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[response to an evangelical Christian (one whom I like a lot) who has rejected the doctrine of hell and who thinks that the OT God was mean and evil and fundamentally different from Jesus. See the first part of my reply on Facebook: \u201cAngry\u201d OT God \u201cvs.\u201d \u201cMeek and Mild\u201d Jesus?<\/a>]<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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*<\/div>\n
I think this line of thought you are expressing will entail many serious difficulties. The apologist\u2019s job is to tackle tough questions, and I have some more thoughts.<\/div>\n
*<\/div>\n
As I alluded to, Jesus and God the Father are one, as Jesus Himself says. There is no separation between them at all. They always agree. To deny that would be to call into question the Holy Trinity, which has always been a central doctrine for all Christians. If someone denies that, they have always been considered non-Christians or heretics (e.g., Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses, Mormons<\/a>, Unitarians).<\/div>\n
*<\/div>\n
Secondly, it\u2019s a dangerous principle and road to go down if we start deciding that certain things are too difficult to accept, so that we decide to reject them. This means that we have questioned the doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture.<\/div>\n
*<\/div>\n
There are many things that are very difficult for us to understand. A friend of mine just lost his one-year-old son to a rare form of cancer. I don\u2019t understand that. I don\u2019t understand hell or God\u2019s eternity or omnipresence or timelessness or how we can have free will and still be predestined to heaven (those who are in the elect).<\/div>\n
*<\/div>\n
If we start questioning the inspiration of Holy Scripture, anything then becomes possible, and people who went down that road claim to be Christians and yet think abortion is fine and dandy, and same-sex \u201cmarriage\u201d and fornication, and a host of other things.<\/div>\n
*<\/div>\n
The Old Testament God was a loving God, just as Jesus (God the Son) is a loving God. I just reposted yesterday an article of mine entitled, \u201cGod\u2019s \u2018Valentine\u2019: His Love, Mercy, & Compassion.\u201d<\/a> All it is, is Scripture, and about half of it came from the OT.<\/div>\n
*<\/div>\n
Excerpts:<\/div>\n
*<\/div>\n
\nPsalm 103:3-5<\/strong> (RSV) who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, [4] who redeems your life from the Pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, [5] who satisfies you with good as long as you live so that your youth is renewed like the eagle\u2019s.<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nIsaiah 43:4<\/strong> . . . you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, . . .<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nIsaiah 49:15-16<\/strong> Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. [16] Behold, I have graven you on the palms of my hands; . . .<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nIsaiah 54:10<\/strong> For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the LORD, who has compassion on you.<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nIsaiah 62:4-5<\/strong> . . . the LORD delights in you . . . [5] . . . as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nIsaiah 66:13<\/strong> As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.<\/div>\n*<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\nJesus didn\u2019t reject the Law at all. He said:<\/div>\n*<\/div>\n\nMatthew 5:17-19<\/strong> \u201cThink not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them. [18] For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. [19] Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n*<\/div>\nJesus followed OT law to the letter, including observance of all of the Jewish holy days and various commands.<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nAs for the doctrine of hell, the Bible records Jesus saying much more about it than He did about heaven. See my article: \u201cBiblical Evidence for an Eternal Hell.\u201d<\/a><\/div>\n*<\/div>\nAgain, if we start picking-and-choosing what we will accept in the Bible, based on our own feelings and questions, and even do that with Jesus Himself, there is no end to it.<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nRather than question the Bible and Jesus, I think it would be more fruitful for you to question your \u201cfundamentalist religious background\u201d which taught you false ideas that you have struggled with, and which have led you in the long run to start rejecting biblical doctrines.<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nThis is very common, too. I can\u2019t tell you how many of the atheists I have interacted with, report that they had a fundamentalist background. Invariably, they think that Christianity teaches a host of things that it doesn\u2019t teach, and I try to explain that to them: that they rejected a straw man, not actual Christianity, beyond the narrow fundamentalism (similar to Pharisaism). That\u2019s where the errors lie and where they arose, looks like to me.<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nI think you are aware of how dangerous this view is, even though you have decided to adopt it. If we start saying that this and that are wrong in the Bible, how does it ever end? You have made yourself the arbiter of God\u2019s revelation, rather than accepting it in faith. Now, whether you are right or wrong in that, I think you have to admit that it is a subjective and arbitrary point of view, which could literally go anywhere.<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nHow do you know that you won\u2019t become one of those atheists who maybe started questioning hell at first, or another difficult doctrine, then got rid of it, and it was only the first of many rejections, leading ultimately to atheism?<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nIf you say that hell is nonexistent and that the \u201cOT God\u201d is different, this hearkens back to the old heresies of dualism and gnosticism, where you have a good God and an evil counter-god. It\u2019s very dangerous territory. And you would be flat-out denying Jesus\u2019 teaching.<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nAll you can do at that point is start denying that Jesus\u2019 teaching really is His. In this view, when you disagree with something, you say that Jesus didn\u2019t really say it. If you go that route, you\u2019d probably leave the Christian faith within a year, because that\u2019s how all apostasy and atheism begins, if the person began as some sort of Christian.<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nThere are views that simply assert annihilationism and soul sleep, without denying other Christian doctrines, like Seventh-Day Adventism, but you have already gone farther than they do, by separating Jesus from God the Father.<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nI think the fundamental error in this approach is what I would call \u201chyper-rationalism.\u201d Every atheist thinks like that. I know, because I have spent many thousands of hours interacting with them, and my book about biblical archaeology [The Word Set in Stone: How Archaeology, Science, and History Back Up the Bible<\/em><\/a>] was a direct result of that.<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nThat book, by the way, provides strong independent evidence that the Bible is inspired revelation. Most of it is about the OT too. I\u2019ll send you a free pdf copy in a PM.<\/div>\n*<\/div>\n[The OT] God is following His own laws and His nature of being love itself. We follow His example if we, for example, shoot a terrorist who is holding fifty children hostage, threatening to kill them. That\u2019s an act of love and simultaneously acting as God\u2019s agent of justice, on behalf of the children.<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nIf the Israeli Army kills Hamas terrorists: the ones who beheaded children and tortured, raped, and murdered women, it\u2019s the same thing. It\u2019s loving with regard to the rest of the Israeli population who might be treated in the same way, and an act of judgment towards unrepentant murderers and evil people.<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nGod was very strict in the OT because He had to be. He was trying to illustrate the reality of sin and how it separates a person from God. So there was capital punishment. It doesn\u2019t follow, however, that everyone who was executed is lost for eternity. If many of them went to heaven, they have all eternity in happiness and bliss, compared to one second when they were punished with death. That changes everything.<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nGod judged Sodom and Gomorrah. Jesus alluded to that. He agreed with it. You might recall how Abraham pled with God if there were just ten righteous people in the cities, to not judge them. But there weren\u2019t. That sin had gotten to the point of no return. That\u2019s why God judged.<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nThere is judgment in the NT In Acts 5, Ananias and Sapphira were killed for holding back some of their profits, after they donated to the apostles. It seems harsh, but there it is. Do you rip that page out of the Bible because it\u2019s difficult to understand? I don\u2019t. I say, \u201cGod knows much more about their hearts and motives than I do. God knows what He is doing.\u201d<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nThere was that man who died because he tried to stop the ark of the covenant from tipping over. God was showing how holy the item was. Was that man damned for all eternity? I highly doubt it.<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nEssentially your view boils down to a denial that God can justly judge sin. That\u2019s the road to ethical relativism and subjectivism. You don\u2019t want to go down that road. You need to seriously re-think all this.<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nJesus didn\u2019t call the OT God a \u201cmurderer.\u201d<\/div>\n*<\/div>\n\nJohn 8:38-45<\/strong> I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.\u201d [39] They answered him, \u201cAbraham is our father.\u201d Jesus said to them, \u201cIf you were Abraham\u2019s children, you would do what Abraham did, [40] but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God; this is not what Abraham did. [41] You do what your father did.\u201d They said to him, \u201cWe were not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.\u201d [42] Jesus said to them, \u201cIf God were your Father, you would love me, for I proceeded and came forth from God; I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. [43] Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. [44] You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father\u2019s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. [45] But, because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n*<\/div>\nThe \u201cmurderer\u201d there is the devil<\/em> <\/strong>(\u201cYou are of your father the devil,. . . He was a murderer from the beginning.\u201d). Jesus contrasts His Father with the devil, who is the Pharisees\u2019 father, in the passage. You seem to have completely ignored the context. Are you reading materials that are teaching you these unbiblical doctrines?<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nWe\u2019re limited by the fact that we are finite creatures and not God. God knows everything. A creature cannot know everything, because then he or she would be God, and we\u2019re not. We have limitations. That\u2019s what faith is about. We accept things that we don\u2019t fully understand, based on what we do know. And in fact all fields of knowledge entail that. They all have unproved premises and conclusions that follow from data that are not airtight or absolutely undeniable. We exercise a sort of \u201cfaith\u201d to believe in them.<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nWe\u2019re not penalized for not understanding. We\u2019re judged based on what we know and our level of intent, just as in secular law different penalties are applied, so that a \u201ccrime of passion\u201d or one done in temporary insanity is penalized a lot less than premeditated murder, that was planned for months.<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nThe Bible has a lot about degrees of culpability and ignorance and how they cause us to be judged less than we otherwise would have been. See, e.g.,:<\/div>\n*<\/div>\n\nLuke 12:47-48<\/strong> And that servant who knew his master\u2019s will, but did not make ready or act according to his will, shall receive a severe beating. But he who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, shall receive a light beating. Every one to whom much is given, of him will much be required; and of him to whom men commit much they will demand the more.<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nLuke 23:34<\/strong> And Jesus said, \u201cFather, forgive them; for they know not what they do.\u201d . . .<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nJohn 9:41<\/strong> Jesus said to them, \u201cIf you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, \u2018We see,\u2019 your guilt remains.\u201d<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nJohn 19:11 <\/strong>. . . he who delivered me to you has the greater sin.<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nActs 17:30<\/strong> The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all men everywhere to repent,<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nRomans 3:25<\/strong> . . . This was to show God\u2019s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins;<\/div>\n*<\/div>\n1 Timothy 1:13<\/strong> though I formerly blasphemed and persecuted and insulted him; but I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief.<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nHebrews 10:26<\/strong> For if we sin deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nJames 3:1<\/strong> Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, for you know that we who teach shall be judged with greater strictness.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n**<\/div>\nI don\u2019t know why hell is eternal, but I know that it\u2019s just punishment, because I know that God is both just and loving, in what He has revealed about Himself. Jesus is both. He judges and kills millions on the Last Day (Rev 19:11-21). That\u2019s in the Bible.<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nI guess you could be like Thomas Jefferson (a Unitarian) and take scissors to the Bible and cut out everything that is not to your liking. He tried to remove every miracle, since he didn\u2019t believe in them. Problem is, Jesus; death on the cross for our salvation is also a miracle. So much for Christianity as related to Jefferson!<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nI have also written a book in which I refute 191 alleged \u201ccontradictions\u201d in the Bible: Inspired!: 191 Supposed Biblical Contradictions Resolved<\/em><\/a> (June 2023). It\u2019s totally free online at this link.<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nCan God judge His creation or not? If not, on what basis do you claim such a thing? And the consequences of such an uninvolved, unloving (yes, unloving) God would be too horrible to contemplate. God only judges after making any and every effort to reach unrepentant people. He would have not judged and destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah if they had even ten righteous people, as the Bible says. But they didn\u2019t. That was the whole point. They were beyond redemption because they chose to be. The few righteous people that were there (Lot and his family) were allowed to escape. That\u2019s God.
\n*
\nWe presuppose that judgment is a good thing in every law that we pass and every penalty for not abiding by them. Imagine a nation in which there were no penalties for murder and rape (even one with no traffic laws)! That\u2019s loving; that\u2019s just? Of course it isn\u2019t. The laws are made out of love and concern for people. If we don\u2019t judge lawbreakers, all the law-abiding people suffer for it.
\n*
\nWhat G. K. Chesterton wrote about tradition also applies to God\u2019s laws. He compared tradition to a fence around a field that sits on top of a hill that has dangerous drop-off cliffs on all sides. When the fence is there, the children play completely free of all worries about falling off the edge. They\u2019re free! But if it isn\u2019t there they aren\u2019t free at all. Every second, they are worried about falling off the edge and being killed and they can\u2019t enjoy life and be carefree children.
\n*
\nIf I punish a child severely because he or she ran into the street without looking or went into a car with a stranger, is that a loving act or a selfish, immoral act? Is it necessary? Of course it is. Failing that, the child may actually get killed or abducted and sold into child trafficking. That isn\u2019t a very loving parent, is it? Likewise, God punishes and chastises us for our own good, as the Bible states several times (many times in the NT, since you seem to now think that the OT is so wicked). It\u2019s made necessary by original sin and our rebellion against Him.<\/div>\n\n*<\/div>\nLot was relatively<\/em> righteous, compared to the others. He offered the daughter in order that the evil men wouldn\u2019t try to rape the angels that were visiting him. I\u2019m not saying it was right, but this was a very early period in salvation history. If he had been more morally advanced, he would and should have said, \u201ctake me rather than abuse these angels.\u201d
\n*
\nAccording to your logic, God should have killed David after he arranged to have a man killed in battle so he could take his wife. But He didn\u2019t. Instead, He had already made an eternal covenant with him, knowing that he would commit this sin (and would sincerely repent of it), just as He called Paul to be a great apostle, knowing that he was going to persecute and kill who knows how many Christians.
\n*
\nImagine hiring a pastor who had killed 75 Christians in his past! But God did much more than that with Paul. He went on to be the greatest evangelist of all time and write much of the NT. And David was the prototype of the Messiah, Jesus, and God said he was a man after his own heart (though He knew from all eternity that he would be a murderer and an adulterer).
\n*
\nHell has no redemptive purpose. I deny the premise behind your question. It\u2019s the final place for people who utterly reject God. It\u2019s existence utterly without God. The people who will be there chose it. No one is predestined to go there from all eternity, by God\u2019s decree (this is a most unbiblical falsehood of Calvinism). That<\/em> would be extremely unjust; I agree. I don\u2019t know why it\u2019s eternal and so severe, but again, I know that it must be a just and somehow necessary punishment, because I know God\u2019s character, from His revelation and indeed from His dealings with me as I have sought to be His disciple, lo these past 47 years.
\n*
\nWe can\u2019t possibly understand all His teachings. We should fully expect not to, just as a two-year-old child can\u2019t understand quantum mechanics or advanced engineering. Who are we to say we know better than God? That was Satan\u2019s first lie, that brought about the fall of man. \u201cI know better than God.\u201d Eve bought that lie and sold it to Adam, who was also foolish and rebellious enough to buy it.
\n*
\nIt sounds to me that it may very well be that you were severely abused in some manner in the past, either by parents or someone in authority over you, and that you are now trying to blame God for that, or equate him with your abuser, as if He is the Cosmic Abuser. He\u2019s not. He\u2019s not at all like whoever abused you: if indeed that is what happened. God didn\u2019t cause it. He doesn\u2019t agree with it. He loves you. He wants to heal you. He suffered unimaginably and died for you, and would have if you were the only person He ever created. God doesn\u2019t cause evil. He overcomes it and is the solution for it. He brings joy and peace, not misery and hopelessness.
\n*
\nIt\u2019s very common to project human abusers onto God. It starts forming a person\u2019s conception of God. You stated that this goes way back in your thinking. In fact, it\u2019s known that many famous atheists projected their terrible relationship with their fathers onto God, and eventually rejected Him and became atheists. I have written about that<\/a>.
\n*
\nYou\u2019re on that road now, Bethany, at least potentially, and it breaks my heart to see it. We are trying to warn you because we love you. As an apologist for 43 years I have seen this progression many times. I know where it leads. It doesn\u2019t prove<\/em> you will become an atheist, but we do know that the beginning of the journey of millions of atheists out of Christianity began in this way. That\u2019s simply a fact. And it should give you the greatest pause, and cause you to seriously think about where this sort of thinking ends or could very well end.
\n*
\nI don\u2019t gain anything by telling you this. You may reject me. I have no motivation other than love. I tell you because I love you as a sister in Christ and because falsehood doesn\u2019t help anyone. The devil wants you. He wants your family. And he starts doing that by getting you to doubt the Bible and God. You\u2019re even directly rejecting the words of Jesus, Who taught the doctrine of hell.
\n*
\nAs I said, that was the first sin that caused the downfall of Adam and Eve and all of humanity. \u201cWe know better than God.\u201d He told us to do x, but we know that that was wrong advice, that we can dissent from, and that the devil knows better than God.\u201d I can\u2019t imagine anything more groundless and foolish than that. He\u2019s after you because you are a precious child of God: one who has eloquently shared His truth with others, and who has been an admirable witness for perseverance through health problems. Don\u2019t let him do it!
\n*<\/div>\nThe Bible has to be properly interpreted<\/em>. If you try to do that all on your own, you can possibly adopt one of thousands of errors. Authorities in the Christian life exist for a reason. They are to guide us. That\u2019s true in your Protestant tradition just as it is in Catholicism. It\u2019s a different principle in some ways, but there are still authorities and guidance. It\u2019s not just \u201cthe Bible, the Holy Spirit, and me.\u201d Protestants have confessions and creeds that they go by: that offer interpretations of the Bible. And they have histories of what they have believed. The theological liberal simply ignores all that.
\n*
\nYou are reading something that is causing some rather radical doubts. Your question about David and the census [i.e., who inspired him: God or Satan?] ultimately comes straight from either atheism or extreme biblical skepticism, that is passed down for centuries in some cases. It\u2019s very unlikely that a Christian reading the Bible would ever come up with that. And it\u2019s explainable (I provided you two articles that did so). It need not give anyone any pause.
\n*
\nWe\u2019ve already seen how your own interpretation led you to believe that Jesus was condemning His own Father as a \u201cmurder\u201d and a \u201cliar\u201d when the passage clearly stated that Jesus was referring to Satan, and was contrasting him with God the Father, with Whom He was one (Jn 10:30: two chapters later). If that\u2019s an example of your \u201cnew\u201d approach to the Bible \u2014 nothing personal! \u2014 , I\u2019d hate to see others.
\n*
\nSomething you are reading is leading you far astray. If you think these sources are \u201cobjective\u201d and are merely calling things as they see them, you\u2019re wrong. They are hostile to Christianity and the Bible. They have an agenda. You need to read books like mine about biblical archaeology and refutations of alleged biblical \u201ccontradictions\u201d (both written from a general Christian, not specifically Catholic perspective) so you can strengthen your faith, and be confident in it, rather than have it slowly but surely shattered by irrational skepticism and hyper-rationalism.
\n*
\nG. K. Chesterton noted how the problem with a madman is not that he has no<\/em> reason, but that he has nothing but<\/strong><\/em> reason. That\u2019s atheism in a nutshell, and I hate to say it, but in what you are expressing in this thread, you are thinking very much as they do. Believe me, I know. I devoted an entire year of work a few years ago, just interacting with atheists. And I had done a lot before that, including in person. I know how they think and reason.
\n*<\/div>\n\n\nI am trying to help you heal from whatever you experienced by driving home the point that going after the Bible and God and pretending that they are what they are not are not<\/em><\/strong> the solution to anything. That will make you more miserable. You\u2019re blaming God for what people did. He is not them. He doesn\u2019t approve of any such abuse. Your indignation is misplaced. Be angry at the abusers (and also forgive them, lest you be destroyed in bitterness). Don\u2019t take it out on God or project these sins onto Him. That\u2019s the very last thing that will help you because you are making the all-loving God evil. If that\u2019s not a key step to misery and hopelessness and atheism, I don\u2019t know anything at all<\/em>.<\/div>\n*<\/div>\n\n\nMy replies and reasoning here have nothing to do with Catholic authority. You are radical by your own Protestant standards. No Protestant denomination teaches that the OT God is evil and the equivalent of Satan. That hearkens back to ancient heresies; particularly gnosticism. None teach (that I am aware of) that Jesus called God the Father a \u201cmurderer\u201d and a \u201cliar\u201d in John 8. If you ever see such a commentary, please direct me to it.
\n*<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\nNeither of my books I directed you to are \u201cCatholic books.\u201d They defend things that Protestants and Catholics have in common: biblical historical accuracy, self-consistency, infallibility, and inspiration. I\u2019m trying to directly help all Christians with those books, to be more confident in the Bible and their faith. I\u2019m not trying to defend Catholicism. I do that in most of my other books!
\n*<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\nNot all of the Pharisees were bad. Jesus Himself followed pharisaical teachings because that was the mainstream. He was accusing some of them of rank hypocrisy. Elsewhere he even told His disciples to follow their teachings, but not their hypocrisy:<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n*
\nMatthew 23:1-3<\/strong> Then said Jesus to the crowds and to his disciples, [2] \u201cThe scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses\u2019 seat; [3] so practice and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do; for they preach, but do not practice.
\n*<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\nPaul called himself a Pharisee (as a Christian) twice (Acts 23:6; 26:5). You have not shown how your interpretation of John 8 can withstand scrutiny. If you think it\u2019s so obvious and compelling, by all means respond to my critique. You\u2019re now appealing to your own ability to interpret Holy Scripture in a way superior to every Protestant tradition I am aware of (and Orthodox and Catholic), so, that being the case, defend it over against critique.
\n*<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\nOr you can start claiming that you have secret esoteric knowledge that very few mortals will ever understand, bound as we are by corrupt human traditions. That\u2019s what the ancient gnostics did and what their current followers do, and that is the path you are on. It\u2019s frightening and chilling.
\n*<\/div>\nSo up till recently you attended a church where the leader[s] and other congregants despised you, showed no love, and repeatedly said you were \u201cvile or wretched\u201d? If so, it took you this long to figure out that that wasn\u2019t Christianity? And now you reject all of Protestantism, as if all of it is like that? If that is the nature of the place you worshiped, it is not<\/em> Christianity. It may have been doctrinally<\/em>, but not in essence<\/em>, because Christians must love as Jesus loved us.
\n*
\nI worshiped in about ten different Protestant settings in my 13 years as an evangelical, and none of them were remotely like what you describe. I am extremely thankful for all that I learned in all of them. I use that knowledge every day in my work. Yet you seem to think you have to leave Protestantism or \u201cBible Christianity\u201d or whatever you wish to call it, because of your horrible experiences?
\n*
\nYou\u2019ve clearly been traumatized and it is affecting your thinking. When I debated you years ago I had every impression that you were a thoughtful, happy, informed Protestant. It\u2019s hard for me to believe that all of that was worthless in your past.
\n*
\nYou say you are no longer Protestant. I will happily and zealously defend my Protestant brethren against this insinuation that all they are, are abusers. That\u2019s just not reality. There are bad apples everywhere, but that\u2019s just it; the bad apples are the exception, in Christian circles.
\n*
\nWhat I call you now is a hurting, traumatized person. That\u2019s what needs to be addressed. You need to identify exactly who did this to you (it\u2019s not all Christians everywhere), heal, forgive them, and move on with your life. Radical skepticism and supposed \u201cfreedom\u201d to believe whatever you want is not the solution. I tell you this out of love (and thank you for accepting my stated motivations).
\n*<\/div>\nYou have simply discovered the true God. What you describe as what you used to believe certainly wasn\u2019t the God I know and love: the God of the Bible.
\n*
\nI will stop now. Others who know you in person and much better than I do are in a far better place to dialogue and interact with what you are saying. I hope my books and other articles are helpful to you. God bless you with all good things. I\u2019m always here if you want to \u201ctalk\u201d with me.<\/div>\n*<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n*
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Practical Matters<\/em><\/strong>: Perhaps some of my 4,500+ free online articles (the most comprehensive \u201cone-stop\u201d Catholic apologetics site) or\u00a0fifty-five books<\/a>\u00a0have helped you (by God\u2019s grace) to decide to\u00a0become Catholic<\/a>\u00a0or to\u00a0return to the Church<\/a>,\u00a0or better understand some doctrines and\u00a0why<\/em>\u00a0we believe them<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Or you may believe my work is worthy to support for the purpose of apologetics and evangelism in general. If so, please seriously consider a much-needed financial contribution. I\u2019m always in need of more funds: especially\u00a0monthly<\/em>\u00a0support. \u201cThe laborer is worthy of his wages\u201d (1 Tim 5:18, NKJV). 1 December 2021 was my 20th anniversary as a\u00a0full-time Catholic apologist<\/a>, and February 2022 marked the 25th anniversary of my blog.<\/p>\n
PayPal donations<\/a>\u00a0are the easiest: just send to my email address: apologistdave@gmail.com. Here\u2019s also\u00a0a second page to get to PayPal<\/a>. You\u2019ll see the term \u201cCatholic Used Book Service\u201d, which is my old side-business. To learn about the different methods of contributing (including\u00a0Zelle<\/a>), see my page:\u00a0About Catholic Apologist Dave Armstrong \/ Donation Information<\/a>.\u00a0Thanks a million<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0from the bottom of my heart!<\/p>\n
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