Lord God decided to include it in His Book of Books! It was real historical event. It isn’t a parable but it is what happened historically.
An Atheist doesn’t love in the way God desires them to! An Atheist displeases God, for without faith it is impossible to please Him. Atheists are outside of the Kingdom of God. They don’t know King Jesus. No one can bring themself back to God! Only God can do that!
God bless you!
Dear FB friend! I bought your book when it was new and delighted in it. I just found it yesterday after about 5 years and today I found Greg Badiguian on FB without any seeking, curious! I read that you left christianity for mainly three reasons which I honour! 1) HELL 2) CONTRADICTIONS and 3) BLOODY WARS! 1)As a believer I say endless HELL is a false teaching not out of the Bible but from an evil source. Look at http://gods-kingdom-ministries.net/teachings/books/the-judgments-of-the-divine-law and http://gods-kingdom-ministries.net/teachings/books/the-restoration-of-all-things I believe God will eventually all humanity including you and me to glory, but in different degrees. 2) I believe there are very many CONTRADICTIONS in the BIBLE and there is GREAT TEACHINGS in the BIBLE CONTRADICTIIONS!!! See http://remnantbride.com Concerning CRUELTY and WAR, see http://gods-kingdom-ministries.net/daily-weblogs/2009/06-2009/whats-wrong-with-war
Hi Reine Gnade,
No, God never sanctioned killing children, owning slaves, kidnapping women for wives, or stoning adulterers. Jesus said this. And if God did sanction these things, then God would be unjust, and it just isn’t true that he is unjust, which is why Jesus said that a lot of what was attributed to God in the OT did not happen with Gods blessing, but rather happened by the hands of men.
When you slam an atheist and say that they don’t love in the way God desires them to, it sickens me. Your comment wreaks of regurgitated utterances of phonies in the church who have perverted Gods law and replaced it with their own law and yet still call it Gods law. Who are you to say how another person loves? If an atheist always speaks the truth and always does agreement in their actions, and loves people, helping people when and where they can, they do these things in the spirit and presence of God, and if you deny that, you deny the Holy Ghost. Jesus said this.
An atheist who does love, truth, and agreement, does the KINGDOM OF GOD and you deny that they do the KINGDOM OF GOD. Jesus is going to tell you that “he never knew you (that part of you that condemned good people without cause)”, and possibly to “depart from him”.
Your “King Jesus” condemns good people who are atheists, homosexuals, or of a different religion than “Christianity”, without cause, and therefore is not “King Righteousness” but rather “King unrighteousness”, and is not the Christ, but the anti-Christ.
My “King Jesus” is “My King is Righteousness”, and doesn’t condemn good people who are atheists, homosexuals, or of a different religion than “Christianity”, and therefore is “King Righteousness”, and is the Christ.
You dishonor my brother who is an atheist. I can tell you now that my brother honors truth, loves the truth, does agreement in his actions, and loves and helps people in need, and yet you dishonor him, because he refuses to believe in an unjust God who would condemn him because he doesn’t believe in things that he cannot see or prove. My brother says and does truth and you condemn him. He comes to the light in word and deed and helps people in need, the two judgments Jesus revealed, and he passes with flying colors, and then you condemn him.
Anyone who commits to always telling the truth and always doing agreement in their actions brings themself back to God. And only God can call them to do that. So when an atheist does these things, and you still condemn the atheist, you speak against God, who brought the atheist to the point that they would always tell the truth and always do agreement.
Hi Reine Gnade,
The Gospels have two interpretations (at least). It is the job of the reader to determine which interpretation they “hear”. Jesus said “how do you hear?”.
If you hear that which is unjust happening at the hand of “God” and then praising that “God” who was unjust, then you are not praising the One True God, but rather praising something else.
If you accept iniquity happening at the hands of God then you might want to reconsider that which you consider to be God, for I tell you now that there would be a rebellion in heaven amongst all the righteous people who loved atheists, homosexuals, and those of different religions, and yet saw God condemn them to hell. Yes, rebellion. If God took my righteous brother, a committed atheist, and condemned him, and yet kept me, me being a believer in God and the Christ, then I would say to God to send me where he sent my righteous brother. I choose to go where the righteous atheists, righteous homosexuals, and righteous people of other religions go to, because I love them, not just with my words, but with my deeds, BECAUSE I TRULY LOVE THEM AND CANNOT ACCEPT A “GOD” THAT WOULD CONDEMN THEM.
Religion makes people unjust. Truth sets them free. Bless the person who reads religious texts and doesn’t lose their humanity, but rather finds it.
If God were the way that you imagine then not only would the wicked on Earth have been a burden but then God would also be wicked and a burden and the darkness of my sleep would be a better destination for me than living in heaven with unrighteousness like that.
@R.A. McGough
If you are a truth sayer and truth doer then you do the Kingdom of God, whether or not you believe in God or not.
The Golden Rule: do unto others as you would have done unto you:
One might take the Golden Rule to mean that if I want to get punched in the face that I can then go punch anyone in the face that I want, because that is what I can expect back. But, no!
Ask anyone in the world two questions. Do you prefer that people tell you the truth or tell you lies? Do you prefer that people do things to you either with or without your agreement? Everyone on Earth answers the same way. We all love truth and agreement to be done to us.
Therefore if we don’t also do truth and agreement for other people, then we are hypocrites, and are judged and will be judged as such. But if we say and do truth, we are judged and will be judged as truth sayers and doers. There is no getting around this.
An atheist who says and does truth, says and does truth in the spirit and presence of God.
I’ve now said all I wanted to say on your site.
If we deny the truth sayer and truth doer, and God also denies the truth sayer and the truth doer, then not only do we deny the Holy Spirit but God does also, and that is not good, because the darkness of our sleep would be better than living in heaven with such unrighteousness.
In short, Jesus said “love thy neighbor as thyself”. But the Jewish lawyer wanting to justify himself asks Jesus “who is my neighbor?” (because in Jewish “law” the Jews are Gods special people). And Jesus tells the Parable of the Samaritan and asks the lawyer who it was that was neighbor to the person who was robbed by the side of the road, was it the Jew and the Levite, whom both didn’t help, or was it the Samaritan (whom the Jews hated) who did help the person who was robbed by the side of the road. The lawyer had to say it was the Samaritan, because it is the truth, so he did, and Jesus said to him that indeed the Samaritan proved to be a neighbor to the one that was robbed. The Samaritan is the neighbor the Jew was to love as themself (the Samaritans are Gods people also, and so is the righteous atheist).
The act of robbery and the act of helping the robbed, are functional deeds, which we are judged on, not our beliefs. The parable is the same if a Christian were robbed and the Jew and Muslim walked right by, but an atheist stopped and helped. Would the Christian then say they don’t love thy neighbor, thy neighbor being the atheist, the same as themself? And the answer is yes, the clear majority of so-called Christians won’t give the atheist his goodness, nor the person of another religion, nor the homosexual, but instead they steal their goodness, and calls it not good enough, that it wasn’t done in the spirit and presence of God. But the so-called Christian will parrot what they’ve been given to parrot, and say with their lips that they love atheists, people of other religions, and homosexuals, but in the same breath they feel no regret about their belief that these groups all go to hell, love be damned. But the truly righteous wants to go to the same place in the afterlife that all good people of all faiths, or no faith at all, or homosexuals go, because the truly righteous are truly righteous and has no greater love than this, that they would die for their friends.
If an atheists words and deeds are done in the Holy Spirit of Truth and Agreement, and someone comes along and says it isn’t good enough, then they are denying the Holy Spirit.
Luke 16:16 Jesus said “The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it”.
Truth and Agreement and not being a hypocrite when it comes to helping people in need, is the Kingdom of God, and it is within you, and within all of us, male and female, those who are religious and those who are not, all races and nationalities, heterosexuals and homosexuals.
Jesus said to judge not on the appearance of these groups, but rather to judge righteous judgment, so since members of all these groups do indeed the Kingdom of God, then if we deny them, we deny the Holy Spirit.
So it appears I am not done commenting. I apologize for saying that I had said everything I wanted to say on this site.
I want you Richard to come back to Jesus, or at least to the truth (one in the same), that Jesus rejected the “law” that adulterer women are to be stoned, Joseph rejected the “law” that he should abandon his soon to be wife because she was with child that was not his, that Jesus rejected that people can be slaves, that Jesus rejected what Moses said had happened in the wilderness at Gods command (he said that Moses lifted up the serpent, which is non-agreement done upon those 32,000 or whatever number of “sexy virgins” as you like to say), that Jesus rejected hypocrisy, and that Jesus that understood the groups of the world and their inherent righteousness, and said that one can speak against Jesus, by saying he is not the Son of God, and that one can speak against God, by saying that there is no God, but that one cannot speak against the Holy Ghost, which is love, truth, and agreement, for we all answer the two questions the same way, and if we deny the truth that we are ALL created in Gods image, and we say that lying and doing non-agreement is alright and never come to forgiveness for our lies and trespasses, although it is hypocrisy, then we speak against the Holy Ghost and need to repent.
Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father but by me”.
And many have used this to turn Jesus into just another exclusive religion, but that is not what Jesus said. He said “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father but by the way, the truth, and the life”. In fact the Father (God) is the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus said “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you”.
The way is love (Love one another. John 13:34), the truth is the truth (All truth sayers come to the light of day when called to answer for what they have said. John 3:21), and the life is agreement (All who do agreement God sits with them. Matthew 18:19). So we see that God is there when Truth is spoken, when Agreement is done, and when Love is shown towards others (helping people in need). This is spirit indeed! And all the groups do it!
Or “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but shall have everlasting life”. Jesus said “he who believes in me believes not in me but in he who sent me (God)”. Therefore, distilled: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him (love, truth, and agreement) should not perish but shall have everlasting life”.
Jesus knew that people would turn “Jesus” into an exclusive religion, because that is what people in power do, they use fear to gain and keep power. They keep the donation plates (I think its called tithing) full.
Oh the glory of being tempted to tell a lie for personal gain, and then to not receive that personal gain, because I told the truth instead, for it is glorious and it puts a smile on this former agnostics face! I love the truth! Oh the glory of being tempted to do non-agreement for personal gain, and then to not receive that personal gain, because I did agreement instead, for it is glorious and it puts a smile on this former agnostics face! Oh the glory of helping people in need, where I’ve seen and do see the presence of God, which is a weird sensation where the air around the people and situation has a presence about it, sort of shimmering, which is supernatural, this is love, this is righteousness, God is righteous! God is love and truth!
I don’t pray to God often. In fact I don’t like that God hears me all the time, because my thought processes are not complete until “I testify”, so what happens along the route is not complete, though it may seem blasphemous, I am seeking truth, and then I will testify.
I am going to pray a prayer to the Creator for you tonight Richard, because I really like your righteousness, and I like the number business a lot (tons in fact, God communicates through these things, and other ways), I will pray that he show you a supernatural sign after reading the truth in my comments. I have seen more than my fair share, and feel slightly guilty because of it, to have been an agnostic who identifies with the atheist, yet who knows, not believes, that God is real and righteous, and is actually, well, cool. I know it seems self-righteous for me to pray for you Richard, but I pray that it happens. You are my spiritual brother, for you have seen the light beyond all the madness of men that’s been attributed to “God”.
The churches have a vested interest in being a “middleman” in between God and human beings. Many of them even want to be called “Father”, even when Jesus said “call no man Father upon the Earth” (except your own Dad of course, for if you didn’t do that, then you would take away from your Dad truth, that he is your Father), and he was explicitly saying this of the clergy. Jesus said “that in that day you should not ask me to pray the Father for you, but that God loves you also, and wants a personal relationship with you” (to that effect). Jesus is not middleman in between US AND GOD, once we learn the Kingdom, being doing love, truth, and agreement, and ONLY judging lying and non-agreement, then Jesus is teacher, but not Lord, he told us to call him friend, not Lord, for their is one Lord, that being God.
And an innocent person bows before the truth in prison, and so it goes, I bow before no flesh, no flesh at all, but I bow before the truth, for it righteous and worthy of being bowed before.
knowing and doing …action of decision… a mans heart devises his way but Yahova directs his steps …Yeshua said in jn.7:16-18 my doctrine is not mine but his that sent me,if any man shall do his will he shall KNOW of the doctrine whether it be of God or I speak of myself He that speaks of himself seeks his own glory…… is? this not how Lucifer became the mystery of iniquity turning his brightness into the black hole of self relating tree of knowledge independent from absolute coordination this without sure foundation
thus without sure foundation…
to whom much is given ,much required
we all wear sunglasses of perception based upon our limited understang,thus the fathers great desire to reveal his son as our all sifficiency as Yeshua proclaimed often that he could do nothing of himself for himself with himself matt..4:4-10
tell me?, what do you have that you did not receive? who gave us sovereign will? our only possession? Genes is1:26 ,only by pride comes contention but to the well advised Wisdom
intelligence can solve problems Wisdom can prevent them. so then because of deception and pride mans heart jer.17:9 is deceitful Above ALL things,and desperately wicked:who can know it.
…verse 10 I Yahova search the heart,I try the reins
,even to give every man according to his ways,according to the fruit of his doings…
what part has light to do with darkness?
birds of a feather,thus Yeshua did not come to bring peace on earth but a sword of division a passionate decision to
leigh wrote:
That’s very true, which is why we should never accept anything that other equally limited people tell us if they don’t give evidence that we can check for ourselves. This is especially true with the religious traditions that we receive from ancient people who were very superstitious, gullible, and ignorant of basic science like the age of the earth, the cause of disease, weather, earthquakes and so forth.
Michael Free wrote:
Hey there Michael,
I noticed you have made many comments. I’m sorry for the slow reply. It looks like we are in agreement about the nature of a “truth sayer.” That’s what I’ve been doing on my site. I spoke the truth as I understood it when I created this site when I was a Christian and so now I speak the truth when I explain why I no longer believe. It’s really pretty simple. If there is a God I have no fear since he would necessarily be just. And that’s one of the reasons I reject the God presented in the Bible. He is clearly unjust, in the extreme. Indeed, the concept of the Gospel is predicated on injustice. A wicked Nazi who gets “saved” after raping and killing Jews can go to heaven while the Jews he abused burn in hell for not believing a religious dogma? Insanity, pure and simple.
If truth is the real issue, I don’t see any room, let alone need, for the God of the Bible.
All the best,
Richard
Hey there Gabriel,
Good to hear from you. Glad you stopped by for a visit. I appreciate your answers, but they don’t really help me. If hell is a false teaching, why didn’t God make the Bible more clear? The most fervent believers over the span of millennia have not only taught that hell was real, but that those who taught against it were heretics! THis doesn’t mean that it is what the Bible teaches, but it does exemplify why I think that there is no good reason to think we should believe the Bible. It’s too confused, ambiguous, and contradictory, and the parts that aren’t confused are often plainly wrong. So folks just end up inventing their own religion anyway. And then delude themselves into thinking it is “what the Bible really teaches.” I don’t see any value in it at all.
It also is interesting that your solution, a variation of Christian Universalism, is considered one of the worst of all heresies. On Matt Slick’s site CARM, he allows folks to discuss anything except Satanism and Universalism. Obviously, Christianity is a house divided, and so it does not stand.
Many folks have directed me to Stephen Jones Kingdom site thinking I might find some satisfactory solutions to the problems I have with the Bible. I’ve reviewed it enough to know that’s not going to happen. Sorry.
The idea that the contradictions are there by design is pretty much how I dealt with them when I was a Christian. I used to say that God designed the Bible so the believer would have everything needed to believe, and the unbeliever would have everything needed to “unbelieve.” But now I see that I was overlooking the real issues. Not on purpose, but more because I was “blinded by the light” that I saw in the design of the Bible Wheel and the Holographs. I thought that such evidence “trumped” any of the problems. But that doesn’t work any more because the problems are much deeper than mere contradictions. The Bible portrays God as immoral, irrational, cruel, and capricious. The God of the Bible is as sexist as the men who wrote it. He passed a harem of women around like party treats from Saul to David and then from David to his son so they could be raped on the rooftop as punishment of David! That’s a typical example of how animals and primitive men hurt their enemies by sexually abusing the women they own. And then there is the genocide of the Midianites where everyone is killed except 32,000 sexy virgins who are then distributed to the very men who just murdered every person they ever loved. I see no reason to believe that any of this is a true representation of the true God (assuming one exists).
I’d be happy to discuss this with you in depth if you are so inclined.
Great chatting,
Richard
@R.A. McGough,
>You said “A wicked Nazi who gets “saved” after raping and killing Jews can go to heaven while the Jews he abused burn in hell for not believing a religious dogma? Insanity, pure and simple.
Richard, regarding your quote, do you really think that Jesus said what you’ve said here, either in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John? He told the Parable of the Samaritan to tell you its not your religion that is judged but your functionally true or false words and deeds. When Jesus talked about “hell” it had nothing to do with the “innocent Jews” in your example that supposedly are to burn in hell, for surely if they are innocent Jews then Jesus said they did the Kingdom of God, for they were innocent. This is the “Jesus” of the Gospels, mind you. Did you take away from your reading of the Gospels that Jesus was unrighteous in this way, that good people of all faiths do not go to heaven? If your church teaches a redemption only for their faith, that they themselves can sin and be saved, but someone not of their faith who is not a sinner won’t be saved, then the church that teaches that is a “false Christ”.
>You said, “If truth is the real issue, I don’t see any room, let alone need, for the God of the Bible”.
And I would say that if you indeed speak the truth always and do the truth always also, then you are as innocent as someone can be, regardless of your faith in Gods existence, for truth alone is all powerful. Jesus did not condemn the atheist but I would imagine rather respected that they speak the truth, functional truth mind you, not belief, that they don’t see God, so God doesn’t exist. Truth is worthy of taking a bruising or a bleeding for, for you still walk away undefeated, glorious, and in honor. Truth is worthy of our love and respect. Jesus said that one can speak against him (saying he is NOT the Son of God because you don’t believe in God), and that one can speak against God (saying that there is no God because you don’t believe in God), but one cannot speak against the Holy Ghost, being love, truth, and agreement. If we speak against the Holy Ghost we say that saying lies and trespassing against others’ agreement is okay and acceptable and then we never come to forgiveness for our lies and our trespasses. When we lie and when trespass against others’ agreement we reveal ourselves as functional hypocrites who lie when we don’t like being lied to, and who do things that affect other people without their agreement when we ourselves want agreed to actions affecting us. Even the atheist is subject to the hypocrisy of wanting to be told the truth themselves but then they don’t say the truth to others. Even the atheist is subject to the not speaking against the Holy Ghost rule.
I also do not have any idea what the nature of “hell” is. I kind of get the sense that it is not a place but rather is a condition, that it is best to cleanse ourselves of it here on Earth, rather than having to cleanse ourselves of the condition in heaven. “Hell” is the thinking that we are better than someone else based on any of their attributes instead of whether or not they did something wrong to someone else. “Hell” is the thinking that you are “special” in Gods eyes and can thus get away with iniquity and call it righteousness. “Hell” is the condition of a liar who always has to remember his lies so that he can cover up those lies with more lies if need be. “Hell” is the condition of the person who first “lays hands” upon another person. “Hell” is the condition of the person who robs or steals. All of these examples are covered in doing love, truth, and agreement for other people. If you love people you don’t think you are better than they are and when you do truth and agreement none of these hells happen. Truth and agreement covers all ten commandments except for the Sabbath day, but Jesus said that the “Son of Man was Lord of the Sabbath”, and thus it is good to do good things on the Sabbath, and everyday is the Sabbath.
If you understand that Jesus judged in this way then you understand the Jesus of the Gospels. The one who said “go and learn what this means, I shall have mercy and not a sacrifice”. Jesus prayed for the ones who crucified him, including the belligerent robber on the cross next to him, all of whom knew not what they did, but the other robber on the cross, who spoke about Jesus’ innocence, did the Kingdom of God in its entirety. The repentant robber 1. told the truth that Jesus was innocent. 2. He agreed with his punishment for what he had done. 3. He spoke up for Jesus thus helping someone in need. 4. He was humble and didn’t think he was better than anyone else 5. He asked for forgiveness when he asked Jesus to remember him in heaven. These five things are three things, love, and functional truth in our words, and functional agreement in our deeds. Beliefs are just beliefs so we smile and enjoy or debate them.
John the Baptist also said the five things which become three things. They were what Jesus preached also. So John the Baptist, Jesus, the repentant robber on the cross, 5-5-5. Walking with God. Love, truth, and agreement. Even the atheist does it when he speaks the truth and does agreement, and glorifies it calling it honorable, for they don’t speak against the Holy Ghost.
@R.A. McGough
In short, until you get past the idea that Jesus in the Gospels supported the wicked actions of “Yahweh” in the OT, then you will never figure out Jesus. Jesus knew that it was the hands of men who wrote what they wrote in the OT and then attributed it to God. Most of his arguments and parables were referring to the wickedness attributed to “Yahweh” in the OT, calling that very wickedness unrighteous, and that it didn’t happen at Yahweh’s behest, but rather it was written by men and attributed to Yahweh. .
I’m sorry that the Jesus you found in the Gospels supports the actions of “Yahweh” in Numbers 31. I’m sorry that you would say that Jesus would say Numbers 31 was okay and done at Gods behest. I’m sorry that you think that Jesus would support the killing of all those innocent people. I’m sorry that you think that Jesus would support the killing of those little boys. I’m sorry that you think that Jesus supports the keeping of the little girls for sex slaves,
It’s sounds so awful, yet that it what you have told me here, in your comment, that Jesus supports men killing children, and that Yahweh said to do it.
If someone were to ask Jesus, “did God tell those men in Numbers 31 to kill those children?” What would Jesus say? He’d say, of course not, “whoever harms a child would be better off tying a millstone around their neck and drowning themself”.
So you are now at the wall of indoctrination that says that Jesus supports the wicked actions attributed to Yahweh in the OT. Until that wall is torn down, where you find the verses where Jesus says the opposite of those wicked actions are what to be attributed to Yahweh, then you will never know the compassionate, non-sacrificial, righteous Jesus that we are supposed to find in the Gospels.
Hello Michael Free,
You seem to think there is a difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament … both were written by men. The only account we have of the life of Jesus and what he supposedly said, was written decades after his death by many different men. In the Gospels it says Jesus supported the actions of Yahweh calling him his father, and he says that nothing will be changed from the law till all is fulfilled! That my friend is called condoning all the evil commanded by Yahweh found in the Old Testament. You have no basis for saying that Jesus would not support what god commanded in Numbers 31, because the Bible says that Jesus kept the whole law. It seems that you are just picking and choosing the parts of the Bible you want to believe, and rejecting the parts you don’t like.
@Rose,
You said “In the Gospels it says Jesus supported the actions of Yahweh calling him his father, and he says that nothing will be changed from the law till all is fulfilled! That my friend is called condoning all the evil commanded by Yahweh found in the Old Testament. You have no basis for saying that Jesus would not support what god commanded in Numbers 31, because the Bible says that Jesus kept the whole law. It seems that you are just picking and choosing the parts of the Bible you want to believe, and rejecting the parts you don’t like”.
The law is the ten commandments. In Numbers 31 the Jews broke “thou shalt not kill” and “thou shalt not steal” and “thou shalt not covet”. The Jews attributed their actions to Yahweh telling them to do it. So you tell me how Yahweh tells them to break his own commandments? He didn’t. That’s why Jesus said “Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness”. It’s quite a stretch to have Jesus condoning all the evil attributed to Yahweh in the OT when the only thing Jesus says that leads you to believe that is him saying that the law will remain until all is fulfilled. And as I have pointed out here the Jews in Numbers 31 broke the law.
I do pick and choose which parts of the Bible I want to read. The only parts I care about are the parts with Jesus in it. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I tried reading the OT but only got to around page 100. Too much evil done it for me so I put it down. This was over 15 years ago. Then I read the Gospels and loved every bit of it, and not only found righteousness and wisdom, which is what I came looking for, but I also found a new friend, Jesus Christ, and I found God, whom I didn’t know before and was agnostic about. The parts of the New Testament past the Gospels I couldn’t get too far into, seeing as it was attributed to the Holy Spirit to kill a man and his wife because they had lied about money when Jesus said that he didn’t come to take peoples lives but to save them. The apostles had no forgiveness for Ananias and Saphira, so if they were killed, it was not done by the Holy Spirit, but by the hands of men.
Only Jesus spoke the true bread. All before him were thieves and robbers and the apostles knew not the Kingdom of God.
@Rose,
God has never been a killer of innocents. The Jews didn’t understand this so they attributed all kinds of evil to God. The Jews thought they were special is Gods eyes, and thought that they could treat non-Jews differently than Jews, and had the nerve to ask Jesus “who is my neighbor” when Jesus said “love thy neighbor as thyself”. The whole message of Jesus to the Jews was that every human being on Earth is equal in Gods eyes: Jesus said, “I have food to eat that ye know not of” as he taught the Samaritans, whom the Jews hated without cause.
Until you understand Jesus in this way, if you even care anymore, then you will not know the righteous Jesus who said and exemplified “My King is righteousness”, not flesh and blood, but righteousness, the righteousness exhibited when an innocent person in prison bows to the functional truth. When a disciple came to Jesus and told him that a town had turned them away from preaching, and asked Jesus if they should pray God to rain fire upon that town, Jesus replied “ye know not what spirit ye are of”, so they simply dusted off their feet and walked to another town. This is Jesus saying that God did NOT bring fire upon whole cities where many innocents were. The Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath. For it is good to do good on the Sabbath, and Jesus knew this.
And if you think that Jesus said that a “GOOD atheist homosexual woman teacher” does not do the Kingdom of God and goes to hell, then you have not found the true bread that Jesus spoke about. Jesus testified to the truth, not to belief, and truth is functional and provable.
One thing Jesus is not is a liar. Therefore when he says that “anyone who harms a child would be better off hanging a millstone around their neck and drowning themself” he means what he says.
And if you then ask Jesus if God commanded the Jews in Numbers 31 to kill children, you make Jesus a liar, and Jesus is not a liar, so please, do not make his words of no effect.
So believe in the righteous Jesus or don’t believe in the righteous Jesus, Jesus said it doesn’t matter, but if you then say that doing evil and not doing good is alright, like those who say God commanded Moses to kill children, then you speak against the Holy Ghost. Being a good person of any faith, or no faith at all, any race or nationality, heterosexual or homosexual, is being a Christian, because all Christians are the good people of the world. Jesus said “no one is good but God”, and when anyone does good they are part of God. It is when we lie about functional things and when we do non-agreement actions towards other people that we separate ourselves from God. Truth and forgiveness brings us back to God. Doing the Way, which is Love, which is Good Thoughts, and the Truth, which is the Truth, which is Good Words, and the Life, which is Agreement, which is Good Deeds, lets us stay connected to God and not separated from goodness.
And for all those who have now read the plain word of the two questions and not being a hypocrite when it comes to helping people in need–the dichotomy of the truth sayer and agreement doer vs the hypocrite–and see not and hear not, Jesus said this: “Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables: 12That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them”.
In my last comment I wrote “and see not and hear not”. It is supposed to read “and perceive not and understand not”. Words make all the difference.
With Love,
-Michael
Hello Michael Free,
You said: “I do pick and choose which parts of the Bible I want to read. The only parts I care about are the parts with Jesus in it. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.”
So what do you think about Matt.10:34 where Jesus said: “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.”?
Rose
Your whole argument wrested on Jesus supporting Numbers 31. What happened to it? Did you realize that the law of the Ten Commandments forbid the actions taken in Numbers 31, and that Jesus said that they broke the law when Jesus said that whoever harms a child would be better off hanging a millstone around their neck and drowning themself?
*****
You said “So what do you think about Matt.10:34 where Jesus said: “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.”?
Sometimes I’m long winded, and so it comes out…as it comes out…
God pre-dates Judaism. Others have known about God before the Hebrew Scriptures. The Lord of the Harvest and the story of Creation has been with us since the beginning. Zoroastrianism is one of the faiths that pre-dates Judaism and their saying is Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds. I did not see this when reading information about the Zoroastrianism religion, but rather I filled in the blanks where the parentheses are: Good Thoughts (are Love). Good Words (are Truth). Good Deeds (are those which are done to other people based on Agreement). Love, Truth, and Agreement. Now Jesus’ words: The Way is Love, the Truth is the Truth, and the Life is Agreement. Remember what God told Adam and Eve what would happen to them if they broke agreement and ate of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, that they would surely die. Agreement is life! The way I interpret it is the house that was built on sand versus the house that was built on a rock. The house built on sand are our goals in life that are built on lies and non-agreement actions done towards other people. The house built on rock are our goals in life that are built on truth and agreement. When the winds and rains come the house built on sand withers and dies but the house built on a rock withstands and lives. The winds and the rains are when truth rains down. I believe heaven is for everyone and that hell is not a place but rather is a condition that we are not supposed to bring to heaven with us, but rather that it is good and honorable and wise to wash here on Earth, rather than have to wash in heaven, but nevertheless, we all go to heaven, and to bliss, whatever form bliss is. I don’t think humans would have a good time in heaven if we weren’t able to build something. We are creators also. The Creator spirit is love, truth, and agreement. The destroyer spirit is unrighteous hate and fear, lying, and non-agreement. And there is righteous hate and righteous fear. I hate lying and non-agreement actions, and it is righteous to feel this way. I am fearful if I am being chased by a wild bear, and it is righteous to feel this way. But if we hate people without cause, such as because of their group identity, then that hate is unrighteous hate. And if we fear without cause, such as fearing people because of their group identity, or if we fear God, then that fear is unrighteous fear. We are to love our neighbor no matter which group they belong to, and we are to love God, not fear God.
This is the sword:
This paragraph explains IN FULL how not to be a hypocrite. We are ALL made in the Creators image. Ask anyone in the world two questions. Do you prefer to be told the truth or to be told lies? Do you prefer that people do things to you either with or without your agreement? EVERYONE on Earth answers the same way. We all love truth and agreement to be done to us. When we see other people in a particular situation and if we ourselves were in that same situation we would want help in some way, ask that person in that situation if they want help in that way, and then if they agree, help them.
The sword is two-sided, one side is truth and the other agreement. It cuts through the bull of this world, which are lying and non-agreement, and exposes us as either truth sayers and agreement doers, or hypocrites.
It is an actual sword also. Jesus tell us how to respond to lies and trespasses done against our agreement. He tells us, and truth holds this as true, that we can either turn the other cheek and let the transgressor hit us on that one also, we can run away (Jesus did this one more than once!), or we can restrain the transgressor, such as Jesus did to the moneychangers in the temple who broke agreement that the temple is a place of God, not of mammon, thus he kicked them out (restrained) righteously. The strong person in their home protects it from thieves, with an actual sword if need be, and it is righteous if it is done in defense only, and when you have restrained the thief, you do not then punish them or spit on them, you just keep them restrained, and you love them, and tell them that what they did was wrong (rehabilitation). If we punish we don’t do so by God, but if we restrain, love, and rehabilitate, we do so by God. I cannot accept that it is always the way to turn the other cheek, and Jesus did not always turn the other cheek also as we seen in the temple. When they came to arrest Jesus, Jesus asks them “I was with you in the temple everyday and you laid no hand on me”. This was Jesus not turning the other cheek but rather telling them the truth, that they might feel hypocritical for their actions against Jesus, and might have mercy. When they started to beat Jesus, Jesus asks them “if I have done well why are you hitting me?”. This was Jesus not turning the other cheek but rather telling them the truth, that his words were all true and his actions were all done in agreement (including kicking the moneychangers out of the temple), that they might feel hypocritical for their actions against Jesus, and might have mercy.
When Martin Luther King and others stood up to segregation and Jim Crow, they did the Kingdom of God, for blacks were in truth lied about, by people saying they were inferior which they are not, and things were done to them that were not based on agreement, such as lynchings and beatings and discrimination based on the big lie that blacks are inferior. With regard to the transgressions done against them, they sometimes turned the other cheek in response, sometimes they fled, and sometimes they restrained (sit-ins, marches, etc), and some even brought out weapons and said, we are not going to be repressed, and defended (defense, not offense!) themselves, righteously. This paragraph shows you the sword and the actual sword.
*****
Remember the 153 fish and how Peter fished on the wrong side of the ship? Peter and his ilk say believe in Jesus the “religion” or go to hell. But the right side of the ship is believe in Jesus, which is love, truth, and agreement, and it is not a religion at all, but just is, what it is, and EVERYONE presses into it.
This is the one truth in the world. A belief such as religion is not truth, so it is neither true nor false. If I have an apple in my hand, and it is mine, and I tell you that the apple belongs to me, I have told you the truth, but if you take the apple from me without my agreement and then call it your own, it is a lie. This is truth. An innocent person in prison who bows to the truth bows to the truth indeed. This one truth is the One True God, and there is a supernatural intelligence that will come to you and show and teach you wisdom if you indeed love and do the one truth. Truth and tangible and functional and provable. Jesus testified to truth, not to belief.
There are five trees in paradise which never wither. 1. Speak the truth always 2. Do agreement in your actions that affect other people always 3. Help people in need where and when you can 4. Be humble, you are not better than anyone else 5. Forgiveness, both ask for it when you fail, and give it when it is asked for
The five things can be expressed as three things, love, truth, and agreement. We are to do love, truth, and agrement, but ONLY judge lying words and actions done that are not based on agreement.
One truth.
Five things.
Expressed as three things.
= 153
*****
Can you think of any group in the world who isn’t capable of doing the five things? I can’t! The groups range from men and women, those who are religious and those who are not, all races and nationalities, and heterosexuals and homosexuals. If we deny that any of the groups do the five things and deny that they are done in the spirit and presence of God then we deny the Holy Ghost! We can speak against Jesus and God, saying that there is no God and no Son of God, and be forgiven, for GOD IS REAL AND NOT A BELIEF AND JESUS IS REALLY THE SON OF GOD, but we cannot speak against the Holy Ghost, being the five things. If we deny any of the groups that are capable of doing the five things then we are lying to ourselves and to that group of people, and are probably capable of doing things to that group of people that those people would not agree to.
John the Baptist said and did the five things. Jesus said and did the five things. The repentant robber on the cross next to Jesus did the five things. I have a list of each doing the five things and their corresponding verses. If you are interested I will post it here. It’s 5, 5, 5, which means according the Biblewheel, “Walking with God”.
*****
The love of truth is the same love with which we love our loved ones, but if we don’t let truth win in a battle of our loved ones versus truth, then we are choosing wrongly. For instance, if your Father was a murderer of innocents, would you turn him in, or would you seek to hide him? I love my Father just as much as I love truth, but truth wins always, so I will turn him in and let him face the repercussions for what he has done. And I’d visit him in prison and help him as much as possible.
And Jesus said that when he returns the “tribes of the Earth will mourn”. The tribes? Why would they mourn? Could it be that Jesus came to abolish the warring tribalistic mindset by enunciating pure truth which all groups (tribes) of the world press into it? Aren’t all these groups tribes? Isn’t the religion of Christianity a tribe? Are “Christians” going to like it when Jesus tells them that they are not special in Gods eyes, that they are equal to everyone else, by way of telling them the facts about the groups of this world, and that the only thing special to God is love, truth, and agreement?
Jesus said that many false Christs will rise. Aren’t there many false Christs in the world today? Don’t the many Christian denominations think their special and that their faith is the only Christ (savior)? Don’t Jews think this way also? And Muslims? And other religions and schools of thought? Oh they will be dismayed when Jesus tells them about functional truth and agreement! Many will convert but many will not! And those that will not, Jesus will say to them, “depart from me I never knew you”.
Jesus said “I have still many things to tell you but today you cannot bear them” (to that effect). The many things are written in the previous comment. Jesus will sit on the truth that’s said plainly when he returns, without a parable.
In my previous comment (the long one), I said: “The love of truth is the same love with which we love our loved ones, but if we don’t let truth win in a battle of our loved ones versus truth, then we are choosing wrongly. For instance, if your Father was a murderer of innocents, would you turn him in, or would you seek to hide him? I love my Father just as much as I love truth, but truth wins always, so I will turn him in and let him face the repercussions for what he has done. And I’d visit him in prison and help him as much as possible”.
Re-reading what I wrote, I think it’s awesome that this portion reflects our discussion of Numbers 31. Doesn’t the Jew, Christian, or Muslim, who supports “gods” (lower-case g) reported actions in Numbers 31 seek to hide their Father (“god”) from truth (The One True God) by attempting to justify killing children? Jesus surely didn’t! He came from The One True God, told the Jews that they broke the law in Numbers 31, and said so when he told them that whoever harms a child would be better off hanging a millstone around their neck and drowning themself.
And more about children:
Matthew 21: 12 And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves (for they broke agreement with God that the temple is a place of worship, not of mammon, but of truth), 13 And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them. 15 And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased, 16 And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?
“Have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?”. Rose, ask the very next child you see, do you prefer to be told the truth or to be told lies? And do you prefer that people do things to you either with or without your agreement?
R.A. McGough,
Feel free to delete all my comments. I’ve probably said too much. Thanks.
-Michael
God’s “abominable behavior” toward some animals and tribes is read with a huge misunderstanding. The Misunderstanding is, these people were genetically altered offspring of Satan and his fallen angels. The offspring were intended to be fit extensions for the fallen ones so they could remain alive forever and avoid punishment. The plan was to change all humankind into genetically modified monsters so that the Holy Spirit could have nothing to do with any of them.
God wanted them wiped out and start with a clean slate. He never succeeded. They’re still with us, though now not in such a high percentage.
As usual, God isn’t wrong. Our interpretation of the mystical, cryptic, and symbolic story is wrong because we’re missing important data.
God is right, we are confused. When we get that understanding cleaned up HIS Way is the only reasonable path.
kind regards,
Stephen Newdell
I personally think, and this is my interpretation of the Torah as a whole. There are only two races on this
planet; Hebrew and Gentile (period)! As such, it is difficult for the Gentiles to wrap around their heads that
Yah, the Holy One of Yisrael does not use words for play and the travesty of disobeying the covenant
had tremendous consequences for these people, the descendents of Yisrael; the so-called African-American! The bottom line is after reading all, it is now the Gentiles turn to experience the wrath of
Yahweh whose name means (Good and Evil). Richard simply came to grips with the fact that the
Gentiles are approaching Genesis 15.13. Not withstanding, you should also know that the
Africans are those people – the Caananites, Hitites, Amorites, etc; and the so-called Jews are the
people whose grandparents were too nefarious to explain to them that they converted to man-made
religion based on the pagan religion of the Babylonian Talmud….yada yada!
Richard, I have always admired your honesty in both research and replying to the many questions and issues you’ve addressed. Thank you for your integrity and willingness to share your insights to the consuming public. I feel privileged to have purchased your book as well learn from your website thank you
Hi Richard,
Maybe I can use some story, since a parable is always better than some kind-hearted encouragement or discouragement etc. Jesus used them for reasons:
One day you created a thing called “bible wheel”. You created a physical book for it and deemed it perfect and good and counted it an accomplishment. You gave “bible wheel” a free will and a commandment, telling it not to eat a bottle of ink, or it will be shredded up. You then commanded it to be published and multiply and sell its way to the bestseller top chart. Anyway, your ex-subordinate got wind of your coming best-seller and decided to create a mess out of it. He managed to convince “bible wheel”, and it did eat the bottle before it was published, and many additional words were added to it. Although now it is puffed up full of knowledge and insight, it distorted your original message and no longer exhibit your original idea.
Although it is now apparent you definitely need to shred the book for it will not display your original idea to the public, you decided to save the book by using correction fluid on the book’s ink, in the near future, as your love was too great for them. Nonetheless, with the help of your ex-subordinate, the ink in the duplicate copies of the “bible wheel” smudged so greatly that it grieved your heart to see that all your works came to something totally ugly and unreadable. Hence, you decided to cause a flood to make the books to be destroyed at the warehouse rather than be a laughing stock when released to the public. However, you found a book not smudged like others do, and it is called “bible wheel – noah edition”, and you decided to save it, and use it as your basis for correction to get back the original idea that you intent to publish later on. So you put it in a water-tight container and all was history.
About a few thousand days later, you decided to send your son to do the work of correcting the ink within “bible wheel” with correction fluid at the warehouse. But you do not want your ex-subordinate to accuse you of using your author authority to go correcting the books as the rule of the field is that free will was given by you to the books. Your ex-subordinate, now guarding the warehouse, would also not allow such correction to happen as it would dampen his desire to see your works in a mess. So, you sent your son through a special printing machine and he was instantly transformed into a perfect book that exhibit your original intent, successfully blending within the “bible wheel” community.
You decided to put your son to work for about 33 minutes and take him back to be with you after he has done what you intended him to do. Anyway, your son, being special and perfect, was envied by other books and was forced to be shredded in a cross-like pattern, as they could not believe he was sent by you. The correction fluid was instantly splashed on all the books and the smudged ink was covered by the correction fluid.
Now the last step in order for the books to be published is to go in front of a drying machine called “Believe & Follow in Jesus Christ”, before the correction fluid can take permanent effect to cover the smudged ink.
To answer your three question in your fallaway from grace, I got three questions for you as well:
1 & 2. You want to send the thoroughly smudged books to the shredder, and the shredded pieces to be burned until ashes in the furnace. Upon hearing this, one of the “bible wheel” books said bad things about you and said you’re evil for the act of shredding his kind and will not believe you, the kind author, would actually command the shredding of his kind and commit burning in the furnace, for they are too cruel acts. “bible wheel” knew nothing of your higher intent and only believe the acts of shredding and burning are cruel, so it decided to renounce you and will never believe in you. If you’re the author, what will you do?
3. The same “bible wheel” book also said you never flip his page or other smudged “bible wheel” books to attend to their needs before reaching the “believe & follow Jesus Christ” drying machine. However, you were always constantly looking at the books and adjusting them in the best possible angles in order for them to benefit the most from the drying machine and come out as the best product. If you’re the author, what will you do?
To cut the story short… Go figure the rest.
Hey there Chris,
I’m sorry, but your “story” makes no sense at all to me. A book is an inanimate. There would be no evil in throwing it in the fire. A human being is entirely different. Your answers do not address any of the issues that I have brought up concerning the moral abominations attributed to God in the Bible.
Richard
Hi Richard,
Well said. Just as a book is an inanimate to you. God specifically told us God is a spirit. Unless you believe in him and can quantify a spirit in our limited physical world. You will never find the answer to your “mystery”.
You have answered your own problem with your own deduction of “A book is an inanimate” object. Human being trying to understand an almighty God’s way who is a spirit is futile. By trying to do that, you are trying to elevate your own status to God’s level, just as a “book” trying to elevate to a man’s status. It will never be.
And of course it will never be. Because in the first place you have forsaken believing in God.
Chris.
Hey there Chris,
Again, your comments make no sense to me. The Bible says that humans were made in the image of God and are spiritual beings. Therefore, you analogy between an inanimate book and a human is nothing like the relation between humans and God as portrayed in the Bible.
Likewise, your assertion that humans cannot “understand almighty God’s way” applies to you as well as anyone else. I have studied the Bible as thoroughly as anyone, and firmly believed it for many years, so there is no difference between you and me on that count. If it is “futile” for any human to understand the ways of God, why are you presuming to do that very thing?
Your answer is the only answer believers can give. It seems no different than a Muslim telling me that I don’t believe in the Quran because I have “forsaken Allah.”
Richard
Greetings Michael, you have made a decision to react very emotionally to my comments. If you make an honest effort to study the Bible God can give you a differnt insight about what pleases Him and what doesn’t.
Atheists can do praiseworthy acts but such acts can never bring them into heaven!
The LORD can draw an atheist
to Christ but in that case they don’t stay an atheist but come true believers.
Christ’s love was unique and His children, those who are born again, love God and their fellow man uniquely, for He takes responsability for their spiritual growth.
Enjoy your Bible reading.
Reine Gnade, R.A. McGough,
Reine said “Atheists can do praiseworthy acts but such acts can never bring them into heaven!”
Reine also said in another comment “Muslims according to the Bible are sinners. And yes, all Muslims have fallen short of the glory of God”. “There are multitudes of Muslims that do “good” deeds, but that doesn’t save someone or make them good in God’s eyes.
Listen to that Richard. Listen hard.
You heard right Richard when you glorified righteousness itself as the Christ, for you didn’t accept that God would do what is attributed to him in Numbers 31. You don’t accept that good people are condemned.
Religion is so sickening I can’t believe the inhumanity that I hear out of the mouths of people who profess it and claim to be good. Religion is a curse. Looking up instead of within is a curse. Doing for “God” or “Jesus” instead of for self and fellow human being is a curse. And Jesus said this, which is why I exalt him. For Jesus said that in that day he does not pray for you, but that you have a direct relationship with God, which is the oneness all of us humans share, the Spirit of God, and that we shouldn’t separate ourselves from it, but rather should come back to it through truth and forgiveness.
Jesus said “Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come”. The Son of Man is Jesus himself, him being the Son of God. So to speak against the Son of Man is to speak against Jesus and God and to be forgiven (atheism, the truth doer who sees no deity). The Holy Spirit is a certain way of saying things (truth) and doing things (agreement). We all want the Holy Spirit to happen to us by other people, but we don’t always do the Holy Spirit towards other people. So there is separation, but also a way back, being truth and forgiveness, and remission.
Jesus’ blood is truth. Wine is truth. Jesus’ body is agreement. Bread is agreement. Here, eat and drink, yet they were not having it, even though Adam and Eve, whom got dressed when truth came looking, showed spiritual death was doing non-agreement actions, for they had eaten that which they agreed to not eat, and even though Peter, whom also got dressed when truth came looking, showed spiritual death was also doing lying words, for he lied to Jesus when he said he would go to his physical death with Jesus at the time that Jesus was to be crucified. Words and deeds, the Holy Spirit, the Parable of the Good Samaritan, for no one is good but God, and all who do good words and good deeds are being part of God when do these good things, and I see Jesus in God, and God in Jesus, and Jesus and God in everyone who does good words and good deeds. If I deny good words and good deeds, and say they are not good enough, I would be speaking against the Creative Spirit.
Yet they wouldn’t have it and arguing was counter-productive and damaging to my spirit. So my spirit wanted to go away and say nothing at all, for they had made their bed, so that they may lie in it. But then I remember that most Christians, most Jews, most Muslims, most atheists, and most people on planet Earth, like being good people who say and do good things, and are worth it themselves. That I may love my neigbor as myself, true love, not lip service, so I judge not according to the appearance but rather judge righteous judgment, and the prince of this world is judged, which is lying words and non-agreement actions towards those who are innocent and every right to agree to what is done to them or their property. We own our person and our property. We do. Not a being called God. Not a being called Jesus. We do. You are a created and wonderful being yourself. How loving it is to do unto others how we would have done unto us and to not pass to the afterlife having been a hypocrite, but rather to pass to the afterlife having washed here on Earth, to have done truth and not hypocrisy.
Reine Gnade, R.A. McGough,
Righteousness: the quality or state of being just or rightful
Melchizedek: “My King is Righteousness”
Righteousness sits on an empty throne and remains forever (Christ). And if Christ comes in physical flesh and blood, and the people will have him sit on the throne, that is fine, and who could argue, but I will not bow, not to a being, for a being could tell you to bow, and then if you did not, the being could say to bow again, but then if you did bow against your agreement, then the being is unrighteous because the being forced a bow and didn’t get agreement. Righteousness itself does not force a bow but many an innocent person in prison would have no problem bowing before the truth.
When anyone on Earth speaks the truth and does not lie, it is done in righteousness, and that person is being good when they speak the truth.
When anyone on Earth seeks the other person’s agreement before they will do deeds that will affect that other person or their property (and that other person is not a criminal who has relinquished their right to agreement), they do agreement actions in righteousness, and that person is being good when they do agreement actions.
Deny the person who is being good and you deny the Spirit of Righteousness.
Many a Muslim goes to mosque and thinks that other Muslims are righteous, but also thinks that Jews and Christians are not righteous, however good they are. Many a Jew goes to temple and thinks that other Jews are righteous, but also thinks that Muslims and Christians are not righteous, however good they are. Many a Christian goes to church and thinks that other Christians are righteous, but also thinks that Jews and Muslims are not righteous, however good they are. It’s a sickness though, as the Muslim, Jew, and Christian walk by the person on the side of the road who had been robbed, and doesn’t help them, but the righteous atheist stops and helps, proving that they are “more neighbor” to the person who was robbed on the side of the road. “More neighbor” Jesus said, because of works, not because of faith. “Because of faith” makes a mockery of righteousness. “Because of works” exalts righteous words and righteous deeds, that we may be saved from the repercussions of unrighteous words and unrighteous deeds.
Isn’t is bad enough that we live on a planet where so many, especially the rulers, find excuses to lie and trespass, and then if that isn’t enough we are confronted with an ideology that says that God, and indeed the very judgement of our lives, is not done by our works, but by our faith alone, that we could be unrighteous people and stand by the righteous and the unrighteous go to heaven but the righteous go to hell.
Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas says “Blessed is the lion that the man consumes, and the lion becomes man. And cursed is the man that the lion consumes, and the man becomes lion.” The lion is every religious text ever written. Blessed is the person that reads them and doesn’t lose their humanity, but rather finds it. Lost humanity = saying that people who were being good go to hell.
Do you still sell those Bible Wheel books??
Have you ever read the book of the watchers from 1Enoch? It’s interesting if nothing else and Jude clearly believed in it (in it’s non-corrupted original form if there was one… It is OBVIOUSLY corrupted now).
It’s funny, I went down a very similar line of thought about the atrocities that appeared in the OT but came out a different way. Intense, irreconcilable evil of a people descended from fallen angels. The nephilim mentioned in Genesis, men of renown, godly powers, unchangeable in their corruptness.
These were 99% destroyed in the flood but re-occured again through Milford line and spread through the promised land in the time proceeding the exodus.
If their children had grown up they would have been the same. This is why no marriage was permitted outside of the 12 tribes and the bloodline kept uncorrupted by theirs till Christ.
It’s a good read! It does some explaining and is logical within the boundaries of the Bible. There is already a skeleton of it in Genesis and Exodus.
Is there a ‘stop trying to save me’ forum? Hope you haven’t gone too far. I’m not fit to try and shake you from the path you’ve chosen. I pray you find truth itself and I don’t mean necessarily what I consider it to be.
john.
I’ve just read some of your other answers to people and I see that Enoch wouldn’t help whatever it said. I’m sorry . I meant to do well!
What was your experience of the Holy Spirit? If you don’t mind sharing in detail? It interests me.
You attract rather a lot of off-shoot fanatics, what cologne do you wear?
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