MILITANCY IN CHRISTIANITY

Leading to an exodus of Apostates in the

West

Aron

Militancy and violence is not stuff alien to Christianity, as

fondly popularised but quite consistent with Jesus’ own
pronunciations and deeds.
The following verses have been the most irksome and
voluminously Re-interpreted -by modern Biblical
scholars, to suit the norms of present world, but given
the Catholic Church’s bloody history of persecution of
Jews, its Sectarian strife such as the French wars that
finally decimated Germany, and the Christian
Colonialism that wiped out the American Natives and
their civilisations- it is hard to escape the conclusion that
the spin doctors are attempting to rehabilitate Christ’s
such verses.

Trying to rehash the bluntly violent nature of its

Godhead to our times where such views are ostracised
and scorned.

I) Holy Bible - New Testament, Luke 12; 51-53: Jesus

said:
"Do you suppose that I came to bring peace to the
World? No, not peace, but division. From now on a
family of five will be divided, three against two and two
against three. Fathers will be against their sons, and
sons against their fathers; mothers will be against their
daughters and daughters against their mothers;
mothers-in-law will be against their daughters-in-law,
and daughters-in-law against their mothers-in-law."
The "full" quote, according to the New American
Standard Bible (NASB) translation of the Bible, reads
(Jesus speaking):
"Do not think that I came to bring peace on the
earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
For I came to set a man against his father, and a
daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies
will be the members of his household. He who
loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy
of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than
Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take
his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.
He who has found his life will lose it, and he who
has lost his life for My sake will find it." (Matthew
10:34-39 NASB)

Nor do we see any compassion but a partisan bigotry-

"Whosoever therefore shall confess me before
men, him will I confess also before my Father which
is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before
men, him will I also deny before my Father which is
in heaven." (Matthew 10:32-33, KJV)

Even the most accommodating reader of the Bible could

only squirm trying to somehow absolve Christ from
getting probed for Violent inclinations when he reads
that he has actually said this-
Holy Bible, New Testament, Luke 20; 27: Jesus said:
“for those enemies of mine who did not want me to be
their king, bring them here and kill them in my
presence.”

The later deviations of Christians from a supposedly

love incarnate Christ also seems to be a misconception
from what Christ seems to have egged on Peter-

iii) New Testament, MATHEW 16; 18-19: Jesus said,

"Peter: you are a rock, and on this rock I will build my
Church, and not even death will ever be able to
overcome it. I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of
Heaven; what you prohibit on Earth will be prohibited in
Heaven, and what you permit on Earth will be permitted
in Heaven."
He has clearly given Peter and the Church supposedly
built by him, a free hand and run of things as his vicar on
earth.
The rehabilitated image of Christ too would have no
ready takers-
Posts an atheist -

Look, you can try to justify what Jesus did in

the temple not once, but most probably twice,
however let’s examine what actually happened.
First, don’t forget money changing was going
on in the temple for years. Long before Jesus
was born.
It was not something any Jew of the day would
have given any thought. In fact, it was a
needed service to temple goers given the
customs of the time.
Now enter Jesus. Imagine him taking off his
corded belt and whipping it around while he
went from table to table heaving them over...
It was pretty hard work as the tables were
heavy given the lack of paper money. All the
while he was berating the money changers for
their wicked ways.
Did it ever occur to you these money changers
had no idea who Jesus was and had never
considered what they did to be sinful? I’m
confident all the people in the temple that day
must have been wondering who is this guy?
What’s his problem? Lucky for him, there was
no temple security.
Violent, you bet it was. And probably
completely shocking to the witnesses.
Additionally, why would the disciples carry
swords if they didn’t intend to use them? Does
anyone actually believe Peter would have
survived more than a few seconds after he cut
off a Roman soldier’s ear? I rather highly doubt
it. It either didn’t happen or it’s an absurd
fabrication.
EVANGLEISM AND FUNDAMENTALISM REPELLING
CHRISTIANS AWAY-

The overzealous drive of the Evangelical movement in

America seems to have back fired- exactly due to these
Literalism of Biblical verses- liberal and nominally
Christian sections have now disowned their allegiance
and are turning apostates in droves.
While the apologetics were busying deal outs of evasive
analogies and metaphorical interpretations-the
Evangelists were shooting themselves on their feet-
A typical sermon of an evangelist like that of Bryan Mac
Phail would proceed thus-
He said, ‘I have come to send fire on the earth; and how
I wish that it were kindled!’778778 Luke xii. 49. There is
therefore a certain fight, which is to be fought by us in
this life; for the word of truth and knowledge necessarily
separates men from error and ignorance, as we have
often seen putrefied and dead flesh in the body
separated by the cutting knife from its connection with
the living members. Such is the effect produced by
knowledge of the truth. For it is necessary that, for the
sake of salvation, the son, for example, who has
received the word of truth, be separated from his
unbelieving parents; or again, that the father be
separated from his son, or the daughter from her
mother. And in this manner the battle of knowledge and
ignorance, of truth and error, arises between believing
and unbelieving kinsmen and relations. And therefore
He who has sent us said again, ‘I am not come to send
peace on earth, but a sword.

We are anxious to hear how Jesus loves His

enemies, forgives prostitutes, touches lepers, and feeds
the hungry, but that's it. The Jesus we see in chapter 10,
verses 34-39--this Jesus, quite frankly, is the one that
nobody wants to know.

It would have been so easy, and tempting, for me to skip

this section of Matthew as I endeavour to reach the
"Passion" narrative by Easter. But if I skipped this
section, you would miss an essential side of Jesus. The
side of Jesus that is DEMANDING.

This is where Jesus is, what you might term, "brutally

straight forward". He holds nothing back here. "Do not
think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not
come to bring peace, but a sword"(v.34).
Jesus warns us that profound conflict should be
expected between those who accept the Gospel and
those who reject it. I am not telling you anything new
here.
When your family gathers at Christmas, what do you talk
about? Anything and everything, but not religion. Why?
Because honest, from the heart, discussions on religious
beliefs inevitably causes conflict. We have all been
there--at least I have--many times. Even with fellow
Christians, conflicts arise when it comes to getting
straight the message of Jesus. The Corinthians fought,
the Galatians fought, therefore so will St.Andrew's and
Fraser if you try to get the message right, stand by that
message, and share it with others.

Nowhere in this section is there the sense that we

should run from this conflict either. It is presented as an
inevitability--"A man's enemies WILL be the members of
His household"(v.36
After warning His disciples about the potential the
Gospel has for conflict, Jesus reminds them of their
need for loyalty. Jesus tells them that "he who loves
father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and
he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not
worthy of Me"(v.37).
So what is Jesus getting at here? Quite simply, Jesus
wants us to prioritize Him. He wants us to make Him our
first loyalty, and to emphasize this He names the two
things most precious to us: our family and our own life.
Broken families, self-mutilation, blow torching of deviant
kids and suicides have shocked the liberal American
youth and has resulted in a wave of Atheism and Deistic
agnosticism.
Their retort would be ruthless to this redundancy and
fundamentalism-

I've received more than one email from

Christians who say that of all the issues I write
about in my book the most troubling one
concerns child sacrifice in the Bible (imagine
that!?). Here's the excerpt below (from pp. 136-
37). What d'ya think?

When it comes to child sacrifice it was actually

commanded by God. In Exodus 22:29-30 we
read:
“You shall not delay to offer from the fullness of
your harvest and from the outflow of your
presses. The first-born of your sons you shall give
to me. You shall do likewise with your oxen and
with your sheep: seven days it shall be with its
dam; on the eighth day you shall give it to me.”
Later on God admitted he did this in Ezekiel
20:25-26 where he purportedly said:
“Moreover I gave them statutes that were not
good and ordinances by which they could not
have life; and I defiled them through their very
gifts in making them offer by fire all their first-
born, that I might horrify them; I did it that they
might know that I am the LORD.” (See note). [19]
The context of the Exodus passage just quoted
above concerns offerings and sacrifices, and it
says God requires that first born sons are to be
literally sacrificed to him. Hence, unlike other
passages where there is the possibility of
redemption with a substitute sacrifice (cf. Exodus
13:13; 34:10-20), none is stated there. The
concept of "redemption" is an interesting one
that goes hand in hand with child sacrifice,
because animals were substituted for the
firstborn. Yet that says nothing against the idea
that a better sacrifice was the firstborn child
himself, and many people in the Old Testament
did just that. Circumcision was probably a
substitutionary child sacrifice (Exodus 4:24).
Child sacrifice was probably only considered evil
when it was done in the name of a foreign god,
and doing so was punishable by death precisely
because it was offered to another deity (Leviticus
20:2; 18:21 Deuteronomy 12:31; 18:10; II Kings
17:17 23:10; II Chronicles 28:3; 33:4-10; Ps
106:38; Isaiah 57:5,6; Jeremiah 7:31 32:35
Ezekiel 16:20,21; 20:26,31; 23:37,39; Acts 7:43).
Child sacrifice was something that several
Biblical people either did, or assisted others in
doing so. Abraham was not morally repulsed by
the command itself and there is no command
against this practice there by God (Genesis 22).
Then there is Jepthah who sacrificed his daughter
because of a stupid vow (Judges 11); David (II
Sam. 21:7-9); Solomon and his wives (I Kings
3:16); Ahab (I Kings 16:33-34); Ahaz (II Kings
16:2-3); Hoshea (II Kings 17:7); and Manasseh (II
Kings 21:6; II Chronicles 33:6). It was a problem
for King Josiah (II King 23:10), for Jeremiah
(Jeremiah 7:30-31; 19:3-5; 32:35), and Ezekiel
(Ezekiel 16:20-21; 20:25-26, 30-31). The prophet
Micah wonders if he should sacrifice his oldest
son “as a sin offering” (6:6-8). It was a practice
so prevalent when offered to foreign gods, that it
is named as one of the reasons God sent the
Babylonians to conquer Israel and forcibly take
many of them as captives (II Kings 17:16-18). We
even read where the King of Moab sacrificed his
son which caused the Israelites to retreat in
defeat. Moab’s sacrifice created a great “wrath,”
(ketzef), which was an external force to the
warriors in the story, indicating that his sacrifice
caused some divinity to act on behalf of Moab. (II
Kings. 3:26-27). In the New Testament God the
Father sacrifices his only son (Jesus) as the
central redemptive act of Christianity, and God
still seeks to fulfill his lust for human sacrifice by
burning humans forever in the lake of fire.

Steve Wells another popular Atheist activist posts-

God burned
people to death
Numbers 11:1 100 100
for
complaining
God sent "a
very great
2 plague" for 11:33 10,000 10,100
complaining
about the food.
God killed ten
14:35-
3 scouts with a 10 10,110
36
plague.
A man who
gathered
firewood on 15:32-
4 1 10,111
the sabbath is 26
stoned to
death
5 Korah, Dathan, 16:27 12 10,123
and Abiram
 (and their
families) are
buried alive for
complaining
about Moses'
leadership
Burned to
death for
6 16:35 250 10,373
offering
incense
For
complaining
7 16:49 14,700 25,073
about God's
killings
Massacre of
8 21:1-3 3000 28,073
the Aradites
God sent
serpents to
bite the people
for
9 21:6 100 28,173
complaining
about the lack
of food and
water.
God delivers
the Bashanites 21:34-
10 2000 30,173
into Moses' 35
hands
 Phinehas
impales a
11 mixed-race 25:6-8 2 30,175
couple having
sex
For
"committing
12 whoredom with 25:9 24,000 54,175
the daughters
of Moab"
Midianite
13 31:1-35 200,000 254,175
massacre

See something that stands out in this list? I do. (You

probably do too since I highlighted it.) It is the central
message of the Book of Numbers: Don't complain,
especially not about the food or God's killings.

Have lots of babies (and be faithful, charitable,

holy, and sober).
And Adam was not deceived, but the woman
being deceived was in the transgression.
Notwithstanding she shall be saved in
childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity
and holiness with sobriety. -- 1 Timothy 2:14-15
Turn yourself over to Satan for the destruction of
the flesh so your spirit may be saved. (For
fornicators only.)
It is reported commonly that there is fornication
among you ... deliver such a one unto Satan for
the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may
be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. -- 1
Corinthians 5:1-5

Abandon your home and family for Jesus' name's

sake.
And every one that hath forsaken houses, or
brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife,
or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall
receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit
everlasting life. -- Matthew 19:29, Mark 10:29-30,
Luke 18:29-30

Hate your father, mother, wife, children,

brothers, sisters, and your own life.
If any man come to me, and hate not his father,
and mother, and wife, and children, and
brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also,
he cannot be my disciple. -- Luke 14:26

Don't be a serpent or a viper, and make

sure none of your ancestors were prophet
killers.
Ye are the children of them which killed the
prophets ... Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers,
how can ye escape the damnation of hell? --
Matthew 23:31-33

Become an Israeli citizen.

And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written,
There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and
shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. -- Romans
11:26

Don't defile yourself with women. (Be a

virgin male.)
...the hundred and forty and four thousand, which
were redeemed from the earth. These are they
which were not defiled with women; for they are
virgins. -- Revelation 14:4
Don't let anyone see you do anything good.
Take heed that ye do not your alms before men,
to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward
of your Father which is in heaven. -- Matthew 6:1

Don't let anyone say anything nice about

you.
Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of
you! -- Luke 6:26
Be poor, not rich.
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven. --Matthew 5:3
Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of
God. ... But woe unto you that are rich! For ye
have received your consolation. -- Luke 6:20, 24
Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly
enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I
say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man
to enter into the kingdom of God. -- Matthew 19:23-
24
But woe unto you that are rich! For ye have
received your consolation. -- Luke 6:24
Ye rich men weep and howl for your miseries that
shall come upon you. -- James 5:1
Be sad.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be
comforted. -- Matthew 5:4
Cry a lot.
Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh.
-- Luke 6:21
Don't laugh.
Woe unto you that laugh now! For ye shall mourn
and weep. -- Luke 6:25
Be last.
But many that are first shall be last; and the last
shall be first. -- Matthew 19:30, Mark 10:31
Be okay with cannibalism-
Eat Jesus' body and drink his blood.
Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and
drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso
eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath
eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
-- John 6:53-54

Believe in the foolishness of preaching.

For after that in the wisdom of God the world by
wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. -- 1 Corinthians 1:21
Be hungry now and never get full.
Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be
filled. ... Woe unto you that are full! For ye shall
hunger. -- Luke 6:21, 24
Make people hate you, avoid you, say bad
things about you, and call your name evil
for Jesus' sake.
Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and
when they shall separate you from their
company, and shall reproach you, and cast out
your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake.
Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for,
behold, your reward is great in heaven. -- Luke
6:22-23
Love your enemies, do good to them, and
give them lots of money.
But love your enemies, do good to them, and
lend to them without expecting to get anything
back. Then your reward will be great, and you will
be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to
the ungrateful and wicked. -- Luke 6:35
1. Be persecuted for righteousness sake.
Blessed are they which are persecuted for
righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. -- Matthew 5:10
Be dead with Jesus.
It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him,
we shall also live with him: -- 2 Timothy 2:11
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the
earth. -- Matthew 5:5
Be washed by the Holy Ghost.
Not by works of righteousness which we have
done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by
the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the
Holy Ghost. -- Titus 3:5
Be converted and become like a little child.
Except ye be converted, and become as little
children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of
heaven. -- Matthew 18:3
Hate your own life.
The man who loves his life will lose it, while the
man who hates his life in this world will keep it
for eternal life. John 12:25
Lose your life for Christ's sake.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and
whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find
it. -- Matthew 16:25, Mark 8:35, Luke 9:24, Luke 17:33

Belong to a household that has at least one

believer.
And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. -- Acts
16:31
For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the
wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the
husband: else were your children unclean; but
now are they holy. -- 1 Corinthians 7:14
Confess with your mouth "Jesus is Lord"
and believe in your heart that God raised
him from the dead.
If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord
Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God
hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be
saved. -- Romans 10:9
Follow the commandments (at least some
of them).
If you want to enter into life, keep the
commandments. He saith unto him, Which? Jesus
said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not
commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt
not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy
mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself. -- Matthew 19:17-19
Blessed are they that do his commandments that
they may have right to the tree of life. --
Revelation 22:14
Wait until you die and then get baptized
(after you're dead).
Else what shall they do which are baptized for the
dead, if the dead rise not at all? Why are they
then baptized for the dead? -- 1 Corinthians 15:29
Kill any prophet or dreamer of dreams. Even
if they have cool signs and wonders. (Like Jesus.)
If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer
of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder ...
that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be
put to death. Deuteronomy 13:1-5

Violence against pagans

Kill your family if they have religious beliefs
that differ from your own. (Like that crazy
aunt of yours who's a Jehovah's Witness.)
If thy brother ... or thy son, or thy
daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or
thy friend, which is as thine own soul,
entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve
other gods ... Thou shalt not consent unto him ...
neither shall thine eye pity him ... But thou shalt
surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him
to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of
all the people. Deuteronomy 13:6-10

Everyone in every city that has citizens that

believe differently than you. (Like Salt Lake
City.)
If thou shalt hear ... men ... saying, Let
us go and serve other gods, which ye
have not known ... Thou shalt surely
smite the inhabitants of that city with
the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and
all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the
edge of the sword. Deuteronomy 13:12-17

like to focus on God's second command in

Deuteronomy 13: When to Stone Your Whole Family.
Like to focus on God's second command in
Deuteronomy 13: When to Stone Your Whole Family.
If thy brother ... or
thy son, or thy
daughter, or the
wife of thy bosom,
or thy friend,
which is as thine
own soul, entice
thee secretly,
saying, Let us go
and serve other gods ... Thou shalt not consent
unto him ... neither shall thine eye pity him.
Deuteronomy 13:6-8
But thou shalt
surely kill him;
thine hand shall
be first upon him
to put him to
death. Deuterono
and afterwards the
hand of all the
people. my 13:8-9
and afterwards the hand of all the people.
Deuteronomy 13:9

So God commands us all to stone to death,

without pity, our wife, husband, son, daughter,
brother, sister, or friend, if they have religious
beliefs that are different from our own. (Our own
beliefs are the correct beliefs, of course.)
And God said immediately before these verses
that "what thing soever I command you, observe
to do it."
Is there a believer that follows God's command in
Deuteronomy 13:6-10? Or who thinks it's a good
idea but is too chicken to do it? Or that was a
good idea back in the day but isn't so good now?
Is there a believer who thinks this command was
really given by, or at least inspired by, God? Or
that God had anything to do with it?
Is there a believer who is not deeply ashamed
that this passage is in the Bible?
If so, I'd love to hear about it.
POSTED BY STEVE WELLS AT 8/20/2009 05:58:00
PM

The attempts of the Christians to rekindle the

dwindling church attendance by bank rolling Mel
Gibson’s mega movie Passion of the Christ too
would backfire-
William Saffire would write his film critique in
these terms-

What are the dramatic purposes of this depiction

of cruelty and pain? First, shock; the audience I
sat in gasped at the first tearing of flesh. Next,
pity at the sight of prolonged suffering. And
finally, outrage: who was responsible for this
cruel humiliation? What villain deserves to be
punished?
Not Pontius Pilate, the Roman in charge; he and
his kindly wife are sympathetic characters. Nor is
King Herod shown to be at fault.
The villains at whom the audience's outrage is
directed are the actors playing bloodthirsty
rabbis and their rabid Jewish followers. This is the
essence of the medieval "passion play,"
preserved in pre-Hitler Germany at
Oberammergau, a source of the hatred of all Jews
as "Christ killers."
Much of the hatred is based on a line in the
Gospel of St. Matthew, after the Roman governor
washes his hands of responsibility for ordering
the death of Jesus, when the crowd cries, "His
blood be on us, and on our children."
Though unreported in the Gospels of Mark, Luke
or John, that line in Matthew — embraced with
furious glee by anti-Semites through the ages —
is right there in the New Testament. Gibson and
his screenwriter didn't make it up, nor did they
misrepresent the apostle's account of the Roman
governor's queasiness at the injustice.
But biblical times are not these times. This
inflammatory line in Matthew — and the
millenniums of persecution, scapegoating and
ultimately mass murder that flowed partly from
its malign repetition — was finally addressed by
the Catholic Church in the decades after the
defeat of Naziism.
In 1965's historic Second Vatican Council, during
the papacy of Paul VI, the church decided that
while some Jewish leaders and their followers had
pressed for the death of Jesus, "still, what
happened in his passion cannot be charged
against all Jews, without distinction, then alive,
nor against the Jews of today."
That was a sea change in the doctrinal
interpretation of the Gospels, and the beginning
of major interfaith progress.
However, a group of Catholics rejects that and
other holdings of Vatican II. Mr. Gibson is
reportedly aligned with that reactionary clique.
(So is his father, an outspoken Holocaust-denier,
but the son warns interviewers not to go there.
Jesus tells them not to heal any Samaritans (an
unpopular Jewish sect) or Gentiles. So last week,
we had grumpy Jesus. This week, we have racist
Jesus. Nice. And it gets better. Fundies love
Matthew 10.
Christian evangelism also has turned the one
time church minister and a Masters in theology
John W.Loftus who has authored many
refutations of Christianity runs the humanist
atheist website gives his take on Christian
fundamentals and evangelism-
He (Jesus) gives a long list of instructions to his
disciples, but I see no evidence that they actually
did any of this while Jesus was alive. His
instructions are a mixture of peace and terror.
Here is a list of things the disciples are to do:
Find a worthy house in a town.
If the people are nice, then they can let their
peace rest on it. If the people are mean, then
“shake the dust off your feet when you leave that
home or town” and Jesus will punish them
severely.
Be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves
(I have yet to figure out how).
Be on your guard against men.
When they arrest you, don’t worry about what to
say or how to say it. At that time, you will be
given what to say, for it will not be you speaking,
but the Spirit of your Father speaking through
you.
Everyone is going to get mad at each other and
they’ll be put to death. “All men will hate you
because of me, but he who stands firm to the end
will be saved.” (Another place people get the
martyrdom, will give up their children to the
guillotine rather than deny that they are
followers of Christ. I wrote a post on that here.)
When one place persecutes you, go to another. “I
tell you the truth, you will not finish going
through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man
comes.” (Big, big oops! And why is he talking
about himself in the third person? Is Jesus the
Son of God but someone else the Son of Man? I
always heard that they were one and the same,
but reading this, I’m not sure. Of course, this is
from the same guy who talked about patching up
wineskins when asked about fasting, so maybe
he would talk about himself in the third person
sometimes!)
Do not be afraid of the bad guys.
“What I tell you in the dark, speak in the light.
What is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the
roofs.” So now he does want people to tell others
about him. That changes frequently.
Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but
cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One
who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Don’t worry about anything, because God cares
about cheap sparrows and the number of hairs
on your head. (Guess he forgot about Haiti while
he was busy counting hairs.)
Acknowledge him before man, or he won’t
acknowledge you before God. (Again with the
martyrdom thing.)
Do not suppose I have come to bring peace to
the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a
sword. (Angry Jesus strikes again!)
Anyone who loves his family more than Jesus is
not worthy of him. Whoever finds his life will lose
it (huh?) and whoever loses his life for Jesus’ sake
will find it (ok, that part makes sense). But again,
this is why conservative and fundamentalist
Christians say that they won’t lie to save their
children if the choice came down to it.
If people are nice to Jesus’ followers, they will be
rewarded
(by hell?! Because of course Jesus’ followers are
going to be nice to each other in the context he’s
talking about!). And be nice to kids and you’ll be
rewarded.

This wave of Christian apostasy seems to be

more the result of discovering the parallels of
violent religious fundamentals in Christianity via
the Islamic scriptural sanction and basis of Jihad-
something increasingly recognised and producing
a revulsion and call to revaluate the mainstream
take on Islamist movement.
We thus find Sam Harris the co-founder of the
Reason Project and author of books- the End of
Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation reply to his
detractors-
I can't quite remember how we got it into our heads that
jihad was linked to violence. (Might it have had
something to do with the actual history and teachings of
Islam?) And how could we have been so foolish as to
connect the apparently inexhaustible supply of martyrs
in the Muslim world to the Islamic doctrine of
martyrdom? In my own defence, let me say that I do get
spooked whenever Western Muslims advocate the
murder of apostates (as 36 percent of Muslim young
adults do in Britain). But I now know that these
freedom-loving people just "want to see God reflected
more clearly in public life."
I will call my friend Ayaan Hirsi Ali at once and
encourage her to come out of hiding: Come on out, dear.
Karen says the coast is clear. As it turns out, those
people who have been calling for your murder don't
understand Islam any better than we do.
Armstrong assures us that because religion has existed
for millennia, it is here to stay. Of course, the same could
be said about a preoccupation with witchcraft, which has
also been a cultural universal. The belief in the curative
powers of human flesh is still widespread in Africa, as it
used to be in the West. It is said that "mummy paint" (a
salve made from ground mummy parts) was applied to
Lincoln's wounds as he lay dying.
This is now good for a laugh. But in Kenya elderly men
and women are still burned alive for casting malicious
spells. In Angola, unlucky boys and girls have been
blinded, injected with battery acid, and killed outright in
an effort to purge them of demons. In Tanzania, there is
a growing criminal trade in the body parts of albino
human beings -- as it is widely believed that their flesh
has magical properties.
I hope that Armstrong will soon apply her capacious
understanding of human nature to these phenomena.
Then we will learn that though witchcraft has
occasionally been entangled with political injustice, an
"inadequate understanding" of demonology and
sympathetic magic was really to blame.

Introducing his approach on this matter John xx

mentions how-
Many Christian professors have probably had
some serious doubts about the Christian faith. In
her book Walking Away from Faith: Unravelling
the Mystery of Belief and Unbelief, Ruth A. Tucker
shares her own doubt and how she overcomes it,
hoping to challenge unbelievers to reconsider
what they are missing. But when contemplating
her own doubt, she candidly confesses what has
sometimes crossed her mind. As a seminary
professor she wrote: "There are moments when I
doubt all. It is then that I sometimes ask myself
as I'm looking out my office window, 'What on
earth am I doing here? They'd fire me if they only
knew.”
It seems Christianity has produced a reaction
that is forcing this exodus into Atheism much
against their wishes-

My friend James F. Sennett, a former student of

Strauss, has also seriously struggled with his
faith. In his as yet unpublished book The
Reluctant Disciple: A Postmodern Apologetic, he
not only confesses to having undergone a crisis
of faith, but in fact wrote the book as a "first-
person apologetic" to answer his own faith crisis.
In his first chapter, "The Reluctant Disciple:
Anatomy of a Faith Crisis," he wrote: "Once I had
no doubt that God was there, but I resented him
for it; now I desperately want him to be there,
and am terrified that he might not be."

The nascent but swelling up movement of

apostasy and distancing form Christianity among
the youth, of course has to successfully negotiate
the much deeper challenge-
Which is the spiritual need of mankind, which
presently they dimly recognize but dismiss purely
based on theological grounds taking a
materialistic stand?
In this it is no different from the European
renaissance.
The danger to Christianity then was surmounted
by the fall back of the general populace into
Churchs’ moral and ethical stance- something
that stands now completely debunked by its own
Clergymen- and cannot be counted upon.
What is now posing the challenge would not be
the Materialistic Fascism- but its arch-enemy that
it had somehow successfully displaced in
Christendom by demonising- Paganism.
Having the right control beliefs is essential to
grasping the truth about our existence in the
universe. Psychologist Valerie Tarico explains
that "it doesn't take very many false assumptions
to send us on a long goose chase." To illustrate
the point, she describes the mental world of a
paranoid schizophrenic, where the perceived
persecution by others sounds real:
You can sit, as a psychiatrist, with a diagnostic
manual next to you, and think: as bizarre as it
sounds, the CIA really is bugging this guy. The
arguments are tight, the logic persuasive, the
evidence organized into neat files. All that is
needed to build such an impressive house of
illusion is a clear, well-organized mind and a few
false assumptions. Paranoid individuals can be
very credible.[3]
Since control beliefs alone cannot tell one what
to make of Christian miracle claims, one must
examine the specific evidence for such claims. I
don't have the space to develop my analysis
here, but interested readers can consult the
second part of my book to see my evaluation of
them.[4] There I treat the biblical claims of
miracles as the historical claims that they are,
and examine the biblical texts themselves to
scrutinize the internal consistency of these
biblical miracle accounts. Wherever relevant, I
also consider whether the Old Testament actually
predicts some of these events. These claims are
also examined in light of the external evidence,
such as whether there is any independent
confirmation of the claimed events outside of the
biblical texts. Finally, I review the plausibility of
these claims in light of the control beliefs that I
will argue for here.
From all of this I conclude that Christianity is a
delusion that should be rejected. More
specifically, Christianity makes a very large truth
claim that cannot be reasonably defended on the
basis of the available evidence. In addition, I
describe why I am an atheist and what it means
to live life without God. My entire case is a fairly
comprehensive one, a complete case, from start
to finish, from a former insider to the Christian
faith.
I have little doubt that Christians will bristle at
these control beliefs and cry foul, contending that
they amount to a predisposition "from below" to
reject their religious faith, and they are right.
They do. Christians claim that with a different
predisposition "from above," I would undoubtedly
be more likely to accept the Christian faith, and
that too is correct, although there are still other
supernaturalistic worldviews to consider.

Neo-paganism thus gets this historical

opportunity, to avenge its wrongs in the hands of
the Christian Church.

(Reference –
Courtesy
Internet Infidels
Redhead sceptic
Debunking Christianity.blogspot and magazines)