Christianity or Bust

I’m really struggling to read John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress (original edition).

Anyway, Christian Audio is offering free copies of this book in MP3 format this month here.

Someone told me that the head pastor at his new church preached about money again last night. That was no surprise. The guy is the most popular Word of Faith preacher in the Southern Hemisphere. What really amazed me was that he actually told people to pull back on their giving and not to give ’til it hurts!! (I can’t confirm that because I wasn’t there.)

My first question to my friend was “Have they developed a new found sense of economic rationalism?” Maybe he’s actually seen what’s happened to the area around his church: mortgage stress, rising crime (including domestic violence and murder). (Note: If you read the article, the Liberal Minister suggests that the problem is inadequate police.)

Have those people been giving beyond their means and tithes because they believed in some fool’s preaching? Now is the fool is hedging his bets by telling people to stop giving or just stopped believing that everyone is going to get rich. I guess in the end, at least one person will still have a mansion to go home to at night when everyone else’s homes are sold in foreclosures.

Ephesians 6:11-20:
Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.

On Sunday morning at 7 am, I finally finished playing SWAT 4 (and its expansion pack) on normal difficulty. That is, finished to my level of contentment. I didn’t get a perfect score on every mission but got 90%+ on all the missions except one. In other words, it was good enough and I was sick of the game.

Three hours later of desperately needed sleep later, the Jehovah’s Witness from two weeks ago, came back with a different older son. I was really surprised he came back. I was also completely unprepared for it. I don’t just mean the lack of sleep. I also mean that I was wearing shorts that are now too big for me and um… have trouble staying on.

In the end, I said they are welcome to come back anytime and talk but it’s best after 11:30 am.

Actually, when I think about it, I have little knowledge of JW beliefs except they think that the angel Michael was turned into Jesus Christ and have a awfully translated Bible to fit in their beliefs. Do I need a crash course in JWism? No, I’m not learning Ancient Greek… yet.

A few years ago, I was at a Bible study that covered part of Ecclesiastes. At the time, I felt it was the most overwhelmingly depressing thing I had read.

The key themes of Ecclesiastes is that life is futile and to fear God. There’s also a healthy reminder that life (on this world) can be unjust eg (Ecc 10:6 “Fools are put in many high positions, while the rich occupy the low ones.”

2007 was an annus horribilus for myself and many other people. So maybe that’s why I see Ecclesiastes as pointing out the sad state of the world we live in more than being depressing.

Anyway, a friend of mine once expressed that he felt Christians wasted their efforts on social justice issues that don’t include evangelism. I think I almost became a nihilist after 2007. Part of me just doesn’t care anymore since at some stage of our lives, we’re going to have to deal with misery on some level. Yes, everyone. I just can’t care about people killing each other for coltan.

Ecclesiastes ends with this:

¹³ Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man.

¹⁴ For God will bring every deed into judgment,
including every hidden thing,
whether it is good or evil.

It’s not an ending that seems overwhelmingly joyous, is it? Yet, I think it is comforting to know there will be justice in the end for everyone.

PS: My brain is too tired to think but read this: Atheism and Child Abuse. It’s pretty interesting but my brain is too tired to tie these things together right now.

I was looking for Low CDs on eBay and am amused by this listing for the album Drums and Guns describing it as: ** ** ** Drums And Guns - Low - Christian Pop ** ** **.

It’s just funny because you could argue about the whole “Are Mormons real Christians?” thing. However, that’s not as funny as describing it as “pop”. It’s very alternative for starters and I’d be amused when the new owner of the CD finds that it is full of songs of death, in particular the persona of “Murderer” believes that God has asked him to kill and the opening lines of opener “Pretty People” are:

All soldiers
They’re all gonna die
And all the little babies
They’re all gonna die
All the poets
And all the liars
And all you pretty people
You’re all gonna die

I once leant this album to someone who described it as uplifting. She didn’t really listen to it.

Today, I had my first Jehovah’s Witness door knocker visit since moving home.

It was a pretty interesting discussion.

He opened up with a quote about the End Times that came from Isaiah Chapter 3 (or 2:4) that is also found on the United Nations Headquarters. I mentioned that I’m reading Isaiah at the moment.

I found it really interesting that he said that some people call the book of Isaiah “the firth Gospel”. I’ve never heard that before.

Subsequently, I established that I was a non-denominational Christian very quickly.

I can’t remember most of what we talked about even though I invited him and his son in (eventually) for tea. It was good timing because during the discussion, there was a huge downpour.

One of my housemates got up and joined in discussions. I feel like laughing because he thought he has the quiet room of the house that is away from the side of the house that is on a busy road with a shopping centre across from it! Ha ha ha!

I got an explanation for why the JWs believe that the 144,000 resurrections have begun in 1914. I really would rather see an explanation written down in paper because it covered a lot of stuff I haven’t read including prophecies from Daniel.

I really shouldn’t have asked him about that. There are more important things such as how they believe Jesus was just a human and not God and what that incorrect belief means (see earlier post).

My housemate asked for the man’s testimony. The impression I got was that the gentleman had a Catholic father and Anglican mother but wasn’t terribly satisfied by the orthodox church but loved the feeling of brotherhood within JW. Occassionally, he would speak about how Christians have waged war upon each other - I should have pointed out that wars are really started by war pigs (ie individuals) who are not always representative of Christianity.

I said they are welcome to come back to discuss things further. I wonder if he’ll come back.

Maybe I’m thinking with a too critical mind but the JW had his son with him and the poor child looked really bored.

My housemate thinks I am wasting time talking to JWs and Mormons and says that it’s must more fun to talk to “Babylonians”. He may be right. In the past, Christian friends have said it takes a lot of effort to evangelise to them because those groups are cultish and always surrounded by their peers.

Anyway, as an effort to invite reader participation, I’ll ask: Am I wasting my time talking to Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses door knockers or pedestrian pests?

Whenever I go to church, I usually assume that everyone I speak to is a Christian. However, I’ve started to realise that is not the case. Maybe it’s just that at my last church, those people seeking to know God kept their thoughts quiet. Maybe there isn’t enough of an opportunity for them to ask questions and have them resolved.

At my current church, there is a gentleman who described himself as a Christian / Buddhist / Hindu / Atheist philosopher. I wasn’t sure how that could be! From my limited discussions with him, he takes the philosophies that he likes because philosophy is the main thing he is interested in. (However, part of me thinks that perhaps, he is seeking to satisfy his social needs by coming to a church.)

I guess, I’m curious how a person can go to a church for over six years and still not be persuaded to believe in a deity.

In our limited discussion, I found out that he does believe that Jesus was a real person but didn’t believe that Jesus was the Son of God. That started making me think about the ramifications of what it would mean to me if Jesus wasn’t actually God. I’m sure this is the sort of thing that we really ought to think about so we can answer people with different beliefs (if I recall correctly, Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that Jesus was just a human and not also God). Yet really we ought to have the basics fully understood.

If Jesus was not God:

• Jesus would be just human and still be a sinful human - in the Gospel of Luke, we know that John the Baptist was born with the Holy Spirit yet we know that like all humans other than Jesus, he was still sinful (see Romans 3:23)
  • Thus, Jesus would not be a perfect sacrifice of God and thus mankind’s sins would not be atoned
• Jesus would be a liar in saying that he is one with the Father
  • Thus, what Jesus said and his promises would be unreliable.
    • Thus, Christians would be wasting our lives following a liar and believing in the promise of Salvation.
• Jesus would not be able to speak with the fully authority of God

Ah, you get the picture, right? When something fundamental is disbelieved, the whole orthodox Christian beliefs collapse in an ugly heap that includes millions of people dying for it.

Yet, I suspect my disbelieving acquaintance is a “cherry picker”.

Anyway, just in case you are wondering, I am not having a crisis of faith just because I’m pondering these things.

It’s taken me a year but I’ve finally filled another sharps bin. This one is one of the larger ones available: 4 litres.

Well last Sunday, I met with the Mormons for the fifth time. It was also the last time. They seemed to think that all we were really doing was “butting heads”. If it was that, it was the politest gentlest head butt that I’ve ever caused. I think they just gave up because I wasn’t such an easy mark.

At some point, I admitted that I was coming along only to try to convince them that they are wrong.

There are times in your life that you know you are never going to speak to people again but it’s only afterwards that you think of intelligent things to say. They accused me of being like a Pharisee for not having an open heart to the Book of Mormon; I would have accused them of the same thing for Mormon legalism.

They said I’d be able to return for discussion if I read the Book of Mormon with an open and sincere heart. I said that it’s a greater priority for me to finish reading the Old Testament.

It was particularly strange when I asked them why they ask people to read the Book of Mormon before The Bible. They said that was what made them distinct from other religions that are based upon the Bible… then they went onto describe how the Book of Mormon is their capstone built on top of Christ. I guess Christ is not at the peak of their faith.

I’m really disappointed that things ended this way. I wasn’t doing this just to waste their time. Personally, I gained a lot out of this. I would have thought they would have the time to support such a robust faith if the faith is indeed true.

Anyway, my Friday nights are back to being empty.

Lasting thoughts:

• Mormons love to talk about revelation from God and a warm feeling from in the bosom. They will never check whether that affirms what the Bible tells. Even worse, they will always dodge your questions on its reliability, particularly when so many other religions have founders who profess personal revelation from God and members who also have a feeling that it’s true.
• If you know much about the history of Joseph Smith, you know there’s a lot of dodgy stuff such as polygamy claims that normal human beings can become gods of their own planet and their past hatred of Negros. They are good topics but you don’t need to go for them straight away. They may just make Mormons defensive and feed their persecution complex.
• It’s hard when you talk with more than one Mormon at a time. Sometimes one of them will throw you a question but another will throw another at you without giving you a chance to answer the first. Also, if you go in alone, you don’t have the time to look up Bible passages to support yourself whereas they do.
• Watch out when they pull out the old “Flirt-to-Convert” technique. It’s just dirty and sin-causing.

Christians often talk ask friends how their spiritual health is - it’s a fancy way of saying is there anything relating to your faith that is troubling you. Many religions believe that the people who do not share the same beliefs will suffer a spiritual death, namely eternity in Hell.

Is there such a thing as spiritual triage? If there is, is it appropriate? Anyway, I was thinking about medical triage. From watching television, I thought there were just four categories:

• Dead: There is nothing that can be done.
• Absolutely urgent: If nothing is done soon, the person will die.
• Relatively urgent: For the time being the person will not die but will if ignored.
• Walking wounded: The peson is not going to die but still needs medical attention.

You’re probably wondering if I have a point to make! What sort of response is it when a doctor knows someone is going to die but tells them to go home and do something before they can save you? Thus, what sort of response do you think it is when someone tells another to go home and just read their spiritual book of choice first?