Hello Everyone, I’ve been a lurker for quite some time now (almost 2 years) and finally I'm going to post. This post is kind of all over the place in terms of the topics so this more of just getting off of my chest so please bare with me.
I have been reading the articles on bible-truths and I feel that I am coming to understand (albeit the beginning stages) God’s word. Before finding this site, I was always confused by the bible and basically never knew I could question what preachers were teaching since they were the head of the church. I always took them for their word since they were educated on the bible and I wasn’t.
Then my wife and I had a disagreement on tithing, I “knew” that we needed to tithe our 10% but with having 3 kids and a new house and just trying to survive, the 10% was an awful lot of money to be giving to the church. I felt compelled to tithe, but my wife didn’t since she said that we needed to take care of our kids (food, clothing etc) before we give our tithe (my wife grew up less fortunate than I had and knew what it was like to be without food and clothes) This crushed me. As a family man and a Christian, I felt she wasn’t trusting God to provide for us since you give to God what is his and he will provide for you.
Well, I did research on tithing and lo and behold, I found bible-truths.com. Wow, what an eye opener. Needless to say, I changed my mind about tithing.
After doing a lot of reading, I came to realize that contradictions are alive in Christendom. Let me back up here for a second. When I was growing up, my parents always stressed the importance of going to church. I mostly never wanted to go, I always felt that my relationship with God was much more personal. I always felt there was something not quite right about churches and the messages, but could never put my finger on it. That didn’t stop my parent’s desire for me to go to church. I love my parents to death, and I have great relationship with them, but this has always been one thing we can’t agree on.
So now that my eyes are beginning to see and my ears are beginning to hear, I wanted to share my new found knowledge. Bad mistake, when I started discussing this with my friends and family (including my parents), man was I in for a rude awakening. They thought I was nuts. I’d tried to show them scripture that completely tears apart their beliefs (such as what happens right after you die) and they would completely dismiss it for various reason, i.e. taken out of context, not reading the versus before and after to see how fits etc… But no matter what I’d say or show them, it didn’t change their mind. I know now that I can’t change their mind, but only God can show them. Although I still like to discuss it with them.
Has anyone experienced trying to show bible-truths.com to a friend or family member and they come back and say that the site gave them creeps or that it seemed cultish. I have and while I still visit the site daily, I have stopped referring people to go there. Not because the site is bad, but they refuse to read any of the articles since the titles of the articles scare them.
Here is where I still fall short. Just like I said towards the top, I used to not question the teachings from preachers and took their word as gold. Whatever they said, I believed. While I no longer believe what preachers say, I feel that whatever Ray says, I believe. This does make me feel somewhat foolish since I should read the bible and come to my own beliefs. But here is the difference, for the first time in my life, after coming to this site, God’s plan for us was finally making sense. Even though I blindly believe mostly what Ray says, I now am developing my tools to actually research the bible when he or anyone states a belief and I am starting to come to my own conclusion if he or whoever is correct. For this, I am truly grateful to God.
But here is the hold that I feel most churches have on their congregation. For example, the rich man and Lazarus. I have tried to explain to my parents that this is indeed a parable, but their preacher insists that it is not. In fact, he did a sermon titled “what the bible teaches about hell”, which I was given a CD of, and sure as anything this story was sited as a literal occurrence instead of a parable. Here is the kicker, in the back of the bible that I have (KJV), which was given to me by my parents, it lists this story under Jesus’ parables. But they still insist that it is fact since Jesus gives actual names, which is what their preacher says. The best part of this sermon was trying to explain the thief on the cross and what Jesus meant by “I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise”. Just listening to the sermon I am starting to see how they need to spin their wheels to try and keep the story straight. Now I know God is complicated, but trying to hear the preacher explain the thief on the cross and what happens to him got really complicated. He was basically saying there were 2 compartments of hell, one of torment and one of comfort. It just goes to show how far they go to keep “hell” alive.
Sorry this is so long and all of over the place. I could go on and on but I won’t for now.
God bless all of you.
Oh P.S. I hate that I find this funny, but most of my family now prays for me for being “lost”
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