To be blunt, I find that ignorant and deeply insulting to people who have honestly searched.
Hey CD, before you get too far drawn into the error demonstrated by the author, remember, he does not have your experiences nor your understanding. I believe him to be serious and believing what he said.
What this tells me is that you cannot fathom an honest search that comes up short. You have an erroneous belief that people who seek god find him but to hold to this you have to exclude anyone who 'diligently searched' and yet failed to find god, and claim they're not true Christians, or pretenders.
That is one of the common faults of folks who are attatched to a congregation; i.e., they tend to believe the common doctrinal understanding. And why not, don't we normally (not necessarily correctly) believe what the greatest number in our gathering believe? I think it is a seeking for consensus, because we need reassuring that we are not wasting our time believing something no one else understands.
Say someone likes eating junk food, then decide to eliminate it from their diet after learning what's in it and the harmful things it could do. Would they suddenly "not have eaten the right junk food"? Or someone who becomes a vegetarian was never really a meat-eater?
There's testimonies out there of those who were strong in the faith once, and I'm sure you could find more if you looked.
From Bible-Belt Pastor to Atheist Leader
Current Or Former Religious Leaders Not Believing In The Supernatural
Please don't take offense at the ignorance of those who honestly try to help you? Have you not considered, maybe God sent you here to teach them something?
Did you know that most of what is considered "Orthodoxy" by today's churches, is the direct result of "Scholars" trying to help us understand better, those things that they have pieced together from what their teachers have said.
Did you know, for example, that many of the doctrines agreed upon in the churches are not scriptural?
Example?
Original sin; where all suffer death because of the original sin of Adam.
Did you know Adam did not commit the original sin? And the doctrine was originally built around developing Mary as free from original sin so Jesus would not be so "tainted?" It is called the doctrine of "The immaculate conception" referring to Mary as the mother of Jesus.
The fact is, the first sin was committed by Eve, not Adam, and she ate of the forbidden fruit, and brought it to Adam and He did eat.
Scripture tells us God made Adam and Eve and named THEIR NAME Adam, male and female, (Genesis 5:1-2) . So when it elsewhere tells us "By one man sin entered..." it is referencing Adam AND Eve, for no man is a full man without the mate God provides. TOGETHER, they are one man, one flesh.
Did you know the doctrine of Original sin is false? Look to Paul's writing as he tells us "For when the
Gentiles, which have not the law, do
by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and
their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;"(Rom 2:14-15)
What then happens to that "Sin nature" so popular among preachers? How then do they explain Enoch, who pleased God, and was translated that he should not see death? How then do they explain Noah, and Daniel, and Job, who saved only their own selves by their righteousness?
Almost everything taught through doctrines of men is a corruption of what scripture actually tells us. But it is "orthodoxy" by consensus.
God is trinity? Explain then why God used singular grammar to tell us over a hundred times in the Law, in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, "Egw eimi ho Theos," I AM THE GOD." Every word of that statement is singular, not plural if indeed God is three persons in one being.
And when He introduced Himself to Moses, He said "Egw eimi ho hwn" - "I am the being." And He used only grammatically singular word-forms. A grammatically singular word-form is a grammatical count-word used to tell us how many "Persons" are under consideration by using the word referenced. So a "person-singular" word-form cannot possibly reference a multiple-person singular being; it is a grammatical contradiction.
Again, when Jesus said I am "ouk eimi monos, because the Father is with me"
(I am not alone); and then Isaiah tells us Jehovah, God monos (alone) created heaven and earth, then repeats it several times, Well, you begin to suspect something is not right in the colleges where Christian doctrine is taught.
So instead of castigating someone for "getting it wrong," utter a simple "sigh," roll your eyes, and begin a prayer, in humility, for that person's understanding to come within learning distance of truth, and thank God you have been brought to a slightly different understanding, and pursue it with all your being.
Remember, nothing in scripture guarantees your teachers to be inspired, only that the Holy Spirit teaches truth. Do you suppose He will have any problem teaching that soul who really wants to know, and has the courage to go it alone if the whole world knows better? That will never make them right, it will only make them popular.
So don't give up. Look to the scriptures, the Hebrew if you are a Jew, the Greek if you are a Gentile. The Hebrew old testament was given to the Jews to bring them to Christ; the Greek was given to the Jews to hold in store for the Gentiles when it would be their time, which came in Paul's day. The Greek was called "The oracle" of God.
Again, when people tell you Jesus was the logos of God, remind them that "The logos was God" (John 1:1) and that Jesus was the image of His person.
(Heb 1:3). One was God, the other was the image thereof. Not remotely the same.
And did you know some boards will not ever tolerate honest discussion over those things they consider "Orthodox doctrine?" They will not even allow polite conversation over many issues of truth, but insist their popular concepts be kept isolated and pristine.
Thank God for this board where truth can still be discussed between gentle-persons.
