Christianity-- A Disingenuous Religion Based on Lies and Deception

According to the video below, C. Michael Patton, Th.M. and Tim Kimberley, Th.M of Credo House, describe how, when believers are presented before Yahweh, their own resumes could never measure up, so instead, they must submit the resume that belongs to Jesus in order to be "saved" and this post will explain how this analogy illustrates how disingenuous the Bible and Christianity is at its core. The video is based on the verses in Ephesians 2:8-9, which many Christians believe relieves them of any responsibility for their "sins"--for they believe that as long as they have this "gift" of "grace," they will be "saved."




"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast."  Ephesians 2:8-9

In Ephesians, Paul explains that "grace" is a "gift"--it has nothing to do with what a person does, and Yahweh chooses at his whim whom he bestows his "grace" upon. (Eph. 1:5) It could be a rapist, or a murderer--it's all up to Yahweh, as Yahweh PREDESTINED those he bestows his "grace" upon, just as he PREDESTINED those that are damned. There is no free will to choose whether or not we want this '"grace," as it is a "gift" believers were PREDESTINED to receive, i.e., this "gift" is NOT of themselves and they have nothing to do with it.  Yahewh determines who believes in Jesus and those who do not believe in Jesus. Therefore, those that were NOT predestined to receive the "gift" of grace, i.e. salvation, were PREDESTINED to be damned, and they too have nothing to do with it. It is all done according to Yahweh's "pleasure and will." (Eph 1:9)

"For HE CHOSE us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5HE PREDESTINED us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. 9And hed made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ." Ephesians 1:4-10
Now, we also find contradictory passages in the Bible to the above deterministic passages such as the one below,
At the commencement of his ministry, Jesus himself commanded, “repent, and believe the gospel.” Mk. 1:15.
which illustrates again, the contradictory nature of the Bible. Furthermore, it is the existence of these types of contradictory passages which has led to the development of the various denominations of Christianity--some that believe in determinism (e.g., the Calvinists) and some that believe in "free will" (e.g., Catholics). When a text does not have consistency and is contradictory you can conclude anything from it.  Meaning of course, that Christians themselves cannot even agree amongst themselves as to the "true" meaning of the text, and Yahweh, the so-called "all-knowing, all-good, and all-powerful" god, did not do a very good job of "revealing" the text to his followers--which means of course, he "knowingly" caused the confusion, which has resulted in multiple conflicts and millions of deaths. Some have argued that there is no inconsistency between determinism and free will. i.e. The notion of compatiblism. I have written another blog post using Christian blogger JW Wartick as a foil, to illustrate that compatiblism is false for a Christian.  But I digress......

In the video, C. Michael Patton and Tim Kimberley explain that the salvation of Christians is not based on anything they do. But they go on to say it is based on "faith" alone, so that no one can "boast." (Eph. 2:8-10) Of course, the real reason you can not boast about it is because their belief and faith was determined by Yahweh. This means that Christians, as long as they have their predestined belief in Jesus, and repent for their sins, they can continue to rape, murder, and commit other crimes without any fear that they could lose their salvation. And, as the two authors above point out--we are all "bad" according to them, as we have a "sin nature," or as they say, we are born with a "negative account." Now, they would object, and say that according to Christianity, you are not supposed to "sin" as a Christian.  But as they point out in the video, their resume can NEVER measure up because they are always "sinning"!  As the authors note, good works"don't count towards salvation--i.e. they are worth nothing in their "account." This leads to the notion and behavior of sin, repent, sin, repent, repeat when necessary. Note, that some Christians do not believe you even need to "repent" in order to be saved--all they have to do is believe, not realizing that according to the Bible, even their beliefs are determined by Yahweh.

Their analogy in this case, illustrates just how disingenuous Christianity is at its core. In the video, they describe how, when believers are presented before Yahweh, their own resumes could never measure up, so instead, they must submit the resume that belongs to Jesus in order to be "saved"! In other words, they must lie about their true identity, and present someone else's resume to "the boss." If anyone in THIS life did such a thing, that is, present a resume to a prospective employer that belonged to someone else, well, that person would not only be liar, they would also be breaking the law! The fact that Christian salvation is based on someone else paying for the crime of another is disingenuous enough, but that Christians see no problem in creating an analogy where a person must lie about who they are and present a resume to Yahweh that does not belong to them--well, that certainly does illustrate that these Christians who feel this analogy is appropriate cannot see the forest for the trees. That is, they cannot see that their religion and their so-called salvation is based on lies and deception.  And as the great Christian philosopher Pelagius pointed out long ago, this leads to "moral laxity."

How pitiful.
________________
Cathy Cooper

Addendum:  As a further note, the authors do not understand the Christian banking system.  According to Hebrews 10:26-27, their good works ARE accounted, and do count with regards to their salvation.  For it states that those who are "saved" and have the "laws written on their heart," but " willfully sin"-- go to the pit fire.  NO repentance.  Again, note how silly this is, as the Bible states that believers are "predestined" to believe, and thus be saved, and then the Bible turns around and says that believers must not "willfully" sin!--as if the authors of the Bible forgot that it's all determined by Yahweh!!

Addendum 2:  The more I watch the video, the more I shake my head in disgust.  Just look at the title:

"10 Myths about God: #6 – Good Works Get Us To Heaven"

As I pointed out in this post, according to the authors of the video, good works are worthless and they are worth nothing in their "account." The above Christian view can be contrasted to the Buddhist view of merit  in which what accumulates as a result of good deeds, acts or thoughts, carries over to later in life or to a person's next life.  This view is more likely to promote a sense of responsibility and moral integrity. 

0 comments: