Guided by History
sent in by Derek
Well my story begins much like everyone else’s; I was brought up in a catholic church to begin with until I was about 11. Then one day my mother decided to take us to a Pentecostal church because she liked the atmosphere and the friendly nature of the people who went there. Unlike the Catholic Church we had previously attended.
Anyways I would attend church Thursday, Saturday bible study, Sunday morning service and Sunday night service and I was an Active member of youth group until about 19 years of age. I had always been raised thinking that the Bible was the "True Word of God" and that it was infallible. I read the Bible day in a day out believing that Jesus was truly the son of God and that he died for my sins. I would argue with kids in school who didn't believe or kids who called me a bible thumper but I didn't care I stood by my beliefs.
Well as time passed I slowly stopped attending church but continued to pray and read the Bible. I had accepted Jesus as my personal savior so I figured that it wouldn't matter if I didn't attend church regularly as long as I kept praying and reading the Bible. Then one day I saw a movie called Stigmata and at the end of the movie it talked about scrolls that were found called the Dead Sea Scrolls. They also talked about how the Catholic Church denied the authenticity of these scrolls calling them heresy.
Well I researched it along with some gospels called the Gnostic Gospels and I was stunned at what I found. It took me a while but I began to realize that the Jesus who I had known may not have been the Jesus that really existed; rather his stories were fabricated by the early founders of the Church. As time moved on I read more and more about how Christianity had many contradictions and that the Bible was indeed fallible. I also came to a harsh realization that Man had in fact written the Bible....Not God.
I continued Reading on going through such books at Holy Blood Holy Grail and the Messianic Legacy and while I don't necessarily believe everything in them it gave me a clearer picture of who Jesus might have really been. Instead of a Peace loving Savior of man...He may have been a Militant King who got his story changed around. The one thing that really made me think about this theory was the book of Luke 22:36 where Jesus tells his Disciples to do what ever is necessary to obtain swords. Then as Jesus was being arrested Peter cut off the guard’s ear....the thing that didn't sit right with me is if these guys were so peaceful then why were they using swords? Also I found out that the translation of the Bible from Aramaic to Greek to English caused it to get skewed from what it really was. And when the Romans sent out a group of men to get Jesus they didn't send out 10 or 15 but rather 600 men.
This isn't found in the Bible but literal Roman history — a side of the story that many people don't get a chance to look at. So since then I have come to realize that what I had previously thought to be truth was in fact nothing more then a series of elaborate fairy tales....I continue to search for the truth but I have no doubts in my mind that Christianity isn't the truth.
San Antonio
Texas
USA
How old were you when you became a Christian? 9
How old were you when you ceased being a Christian? 21
What churches or organizations or labels have applied to you? 2
What labels, if any, would you apply to yourself now? Agnostic
Why did you become a Christian? Family thing to do
Why did you de-convert? Studied the true beginnings of Christianity.
email: Rnwbman at yahoo dot com
Well my story begins much like everyone else’s; I was brought up in a catholic church to begin with until I was about 11. Then one day my mother decided to take us to a Pentecostal church because she liked the atmosphere and the friendly nature of the people who went there. Unlike the Catholic Church we had previously attended.
Anyways I would attend church Thursday, Saturday bible study, Sunday morning service and Sunday night service and I was an Active member of youth group until about 19 years of age. I had always been raised thinking that the Bible was the "True Word of God" and that it was infallible. I read the Bible day in a day out believing that Jesus was truly the son of God and that he died for my sins. I would argue with kids in school who didn't believe or kids who called me a bible thumper but I didn't care I stood by my beliefs.
Well as time passed I slowly stopped attending church but continued to pray and read the Bible. I had accepted Jesus as my personal savior so I figured that it wouldn't matter if I didn't attend church regularly as long as I kept praying and reading the Bible. Then one day I saw a movie called Stigmata and at the end of the movie it talked about scrolls that were found called the Dead Sea Scrolls. They also talked about how the Catholic Church denied the authenticity of these scrolls calling them heresy.
Well I researched it along with some gospels called the Gnostic Gospels and I was stunned at what I found. It took me a while but I began to realize that the Jesus who I had known may not have been the Jesus that really existed; rather his stories were fabricated by the early founders of the Church. As time moved on I read more and more about how Christianity had many contradictions and that the Bible was indeed fallible. I also came to a harsh realization that Man had in fact written the Bible....Not God.
I continued Reading on going through such books at Holy Blood Holy Grail and the Messianic Legacy and while I don't necessarily believe everything in them it gave me a clearer picture of who Jesus might have really been. Instead of a Peace loving Savior of man...He may have been a Militant King who got his story changed around. The one thing that really made me think about this theory was the book of Luke 22:36 where Jesus tells his Disciples to do what ever is necessary to obtain swords. Then as Jesus was being arrested Peter cut off the guard’s ear....the thing that didn't sit right with me is if these guys were so peaceful then why were they using swords? Also I found out that the translation of the Bible from Aramaic to Greek to English caused it to get skewed from what it really was. And when the Romans sent out a group of men to get Jesus they didn't send out 10 or 15 but rather 600 men.
This isn't found in the Bible but literal Roman history — a side of the story that many people don't get a chance to look at. So since then I have come to realize that what I had previously thought to be truth was in fact nothing more then a series of elaborate fairy tales....I continue to search for the truth but I have no doubts in my mind that Christianity isn't the truth.
San Antonio
Texas
USA
How old were you when you became a Christian? 9
How old were you when you ceased being a Christian? 21
What churches or organizations or labels have applied to you? 2
What labels, if any, would you apply to yourself now? Agnostic
Why did you become a Christian? Family thing to do
Why did you de-convert? Studied the true beginnings of Christianity.
email: Rnwbman at yahoo dot com
Comments
You will also find the Internet to be a wealth of knowledge starting with this site and http://www.infidels.org and http://www.ffrf.org as well as others.
Here are links to two of my more favorite articles and authors about Christianity:
The Truth About Jesus (compares Jesus to Apollo whose myth preceded Jesus' by several hundred years)
http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/m_m_mangasarian/truth_about_jesus.html
Joseph Wheless' Forgery In Christianity
http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/joseph_wheless/
I think if gnostic christianity had spread over the world rather than standard christiantiy our civilisations would be so much more peaceful and enlightened by now (it at least couldn't be used as justification for political power, military conquests, manipulative moral codes and oppressive laws -which is probably why it was exterminated).
http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/joseph_wheless/
M.M. Mangasarian's Truth About Jesus
http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/m_m_mangasarian/truth_about_jesus.html
This gruesome and ridiculous doctrine is is way beyond flawed for any thinking and compassionate
human being.
I'll take gnostic wisdom over literalist churchianity anyday!The latter is an insult to intelligence
in general,..(human or super-human).
Where on earth did you read that the Romans sent 600 men to take Jesus? If this reference exists it may be the only extant piece of evidence that Jesus ever existed! Please tell us where you found this.
Sometimes, doing your homework really pays off.
I've read that too (in Holy Blood, Holy Grail I believe - although one has to read that book with a large grain of salt)
It's not a reference to some obscure historical piece, but simply that in the original text of the Bible it says that a 'cohort' was sent to arrest Jesus. A 'cohort' is a miltitairy term which denotes a group of 480 men. But since Judea had Auxiliary troops and not regular troops a cohort consisted of 600 men.
he also denounced catholic church for abuse of credulity and replacement of person.