CHRISTIANITY DEFROCKED
My Top 10 List of Myths
 
  Myth Buster: If I believed the following 10 points, I wouldn’t want to know God.  
 
Introduction: There is renewed interest in spiritual matters in this country at the moment. One of the side effects of a recession and financial uncertainty is that people begin to question their lives. God often chooses such times to reveal himself to those who seek him. People all around are becoming dissatisfied with their lives and are looking for alternatives. Many more would be interested in God if it weren’t for the myths and misunderstandings that perpetually do the rounds under the guise of truth. This whole web site is aimed at busting some of those myths. Below is a list of the ten most popular beliefs, comments and arguments that I personally have encountered while chatting to people about God. I have answered in the same way I reply person to person. I hope you find this interesting. 

1.  The Holy Bible is not accurate, has been translated so many times, has been changed by the church, is a fairy tale etc etc. This debate rages round and round in ever decreasing circles. On this page I am not going to enter into this debate but instead I will ask you a question.      
      “If you use this argument do you intend to believe it for the rest of your life?” If the answer is “Yes”, then we have just saved ourselves hours of fruitless debate.  If you are not sure, can I make a suggestion? Try it out. Try reading the Bible. Pick it up and say to God, “If you do exist, please speak to me as I read this book”. It might not happen straight away, but God does promise that everyone who seeks him will find him. What have you got to lose? At the worst you will have a bit more knowledge to bring to the debate. At the best you could have your name written in heaven. I have written more on how to read it in the section on the Holy Bible. 

2.  Religion causes all wars. I can’t begin to tell you how many times I have heard this one. Sorry to say this is not true. War is mostly caused by men (rarely women) or groups of men who want power, wealth or land. Men who hate and are full of evil and have the power to unleash that hatred and evil on others. Well why not blame religion and give it all some respectability? Why not use religion so we can manipulate people to fight for their faith against the enemy, rather than give their lives fighting for a despot?
Sometimes men do go to war for right reasons, those reasons being to bring about the downfall of evil regimes, so innocent people will not be slaughtered and abused. But I wouldn’t say that religion causes those wars.
I know we can debate how in the Old Testament God told his people to go to war so they could take the Promised Land. How he was ruthless in his instruction not to allow any survivors. This was because of the awful practices these people took part in, such as child sacrifice, worship and prostitution to demon gods and God did not want his chosen people corrupted by these practices.
These days God calls his people to go to war on their knees, using prayer as the tools for change. 

There is, however, one spiritual war raging even as we speak. The war over your life. God wants you, Satan hates you. Who will win? 

3.  I am a Christian. I am amazed at how many people profess to be a Christian but have absolutely no relationship with a living, loving God. I have addressed the Bible’s definition in How to become a Christian and this might cause offence. But if this is you, I have to ask you a question. If you don’t know and love Jesus Christ, why on earth would you want to have his name on your life? Acknowledging that you might not be a Christian could be the starting point of an incredible walk with God. 

4.  How can a loving God allow so much suffering? This really is a tricky question as I don’t wish to use tragedies or people’s losses to debate issues. But is it fair that God gets blamed for everything bad that happens to us, while never getting thanked for all the good things in our lives? Satan loves it when God is blamed for horrific things which he, Satan, has in fact instigated and encouraged mankind to do. Things like wars, attacks, crimes, abuse.
We ask, “How can God allow this to happen to me?” Let’s turn this around and ask “Why does God allow me to do wrong to others?” If you have never hurt anyone, stolen, cheated, lied, fought, cursed or gossiped about anyone, then you are excused from this question. But if we are totally honest we all know that somewhere down the road we have caused someone suffering. So why didn’t God stop us? How would he have stopped us? Would we have wanted him to stop us?
“But it was only a little thing”, you argue. “But it was only a few times. But they wouldn’t have missed it. But they deserved it.”
Whatever we say, we have caused suffering. It’s just that some of us have got more power so we can cause more suffering. Some of us have enormous power and we can cause suffering to lots of people. If God was to stop everyone from causing suffering to others, then we would all be in trouble. 

Of course natural disasters cause much suffering. Some of these can be prevented or lessened if mankind did the right thing and took greater care. But the fact of life is that we live on a live planet and we have to co-exist with some of the things it throws up. I am amazed at how tragedies bring out the very best in some people but the very worst in others. 

Another cause of suffering is sickness and ill health. How can God allow this? Another fact of life is that we live in ageing bodies. Bodies that are so complex and incredible it surprises me that more doesn’t go wrong with them. The human body actually was not built to suffer and the reason it does is due to “The Fall” as described in The Skeleton. When sin entered the world, it brought with it decay and death and we are all under the physical curse of that Fall. God however has provided an answer in Jesus and when he was on earth he healed many diseases. The Church which is described as Jesus’ representative on earth has been instructed to pray for the sick. If you are sick, or if someone you know is, go and ask your local church to pray for you, and if they won’t, then go to one that will.  

God sometimes does allow suffering. Maybe that is the only way that we stubborn people will even consider turning to him. Sometimes our suffering helps us become much more caring understanding people, willing to help others. Suffering can bring real depth into our lives that wouldn’t have been there without it. When Lazarus died, Jesus wept, and then he went and raised him from the dead. A world without suffering is impossible, but if you are suffering today why don’t you ask God to be with you, supporting you through it? 

5.  I do lots of good things. Fantastic. But that is not what God wants from you. Let me tell a simple story. Boy meets girl and falls in love. She sends him, gifts, flowers, love letters, does his garden when he’s at work, but will not go out with him. She doesn’t want to be with him. Boy enjoys the gifts at first but actually wants her, not her presents. He wants to spend time with her, to love her, to hold her. Are you getting the picture? God doesn’t want your good deeds. He wants YOU. And when he has you, he hopes you will do good deeds. 

6. Christianity is for women and children. There is a perception that Christian men are wimps. It is true that some Christian men are gentle but what they lack in macho image they often make up for in honesty and security in who they are. Jesus himself was gentle, but not afraid to say the most outrageous things and brave enough to die on a cross when he could have opted not to. At one church we had an American Football team and we played local pub teams. I remember one match where the opposition mistakenly thought we would be gentle and it remains a fond memory of all the nose bleeds and groans of pain as bodies emerged from the very first scrimmage. There is a kind of belief in our culture that it’s good for men to be aloof, macho and uncaring. God doesn’t agree with that. He is looking for heroes – always was. For more see God and Men.  

7.  I’ve been christened. I think it’s good when newborn babies are prayed for and committed to God. But this does not make anyone a Christian. Many people fill in hospital forms etc by ticking Church of England. Unfortunately Church of England is not an option in the Bible, neither is Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, Salvation Army, Pentecostal etc. God only recognises born again committed Christians. People who have chosen to believe in Jesus, repented from their sin and been baptised (not infant baptism). See How to become a Christian. As a committed son/daughter of God you can then ask him which denomination he wishes you to become a member of. 

8.  I’m too busy or I’ll do it just before I die. In this society most of us do lead very busy lives. But if only I could show you what you are missing by being too busy for God or waiting for a last gasp salvation. The best I can do is write this and hope you will make time to seek God’s face. It will blow your socks off. (This phrase is not in the Bible). 

9.  I believe in God. 88% of the world’s population believe in God. But believing in God is an active thing. Truly believing in Jesus means you have to act. There was a tightrope walker who crossed over the Niagara Falls. The story goes that he had a special wheelbarrow made and asked the cheering crowd “Do you believe I can cross with this wheelbarrow?” “Yes”, they roared. He asked them again and the answer was the same. “Then who will come and sit in this wheelbarrow?” he asked. Silence ensued, except for one man who came forward to volunteer. Actually he was the only one who really believed.
Believing in God is not enough. Satan and all of his fallen angels believe in God. But only people who believe, and repent of their sins and get baptised will be saved. 

10.  My faith is personal.  If you don’t want to talk to someone about God and Jesus this is your perfect excuse. There is no real answer to it without calling some a liar. But a Christian who is living by the Bible will never say this, as Jesus told his followers to go into the entire world and tell everyone. God does understand if you don’t want to be preached at, but he really does want your faith to become a lot more personal. You and him. Father and son/daughter. 

Maybe you are angry at what is written here. Large amounts of Christians in the UK believe that Almighty God is planning to visit this country in the near future, not the second coming but in a way that hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of people will experience his supernatural amazingness, and because of this will choose to follow him. This has happened many times in the past in different places and the word used to describe this is “Revival.” (It’s actually happening in China at the moment). Churches across the UK are praying for this “Revival” and between now and then God will be preparing individuals, Christian or non Christian to meet with him. My prayer is that if you are angry or indignant, then you will get past that to see that Almighty God would love to meet with you and could actually be preparing you for that time.
 

Just a thought: Next time one of these points comes up in conversation, try one of the alternatives and watch the reaction.

  
 

Contact