Reply #25: Some fundamentalist Christians think the problem is with PR and marketing, and not a bad product [View All]

[MikeH]

This group is definitely a fundamentalist Christian group, as is seen from their http://www.changingthefaceofchristianity.com/about/statement-of-faith/">statement of faith.

We believe that the Bible is the absolute authority in matters of faith and practice, and that it is the inspired, error free, word of God.

We believe in one God; eternally existing in three Persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit); in the creation of all things, including man, as the direct act of God; in the fall of man who brought destruction on himself when he chose to sin against God through Satan’s temptation; in an eternally secure salvation by grace through faith in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ; and in His bodily resurrection; that Jesus Christ was both fully man and fully God; in the personal, bodily, imminent return and reign of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We believe in a literal Heaven and a literal Hell.

We believe in the bodily resurrection of the dead.

We are not affiliated with any particular Christian denomination or church congregation, but support all Christian denominations which are rooted in biblical teaching and who view Jesus Christ as the only way to eternal life.

We have a Christ-centered, Biblical world view.

They hope to fix the problem of people being unhappy with and leaving the Christian faith by having better PR and better marketing, when they have a bad product (referring to fundamentalist Christianity in particular). Like putting lipstick on a pig.

It is really very laughable that fundamentalist Christians think a person being unhappy with the faith and leaving the faith must always be a matter of being turned off by "hypocrisy, intolerance, judgmentalism, or homophobia", or having some bad experience with a pastor or a Christian or group of Christians, and never a problem with anything in the faith itself or with the Bible.

I definitely have some problems with some things in their statement of faith. A person is "saved" only through "accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior", and a person can come to "accept Christ" only in this lifetime. That is what the Bible says, and the Bible is the "absolute authority in matters of faith and practice", and it is the "inspired, error free", so-called "word of God", and as such is not to be questioned.

So it looks like a person who misses his/her chance to "accept Christ" in this lifetime, for whatever reason, is out of luck, and is condemned to a "literal Hell" for all eternity. And the same for those who happen to guess wrong by adhering to any religion other than Christianity.

And apparently an "unsaved" murder victim is condemned to a "literal Hell" for all eternity, while if the murderer later "repents" and "accepts Christ", the murderer is let into God's "literal Heaven".

Even if for myself, and for purely selfish reasons, I might want to "accept Christ" so that I can avoid the "literal Hell" and be allowed into the "literal Heaven", I could never accept having the thought in the back of my mind that OTHERS are either "saved" or "unsaved", and are set to go to either Heaven or to Hell when they die. And I could never accept the duty and obligation to tell others about Christ with that thought in the back of my mind and motivated by that concern. I don't see how one can get any of the normal joy and enjoyment out of life if one really believes that and lives with having that thought in the back of one's mind.

I myself used to be a Christian, and was one for a period of 15 years when I was an adult. I had gone to several churches during that time, and had known a number of Christians and several pastors, and had been involved with several Christian groups. Many of these people (though not all) were very good people, and had at times been helpful, supportive, and encouraging to me.

My dissatisfaction with Christianity was not because of any of the Christians or groups of Christians that I had known. My dissatisfaction was with Christianity itself, and with the Bible.

I came to reject fundamentalist Christianity due to the problems I mentioned above. However I was still a Christian for a while longer after I rejected fundamentalism. I wanted to believe that my supposedly having a "personal relationship with Jesus Christ" might actually be of some help to me and make some difference in my life.

Eventually I came to the realization that my supposedly "having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ" never did help me in any definite way in the real world, and never did help me in enabling me to better deal with any source of pain, frustration, or unhappiness or any difficult situation in my life. I eventually came to realize that I needed to part company with the Christian faith, and I am happy about having done so, and having absolved myself of any duties and obligations specifically imposed by the Christian faith (as opposed to those incumbent on any good or moral person). I am as certain as I am of anything that this was the right and healthy thing for me to do.

One of the big problems that Christianity did not help me with was my very difficult relationship with my very dominating, judgmental, and occasionally abusive (especially emotionally and psychologically) father (though he did sometimes do some very good things, and was far from being the worst father anybody ever had). I think the commandment to "honor your father and mother", which in the biblical text is unconditional and makes no exception if one's parents were or are abusive or otherwise not deserving of honor, is one of those things in the supposedly inspired and error free "Word of God" that is definitely wrong.

If anything there should be a commandment for parents to treat their children with dignity and respect, that they (the children) might come to treat themselves and others with dignity and respect.