Evangelical Christian "Plan of Salvation"
If you read the Bible (instead of just listening to preachers), you'll find that it's a jumbled-up repetitious collection of disparate writings.
The name "Deuteronomy" means "the second giving of the law." And the Gospels? More repetition ... it's the Bible, so the different versions of the same story sometimes contradict.
Bear in mind also that it's all made up. That's the main reason for the inconsistencies: no connection with reality or history or truth (or logic).
Which brings us to the evangelical "plan of salvation" that is the basis of the altar call at every Southern Baptist church service and every Billy Graham rally ("Come forward and receive Jesus and get saved"). It comes to us from the writings of Paul in the New Testament.
The operant word in the evangelical Plan of Salvation
(and there are other
plans of salvation
to be found in your Bible) is FORGIVENESS. You sinned; God is angry; you need to get God to forgive you so that you don't spend a trillion years screaming in hell.
But when you look at the details, it turns out that there's no actual "forgiveness."
Let's say that my friend Joe owes me a debt.
Let's say it's $1,000.00.
• Scenario #1:
Joe promises to pay me back on January 12. He works an extra job, sets aside a little bit each week, and on January 12 he brings me the $1,000.00. I am paid. I received my $1,000.00.
No more debt. I've been paid.
• Scenario #2:
Joe promises to pay me on January 12. He can't come up with the money on his own. He goes to a friend and says, "I need $1,000.00 to pay Josh." The friend gives Joe the money. Joe gives it to me on January 12. I am paid. I received my $1,000.00.
No more debt. I've been paid (the money came from somebody other than Joe).
• Scenario #3:
Joe promises to pay me on January 12. January 12 comes and goes, and Joe doesn't show up. No phone call, no email, no letter, no telegram. I think about it, and decide, "Well, let's just forget about it. I forgive him. I hereby cancel Joe's debt."
I was supposed to receive $1,000.00. I was entitled to receive $1,000.00. I ended up receiving nothing. But I've decided that's okay with me. I haven't been paid, but ...
There's no more debt ... because I forgave the debt.
Now if God (Biblegod) were truly a forgiving god, as the Christians claim he is, he would do a Scenario #3 as far as my "sins" are concerned.
But he doesn't. What he does is Scenario #2.
He demands payment of the debt ("Jesus paid it all")! God doesn't FORGIVE anything.
Receiving payment for a debt - demanding payment for a debt - is not the same as FORGIVING the debt.
A forgiving God would look down at me here on earth ... he'd see me drinking, swearing, blaspheming, fornicating, and cheating on my taxes, and he'd say, "I forgive him. No charge for these sins. No penalty. In fact, I really love that guy." That would be forgiveness.
And no Messiahs would have to die. Nobody would have to bleed. Nothing medieval would have to happen.
Evangelical Christian doctrine (the substitutionary death of Jesus) is proof that God is NOT a "forgiving" god. He's not a loving Cosmic Care Bear. He's just like Vinnie the Loan Shark: "Pay me, or else. You come up with the dough, or get the dough from somebody else, but one way or the other ... PAY. Or you'll be VERY sorry."
It's the opposite of forgiveness. It is exactly what forgiveness is not.
"God is love?" Bullshit. God is Vinnie the fucking Loan Shark.
True forgiveness is something that I do that God apparently can't do.
I can give you a list of people who owe me money who never paid me (and never will). I just let it go.
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"And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you." - Ephesians 4:32 So how did God forgive me? By demanding that somebody be killed. The only way God could forgive me was after a blood sacrifice (Heb. 9:22). Those are his rules. And now I am required to "forgive" people "just as in Christ God forgave me"???? Is that really how he wants me to forgive other people? Per Eph. 4:32, does God want me to require an innocent person to bleed and suffer before I'll forgive something? |
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