Why Christian Bleepings Hit the Fan

An independent survey of Christians reflecting honestly about how they feel with the sanctity of their faith and scripture, would be astounding. Such inquisition would go a long way in explaining how the ex-christian.net web site and ex-Christian Pastors like Matt Oxley and Dan Silverman are good examples for why there’s a growing number of Christians losing faith.

Dan’s story must be personally trying for him and everyone involved. But to me it portrays Christianity’s festering disease, which like cancer is growing within itself as its churches and pastors devoutly preach ambiguous, bleeping, complicated, deceptive, stressful, truly unfounded etc… Bible ministries to the fertile fields of humanity, under the umbrella of their faithful souls being saved.

We can see part of what’s up in Christianity from ex-evangelical pastor and Biblical scholar Bart D. Ehrman writing: “I began to realize that rather than being an inerrant revelation from God, inspired in its very words (the view I had at Moody Bible Institute), the Bible was a very human book with all the marks of having come from human hands: discrepancies, contradictions, errors, and different perspectives of different authors living at different times in different countries and writing for different reasons to different audiences with different needs.”

Furthermore, as Miceal Ledwith, Biblical scholar and former adviser to the Pope says, “If you believe it is as easy for us to read and understand the New Testament as it is to read and understand the morning newspaper, then you would probably have to concede that this is so. But the Bible, even the New Testament, comes out of a time and culture that is as far removed from us today as it is possible to imagine. Its techniques of communication have little in common with the techniques of the New York Times or The Washington Post. It is far more close to the techniques used by fiction writers of genius in our own day, such as JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis, or Jonathan Swift in former times.”

Thus, today’s Bible has lost sanctity because of the fact that stories may change significantly from just one person to another, let alone the Bible story, told with layers of symbolism, translated/interpreted over and over, from a hard to imagine culture 2000 years ago.

My humble opinion for why Christian bleepings are hitting the fan is that like the ancient Greek word for sin means misses the mark, modern Bible understanding and preaching severely miss the mark of how scripture should mingle with and support human life made in God’s image.

Now my concise history with Christianity and its founder goes like this: 45 years ago my Catholic Church attendance and Bible study at the elementary school had me going along with everything out of fear of God’s punishment in Hell. Then in high school I got to the point where I didn’t care if I went to Hell or not. And in college I innocently (by not getting involved with any fellowship or Bible study) opened my heart to Jesus. So it was, and has been, just Him and me.

Over the last 35 years Jesus has shown me that life in God’s image can be whatever I want. Or that humans are made in the image of God with free will to create anything, which Jesus demonstrated with His miracles. Jesus exemplified what’s possible for humans being made in God’s image, which is pure Love and Happiness (Heaven); and so of most importance for the Christian faith and Bible, there is no possible way that He could have suffered.

I’m proclaiming that Jesus Christ saying I’m the Way and the Truth and the Life (God), and only through Me can you be admitted into Heaven means we must go to Heaven through the Way and the Truth and the Life and not the name Jesus Christ. An individual name is an individual name that identifies the individual. Jesus’ ego was the cosmic ego of the Way and the Truth and the Life (God).

So people like Dan Silverman and Matt Oxley are a couple of the majority of Christians and ex-Christians who are the truly faithful. Because they are listening to their own heart instead of the dictates of a Christian pastor. I prophesy that modern Christian faith will soon be believing in one’s own heart. Because the human heart is made in the image of God and is therefore the home of the the Way and the Truth and the Life. Believing in one’s deep or truly heartfelt revelations is believing in Christ.