6 Religious Beliefs that Cause Tremendous Harm

I’m pleased to bring this excellent blogger to the acquaintance of my readers. For those who have been hurt by abusive religion, this is a breath of fresh air. Ditch the God of Perfection and come see a Jesus who says “I will give you rest.”

Jesus Without Baggage

In my opinion, six mistaken beliefs among Christians cause incalculable pain, suffering, and lasting damage. I focus on these baggage issues on this blog, as summarized on my About page:

1. The belief that the Father is an angry, capricious, vindictive God
2. The concept of eternal punishment and torture in hell
3. An insistence that the Bible is somehow inerrant in every word
4. An over-emphasis on rules and doctrinal requirements
5. Commitment to a literal approach to the creation stories in Genesis
6. Disapproval and rejection of gay people

My good friend Christian Evolution created a graphic, based on my list, that captures these major issues very well. I feel so honored that he would do that.

Some Beliefs among Believers are more Harmful than Others

I know that followers of Jesus disagree on a host of issues, but I don’t think all issues are equally important. I talk about these six beliefs…

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Don’t Stop. Keep Walking! (the full version)

A few excerpts from the Bible:

Genesis 6:9 Noah walked with God.
Genesis 5:22 Enoch walked with God.
Genesis 17:1 the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; Walk before Me.”
Micah 6:8 And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?
Malachi 2:6 He [Levi] walked with Me in peace and uprightness.

One thing is clear: God sure does a lot of walking.

In the modern church, we look to the Scriptures to find God. We see how the early Christians lived, and what they believed, and we know that God was with them. Then we reason that we should do exactly the same thing. If God changes not, then he will be with us just like he was with the early church, if we only do the same things. But we overlook one thing: God is walking.

The light rises in the east and sets in the west. It never stays still. But if we walk with the light (if we could walk that fast) then we could stay in the light forever. If we instead mark out our spot and say “This spot is full of light. I will stay here forever” then we quickly find ourselves in darkness.

This is where the Church is today. We have marked out our spot of Light, which we call the Bible, and we cling to it like an anchor. We are completely ignoring the fact that when we stop, God is still walking.

In all of Biblical history, there was never a period greater than 400 years without a prophet on the earth. Doesn’t it seem odd that it’s been 2000 years without a prophet? I thought God didn’t change? Or could it be that we don’t recognize his prophets?

We have believed a lie. We have been taught that nothing may be added to or taken away from the Bible. This belief is rooted in the final words of the book of Revelations, chapter 22.

18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: 19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

To which book was John the Revelator referring? Consider that the Bible was not compiled until a few hundred years after John’s death. Therefore it could not have been about adding to the Bible. He was instead talking about not adding to or taking away from his prophecies in the book of Revelations. It was not a proscription against any writings from God’s future prophets.

So if we seek to walk with God, and hearken unto his voice, wouldn’t it be wise to listen to his prophets? We know some of them. Martin Luther. John Wesley. Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Martin Luther King, Jr. Brennan Manning. There are many others. Still more have been lost to history, having been born before the invention of the printing press.

God is all around us, but he stops for no one. If we want to be with him, we must walk with him. We cannot drive our stake in the ground and declare that this is what we believe and we will never change. This is why the Church is in trouble today. We have stopped, and God has moved on, and the unbelievers can clearly see that God is not with us.

Let’s get walking!

Don’t Stop. Keep Walking! (the micro version)

Chew on this one a while. Agree? Disagree? Let me know!

God is all around us, but he stops for no one. If we want to be with him, we must walk with him. We cannot drive our stake in the ground and declare that this is what we believe and we will never change. This is why the Church is in trouble today. We have stopped, and God has moved on, and the unbelievers can clearly see that God is not with us.

Let’s get walking!