On the CNN website today, there's this post about a guy who is an ex-Christian, named Bart Ehrman. He is currently a textual critic of the biblical New Testament - as is the right thing to do if you are Christian and actually care about considering what is true. Really, why not criticize these things? Will Jesus toss you in the flames because you love seeking the truth? Will the Father cause you to spit up fireballs in hell because you love to research history?
Ehrman said to CNN concerning his leaving Christianity, "I changed my mind", and is now agnostic.You see, this is a problem with idols, and is why all Gods in this place are idols.
This man boldly proclaimed a loving, all-knowing and all-powerful God, and all it took was for him to "change his mind", and God ceased to exist. Since he had been a Christian since his youth, he was certainly one of those folks (like many of you) who said, "God heals", and "God is good", and "God does this and that" - but at the end of it all, he realized that his all-powerful God was nothing short of his own imagination. He saw with his eyes that God did nothing, and that who he worshipped was an idol - since idols do nothing outside of what people believe they do ('forming your God with your own hands'). He also realized that he could never ask Jesus anything worthwhile like, "Will you heal my mother?" and actually get an answer. Besides, if she survived, then "praise God, the Lord healed her"; if she died, then "the Lord's ways are mysterious", and "everything happens for a reason."
He left Christianity because he could not reconcile in his mind how God can be loving and compassionate, and yet pay no heed to such a corrupt planet. It is typical of Christians to view a long pole, where Christianity sits on one end, and Agnosticism/Atheism sits on the other. And in the case of Ehrman, he left Christianity and slid down the pole to Agnosticism - since it's what made the most sense to him.
He makes the mistake of all Christians and all those who leave Christianity to embrace Agnosticism/Atheism, and that is to either view God as all-loving and all-powerful, or to have no view of God at all. There really is no sense in this.
So I have a question for the religious, agnostics, and atheists alike: Let's say you were all to assume there is a God. Put aside any philosophies, dogmas, and beliefs (besides the existence of God). Look at the universe, and this planet, and the people on this planet, and tell me, what do these things tell you about God?
Get a pen, and write up a list. "Loving and Compassionate" should not be there. "All-Powerful and All-Knowing" should not be there. "A Savior" should definitely not be there. Perhaps your list would say things like, "Bitter", "Angry", "Weirdly intelligent", "Strange", "Careless", "Heartless", or "Merciless". But I know, this is unacceptable to you. You have made up in your mind to either believe in the loving all-knowing bearded grandfather type God who pats children on the head, or to believe in no God at all. There is no sense in this, and perhaps it will take some other generation of people for it to finally click that there is no sense in this.
Now, there is a God, regardless of what goes around in your head or how emotional you become when the right beat comes across the church drums. And that list I created above is exactly how He shows Himself to you - bitter, angry, heartless, and merciless - isn't this what you see? Have you found the man that escaped sickness and the grave because of God? Where is the woman whose body slipped out of death's hands because of God's kindness? Are they among this generation? It is certainly because of God that you and your children suffer so tremendously and perish so easily. How horrible it will be for man when God actually visits the Earth. If God clearly shows a bitter and merciless character from a great distance, how terrible and destructive should we imagine God up close? The Earth will certainly piss and shit all over itself, and man will simply have to endure its violent stench.
I can see that all you (and your ancestors) have ever known is the unloving side of God, so the question that should come from your mouth is, "Why is God so merciless toward me and this place?" To answer that question, you would need to look at yourself and mankind altogether. Where would God find rest with you and others on this planet? Everyone tells lies about Him, and no one cares for the truth He would offer them from His own lips; People are totally self-destructive (because of how they use their minds) and often show no love with their actions, for generations; most importantly, no one seeks the face of God in curiosity and with a desire to know the truth. It is for these reasons that He covered the planet with a dark impenetrable veil, and it is for these reasons that God has been unloving and totally devastating to you.
