I am introducing a new contributor here. Welcome to Van Robison. Van was a former WCG member and WCG employee in Pasadena up until the mid 70's. Van has been a contributor to numerous web sites over the years: Foresight of Hindsight blog, Batteredsheep blog, The WORD on the Word of Faith blog and others.
So many have come out of Armstrongism with never having exercised the ability to be able to question what one believes or understands. I think it is important to be able to question. It doesn't mean you have to agree, but at least look at things as an opportunity to think about things differently.
Dumping the baggage from our past is a hard thing to do for many. Some have easily dumped all religious pretense, others hold religion out there with a 10 foot pole, others find many aspects of spirituality comforting and enriching, and others have found meaning and grace in new and mysterious ways. Each person is on their own path that leads them to the point they need to be in the recovery process.
So here's to looking at things in a new way......
Millions of people have been indoctrinated from birth that "the Bible is infallible and inerrant" and "totally inspired by God." Indoctrination is so powerful and overwhelming in the life of human beings, that people the world over often live and die in the cultural beliefs into which they were born. It is often next to impossible to penetrate the thinking of others with anything that challenges the status quo or differs with what they are accustomed to hearing and believing. Indoctrination is often so deeply embedded in human thinking, that many are rendered incapable of being rational or objective and it not only applies to belief in the infallibility of the Bible, but also other religious beliefs, political beliefs and the indoctrination of "education" in many different disciplines. Examples might be that those schooled into the orthodox medical system and its foundation for practices, are often rendered unwilling to seek or believe in any alternative practices (labeled "quackery"). Another example is that the medical establishment attempts by all means possible to convince the public that mercury laced vaccines have no health impact on the lives on children, even when the voices crying in the wilderness are numerous and quite vocal, that indeed something is amiss and extremely serious. The concept of indoctrination applies to many aspects of human life on earth.
As far as what most people believe, the hard fact is that we all primarily believe what others say and we think it is "truth." We tend to believe that people who lived ages ago were some how "special" and God the Creator "inspired" what they wrote, or He somehow conveyed to them concepts and principles that all others are suppose to adhere to. In reality, Jesus Christ has not appeared to any of us living on earth today, told us what absolute truth is, taught us one-on-one and caused us to see where what we think "truth" is, is actually not truth. In fact we have no idea whether the words attributed to Jesus Christ in the four Gospels are "verbatim" quotes or whether the writers put words in the mouth of Jesus that He never spoke.
Facing the facts, we have to admit that there is not one human being on earth today, who is a personal witness to anything from Genesis to Revelation. We can believe by "faith" that the Bible is infallible and inerrant, but
that does not make the Bible "true" in all that we read. For those of us who do believe in Jesus Christ, we do so by FAITH and there is no other option or possibility, and we believe that the Holy Spirit is the Source that
makes Christ real to our being. It seems to my thinking that no human being who ever lived could speak such words as "I Am the Way, I Am the Truth, "I Am the Life", "I Am the Living Waters", "I Am the Bread of Life", "I Am the "Light of the World", "I Am the Vine", "I Am the Door", "I Am the Resurrection", "I Am the Good Shepherd" and "you have ONLY one Master---Christ", unless the person who made such proclamations happened to indeed be Jesus Christ. Would any human being believe such sayings of another mere human being? Preposterous! If Jesus were only a mere human being, would anyone believe such statements?
Many Bible apologists wonder how anyone can think that the Bible contains some truth and a lot of human fabrication. Bible apologists jump through hoops to defend the indefensible and attempt to cause people to "see" as they see. There is hardly doubt that many ex-Christians, ex-pastors, atheists and perhaps others have challenged the Bible as being totally "inspired" by God. Many church goers are not really critical thinkers, but instead they quietly sit in pews as if little children and hear what those who stand in pulpits expound. The pied pipers in the pulpits all without exception, present themselves as if they have all knowledge, all understanding and all wisdom, when it comes to "the Bible", God and church doctrines supposedly taken from the Bible.
There is the assumption that to question the Bible is to question God, and yet even the Bible says to "prove all things" and "try the spirits whether they be of God" and that cannot be done without questioning. Even Jesus
warned repeatedly to BEWARE, because many would come in His name and deceive many and it seems few take the words of Jesus to heart. Is INK on PAPER an exception to deception? Is "the Bible" an exception to deception? Men have always put words in the mouth of God that He never spoke. Virtually any human writer or speaker throughout history and to this very day, can proclaim "thus saith the Lord", "God commanded", "God spoke", "God said", "God told me", "God anointed", "God inspired", but such words in and of themselves DO NOT and CANNOT prove that indeed God is the author of what the writer or speaker attributes to God.
The words "all scripture is given by inspiration of God", DO NOT and CANNOT define exactly what "all scripture" is that God is supposed to have "inspired." There are two books in the Old Testament that do not so much as even mention God, and yet the Bible apologists crowd (including many "scholars"), would have the world believe that God inspired these fictional accounts. Many proclaim that there are "no contradictions" in the Bible, and that belief is absolute proof that the world is full of people who DO NOT think critically. Some will say "who are you to question the Bible?" Well friends, God gave each of us a mind and we are not intended to be robots or clones of those who pretend to be God in the world of churches, religions or human governments.
Does it seem strange that Jesus Christ hand picked primarily FISHERMEN as personal witnesses to His life and teachings, and NOT the religious elite or highly "educated?" Perhaps what is called "education" is often nothing more than traditions and customs of men, touted as "thus saith the Lord." The most major contradiction in the entire Bible, is the manner in which God Almighty is portrayed as a mass-murderer, barbaric, the author of genocide, and the author of atrocities to numerous to mention in this article. The Bible drips with blood and gore that defies any normal human conscience. It not only includes the "Old" Testament, but even the so called book of "Revelation", which assuredly is NOT authored by Jesus Christ, even though it proclaims Jesus Christ as the one who reveals these mysteries. The reason Jesus is not the author of "Revelation" is because it defies what Jesus taught, such as "love your enemies", "do unto others as you would have them do unto you", "love your neighbor as you love yourself", "blessed are the peacemakers", "blessed are the merciful", "blessed are the meek" and so forth. Does God live by His own teachings? Or because God is sovereign, does He defy His own teachings and initiate deeds that defy everything He ever taught such as love, compassion, mercy, justice, empathy and humility? Bible apologists would have everyone believe that all the barbarity in the Bible, is an expression of the love and justice of God. NOT SO!
Does that mean "universal salvation" no matter? No! FEAR of religious and secular rulers of men is a theme that runs throughout the Bible, and without question all cults exist on the foundation of FEAR instilled in their people. There is the fear of losing ones salvation. Fear of not being blessed financially for not tithing (a very false doctrine). Fear of not submitting to human authority, even though Jesus Christ stated that His followers have only one Master, who is Christ (Matthew 23:8-10). All governments of men are anti-Christ and for the reason that no government on earth follows Jesus Christ. Governments of men do not love and have compassion, even though they have the pretense of false charity. All governments exist by force and compulsion, where God exists by His character, which is LOVE.
Examples in the Bible of instilling fear in the readers of its words, include such stories as Ananias and Sapphira falling down dead at the feet of Peter, over money matters and lying. This fictional story so contradicts what Jesus taught that it cannot possibly be true, at least it cannot be true that God struck them dead, if indeed they died in the manner told. In the Old Testament another fear based story is that supposedly and attributed to God, is that the earth opened up ("supernaturally") and swallowed some folks who voiced opinions counter to Moses. It is pure fiction! In Romans 13 the reader is led to believe that rulers of men are "not a terror" to good works, but to the evil, and that cannot possibly be true. If it were true that rulers of men "are not" a terror to good works, then Jesus Christ would never have been crucified, because He was nothing but good. The elite rulers always live in fear of light and truth and they often attempt to silence, suppress, censor and smash anything and everyone who stands in the way of their power, control and free money (Matthew 23). Jesus demolished man-made religion. Men who love power, control and free money always attempt to build empires unto themselves.
Jesus stated that Satan was a murderer from the beginning, and yet "Christians" by the millions and their "pastors" believe that God was a murderer from the beginning, but they don't call it murder, they say there is a difference between murder and killing. Strange that Jesus never defined such a difference, nor in the Ten Commandments do we read that God defined any difference. In the Ten Commandments we read that God said "you shall not kill" and "you shall not steal" and "you shall not covet anything that is your neighbors (such as land or anything else)" and yet elsewhere the reader is led to believe that God did the opposite and demanded the opposite of some human beings. And there are no contradictions in the Bible?
Some day even if it takes another thousand years or ten thousand years, the church world will have to come to terms with what is called "the Bible." The Bible has deceived millions of human beings for a long time, and is the primary source of mass religious confusion and division in the world. If it were not so, and we read that God is not the author of confusion, then there would not be an endless array of different groups espousing very different doctrines, customs, practices and traditions, and all supposedly taken from the Bible. The clergy/laity system is thought to be an inventionclergy/laity system is thought to be an invention of the "apostle" Paul, but not founded upon anything taught by Jesus Christ as reflected in the four Gospels.
Sorry atheists, you will not agree with this article. I am not an atheist, but I also do not embrace religious rituals, organizational or institutional bondage, submission to professional clergy, so called "pastors", "senior pastors" or "doctor pastors" or even "elders." I do not feel compelled to attend a "house church" where no clergy is allowed. What I see is that Jesus is the LIGHT missing in the world and His entire teachings can be summarized in the words LOVE, COMPASSION, MERCY, EMPATHY and HUMILITY. None of those attributes have one iota of anything to do with "going to church", "keeping the Saturday Sabbath", Sunday observance or many other traditions of men. If we read anything in the four Gospels that makes Jesus Christ appear to contradict Himself, then such words are highly questionable as coming from Jesus Christ. Because Jesus as we read, mentions the names of such people as Noah, Abraham, Moses and others, does that mean that Jesus gave His stamp of approval to all the barbarity in the Old Testament and attributed to God? How could He contradict Himself? Was Jesus Christ indeed God of the Old Testament? Not in anything that defies what Jesus taught, because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. How could anyone have faith in a God that changes in His character?
Unfortunately the Bible maligns and discredits the TRUE character of the Creator of the universe, in many ways. It was Jesus Christ who said "IF YOU HAVE SEEN ME, YOU HAVE SEEN THE FATHER" and that tells me that it is Jesus Christ who defines the true character of the Father and NOT the Old Testament, the book of Revelation, a man called Paul or anything or anyone who differs with what He taught. If Jesus is the LIGHT of the world, does that not imply that the world was steeped in darkness before Christ? And likewise the world is steeped in darkness today, because men "think" that LIGHT and TRUTH is "going to church", bowing before "pastors", false tithing, building church buildings, and blindly thinking the Bible is the light of the world.
The Bible is not God and God is not the Bible. The reason some people hated Jesus Christ is because He stripped them of false authority, false prestige, the endless flow of money from false teachings, and false power over the naive and gullible. It is no different today, when many voices are speaking out about CHURCHIANITY and exposing the fraud and deceit in the world of man-made religion. I suggest that if the Bible were really inspired by God, then it would not cause mass confusion, with endless differences in interpretation of what it means. Few people really think hard about the Bible, they primarily just believe whatever the pulpit-masters say, which is nothing more than their personal opinions (often wrong). The Bible is a large subject and cannot possibly be covered in an article such as this.
I contend that God does exist, Jesus Christ is who He said He was, and that His impact on the world is enormous.
Van Robison
So many have come out of Armstrongism with never having exercised the ability to be able to question what one believes or understands. I think it is important to be able to question. It doesn't mean you have to agree, but at least look at things as an opportunity to think about things differently.
Dumping the baggage from our past is a hard thing to do for many. Some have easily dumped all religious pretense, others hold religion out there with a 10 foot pole, others find many aspects of spirituality comforting and enriching, and others have found meaning and grace in new and mysterious ways. Each person is on their own path that leads them to the point they need to be in the recovery process.
So here's to looking at things in a new way......
BEING CANDID ABOUT the BIBLE
Millions of people have been indoctrinated from birth that "the Bible is infallible and inerrant" and "totally inspired by God." Indoctrination is so powerful and overwhelming in the life of human beings, that people the world over often live and die in the cultural beliefs into which they were born. It is often next to impossible to penetrate the thinking of others with anything that challenges the status quo or differs with what they are accustomed to hearing and believing. Indoctrination is often so deeply embedded in human thinking, that many are rendered incapable of being rational or objective and it not only applies to belief in the infallibility of the Bible, but also other religious beliefs, political beliefs and the indoctrination of "education" in many different disciplines. Examples might be that those schooled into the orthodox medical system and its foundation for practices, are often rendered unwilling to seek or believe in any alternative practices (labeled "quackery"). Another example is that the medical establishment attempts by all means possible to convince the public that mercury laced vaccines have no health impact on the lives on children, even when the voices crying in the wilderness are numerous and quite vocal, that indeed something is amiss and extremely serious. The concept of indoctrination applies to many aspects of human life on earth.As far as what most people believe, the hard fact is that we all primarily believe what others say and we think it is "truth." We tend to believe that people who lived ages ago were some how "special" and God the Creator "inspired" what they wrote, or He somehow conveyed to them concepts and principles that all others are suppose to adhere to. In reality, Jesus Christ has not appeared to any of us living on earth today, told us what absolute truth is, taught us one-on-one and caused us to see where what we think "truth" is, is actually not truth. In fact we have no idea whether the words attributed to Jesus Christ in the four Gospels are "verbatim" quotes or whether the writers put words in the mouth of Jesus that He never spoke.
Facing the facts, we have to admit that there is not one human being on earth today, who is a personal witness to anything from Genesis to Revelation. We can believe by "faith" that the Bible is infallible and inerrant, but
that does not make the Bible "true" in all that we read. For those of us who do believe in Jesus Christ, we do so by FAITH and there is no other option or possibility, and we believe that the Holy Spirit is the Source that
makes Christ real to our being. It seems to my thinking that no human being who ever lived could speak such words as "I Am the Way, I Am the Truth, "I Am the Life", "I Am the Living Waters", "I Am the Bread of Life", "I Am the "Light of the World", "I Am the Vine", "I Am the Door", "I Am the Resurrection", "I Am the Good Shepherd" and "you have ONLY one Master---Christ", unless the person who made such proclamations happened to indeed be Jesus Christ. Would any human being believe such sayings of another mere human being? Preposterous! If Jesus were only a mere human being, would anyone believe such statements?
Many Bible apologists wonder how anyone can think that the Bible contains some truth and a lot of human fabrication. Bible apologists jump through hoops to defend the indefensible and attempt to cause people to "see" as they see. There is hardly doubt that many ex-Christians, ex-pastors, atheists and perhaps others have challenged the Bible as being totally "inspired" by God. Many church goers are not really critical thinkers, but instead they quietly sit in pews as if little children and hear what those who stand in pulpits expound. The pied pipers in the pulpits all without exception, present themselves as if they have all knowledge, all understanding and all wisdom, when it comes to "the Bible", God and church doctrines supposedly taken from the Bible.
There is the assumption that to question the Bible is to question God, and yet even the Bible says to "prove all things" and "try the spirits whether they be of God" and that cannot be done without questioning. Even Jesus
warned repeatedly to BEWARE, because many would come in His name and deceive many and it seems few take the words of Jesus to heart. Is INK on PAPER an exception to deception? Is "the Bible" an exception to deception? Men have always put words in the mouth of God that He never spoke. Virtually any human writer or speaker throughout history and to this very day, can proclaim "thus saith the Lord", "God commanded", "God spoke", "God said", "God told me", "God anointed", "God inspired", but such words in and of themselves DO NOT and CANNOT prove that indeed God is the author of what the writer or speaker attributes to God.
The words "all scripture is given by inspiration of God", DO NOT and CANNOT define exactly what "all scripture" is that God is supposed to have "inspired." There are two books in the Old Testament that do not so much as even mention God, and yet the Bible apologists crowd (including many "scholars"), would have the world believe that God inspired these fictional accounts. Many proclaim that there are "no contradictions" in the Bible, and that belief is absolute proof that the world is full of people who DO NOT think critically. Some will say "who are you to question the Bible?" Well friends, God gave each of us a mind and we are not intended to be robots or clones of those who pretend to be God in the world of churches, religions or human governments.
Does it seem strange that Jesus Christ hand picked primarily FISHERMEN as personal witnesses to His life and teachings, and NOT the religious elite or highly "educated?" Perhaps what is called "education" is often nothing more than traditions and customs of men, touted as "thus saith the Lord." The most major contradiction in the entire Bible, is the manner in which God Almighty is portrayed as a mass-murderer, barbaric, the author of genocide, and the author of atrocities to numerous to mention in this article. The Bible drips with blood and gore that defies any normal human conscience. It not only includes the "Old" Testament, but even the so called book of "Revelation", which assuredly is NOT authored by Jesus Christ, even though it proclaims Jesus Christ as the one who reveals these mysteries. The reason Jesus is not the author of "Revelation" is because it defies what Jesus taught, such as "love your enemies", "do unto others as you would have them do unto you", "love your neighbor as you love yourself", "blessed are the peacemakers", "blessed are the merciful", "blessed are the meek" and so forth. Does God live by His own teachings? Or because God is sovereign, does He defy His own teachings and initiate deeds that defy everything He ever taught such as love, compassion, mercy, justice, empathy and humility? Bible apologists would have everyone believe that all the barbarity in the Bible, is an expression of the love and justice of God. NOT SO!
Does that mean "universal salvation" no matter? No! FEAR of religious and secular rulers of men is a theme that runs throughout the Bible, and without question all cults exist on the foundation of FEAR instilled in their people. There is the fear of losing ones salvation. Fear of not being blessed financially for not tithing (a very false doctrine). Fear of not submitting to human authority, even though Jesus Christ stated that His followers have only one Master, who is Christ (Matthew 23:8-10). All governments of men are anti-Christ and for the reason that no government on earth follows Jesus Christ. Governments of men do not love and have compassion, even though they have the pretense of false charity. All governments exist by force and compulsion, where God exists by His character, which is LOVE.
Examples in the Bible of instilling fear in the readers of its words, include such stories as Ananias and Sapphira falling down dead at the feet of Peter, over money matters and lying. This fictional story so contradicts what Jesus taught that it cannot possibly be true, at least it cannot be true that God struck them dead, if indeed they died in the manner told. In the Old Testament another fear based story is that supposedly and attributed to God, is that the earth opened up ("supernaturally") and swallowed some folks who voiced opinions counter to Moses. It is pure fiction! In Romans 13 the reader is led to believe that rulers of men are "not a terror" to good works, but to the evil, and that cannot possibly be true. If it were true that rulers of men "are not" a terror to good works, then Jesus Christ would never have been crucified, because He was nothing but good. The elite rulers always live in fear of light and truth and they often attempt to silence, suppress, censor and smash anything and everyone who stands in the way of their power, control and free money (Matthew 23). Jesus demolished man-made religion. Men who love power, control and free money always attempt to build empires unto themselves.
Jesus stated that Satan was a murderer from the beginning, and yet "Christians" by the millions and their "pastors" believe that God was a murderer from the beginning, but they don't call it murder, they say there is a difference between murder and killing. Strange that Jesus never defined such a difference, nor in the Ten Commandments do we read that God defined any difference. In the Ten Commandments we read that God said "you shall not kill" and "you shall not steal" and "you shall not covet anything that is your neighbors (such as land or anything else)" and yet elsewhere the reader is led to believe that God did the opposite and demanded the opposite of some human beings. And there are no contradictions in the Bible?
Some day even if it takes another thousand years or ten thousand years, the church world will have to come to terms with what is called "the Bible." The Bible has deceived millions of human beings for a long time, and is the primary source of mass religious confusion and division in the world. If it were not so, and we read that God is not the author of confusion, then there would not be an endless array of different groups espousing very different doctrines, customs, practices and traditions, and all supposedly taken from the Bible. The clergy/laity system is thought to be an inventionclergy/laity system is thought to be an invention of the "apostle" Paul, but not founded upon anything taught by Jesus Christ as reflected in the four Gospels.
Sorry atheists, you will not agree with this article. I am not an atheist, but I also do not embrace religious rituals, organizational or institutional bondage, submission to professional clergy, so called "pastors", "senior pastors" or "doctor pastors" or even "elders." I do not feel compelled to attend a "house church" where no clergy is allowed. What I see is that Jesus is the LIGHT missing in the world and His entire teachings can be summarized in the words LOVE, COMPASSION, MERCY, EMPATHY and HUMILITY. None of those attributes have one iota of anything to do with "going to church", "keeping the Saturday Sabbath", Sunday observance or many other traditions of men. If we read anything in the four Gospels that makes Jesus Christ appear to contradict Himself, then such words are highly questionable as coming from Jesus Christ. Because Jesus as we read, mentions the names of such people as Noah, Abraham, Moses and others, does that mean that Jesus gave His stamp of approval to all the barbarity in the Old Testament and attributed to God? How could He contradict Himself? Was Jesus Christ indeed God of the Old Testament? Not in anything that defies what Jesus taught, because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. How could anyone have faith in a God that changes in His character?
Unfortunately the Bible maligns and discredits the TRUE character of the Creator of the universe, in many ways. It was Jesus Christ who said "IF YOU HAVE SEEN ME, YOU HAVE SEEN THE FATHER" and that tells me that it is Jesus Christ who defines the true character of the Father and NOT the Old Testament, the book of Revelation, a man called Paul or anything or anyone who differs with what He taught. If Jesus is the LIGHT of the world, does that not imply that the world was steeped in darkness before Christ? And likewise the world is steeped in darkness today, because men "think" that LIGHT and TRUTH is "going to church", bowing before "pastors", false tithing, building church buildings, and blindly thinking the Bible is the light of the world.
The Bible is not God and God is not the Bible. The reason some people hated Jesus Christ is because He stripped them of false authority, false prestige, the endless flow of money from false teachings, and false power over the naive and gullible. It is no different today, when many voices are speaking out about CHURCHIANITY and exposing the fraud and deceit in the world of man-made religion. I suggest that if the Bible were really inspired by God, then it would not cause mass confusion, with endless differences in interpretation of what it means. Few people really think hard about the Bible, they primarily just believe whatever the pulpit-masters say, which is nothing more than their personal opinions (often wrong). The Bible is a large subject and cannot possibly be covered in an article such as this.
I contend that God does exist, Jesus Christ is who He said He was, and that His impact on the world is enormous.
Van Robison
