It's painful to lose your religion 💔 but, after awhile things begin to clear and your mind becomes calm - finally Ha! No longer worrying about a God angry with you because you didn't do "something"for him
The concept of hell itself was the biggest issue I had. Taken to its logical conclusion, most people who have ever existed will be tortured for all of eternity for being born, even though they were born “sinful” and it was nothing they had any control over. I would still have to be a Christian if I thought that was true though. Ultimately, I’m no longer Christian because I don’t think it is true
Truthfully, me as well. It wasn’t the contradictions, the false promises, the guilt, the shame, the historical inaccuracies, the scientific flaws. Those things were apart of it but all were minuscule compared to eternal torture in a fiery furnace for finite sins and/ or unbelief.
I’m a former 47 year Christian fundamentalists. Teacher, Deacon, Elder, Evangelist. I reached the point where I simply couldn’t reconcile Grace and eternal punishment in Hell. I found Bart Ehrman, when I was searching for answers, and read every book he’s written. I left religion after reading just one of his books. Ultimately, I became convinced that ALL religions are manmade and function like cults. I’m so much happier without religion in my life.
You should have obeyed the gospel you preached and repented of your sins. If you don't repent you stay in the realm of belief and don't pass to the realm of personal experience by being born again.
@@Jesuslordoflords-y4mDo you think that in the course of over 40 years as a Christian, he never repented of his sins? Seriously, what kind of joke is your comment?
@weirdwilliam8500 someone who is born again won't be deceived so easily by personal opinions because he has the Holy Spirit. When you don't have the Holy Spirit you stay in the realm of belief, so someone can convince you to believe in something else because you never went to the realm of personal experience.
@@Jesuslordoflords-y4m What you’re saying isn’t even coherent. It sounds like you’re saying you need a magic ghost to possess you and alter your thoughts so that nothing can ever change your mind again. That sounds like a horror movie, as well as ignorant superstition, gaslighting, and a flimsy defense mechanism that lets you believe that everyone who disagrees with you is morally compromised or dishonest. Classic cult mentality. Free yourself.
I love the Anne Frank example because it really makes Christians uncomfortable when you force them to respond with “Well, Anne Frank chose to send herself to Hell”. It’s amazing how religion is the last set of ideas that can cause so many good people to continually defend and justify horrific things.
Anybody who thinks he'll is a place of eternal burning torment, is a complete fool, filled by clergy, or Satan, take your pick, since YOU DON'T READ THE BIBLE, or know what hell is.
I claim to have left religion for one reason. I grew up christian. At 18, I decided I had no experience with god. I spent three years trying to get God's attention. Then I spent ten years searching for evidence of god. At the end of my search, I realized that all the observations I collected makes sense IF I take the idea of god out of the picture.
I have forever left organized religion of all types, especially Christianity. Every fervent follower I have ever known was something of a lunatic to some degree or another. I walk and talk with God all on my own, I don't need the Big Jesus Fan Club anymore.
I have met so many people that don't "do church" that are honorable and simply nice. As for those "in the church", well, that is different. Smile in your face, then backbite, gossip, cheat, and other nasty things. I had my own problems, but there were several churches I attended where I was 'ghosted', to use a new term. One time I was leaving for a short-term mission trip to Scotland and there was no send off, not prayers. I didn't drive to church that day, because my car was 'down', and I was left alone standing on the curb. Everybody just left me standing there. Two years later I went on another trip (nine weeks of Christian youth camp) and almost the same thing. When I got home, I packed up and left without a word. Then they started wondering where I went. I maintained my faith, but that may have been the beginning of a long slow slide away from Church and Faith.
I have heard far too many anecdotes on "religious" people who are nasty in their personal lives/their behavior regularly violated religious doctrine despite attending church every week etc. to believe that all religious people are good, but I have personally known a few quietly religious, humble people who are genuinely decent people.
@@mender722 I’m sorry you were ghosted by your church community. I’ve never felt more free than with my atheist beliefs. No backbiting, gossiping, shaming, threat of hell, fire and damnation and happiest of no grifting 💰💰💰. When I die, I’m most happy to return to dust! I’m no longer afraid. When I want company I turn on You Tube LOL.
I’m sorry you had those experiences. Thank you for sharing. It helps me understand you and others and be more hospitable to everyone despite my rather cold or sometimes apathetic exterior.
@@godfreydebouillon8807If I may interject, how is it not? It originates in the middle east from thousands of years ago where belief in signs and miracles was common. These miracles don't happen today despite continued belief in them. That would seem to indicate folklore.
@razorbeard6970 Well, if you understand the Minimal Facts Argument, just as a simple example, it's most definitely NOT a "fable", in any sense of the word. What this means, is if you look at a secular organization, as an example, such as The Society of Biblical Literature, which is composed of about 6,000 scholars on Near-East and Biblical literature, Greek Textual Criticism, archaeology etc, and includes Christians, Jews, agnostics, atheists and literally everything in between (famous atheist scholars like Bart Ehrman, John Dominic Crossan, Gerd Ludemann), and literally over 99% consider it a historical fact that Jesus of Nazareth (the one in the Bible) lived, he taught as a rabi, he was crucified on the cross, that all of those people who followed (and many others around Jerusalem), were absolutely convinced He performed miracles, were absolutely convinced He rose from the dead, and that this belief was absolutely certain for enough people around Jerusalem that a group of Romans and Jews (who had nothing to do with each other) to start a new religion. Though it doesn't fall under the Minimal Facts Arguments (bc using that criteria you can only cite facts that literally almost every scholar believes, except for a couple quacks), a VAST majority of these scholars also consider it a fact that Jesus' tomb was empty. Now, does this on its face mean that Jesus *actually* performed miracles, or *actually* rose from the dead? Of course not, but that's where the debate starts, and that simply isn't under the category of scholarship referred to as "fable". Thus for this person to assert that after 36 years it "hit" him, all of a sudden, that it's a fable, means he beclowned himself, because, no, that didn't "hit" him. The only thing that hit him is ignorance about the entire subject. Atheist scholars like Bart Ehrman think these facts can all be written off by "emotional aggrandizement", hallucinations (an amazing number of people claim they have physical and visual experiencess seeing and hearing loved ones after a loss for example). Other scholars like NT Wright, Bruce Metzger (Ehrmans mentor from Princeton University, whom Ehrman says is the greatest New Testament scholar ever) were convinced that the only viable explain is God exists and it was real. Either way, some dude online watching atheist videos and deciding it's all a "fable" just doesn't cut it. That means he simply doesn't understand the nature of what he's talking about.
I can relate to the cognitive dissonance one lives with as a fundamentalist Chrisitan. I finally realized I was an atheist over a dozen years ago. I had been gradually disconnecting from the evangelical belief system for about 10 years. I remember saying to myself, 'if this bible stuff is true, then it HAS to be true in spite of all logic and evidence'. When my girlfriend died of cancer in spite of all the prayers and applying 'blessed' handkerchiefs and all other kinds of bullshit, I struggled, because it HAD to be true. Somehow, I continued on in the 'faith', but it was eroding over time because it was more and more hollow at its core. Cognitive dissonance takes its toll on one's psyche.
I've done extensive buddhist practice, raised evangelical, have hindu, jewish, and muslim family, and I'm currently exploring the mystical veins of Christian practice. Also I'm a trained scientist. Having all these contradictions fuels my desire to touch into something bigger than myself, which in my heart I believe is truly there. I have no idea how I fit in with all the conflicting systems of thought anymore.
The major thing that undid my faith was prayer. It was something I had struggled with pretty much my whole Christian experience. But there came a point where I became utterly incredulous that any part of prayer was sincere, worked, had any kind of power. I also remember distinctly those uncomfortable conversations where I had to give "what we believe" while inwardly hating it. LGBTQ was a big part of those conversations.
Prayer is something big for me too as when I pray I feel and hear and see no change and never get answers to my prayers. Whether it’s an answer I expect or don’t expect, I feel like it’s one sided and unanswered. Then, when bringing this up to other Christian’s I’m met with, this is a test to your faith! Christianity is about believing EVEN without evidence EVEN without answered prayers remaining faithful to him ESPECIALLY when your prayers haven’t been answered! He has your story written so it’s not for you to question why He’s not answering your prayers the way you want! All of these responses just make me wonder:(
How is it possible to rationalize that a place of torture that never ends is a good thing? What purpose can it serve? It serves only one purpose - to frighten you into submission. On the other side of the grave it serves no purpose at all, because it never ends. No one, not even Adolf Hitler, deserves such a fate.
@@joelbrooks3198It's an allegory. John saw a vision in a dream. Ask yourself how tens of billions of non believers can float and fit in a lake of fire? It's an oxymoron to begin with!
For me, the main reason why I left, and couldn’t get past, was the idea of faith. You can take any belief on faith, including false beliefs. People of other religions take their beliefs on faith, but I believed them to be false. However, they could say the exact same thing about my beliefs. It really got me thinking that if they can take their religion on faith and no other reason, and that’s the exact same thing I was doing, then what makes my beliefs true? It all spiraled from there and I left shortly after.
I grew up believing that the Bible was inerrant. I discovered it was not, although much too late. I still resent being lied to by my pastors. This set me down a path of finding the facts.
Yep. That was my ultimate turning point. Watching videos pointing out that the biblical and Jewish idea of the earth was that it's pretty much flat or a snow glob. Once that was pointed out to me and that was obviously wrong then the whole thing is wrong. Realized it was all bs immediately.
Death bed confession has to be the ultimate low. A person goes through his/her entire life, running from the consequences of his/her actions. Then, at death, they "confess" in an attempt to escape the consequences of his/her actions in the afterlife!
Not that I was ever super religious (tried the religion for a few months), like some Christians who spend their entire lives, or even decades in this belief system ... but something someone asked me before made me ponder the whole concept of hell... the question was, "...and you and your god are okay with this?" My initial reaction was shock... like I'd been snapped out of a hypnotic trance... because my first thought was, NO! Then, I became angry at such a religion that would play with people's minds like that.
I was actively deconstructing for a year but the thing that shattered it all for me was the realization that I did not actually believe in an afterlife. That led me to the question of "well, why would Jesus have needed to do what he did then?" and it fell apart from there.
I remember that I knew it wouldn't work because the teachers at my Christian school kept praying over me and nothing would change. I would still have emotional outbursts and I would still have a sweating disorder and I would STILL have to go back home to the house that tried its best to destroy me. And they really thought making a wish was more productive than calling CPS.
When I was a Christian, I dealt with the issue of “the good Buddhist grandmother” by thinking that if God reveals himself through nature to her, and she believes in God to that extent, then she doesn’t need to know about Jesus to go to heaven. But if she were to be visited by missionaries and have the opportunity to accept Jesus and turn it down, then she would go to hell because she made that choice. Eek! That’s such a gross and mean-spirited thing to believe! The thing that made me finally not believe in Christianity anymore was studying the difference between the teachings of Paul and Jesus. I had always made them cohesive in my head, but once I studied them side by side, I felt that my doubts about salvation were reasonable. Paul and Jesus didn’t even agree on what we must do to be saved, and that was always the most important thing to us in my Southern Baptist/Charismatic tradition.
Just curious what you saw as the differences in the Jesus vs Paul version of how to be saved? Even as an evangelical it was sad how little I actually studied the Bible….just let the preacher or devotional cherry pick passages and explain away to save me the trouble. Wish I had been smart enough back then to question the obvious contradictions. A few months ago I decided to read the Bible so I could better defend myself against the evangelicals in my life but wow I had forgotten how poorly written it is and pure torture to follow along. I didn’t last a day.😂
Neither of you were ever saved and you were NEVER Christian ✝️. A CHRISTIAN ✝️ is someone who believes in the risen savior Jesus Christ and to separate Christ from Paul proves that you were NEVER saved because it was Jesus Christ who made Paul an APOSTLE 💯 ! It was Paul who was the last and final apostle, and he was the one who got the saving gospel out to the gentiles!
@@Gfc1980 yes, I also had to study/think about it differently. Sometimes I will spend some time on it, but now it doesn’t feel as urgent as it did when I first deconstructed. Basically, the Bible records Jesus’s teachings on heaven as mostly his followers need to follow him, often by selling their possessions and giving to the poor. He also talks about the same concept in the beatitudes, also the parable of the rich fool who stored up wealth and then died. (Doesn’t specifically talk about heaven, but God was not pleased.) Jesus also talks about entering through the narrow gate (some scholars interpret that to mean “difficult”) leading to eternal life. It isn’t clear what exactly what that means, but it’s in the context of the sermon on the mount where Jesus is talking about themes of mercy, humility, humbleness, and love. Finally, Jesus talks about being born again (to Nicodemus) and “I am the way/path, truth, and life”. Those are the closest to what Paul preached, but when I looked into the context, I wasn’t convinced that lines up with Paul’s idea of salvation. Also, I believe Jesus was an apocalypticist, and he was focused on the imminent return of God, and keeping that in mind really helps make sense of so much. I’ll write another comment contrasting that with Paul after I get my kids to bed 🥱👶👦
@@Gfc1980 … and now for Paul’s letters. First, there are only seven epistles that most scholars believe Paul wrote, so starting with those: 1. Justification and salvation by faith 2. Salvation comes from God’s grace, not our works. 3. When we are saved, our lives are transformed in some way, morally and/or ethically. 4. Paul also talked about resurrection being a goal along with eternal life, and I think he was also apocalyptic, but maybe not quite the same as Jesus (?) I’m not sure how they differed in their apocalyptic beliefs if at all. In the disputed epistles, the writer did focus more on works. Ephesians is a great example of this. There was also some stuff in the epistles that didn’t ever make sense to me, like “women will be saved by childbearing.” It’s really hard to bring that in line with salvation through faith alone. So, in summary, it seems that Jesus connected salvation to ethical living, serving the poor, mercy, and repentance. Paul connected salvation/justification to faith through grace. Some scholars see these views as completely and not contradictory, which is fine, but I feel like if salvation is the most important thing, why would God have put it all in a book that was really a puzzle and that you would have to interpret, piece together, and read between the lines with your own interpretation. And if your interpretation was wrong, then you would go to hell. I feel like if you’re going to err on one side, you should err on the Red Letter side of salvation. Sell everything or live modestly, serve those in need, practice mercy, love, repentance, and do it all radically. Anyway, I’m not a scholar, but these are just my thoughts. 🩷🩷
@@dalithecat Wow, thank you so much for your thorough response. I understand the opposing views on achieving salvation so much better now. BTW I enjoy sci-fi, and after finishing a book or show, I often have so many questions. I usually turn to Reddit to see others' interpretations of the plot, underlying themes, and intended messages. It's a fun but sometimes frustrating process. I feel the same way about the Bible, but even more so, given how many people try to make sense of what seems like a fundamentally flawed premise. Thanks again!
'He named that place Peniel for he saw the face of God.' Only those don't abandon Him see it ❤ May you all find your peace. I wont atep in a church again moat likely ever But I'll never Leave God
What started the process for me was simply asking the question, "could I be wrong?" Then the resulting search to prove to myself that I wasn't (which failed BTW).
Hearing you talk about the altar call near the end of your video, totally gave me anxiety and brought back so many horrible memories of those times. The guilt and fear that those produced for many are beyond shameful. So thankful we are all truly set free from that cultish activity.
My two cents on why I left: Above all else it is because the Bible is in natural error, is contradictory, is unpreserved, and large parts of it are forged.
22:45 I hope you’ll do a video on “worship” and “worship music”. They play on your emotions and you think you experienced Jesus. But you can experience similar feelings when you go to a rock music concert.
There are many examples of music being played in scripture where worship was followed. Lucifer was the one who led music...since his fall the gift remains the same...so the experience in a rock concert will play on your emotions but it uplifts you its a counterfeit experience. Worship goes to God...
What do I struggle with? Everything you mentioned. I was also raised Catholic (fortunately not strict) and have came up with all kinds of questions. Which has brought me to agnosticism. Really enjoyed the video.
Was this bringing politics in the church a fairly recent thing or many years ago? Just wondering as I deconstructed many years ago and don’t recall politics in the church at that time. But now overhearing Christian Network TV 24/7 when visiting my mom, especially right before the election, it is nonstop politics. My mom literally believes all democrats are aligned with the devil. I think politics in the church really took off when same sex marriage became legal around 2015. I believe this politicization is one of the major drivers of declining number of evangelicals in U.S. and why interest in channels like Timmy’s are growing so quickly.
@@Gfc1980 I wonder about this same thing too! I left religion almost 20 years ago, and politics were never a talking point in the churches I attended. I was raised with your common American, evangelical Christian beliefs, and I don’t remember my parents or family ever talking about politics either. I think the grip that right-wing politics has on a lot of US Christians today is way tighter than ever before. It definitely started growing in the 1980’s, particularly with people like Pres. Reagan, Jerry Falwell, and Paul Weyrich. We can absolutely blame them for starting the fire, lol!
I’m so glad I got out before politics really began infecting US Christianity! I can only remember one time anything political was mentioned in church, about 20 years ago, right before I stopped attending and began my deconstruction journey. The pastor who took over the church I’d been attending all throughout high school made a joke that I found equally confusing and offensive. He joked to the congregation about how being a Christian automatically meant you were a Republican. Everyone around laughed and seemed to agree, but I baffled. Throughout my adolescence I’d had a bad opinion of the Republican Party, because all I ever saw or heard about them doing was cutting out funding and benefits from social welfare programs. The programs put into place to help those in need. You know, the things Jesus would have absolutely supported or even started himself. Because of that, I saw the Republican Party as antithetical to the teachings of Christ, the least like Jesus. And I still feel that way towards them!! May they crash and burn!!
@@Ashaliyeva Glad to hear I wasn’t imagining it. What really scares me is the hard core Christian nationalism although I don’t see how the many variants of Christianity would unite. My hardcore evangelical mother wants God back in our government. Meanwhile she regularly criticizes other Christian denominations. Last month, I asked her which of the hundreds of variants of Christianity she would like to see in charge of our government, and how it would square with her Pentecostal beliefs if, for example, it was Catholic or Jehovah’s Witness. I think that question really made her think. I reminded her that the first settlers of America were Christians (Puritans) fleeing persecution by ANOTHER group of Christians (Anglican Church of England).
I feel that anyone who "worships" a leader no matter what political party they identify with, like some messianic figure sent to save or condemn the country, is a sad, misguided human being.
When I was a Christian I didn't believe that non-believers would go to hell, anyway. I believed that only people who genuinely _chose_ hell - when given the chance to choose after death - would go there (I believed we all would get a last chance to choose with full knowledge after death), but that hopefully nobody would be so stupid. I even believed - or at least I hoped - that in the end even Satan would be saved. Also, I didn't believe in the literal truth of the Old Testament. *So what was it for me?* I guess a huge part of it was: the suffering here on earth. I had to believe that even suffering was somehow a manifestation of God's love - that at least the fact that God allowed suffering, was something he did out of love, to draw us to him, to make us let go of what was not of him, to make us surrender totally (and because of free will blah blah). And I came to a point where I couldn't live with such a _toxic_ view of what love is, and what it means to be a "loving Father". There is so much heart wrenching suffering on earth, and no sane parent would make some of their children suffer that horribly out of love. Also, at some point I got the idea to follow/trace some of my feelings back in time to see where they came from, and I did it with my religious feelings about God, too, and then I saw that they were actually projections from my childhood, which made them fall away - and without those strong feelings (that strong longing for a Parent that ignored me), I could see the dogmas and stories of the Bible in a neutral light, and I found they were very unconvincing. And it felt like such a liberation!
Im a "Christian" and I really appreciate the video and the honesty, because you talk alot about stuff we don't talk about in churches. My walk with God is lackluster and I fail God everyday. The only thing that has kept me from departing from my faith are near-death-experiences. There are actually people that have clinically died and experienced the afterlife. There are accounts where someones experience lines up with the bible, but there are also accounts where it's more new age oriented, which often shakes my faith tbh
@ Can you back that up for me? Im actually really interested, because I've heard that the hallucinations of a schizophrenic person also depend on someones culture. For example a shizophrenic that grew up christians might be more inclined to see demons as they are described in the bible, and a shizophrenic muslim might also be more inclined to see demons "Jinns" as they are descirbed in the quran
Your geographic location also matters, the christian god doesn't seem to reveal himself as much in Afghanistan, Thailand or Japan. What a coincidence that God's special people were the Israelites and that he gave his ten commandments only to the Israelites and in their language. That doesn't seems suspicious..
Yes, and none of us asked to be born, or born into a very dysfunctional situation. It's ridiculous to believe that you are better off being forced to make a decision for Christ, than to never have been born.
When I read the bible I saw that it is full of threats. It seemed like an unforgivable waste to live life as a coward driven by fear. It's obvious that something or someone that threatens you is unlikely to be good. That is abusive behaviour.
If God lived down the street with his children and was doing the things to his children as described in the Bible, I would be calling the cops and child protective services on that evil bastard.
For me, the one big thing that solidified my disbelief was not that God created Hell and sends people there, but that Christians would believe it was justified. The question I heard one atheist ask was, "Why would a JUST God send people to an INFINITE punishment for things done in a FINITE life?" On Earth, the punishment for a crime often is aligned with the severity of the crime: you kill someone, you are put to death or you get life in prison. What could we do within our 80-100 years MAX of living to justify thousands and millions and billions--ENDLESS punishment? Especially considering the average person does not partake in the worst of our worst maldoings.
4 minutes into the video, I'm just gonna guess its the problem of evil. Oups! close but wrong again. The stupidity and evil actions of a supposedly all knowing, loving God. That is definitely a tricky one to resolve for believers. The hiddeness of God is probably why I never believed - believing stuff for no good reason just didn't work for me.
My biggest question was why did god wait so long to make everything right. Billions of people never even heard of Jesus. What about them? I was told that Jesus went to hell and saved them there! I was like nah. I still spent a lifetime believing because I was afraid not to.
The story of Jesus' birth ruined it for me. The 3 wise men were to follow a star leading to the manger. Instead, the star stops at King Herods, who asks them to return after they find baby Jesus. They are warned by an angel not to return. Herod gets mad and decides to have male infants 2 and under hacked. This bothered me greatly. I thought, why didn't the crazy angel tell the 3 stooges not to stop at Herods in the first place. Then I realized it was just a makeover story from the Moses passover story. How are people celebrating the birth of a savior that begins with gruesome murders of infants. Make it make sense.
@@jay77777-i If someone is actually true, you don’t need to be in an emotionally needy mood before you can believe it. Also, you shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep.
@@jay77777-i “I promise he will show you…” Are you unaware of all the people who desperately, eagerly pray and hear absolutely nothing back? Or do you have to assume they’re all being dishonest, because your particular version of prayer theology just can’t be wrong? Either way, your promise has been repeatedly and consistently broken, for many of this channel’s subscribers.
I had come into enlightenment over the past few years and realized that we are spiritual beings in a materialistic moment. No religion, just a collective conciousness. We are all one, we are God conciousness.
@@theunknownatheist3815 well, i also tend to not call it ' God' anymore. But there is nothing wrong in believing that ' we are the universe experiencing itsself in endless facets' That is even scientific in some way.
A few more ridiculous things about Christianity: why can't god just straight up forgive people? The jewish god is able to do that. How does jesus taking a dirt nap for a few days a sacrifice? He's not really sacrificing anything. Also, how does a guy receiving a worldly punishment save all of humanity. Many innocent people have been murdered by governments so how is this so much more special. Finally, it would have been a slam dunk for jesus to just stick around for a few hundred years after the resurrection to really prove himself and leave no doubt. Why didn't he do that? Seems like he just died and stayed dead like any regular person.
Timmy puts a smile on my face. I love his kind and humorous approach to his deconstruction and his insight into the craziness of religion. It’s a great grift to those at the top and the folks at the bottom are just bottom feeders to them. That being said, there are plenty of christians who are good people even though I feel their beliefs are misguided. I too was a full blown bible thumper 🙀😵💫
Ironically I studied cults as a believer but could never imagine I was in one the whole time. It was the Mormons and JWs and the Seventh Day weirdos I thought.
My deconstruction started with deconstructing from the left versus right paradigm and becoming an anarchist. Then I felt shame for that because of Romans 13. Then I learned about Romans 12, which is the same letter as Romans 13. Romans 12 literally tells us not to do all the things that are evil government does so I started doing my own research into Romans, 13 and quickly realized that the indoctrination of it’s your biblical duty to vote and participate in government was actually very incorrect. Then I learned that cuss words are just a tradition of man and is not actually spoken about in the Bible yet they tell us they are sinful. So I thought to myself if they are lying about this what else are they lying about? I then learned that modern Christianity is just misinterpreted Bible verses. Only then was I able to see the horrors of the Old Testament.
My deconstruction wasn't because of one thing, but there were probably two issues that started my doubts. It's not like I never had questions early on, but the beginning of the end for me was seeing good, well meaning, faithful members of the church getting sick and dieing. I was on the prayer team and saw peoole dieing of cancer, ALS, etc. Doesn't "Father" God care? My own father got colon cancer at 55. After radiation treatments he said that he had been healed. Well, 5 years later the same cancer came back as stomach cancer, and he passed away at age 61. His whole life was about serving God. The other issue had to do with frustration over not getting clear direction from God. Who is going to be my wife? What should I do for a living?, etc. In my late 20's when I was having trouble in all areas of life, My Dad asked me. "Have you turned your life over to Jesus?" Instead of figuring out what was best for me in life I kept "waiting on God" for answers and direction. I waited my life away.
3:11 'Cognitive dissonance' is the term I learned. Felt the same, that tug between blind faith and basic logic vis a vis morals. Many resolve it by simply ignoring it. Others, like us, are compelled to keep using our supposedly god given minds to keep asking questions. Theists will say we weren't listening for answers, but they don't know our years of tearful prayer, begging for understanding, or even the purest prayer request possible - just more faith to keep believing despite the questions. If a loving 'god' denies even that, then either it isn't a loving god, or Occam's Razor - nobody's there.
@kermitthorson9719 Sex is binary. There's male and there's female. You cannot change your sex. Lots of people don't like their sex; lots of people wish they were the opposite sex, but they are, for better or worse, permanently a member of the sex they were born as. Scientific fact 👆
Hey Timmy, do you think we could get a video on Church International in Warrior, AL? HUGE culty vibes and weird stuff going on in Warrior. Would be a great video!
Here's a few: 1. Except for professed beliefs, the religious are just as obsessed with their Earthly bodies, finances, sex and survival as anyone else. No "changed hearts" here. 2. Scripturally promised powers over sin, disease and death through Christ, that simply need to be believed and claimed in his name rarely (if ever) work. Those that do can be easily credited to favorable odds, surprising human competence or just plain dumb luck. 3. A "Loving Creator" makes a universe "fine tuned for life." Yet about 95% of it is a vast, heavily irradiated void at -455'F. The rest is a chaotic mess of gas, dust, rubble and lethally radioactive objects. And except for this rock, no other signs of life yet (in a universe fine tuned for life). Need I list more?
When I started questioning accountability as it pertained to g..........it was fairly easy after that. "Who are you to question g?" would be the push back. "We have to be VERRRRRRY careful when questioning the bible" WHYYYYYYYYY?????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The same people had no issues questioning everyone else and their belief but I ask these two things and suddenly I'm falling away and stirring up trouble. I'M FREEE........After 43 years of this nonsense I'm truly FREEEEEEE!
@timmygibsonkc : The bible is truth and Jesus says in John 14:6 that he is the truth and the only way to the Father and in John 8:12 that he is the light of the world and that whoever follows him will not be in darkness but have the light of life 🌎! There is a hell to shun and a heaven to recieve and Jesus is the only way to the heaven.
For me, it was a lot of separate things, but my end-game was as a Messianic, trying to deal with the feast calendar thing. Everyone had a different 57-page pdf reckoning of it to where it was just ridiculous. One day I threw up my hands and said "Any reasonable god would make his commanded feast days absolutely plain!"
The word hell did not come from the Biblical languages (Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic), like hades, gehenna, tartarus, and sheol. This is copied from page 1137 of the first volume of the New Standard Dictionary. Funk & Wagnalls. 1938. It says: "Although now almost universally applied to the state and place of eternal punishment, the word was originally used in the same sense as Hades, meaning the underworld, the abode of the departed, and in ancient Norse mythology Hel was the unlovely goddess of the sunless region to which the souls of those unworthy of Valhalla were relegated." The word "hell" is actually an extra Biblical word that was inserted into the English Bible. When the word "hell" was adopted into the English language its spelling went from "Hel" spelled with one "L" to two "L's", now spelled as "hell" I don't know why translators have done this, but it was wrong. Even my preferred translation The New American Standard Bible (1995) does this. In 2 Peter 2:4, it should say Tartarus but instead they use the word "hell". In Mark 9: verses 45 and 49 it should say gehenna but instead they use the word "hell". As a Christian myself, I cannot in good conscience give a good and solid answer as to what happens to a nonbeliever when they pass on. I’ve concluded that the Bible simply doesn’t tackle this issue of what happens in the afterlife. I know there are fellow believers that would vehemently disagree with me on this point. But it is what it is.
@@Garrison169 Ever since I became a Preterist, this has affected the way I see Scripture. The passages that support the idea of a "hell", are not talking about the afterlife. Yes, I strongly believe that we are separated from God due to the gult our have been put on us. And who come to faith in Christ are no long held to this guilt. It's the afterlife is where I have an issue.
If, according to the Bible and Christian belief, only a few people will go to heaven while the majority end up in hell, doesn't that imply the devil is winning and more powerful than God, since he manages to deceive more people?😀😀😀
Still deconstructing but ive been back and forth for probably 10 years. The big thing for me was the emptiness, I craved "gods word" be the more I asked questions the more i was told to pray/read scripture/have more faith/ or my favorite those questions are the devil tempting you (In Timmys pastor voice 😆) The alter calls just started to feel empty and scripted. Even the worship started feeling kinda culty.
Also, considering that the vast majority of evangelicals are single, what about all of the lonely nights after you go home after a singles event to an empty apartment
God does not judge you or condemn you because of your non-belief in Christ. We are condemned because of sin. Romans 3. The issue here is a clear lack in theological understanding. I was the same for about 20 years. And then I read the Bible and realized what it actually meant to be a christian. Not to mention, NO ONE can determine whether or not someone else is condemned or saved.
@@johnsonunityour insults wont work with me. True christianity is about love. What a lot of people are exposed to, including this gentleman, is false prophesy, fake religion, and a colt-like organization putting on the image of Christianity. Which is dangerous in that it ultimately leads people away from Christ. Hardly anything this person said was theologically sound.
Your god created a creature that could become sinful. The responsibility to fix it is not mine, it is your creator's. Anyone who believes that an eternity of torture is a good thing, has no empathy.
@ an eternity of torture is not a good thing lol thats like saying your child committed a crime but you the parent are responsible because you created a child that could commit a crime.
The older that I get, the more appalled I get about Christian _eternal torment in hell_ beliefs. First, no one who has ever lived deserves *eternal* punishment for their *finite* wrongs. No one should be punished in the afterlife AT ALL because they don't believe in the "correct" version of Christianity at the time of their deaths. Finally, how could anyone other than a sociopath imagine themselves as being "eternally blissful" in heaven knowing that family, friends or even total strangers are being endlessly tormented at the same time?
I completely understand this. I kind of knew something was wrong when I had to go through communion classes at the age of six and was told about the love of god, but at the same time about the wrath of god, when us little kids had black little spots on our souls and were told we would go to hell. (On a side note, I have to mention that my parents never went to church, and my brother, who was 7 years older, also ran away from the church. So my sister and I, we're stuck with this fearmongering religion of roman catholic nature.) I remember afterwards the girl behind me, throwing up her lunch. I am denominational. I also don't call myself a christian.Because I do not believe that he is the only way to get to the Source. I had a bad conscience about it for very long time because I was still influenced by the fearmongering of the catholic church. But after some profound spiritual experiences and two of my friends having near death experiences which were so similar in nature, but very individualized for that person, I realized that jesus does not even want us to think that way. Everybody is welcome of every religion and atheists etc. I finally feel more relieved of thinking the way or believing the way I do now without the fear of a religious wrath. I believe that there is a great spiritual awakening, happening, and people are moving away from churches or religion. Love ❤
my main path out of the indoctrination i started on learning about ancient religions. somehow the 90s when i grew up was fascinated with Greek mythology. i learned about Hercules and the stories of that culture. but they were always portrayed as stories or myths, so when i finally learned that these were more than literature but actually what a very large population of the world believed as much as what my parents believed in jesus....it broke when i was young, like 3rd grade i started questioning. catholic school is a tool tho. kept me assuming that christianity was just the default. i started revisiting those thoughts in later highschool and college. interjection, learned my parents were firmly homophobic and i was firm pro pride when i was 15,... in a burger king.... my internship was spent looking up reddit atheism. so i like to personally thank Kevin Sorbo hollywood's d star for making me atheist. because he taught me that fables are just man made and that applies to your parents fables too. at this point im an atheist, apistevist, and antitheist. i do not believe in any of the man made gods, i think faith is the worst position to hold, and i believe the religions are doing active harm to our species.
God made man, not the other way around. Just look at the complexity in anything at all, look at the order of the design. Look at the beauty in nature, even in death look at the blood, the color is beautiful. Did man make all of this to? No, you have to truly be a fool if you say in your heart, "God doesn't exist."
"Hell" is not a word or place in the Bible. This concept of an eternal place of torment came from Greek mythology and was never even a thought in the Old Testament. "Sheol" or "Hades" is the grave, and "Gehenna" (Jesus spoke of it) was a place of burning and child sacrifice outside Jerusalem. (The judgment He spoke of was the fiery destruction of Jerusalem and the temple of the "synagogue of satan" in AD 70, which was destoryed forever! He called the religious vipers!). To translate Sheol, Hades, and Gehenna, these three words as a place called "hell" is not even biblical. Lazarus and the rich man was a parable about how to live - not about a real place called hell! All religion is cultish and manmade. It divides humanity. Jesus is not religious. He is love....and He can reach anyone anywhere in any country or in any religion through His Holy Spirit!
@@Garrison169 Look at the Greek and "Hebrew" (Hebrew was a dead language and was reengineered in the first century by the Pharisees - his enemies with an agenda!). There is no word hell in the original language.
@@Garrison169 I died from a racing spill in Saratoga (I was a jockey; my autobiography is Racing With My Shadow on Amazon). I left my body. It is all about LOVE. That is all that matters and is eternal! Please don't turn from God because of religious cults! He is REAL! (I don't do religion or church, but I do have a personal relationship with Him!)
I've experienced unkind behaviour from people who call themselves "Christians". I'm still Christian, with respect for other people's belief systems. Cyra xxxx
I was a Christian for 30 years, converted at like 6 in AWANAs even though I remember (I am neurodivergent so I have very early memories) that at like 3 or 4 I knew I wanted to convert but I knew that I was “too young” so I needed to wait. When I was a young adult I remember asking an elder in tears how did I know I was a real Christian (we were calvinists).
If only there was a Church who has already answered these questions for thousands of years. This distilling Christianity down to Heaven and Hell is a much more recent development. It has resulted in winning souls instead of healing and caring for them. Christianity is about God incarnate creating an overlap between Heaven and Earth, here and now.
Why read Augustine and Aquinas when you can just read the works of Ole Jebediah Schmidt, the founder of my denomination, who did some figur'n back in '29 and through the Holy Ghost taught him what the Bible is "really" sayin, bc it's "right there in black and white?" I guess if I ever figure out ole Smitty didn't really understand anything, I'll "deconstruct", get a bunch of tattoos, smoke dope and start sleeping around.
I think this is the problem in the world today and the cause of so much conflict and bloodshed. That evangelicals feel it is their duty to convert other people to their way of thinking. As a species we need to move beyond this. Thank you for sharing brother.
One night I was pumping gas at a gas station. A Porsche drove up and parked about 15 feet in front of me. Suddenly..... WHOOOSH!!!!! it exploded into a giant fireball. It was a heck of a scene with that happening at a gas station. Near the gas pumps. His car had a gas leak and the fumes exploded the car into a fireball. So... with that as something that I have experienced.... If you were sitting in your car and I walked by it and saw and smelled that it was leaking gas... would it be my duty to inform you that your car was leaking gas? I think the answer would be yes. Any true Christian knows that God exists and they BELIEVE that there is a Heaven of amazing wonderfulness to be gained and a Horrific Hell to be avoided. Of course they are going to desire that someone avoid the latter just like I would desire you to avoid driving a car that was leaking gasoline.
What happens when your on this page. When You agree with everything in this video, but God actually revealed himself to you 10 years ago when he miraculously saved my family from carbon monoxide poisoning. There were real bonafide unexplainable miracles, and I know it was God. Now I have had a few other miracles like this, and then the rest of my life has been somewhat normal. If I am honest over time I start to forget. Or I want to explain it away by trying to find natural causes for the things that happened(there aren't). But yet when I hear modern day Christians, the 'spirit' within me cries out insanity! The Jesus I met who saved me... doesn't match up with the Christian Religion. How the hell do I process or deconstruct my faith, considering I heard from God directly? So much of Christianity is so wrong, but where do I go? I can't reject Jesus outright, or go to another church. I am simply (IMO) going to have to live out my life honoring the miracles I had and understanding that whatever force that saved me, even if it was through an old testament prayer(prayer of Gideon), is not the one current Christians point at, pray to, or serve. I am really concerned Jesus is true, and I pray he can protect me from his 'false church'. If anyone would want to hear what happened, the miracles I experienced, please message me and I will share. If it didn't happen to me I wouldn't believe it. Yet my testimony has some sort of power being based in truth, and all who hear it declare it true and Praise God for the wonder and mystery of it all. I don't get answers to everything I ask, but I just prayed "How can this make sense Lord? How do I explain this" and the verse comes to mind - In those days many will say Lord oh lord here I am, I served you, I performed miracles in your name, and cast out demons" and he will say to the, "Depart me for I never knew you" One thing I know is this Jesus I know, this God I talk to and pray to and occasionally hear from, is NOTHING like what I see in today's pulpit. He is extremely personal. And he is love. He is not condemnation. I have spoken many times to him, cried out asking to understand how to make sense of it all, and I am always pointed back to "90% of what Christians talk about is not actually in the bible. According to the bible I read there is no eternal suffering. There is an aeon of trial by fire, a time of immeasurable length, during which those who are separated from God are rehabilitated back into the fold by letting go of illusion. Nothing is lost. The worst sinner in the world, however much of them is sin, false, and untrue, will be gone, will burn away in the refiners fire and whats left will be only the good and true things. This all occurs with the least amount of suffering and loss possible, due to God working on our behalf in every way he can. 1000 years is as one day and vice versa. We will not be judged the way we think we will. When all things hidden are made known, and we know Gods mind and will it will make a lot more sense, and we will judge with compassion(WE, not him alone). We are judged by how we respond to the light that is given to us that we are exposed to. The Good buddhist grandmother goes to heaven, and the Christian who discovers him and rejects him knowing the light fully, go to heaven. Their path to it, and experience of it will be vastly different. God is not punishing in this sense, We are our own judges. The bible says all of creation will be judged by the son, which includes all of this children seen through the lens of Jesus. I can't for my life understand where they got all the fire and brimstone and extremism. I really need to write a book about this, because I love exploring the topic. There are truths that are infallible. But as far as I can tell the bible contains some of them with a whole lot of extra stuff that either isn't relevant or doesn't make sense, and as to that I can't explain. I believe it was the written word of God when it was first written. Now we played telephone with it and its like a fable that alludes to the mystery.
I wonder why the thousands of people who die of carbon monoxide poisoning weren't worthy of being saved. There have been times when whole villages have been wiped out when the CO2 emissions from a semi-dormant volcano. No one was worthy of being saved. Must have sucked to have lived there.
One of my Atheist friends was saved by chance while he slept in a house with a deadly amount of Carbon Monoxide. A Christian would call that a Miracle, or that it was God... it wasn't! I also know of a Christian family who all lost their lives to carbon monoxide poisoning while they all slept. Very sad, but those things just happen. There's no god stopping it. It's just luck.
I'll break it down for you: If you accept that God intervened to save your family from carbon monoxide poisoning, logic demands that you must also accept that this same God chose NOT to intervene to save all the people throughout history who have died from carbon monoxide poisoning, it's that simple. Consider the absurdity of what you're actually saying i.e. that this God intervened to save your family but chose to look on and do nothing while for e.g. between 700 000 - 900,000 Jews were murdered by the Nazis at the Treblinka death camp using carbon monoxide gas from diesel exhaust piped straight into the gas chambers. You really think that such a God exists? If so, he is thoroughly evil and completely unworthy of your worship. The simple answer is this: Evil is natural/accidental/man-made, no God or Gods/Devils involved. Quit overthinking things and tying yourself up in knots. Live a good life and be kind to others, that's it.
@Garrison169 Everyone is born to die. It's never bothered me that some people are miraculously saved from death (temporarily), while others are killed at the same time. I don't know. Lots of people are mad that God isn't a cuddly teddy bear. It always made sense to me that God created me to kill me. I mean, that's just how it is, right?
@@timmygibsonkc I would be glad to send you my testimony. This was not by chance. I am a scientist/programmer. Even I don't get how it happened. But it did. I don't know if you can somehow pm me your email. I have a feeling you should hear it
As a kid, I was told about God and Jesus and I just accepted it at face value because I trusted my grandparents, school teachers, and so forth. Thankfully, my parents themselves weren't actually religious, and they allowed me to question the things I had been told. When I started doubting the existence of beings like Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny, I also started doubting the existence of God. He was in the same category of characters to me, something adults had told me about but which left no trace of its existence. And so, my already not-that-strong faith had to go to leave room for the doubts I was now cultivating, and this idea that was forming in me that adults could also make things up, just like children. No argument I've heard since managed to even dent that doubt. So, funnily enough, the main reason I stopped believing in God was that I also stopped believing in Santa Claus, which was very similar in my child's mind. I was lucky enough to grow in a society that mostly left religion behind and to atheist parents, so I never had to suffer for where my thoughts naturally carried me back then.
I’m a believer in our God Jesus Christ. I could just as easily go to hell just like anybody else. No body is perfect and that’s okay, but we must all repent and try our best to submit to Jesus Christ. This world has been cursed with evil and it’s our free will to accept Jesus into our life’s. That’s not to say me being a believer in Jesus is a free ticket to heaven. It is when we are judged and ask Jesus Christ for his forgiveness on that day. There are some things in the bible that is hard to understand and we may never know some things. It’s not playing dumb, do your own research and judge it for yourself. I recommend Wes Huff. He has countless years of research to back his statements which are true facts. Another good source is the book called “ The case for Christ”. Lots of good conversations in that book. Thank you for reading God bless
Have you ever listened to Black Sabbath, Vol. 4? It’s really good. I’m even a Seventh-Day Adventist, and I still like it. Plus Del Delker. Is that weird or what?
You might like Aphrodite's Child's theme album 666 which is from the Book of Revelation. It's classic 70s rock. The Four Horsemen is the most famous song and has an excellent guitar solo. ruclips.net/video/3KCbqhJt16k/видео.htmlsi=ph_idrcr2VUOZdLQ
I left because of the cumulative effect of too many teachings not adding up, and having to try to defend (mostly to myself, in my own mind) too many irrational claims. The more deeply I scrutinized the teachings the less sense the whole package made. I'm Canadian and religious authority isn't nearly so heavy-handed here, which I appreciate more and more as I see some horror stories on YT from people who have escaped or are trying to escape fundamentalism.
I just googled it and wow Canada is significantly less religious than U.S. I guess a bit too chilly for fire and brimstone!? BTW and with tremendous sadness, I am truly very sorry about recent events which make absolutely no sense.
Jehewah is the jewish god, Jesus was named Yeshuah as he was a jew and it is about attending jewish festivals. He had nothing to do with the heathen greek-roman-jewish cult that some greek authors made up with an Iesous character.
19:13 You mentioned prayer requests 😂😂😂. But seriously, what is a point of a prayer request? Prayers don’t work. And even if you are a Christian, you say that god has this wonderful plan for you. So what anyone is trying to achieve by a prayer? That god will change his mind? Or if you pray for something that it is a part of the plan, what’s the point? It is a part of the plan and it will happen no matter what. 🤷♂️
I think that the point of a prayer is to focus your intention on what you would like to happen. In the context of the rule of attraction it's a way to achieve your hopes and dreams.
I can remember when i was a youth group leader and a teen girl came to me and asked, is it really true that if someone is a different religion (her friend that she brought to youth group was jewish) and doesnt believe in Jesus as Messiah, will they go to hell?' Do you know how hard it was for me to say, yes! It actally made my stomach turn, yet i said it! From that point, i thought to myself, 'how self righteous can i get?, how haughty, how narcissistic of a religion'. Below is RUclipsr i came across/still watch. That knows about cults and how we left JW ( Jehovah Witness) Thanks again for a great video and discussion! youtube.com/@owenmorgantelltale?si=JWgIS_mjeNvvPEUh
We’re human first. If you’ve ever couldn’t stop laughing in church you know that could be a sign you are human first. My father was austere about being in the Holy House. Before service started an usher with a speech impediment made an announcement that there was a Cadillac Eldorado with its lights in the parking lot …My sister and I giggled for what seemed like 10 minutes.. my dad was so mad at us.. haha
For me it was actually about all the saved people going to heaven but one person having led a nice comfortable life and another having endured tremendous suffering and pain. They both get the same exact reward!?! C’mon!
I’ve been agnostic for longer than I’ve been deconstructing, and for me it was the “all loving God” giving newborns things like Leukemia or EB, aka Butterfly children. And that was before learning about all the genocides and all other morally wrong things he commanded.
My main issue with Christianity was 'the problem of evil '. It started bc of the hypocrisy I saw in the 'conservative Christian' at my church (very judgemental and snooty) but even though I agree that 'you shouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater), I never could accept any of the excuses I heard for why a loving god created h3ll. Now when I hear all the blood dtuff (like washed in the blood, or drink this and think of me) or the stories un rhe OT especially, like K. Saul went to a necromancer to resurrect some prophet to see why God had turned on him, I think 'WTF?!'
Karma is very much a real force in our lives, woven into the connections that bind us all together. Each person and each thought exists within a shared consciousness, constantly growing and changing. As you think back on your thirty years as a Christian pastor, keep in mind that many individuals are still developing their sense of right and wrong. Without the guidance of laws or the moral teachings of religion-those frameworks that help people differentiate between good and bad-some might easily fall into their worst instincts, leading to chaotic and troubled lives. Greetings from Ukraine btw.
Crapola. 🙄 “Karma”, is nothing more than if you do good things for people, they will want to help you, and if you do bad things to people, they will want to hurt you. It isn’t supernatural
@ it’s deeper than that) for example: every time you do bad things, that do not resonate with your essence, your consciousness gets distorted, changing your perception as well, and in an effort to return it to initial state, it drives you to situations where you suffer the same suffering that you caused to someone else, then once you suffered distortion is gone)
Soical issues, especially surrounding LGBTQ+ and race, are what really made me stop calling myself a Christian. I couldn't group myself together with people who hated me and many of my friends and family even if i still wanted to follow the teachings of Jesus. Then I stopped believing in sin. It just didn't make sense to me. How can you wrong a perfect being? After those two things, i felt comfortable enough to think about what I believed about god and why I believed in god. At some point, I got into historicuty and stuff and lost any shred of faith left in Jesus, the man, let alone Jesus the god. At best, he was just some guy who was building a cult.
I'm a Christian and I don't believe in much of the Bible as it's taught today. However I think this world is a cauldron where we are purified. I don't question that. The miracles of JC etc. don't interest me. It's only the Christly character that saves!
Yep, as a former member of People of Destiny Intl (currently called Sovereign Grace Ministry) and Larry Tomzak & CJ Mahany, I'm familiar with Hillsong. We used them as a template for our services as well. My god, did I actually believe in all that shit? What was I thinking? Were those years all just a waste of my life?!
First I learned that the old testament is totally contradictory to the new one (red flag) and I learned Bible history on how it was written and by whom, so actually studying it from different angles (historically, theologically, from the Jewish point of view on the Torah, from scholars who have a perspective on the authors and Romans, etc.). Then I spent time studying the relationship between phycology and religion (ie. how people get sucked into cults, or get behind evil people like Hitler, how groups of humans form groups alliances and against each other ie. the cause/history of racism, other isms, etc. yes this is important because this all ties together!). Believe it or not, I prayed about it, I prayed to be shown the truth and if it's something I don't like, to be open to accepting it and using critical thinking to cross reference and bring to surface more likely truths, this took a while. And I learned in my journey that I am a spiritual person (I strongly believe there is a creator/God and I accept I could be wrong (but that's ok), I believe prayer still works) but I dropped the Christian or any other religious beliefs and I took the parts I can use successfully, because its not all bad. Since I did that many years ago on my journey, I realized that we really don't know a lot about God and that is OK, I think we are supposed to seek the answers for our own understanding, but once we say "this is the way" or worse yet, "this is the only way" we have gone off the path because then we are lying to ourselves, because no one really knows all the answers, but we can find it little by little, but we have to listen and ask and marinate on it. Now, I feel like I am free since leaving the religion behind, I have more compassion for people, I understand people much better, and I am an all around better person from freeing myself from that religious world view, that was holding me back severely. But, I commend you a lot, because it takes a lot of time and perseverance, and searching and having an open mind to get to where you are today, my hope is that everyone takes their own path to their spirituality because I believe since we are all one, it will go back to the same place eventually anyways!
Curious if there are any other Christian universalists here? When I studied the Bible for myself it seemed like the message of love expressed by Christ was intended to be universal . . . I don't believe in a literal Hell, and it can be confusing that so many theologians and believers seem to ignore the verses that persuaded me to believe in "Heaven for everybody, Hell for no one." Thanks for the incisive teachings, Timmy, you and Kristi Burke are my favorite atheist channels on YT :)
I think I was close to Christian universalism when I was a Christian. I believed that only people who genuinely chose hell - when given the chance to choose after death - would go there (I believed we all would get a last chance to choose with full knowledge of the truth after death), but that hopefully nobody would be that stupid. I even believed - or at least I hoped - that in the end even Satan would be saved. My problem was the suffering we see here on earth. And also when I let go of my religious feelings, I found the dogmas of the Creed utterly unconvincing. So I stopped believing in the literal truth of the Christian myths, but since Christianity focuses on belief/faith in the Creed/main dogmas ... I was then per definition no longer a Christian. I still kept most of the basic Christian ethics and values, though. (meaning the ethics/values of the "modern", non-fundamentalist, "European" brand of Christianity, I guess). I also find poetic/emotional value in some of the stories in the Bible and in some Christian songs. And I do love old Churches and monasteries, and old rituals like lighting a candle for someone.
@@CappieBG For me the monkey wrench in the works of annihilationism is predetermination . . . why would God predetermine the vast majority of our species to either Hell or annihilation (or both . . . the second death?) and save only a select few? If we were destined to be saved, that gives me comfort that even a killer like Ted Bundy could be forgiven, which of course gets into the problem of evil. Why evil, why suffering? I can only guess that our suffering serves some greater purpose, something to be learned from.
@@mailill I love that the crucifixion / resurrection story exists at all . . . a personal God who would take the harm done by people upon Himself, and absolve everything in the name of love? I think like Marx said, it's the heart of (an often) heartless world :)
I find that a lot of Church services is a lot of bad rock music, singing, dancing, tattoos and a lot of narcissistic self-help "Jesus loves me Jesus loves me", random bible verses tied to some new age messaging... and very very little bible
If we accept that a supposed God exists and its ways are beyond my understanding then it stands to reason that I have no way of knowing if said god is actually good or evil and therefore I should only rely on my judgement. 🤷
Our ancestors had a way of communicating wisdom through the art of storytelling/myth. It's such a shame that Christianity did well to destroy that aspect of our collective imagination.
So with my experience receivin God's Holy Spirit, I used to get high & drunk all the time, I was Fornicating all the time, lookin at Pornography all the time, ok! After I received The Holy Spirit on January 1st, 2021 at 1:30a I haven't smoked weed or got drunk, I've been Celibate over these last 4 years, I stopped cussin & using Pornography... When you lost The Holy Spirit did you have to force yourself to start cussing again, and to also start Fornicating again, so much that The Holy Spirit had actually departed from u? I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW, SO THAT'LL NEVER HAPPEN TO ME!
It's painful to lose your religion 💔 but, after awhile things begin to clear and your mind becomes calm - finally Ha! No longer worrying about a God angry with you because you didn't do "something"for him
If you think God is angry with you...your leadership failed.
So true Gary! It took some time to work through the mind-f*ck for sure. But what a wonderful journey.
The concept of hell itself was the biggest issue I had. Taken to its logical conclusion, most people who have ever existed will be tortured for all of eternity for being born, even though they were born “sinful” and it was nothing they had any control over. I would still have to be a Christian if I thought that was true though. Ultimately, I’m no longer Christian because I don’t think it is true
Truthfully, me as well. It wasn’t the contradictions, the false promises, the guilt, the shame, the historical inaccuracies, the scientific flaws. Those things were apart of it but all were minuscule compared to eternal torture in a fiery furnace for finite sins and/ or unbelief.
Hell here seems more likely …look around
@@JuliaJayATOP I feel the flames everyday and if we have to die and suffer an even crueler fate that God would truly be sadistic.
Hell is temporary, in the end, all will be saved. Look into Christian Universalism. It was a popular belief in the early church.
I struggled with the violence in the OT. Also I couldn’t understand suffering.
I’m a former 47 year Christian fundamentalists. Teacher, Deacon, Elder, Evangelist. I reached the point where I simply couldn’t reconcile Grace and eternal punishment in Hell. I found Bart Ehrman, when I was searching for answers, and read every book he’s written. I left religion after reading just one of his books.
Ultimately, I became convinced that ALL religions are manmade and function like cults. I’m so much happier without religion in my life.
Hell is temporary, in the end, all will be saved. Look into Christian Universalism. It was a popular belief in the early church.
You should have obeyed the gospel you preached and repented of your sins. If you don't repent you stay in the realm of belief and don't pass to the realm of personal experience by being born again.
@@Jesuslordoflords-y4mDo you think that in the course of over 40 years as a Christian, he never repented of his sins? Seriously, what kind of joke is your comment?
@weirdwilliam8500 someone who is born again won't be deceived so easily by personal opinions because he has the Holy Spirit. When you don't have the Holy Spirit you stay in the realm of belief, so someone can convince you to believe in something else because you never went to the realm of personal experience.
@@Jesuslordoflords-y4m What you’re saying isn’t even coherent. It sounds like you’re saying you need a magic ghost to possess you and alter your thoughts so that nothing can ever change your mind again. That sounds like a horror movie, as well as ignorant superstition, gaslighting, and a flimsy defense mechanism that lets you believe that everyone who disagrees with you is morally compromised or dishonest. Classic cult mentality. Free yourself.
I love the Anne Frank example because it really makes Christians uncomfortable when you force them to respond with “Well, Anne Frank chose to send herself to Hell”. It’s amazing how religion is the last set of ideas that can cause so many good people to continually defend and justify horrific things.
Hi
@@X_Annedolf..Frankler_XWhy on earth do you have Hitler as your thumbnail???
@@X_Annedolf..Frankler_X Why do you have that disgusting thumbnail???
Anybody who thinks he'll is a place of eternal burning torment, is a complete fool, filled by clergy, or Satan, take your pick, since YOU DON'T READ THE BIBLE, or know what hell is.
@@tomy8339 It's Annedolf Frankler
I claim to have left religion for one reason.
I grew up christian. At 18, I decided I had no experience with god. I spent three years trying to get God's attention.
Then I spent ten years searching for evidence of god.
At the end of my search, I realized that all the observations I collected makes sense IF I take the idea of god out of the picture.
I have forever left organized religion of all types, especially Christianity. Every fervent follower I have ever known was something of a lunatic to some degree or another. I walk and talk with God all on my own, I don't need the Big Jesus Fan Club anymore.
Content starts at 3:00
I have met so many people that don't "do church" that are honorable and simply nice. As for those "in the church", well, that is different. Smile in your face, then backbite, gossip, cheat, and other nasty things. I had my own problems, but there were several churches I attended where I was 'ghosted', to use a new term. One time I was leaving for a short-term mission trip to Scotland and there was no send off, not prayers. I didn't drive to church that day, because my car was 'down', and I was left alone standing on the curb. Everybody just left me standing there. Two years later I went on another trip (nine weeks of Christian youth camp) and almost the same thing. When I got home, I packed up and left without a word. Then they started wondering where I went. I maintained my faith, but that may have been the beginning of a long slow slide away from Church and Faith.
Enjoyed hearing your story and sorry for how poorly you were treated. Thanks for sharing.
I have heard far too many anecdotes on "religious" people who are nasty in their personal lives/their behavior regularly violated religious doctrine despite attending church every week etc. to believe that all religious people are good, but I have personally known a few quietly religious, humble people who are genuinely decent people.
@@mender722 I’m sorry you were ghosted by your church community. I’ve never felt more free than with my atheist beliefs. No backbiting, gossiping, shaming, threat of hell, fire and damnation and happiest of no grifting 💰💰💰. When I die, I’m most happy to return to dust! I’m no longer afraid. When I want company I turn on You Tube LOL.
Also they form a group to mind F others who’s not the same believe and same god. This group tried to turn people to a villain and then play a victim !
I’m sorry you had those experiences. Thank you for sharing. It helps me understand you and others and be more hospitable to everyone despite my rather cold or sometimes apathetic exterior.
I walked away from Christianity after 36 years. It hit me last January that it’s an ancient middle east fable.
kevin sorbo taught me it was a fable when he was a tv star, thank kevin
@@kermitthorson9719 now he’s a right wing nut job. Didn’t take his own advice and bought into that conspiracy nonsense.
What makes you think Christianity is an "ancient middle east fable"?
@@godfreydebouillon8807If I may interject, how is it not? It originates in the middle east from thousands of years ago where belief in signs and miracles was common. These miracles don't happen today despite continued belief in them. That would seem to indicate folklore.
@razorbeard6970 Well, if you understand the Minimal Facts Argument, just as a simple example, it's most definitely NOT a "fable", in any sense of the word.
What this means, is if you look at a secular organization, as an example, such as The Society of Biblical Literature, which is composed of about 6,000 scholars on Near-East and Biblical literature, Greek Textual Criticism, archaeology etc, and includes Christians, Jews, agnostics, atheists and literally everything in between (famous atheist scholars like Bart Ehrman, John Dominic Crossan, Gerd Ludemann), and literally over 99% consider it a historical fact that Jesus of Nazareth (the one in the Bible) lived, he taught as a rabi, he was crucified on the cross, that all of those people who followed (and many others around Jerusalem), were absolutely convinced He performed miracles, were absolutely convinced He rose from the dead, and that this belief was absolutely certain for enough people around Jerusalem that a group of Romans and Jews (who had nothing to do with each other) to start a new religion. Though it doesn't fall under the Minimal Facts Arguments (bc using that criteria you can only cite facts that literally almost every scholar believes, except for a couple quacks), a VAST majority of these scholars also consider it a fact that Jesus' tomb was empty.
Now, does this on its face mean that Jesus *actually* performed miracles, or *actually* rose from the dead? Of course not, but that's where the debate starts, and that simply isn't under the category of scholarship referred to as "fable". Thus for this person to assert that after 36 years it "hit" him, all of a sudden, that it's a fable, means he beclowned himself, because, no, that didn't "hit" him. The only thing that hit him is ignorance about the entire subject. Atheist scholars like Bart Ehrman think these facts can all be written off by "emotional aggrandizement", hallucinations (an amazing number of people claim they have physical and visual experiencess seeing and hearing loved ones after a loss for example). Other scholars like NT Wright, Bruce Metzger (Ehrmans mentor from Princeton University, whom Ehrman says is the greatest New Testament scholar ever) were convinced that the only viable explain is God exists and it was real.
Either way, some dude online watching atheist videos and deciding it's all a "fable" just doesn't cut it. That means he simply doesn't understand the nature of what he's talking about.
I can relate to the cognitive dissonance one lives with as a fundamentalist Chrisitan. I finally realized I was an atheist over a dozen years ago. I had been gradually disconnecting from the evangelical belief system for about 10 years. I remember saying to myself, 'if this bible stuff is true, then it HAS to be true in spite of all logic and evidence'. When my girlfriend died of cancer in spite of all the prayers and applying 'blessed' handkerchiefs and all other kinds of bullshit, I struggled, because it HAD to be true. Somehow, I continued on in the 'faith', but it was eroding over time because it was more and more hollow at its core. Cognitive dissonance takes its toll on one's psyche.
The fight is real start tubing near death experiences….very enlightening…research orthodoxy too…good brain food 😮 for ones who aren’t in the church
I've done extensive buddhist practice, raised evangelical, have hindu, jewish, and muslim family, and I'm currently exploring the mystical veins of Christian practice. Also I'm a trained scientist. Having all these contradictions fuels my desire to touch into something bigger than myself, which in my heart I believe is truly there. I have no idea how I fit in with all the conflicting systems of thought anymore.
@@NickBhattacharya Keep seeking truth, and when I say “truth” I mean things that are provably true, with evidence! You’ll find it.
The major thing that undid my faith was prayer. It was something I had struggled with pretty much my whole Christian experience. But there came a point where I became utterly incredulous that any part of prayer was sincere, worked, had any kind of power.
I also remember distinctly those uncomfortable conversations where I had to give "what we believe" while inwardly hating it. LGBTQ was a big part of those conversations.
Prayer is something big for me too as when I pray I feel and hear and see no change and never get answers to my prayers. Whether it’s an answer I expect or don’t expect, I feel like it’s one sided and unanswered.
Then, when bringing this up to other Christian’s I’m met with, this is a test to your faith! Christianity is about believing EVEN without evidence EVEN without answered prayers remaining faithful to him ESPECIALLY when your prayers haven’t been answered! He has your story written so it’s not for you to question why He’s not answering your prayers the way you want! All of these responses just make me wonder:(
"Nothing fails like prayer." - FFRF
How is it possible to rationalize that a place of torture that never ends is a good thing? What purpose can it serve?
It serves only one purpose - to frighten you into submission. On the other side of the grave it serves no purpose at all, because it never ends. No one, not even Adolf Hitler, deserves such a fate.
the whole burning torture hell isnt biblical
@@mooselee902What about the lake of fire in the Bible?
@@joelbrooks3198It's an allegory. John saw a vision in a dream. Ask yourself how tens of billions of non believers can float and fit in a lake of fire? It's an oxymoron to begin with!
Also, why would God create tens of billions of humans just to send over 90 percent of them to hell?
@@robertheintze9413 Where in the bible does it say that?
For me, the main reason why I left, and couldn’t get past, was the idea of faith. You can take any belief on faith, including false beliefs. People of other religions take their beliefs on faith, but I believed them to be false. However, they could say the exact same thing about my beliefs. It really got me thinking that if they can take their religion on faith and no other reason, and that’s the exact same thing I was doing, then what makes my beliefs true? It all spiraled from there and I left shortly after.
I grew up believing that the Bible was inerrant. I discovered it was not, although much too late. I still resent being lied to by my pastors. This set me down a path of finding the facts.
Yep. That was my ultimate turning point. Watching videos pointing out that the biblical and Jewish idea of the earth was that it's pretty much flat or a snow glob. Once that was pointed out to me and that was obviously wrong then the whole thing is wrong.
Realized it was all bs immediately.
Death bed confession has to be the ultimate low. A person goes through his/her entire life, running from the consequences of his/her actions. Then, at death, they "confess" in an attempt to escape the consequences of his/her actions in the afterlife!
Not that I was ever super religious (tried the religion for a few months), like some Christians who spend their entire lives, or even decades in this belief system ... but something someone asked me before made me ponder the whole concept of hell... the question was, "...and you and your god are okay with this?"
My initial reaction was shock... like I'd been snapped out of a hypnotic trance... because my first thought was, NO!
Then, I became angry at such a religion that would play with people's minds like that.
I was actively deconstructing for a year but the thing that shattered it all for me was the realization that I did not actually believe in an afterlife. That led me to the question of "well, why would Jesus have needed to do what he did then?" and it fell apart from there.
I remember that I knew it wouldn't work because the teachers at my Christian school kept praying over me and nothing would change. I would still have emotional outbursts and I would still have a sweating disorder and I would STILL have to go back home to the house that tried its best to destroy me. And they really thought making a wish was more productive than calling CPS.
When I was a Christian, I dealt with the issue of “the good Buddhist grandmother” by thinking that if God reveals himself through nature to her, and she believes in God to that extent, then she doesn’t need to know about Jesus to go to heaven. But if she were to be visited by missionaries and have the opportunity to accept Jesus and turn it down, then she would go to hell because she made that choice.
Eek! That’s such a gross and mean-spirited thing to believe!
The thing that made me finally not believe in Christianity anymore was studying the difference between the teachings of Paul and Jesus. I had always made them cohesive in my head, but once I studied them side by side, I felt that my doubts about salvation were reasonable. Paul and Jesus didn’t even agree on what we must do to be saved, and that was always the most important thing to us in my Southern Baptist/Charismatic tradition.
Just curious what you saw as the differences in the Jesus vs Paul version of how to be saved? Even as an evangelical it was sad how little I actually studied the Bible….just let the preacher or devotional cherry pick passages and explain away to save me the trouble. Wish I had been smart enough back then to question the obvious contradictions. A few months ago I decided to read the Bible so I could better defend myself against the evangelicals in my life but wow I had forgotten how poorly written it is and pure torture to follow along. I didn’t last a day.😂
Neither of you were ever saved and you were NEVER Christian ✝️. A CHRISTIAN ✝️ is someone who believes in the risen savior Jesus Christ and to separate Christ from Paul proves that you were NEVER saved because it was Jesus Christ who made Paul an APOSTLE 💯 ! It was Paul who was the last and final apostle, and he was the one who got the saving gospel out to the gentiles!
@@Gfc1980 yes, I also had to study/think about it differently. Sometimes I will spend some time on it, but now it doesn’t feel as urgent as it did when I first deconstructed. Basically, the Bible records Jesus’s teachings on heaven as mostly his followers need to follow him, often by selling their possessions and giving to the poor. He also talks about the same concept in the beatitudes, also the parable of the rich fool who stored up wealth and then died. (Doesn’t specifically talk about heaven, but God was not pleased.) Jesus also talks about entering through the narrow gate (some scholars interpret that to mean “difficult”) leading to eternal life. It isn’t clear what exactly what that means, but it’s in the context of the sermon on the mount where Jesus is talking about themes of mercy, humility, humbleness, and love. Finally, Jesus talks about being born again (to Nicodemus) and “I am the way/path, truth, and life”. Those are the closest to what Paul preached, but when I looked into the context, I wasn’t convinced that lines up with Paul’s idea of salvation. Also, I believe Jesus was an apocalypticist, and he was focused on the imminent return of God, and keeping that in mind really helps make sense of so much. I’ll write another comment contrasting that with Paul after I get my kids to bed 🥱👶👦
@@Gfc1980 … and now for Paul’s letters. First, there are only seven epistles that most scholars believe Paul wrote, so starting with those: 1. Justification and salvation by faith 2. Salvation comes from God’s grace, not our works. 3. When we are saved, our lives are transformed in some way, morally and/or ethically. 4. Paul also talked about resurrection being a goal along with eternal life, and I think he was also apocalyptic, but maybe not quite the same as Jesus (?) I’m not sure how they differed in their apocalyptic beliefs if at all.
In the disputed epistles, the writer did focus more on works. Ephesians is a great example of this. There was also some stuff in the epistles that didn’t ever make sense to me, like “women will be saved by childbearing.” It’s really hard to bring that in line with salvation through faith alone.
So, in summary, it seems that Jesus connected salvation to ethical living, serving the poor, mercy, and repentance. Paul connected salvation/justification to faith through grace. Some scholars see these views as completely and not contradictory, which is fine, but I feel like if salvation is the most important thing, why would God have put it all in a book that was really a puzzle and that you would have to interpret, piece together, and read between the lines with your own interpretation. And if your interpretation was wrong, then you would go to hell. I feel like if you’re going to err on one side, you should err on the Red Letter side of salvation. Sell everything or live modestly, serve those in need, practice mercy, love, repentance, and do it all radically. Anyway, I’m not a scholar, but these are just my thoughts. 🩷🩷
@@dalithecat Wow, thank you so much for your thorough response. I understand the opposing views on achieving salvation so much better now.
BTW I enjoy sci-fi, and after finishing a book or show, I often have so many questions. I usually turn to Reddit to see others' interpretations of the plot, underlying themes, and intended messages. It's a fun but sometimes frustrating process. I feel the same way about the Bible, but even more so, given how many people try to make sense of what seems like a fundamentally flawed premise. Thanks again!
'He named that place Peniel for he saw the face of God.'
Only those don't abandon Him see it ❤
May you all find your peace.
I wont atep in a church again moat likely ever
But I'll never
Leave
God
I love this point because as far as I’m aware what’s most important is your relationship, not your religion
What started the process for me was simply asking the question, "could I be wrong?" Then the resulting search to prove to myself that I wasn't (which failed BTW).
Totally get that!
This is pretty much how it went for me
Hearing you talk about the altar call near the end of your video, totally gave me anxiety and brought back so many horrible memories of those times. The guilt and fear that those produced for many are beyond shameful. So thankful we are all truly set free from that cultish activity.
I can understand that ... it felt weird saying that stuff.
My two cents on why I left:
Above all else it is because the Bible is in natural error, is contradictory, is unpreserved, and large parts of it are forged.
22:45 I hope you’ll do a video on “worship” and “worship music”. They play on your emotions and you think you experienced Jesus. But you can experience similar feelings when you go to a rock music concert.
@@Polonez123-r4w True
There are many examples of music being played in scripture where worship was followed. Lucifer was the one who led music...since his fall the gift remains the same...so the experience in a rock concert will play on your emotions but it uplifts you its a counterfeit experience. Worship goes to God...
Check out "Church Services Are Designed To Influence You. Here's How." by Genetically Modified Skeptic!
@@BadgerWolf-19 This worship goes to an imaginary friend
@Polonez123-r4w and your worship goes to you... so you are your own God. I hope you do better than God my friend.
I'd say your struggling with finding another spare skin area that you can cover with ink. Lol.
What do I struggle with? Everything you mentioned. I was also raised Catholic (fortunately not strict) and have came up with all kinds of questions. Which has brought me to agnosticism. Really enjoyed the video.
@@timmcardle2233 thank you Tim!
It was the pastor bringing politics into the church. I was not indoctrinated as a youth which helped me deconstruct.
Was this bringing politics in the church a fairly recent thing or many years ago?
Just wondering as I deconstructed many years ago and don’t recall politics in the church at that time. But now overhearing Christian Network TV 24/7 when visiting my mom, especially right before the election, it is nonstop politics. My mom literally believes all democrats are aligned with the devil.
I think politics in the church really took off when same sex marriage became legal around 2015. I believe this politicization is one of the major drivers of declining number of evangelicals in U.S. and why interest in channels like Timmy’s are growing so quickly.
@@Gfc1980 I wonder about this same thing too! I left religion almost 20 years ago, and politics were never a talking point in the churches I attended. I was raised with your common American, evangelical Christian beliefs, and I don’t remember my parents or family ever talking about politics either.
I think the grip that right-wing politics has on a lot of US Christians today is way tighter than ever before. It definitely started growing in the 1980’s, particularly with people like Pres. Reagan, Jerry Falwell, and Paul Weyrich. We can absolutely blame them for starting the fire, lol!
I’m so glad I got out before politics really began infecting US Christianity!
I can only remember one time anything political was mentioned in church, about 20 years ago, right before I stopped attending and began my deconstruction journey.
The pastor who took over the church I’d been attending all throughout high school made a joke that I found equally confusing and offensive. He joked to the congregation about how being a Christian automatically meant you were a Republican. Everyone around laughed and seemed to agree, but I baffled.
Throughout my adolescence I’d had a bad opinion of the Republican Party, because all I ever saw or heard about them doing was cutting out funding and benefits from social welfare programs. The programs put into place to help those in need. You know, the things Jesus would have absolutely supported or even started himself.
Because of that, I saw the Republican Party as antithetical to the teachings of Christ, the least like Jesus. And I still feel that way towards them!! May they crash and burn!!
@@Ashaliyeva Glad to hear I wasn’t imagining it. What really scares me is the hard core Christian nationalism although I don’t see how the many variants of Christianity would unite.
My hardcore evangelical mother wants God back in our government. Meanwhile she regularly criticizes other Christian denominations.
Last month, I asked her which of the hundreds of variants of Christianity she would like to see in charge of our government, and how it would square with her Pentecostal beliefs if, for example, it was Catholic or Jehovah’s Witness. I think that question really made her think. I reminded her that the first settlers of America were Christians (Puritans) fleeing persecution by ANOTHER group of Christians (Anglican Church of England).
I feel that anyone who "worships" a leader no matter what political party they identify with, like some messianic figure sent to save or condemn the country, is a sad, misguided human being.
I love it when Timmy makes the preacher voice for the Altar call 😂 I can even hear the music they play during altar calls in my head
When I was a Christian I didn't believe that non-believers would go to hell, anyway. I believed that only people who genuinely _chose_ hell - when given the chance to choose after death - would go there (I believed we all would get a last chance to choose with full knowledge after death), but that hopefully nobody would be so stupid. I even believed - or at least I hoped - that in the end even Satan would be saved. Also, I didn't believe in the literal truth of the Old Testament.
*So what was it for me?*
I guess a huge part of it was: the suffering here on earth. I had to believe that even suffering was somehow a manifestation of God's love - that at least the fact that God allowed suffering, was something he did out of love, to draw us to him, to make us let go of what was not of him, to make us surrender totally (and because of free will blah blah). And I came to a point where I couldn't live with such a _toxic_ view of what love is, and what it means to be a "loving Father". There is so much heart wrenching suffering on earth, and no sane parent would make some of their children suffer that horribly out of love.
Also, at some point I got the idea to follow/trace some of my feelings back in time to see where they came from, and I did it with my religious feelings about God, too, and then I saw that they were actually projections from my childhood, which made them fall away - and without those strong feelings (that strong longing for a Parent that ignored me), I could see the dogmas and stories of the Bible in a neutral light, and I found they were very unconvincing. And it felt like such a liberation!
Im a "Christian" and I really appreciate the video and the honesty, because you talk alot about stuff we don't talk about in churches. My walk with God is lackluster and I fail God everyday. The only thing that has kept me from departing from my faith are near-death-experiences. There are actually people that have clinically died and experienced the afterlife. There are accounts where someones experience lines up with the bible, but there are also accounts where it's more new age oriented, which often shakes my faith tbh
How can a NDEs be remembered if they happen outside of the body? Memories are composed of the physical changes of neurons in the brain.
Iets shake your faith a bit more
nde`s are cuIturaI
musIims nde`s dont see your god they see aIIah
@ Can you back that up for me? Im actually really interested, because I've heard that the hallucinations of a schizophrenic person also depend on someones culture. For example a shizophrenic that grew up christians might be more inclined to see demons as they are described in the bible, and a shizophrenic muslim might also be more inclined to see demons "Jinns" as they are descirbed in the quran
How could someone be condemned through no fault of their own if they never even heard of Jesus or the New Testament?
Your geographic location also matters, the christian god doesn't seem to reveal himself as much in Afghanistan, Thailand or Japan. What a coincidence that God's special people were the Israelites and that he gave his ten commandments only to the Israelites and in their language. That doesn't seems suspicious..
@@ChadKingOfficial kinda sus 😒
@@ChadKingOfficial Exactly!
Yes, and none of us asked to be born, or born into a very dysfunctional situation. It's ridiculous to believe that you are better off being forced to make a decision for Christ, than to never have been born.
When I read the bible I saw that it is full of threats. It seemed like an unforgivable waste to live life as a coward driven by fear. It's obvious that something or someone that threatens you is unlikely to be good. That is abusive behaviour.
You described progressives who tell me to fear germs and weather
@@Koreanasmrisheaven
I second this 🤣❤️🙏 … sounds very familiar…
If God lived down the street with his children and was doing the things to his children as described in the Bible, I would be calling the cops and child protective services on that evil bastard.
So true! Totally agree!
@jay77777-i yup like Christians religion full of lies
The world's religions have done their work! I hope we all find the truth someday.
For me, the one big thing that solidified my disbelief was not that God created Hell and sends people there, but that Christians would believe it was justified.
The question I heard one atheist ask was, "Why would a JUST God send people to an INFINITE punishment for things done in a FINITE life?" On Earth, the punishment for a crime often is aligned with the severity of the crime: you kill someone, you are put to death or you get life in prison.
What could we do within our 80-100 years MAX of living to justify thousands and millions and billions--ENDLESS punishment? Especially considering the average person does not partake in the worst of our worst maldoings.
4 minutes into the video, I'm just gonna guess its the problem of evil.
Oups! close but wrong again. The stupidity and evil actions of a supposedly all knowing, loving God.
That is definitely a tricky one to resolve for believers.
The hiddeness of God is probably why I never believed - believing stuff for no good reason just didn't work for me.
My biggest question was why did god wait so long to make everything right. Billions of people never even heard of Jesus. What about them? I was told that Jesus went to hell and saved them
there! I was like nah. I still spent a lifetime believing because I was afraid not to.
That is what i used to say, "Jesus went to hell and saved them" but then i realized that's not in the Bible!!!!! ha ha ha
The story of Jesus' birth ruined it for me. The 3 wise men were to follow a star leading to the manger. Instead, the star stops at King Herods, who asks them to return after they find baby Jesus. They are warned by an angel not to return. Herod gets mad and decides to have male infants 2 and under hacked. This bothered me greatly.
I thought, why didn't the crazy angel tell the 3 stooges not to stop at Herods in the first place. Then I realized it was just a makeover story from the Moses passover story. How are people celebrating the birth of a savior that begins with gruesome murders of infants. Make it make sense.
Ask God to make it make sense… truly- I didn’t understand it either until I asked!! I promise he will show you if your heart really wants to know 🙏❤️
@@jay77777-i If someone is actually true, you don’t need to be in an emotionally needy mood before you can believe it. Also, you shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep.
@ hi, what promises did I make? - I definitely shouldn’t make any promises- I agree… I’m sure I only mentioned God’s promises 🙏❤️
@@jay77777-i “I promise he will show you…” Are you unaware of all the people who desperately, eagerly pray and hear absolutely nothing back? Or do you have to assume they’re all being dishonest, because your particular version of prayer theology just can’t be wrong?
Either way, your promise has been repeatedly and consistently broken, for many of this channel’s subscribers.
@ I’m so sorry this has happened to people… I have so much compassion for this, I truly do.. much love to you ❤️🙏
I had come into enlightenment over the past few years and realized that we are spiritual beings in a materialistic moment. No religion, just a collective conciousness. We are all one, we are God conciousness.
Where did you get this BS? 😂
@@theunknownatheist3815 well, i also tend to not call it ' God' anymore. But there is nothing wrong in believing that ' we are the universe experiencing itsself in endless facets'
That is even scientific in some way.
happy wednesday, timmy!! have a great week! ❤
A few more ridiculous things about Christianity: why can't god just straight up forgive people? The jewish god is able to do that. How does jesus taking a dirt nap for a few days a sacrifice? He's not really sacrificing anything. Also, how does a guy receiving a worldly punishment save all of humanity. Many innocent people have been murdered by governments so how is this so much more special. Finally, it would have been a slam dunk for jesus to just stick around for a few hundred years after the resurrection to really prove himself and leave no doubt. Why didn't he do that? Seems like he just died and stayed dead like any regular person.
Great video. Hope you don’t mind I shared with my community
@@QuranicIslam of course! Thank you!
Timmy puts a smile on my face. I love his kind and humorous approach to his deconstruction and his insight into the craziness of religion. It’s a great grift to those at the top and the folks at the bottom are just bottom feeders to them. That being said, there are plenty of christians who are good people even though I feel their beliefs are misguided. I too was a full blown bible thumper 🙀😵💫
@@Chicken-dq9zg 😊
A video from Timmy starts my day with a smile 😃👍
@@gaywilliams7163 Woot woot!
@@timmygibsonkc dude move on.. you know you seem you want create your own religious cult, with the obsession of what you do not even believe?
I left the church 7 years ago and started learning about Cults and how our brain works.
@@cadd957 Me too!
I was in the church for 30 years.
Ironically I studied cults as a believer but could never imagine I was in one the whole time. It was the Mormons and JWs and the Seventh Day weirdos I thought.
@@timmygibsonkc are there any interesting video's on that subject you can recommend? (how our brain works, in cults)
Cults or tribal psychology, or cultural hypnosis
My deconstruction started with deconstructing from the left versus right paradigm and becoming an anarchist. Then I felt shame for that because of Romans 13. Then I learned about Romans 12, which is the same letter as Romans 13. Romans 12 literally tells us not to do all the things that are evil government does so I started doing my own research into Romans, 13 and quickly realized that the indoctrination of it’s your biblical duty to vote and participate in government was actually very incorrect. Then I learned that cuss words are just a tradition of man and is not actually spoken about in the Bible yet they tell us they are sinful. So I thought to myself if they are lying about this what else are they lying about? I then learned that modern Christianity is just misinterpreted Bible verses. Only then was I able to see the horrors of the Old Testament.
Because you left Christianity, you will no longer have the Easter bunnies protection, he gave his eggs for mankind
ha ha aha
Religion is praying on traumatized people.
My deconstruction wasn't because of one thing, but there were probably two issues that started my doubts. It's not like I never had questions early on, but the beginning of the end for me was seeing good, well meaning, faithful members of the church getting sick and dieing. I was on the prayer team and saw peoole dieing of cancer, ALS, etc. Doesn't "Father" God care? My own father got colon cancer at 55. After radiation treatments he said that he had been healed. Well, 5 years later the same cancer came back as stomach cancer, and he passed away at age 61. His whole life was about serving God. The other issue had to do with frustration over not getting clear direction from God. Who is going to be my wife? What should I do for a living?, etc. In my late 20's when I was having trouble in all areas of life, My Dad asked me. "Have you turned your life over to Jesus?" Instead of figuring out what was best for me in life I kept "waiting on God" for answers and direction. I waited my life away.
3:11 'Cognitive dissonance' is the term I learned. Felt the same, that tug between blind faith and basic logic vis a vis morals. Many resolve it by simply ignoring it. Others, like us, are compelled to keep using our supposedly god given minds to keep asking questions. Theists will say we weren't listening for answers, but they don't know our years of tearful prayer, begging for understanding, or even the purest prayer request possible - just more faith to keep believing despite the questions. If a loving 'god' denies even that, then either it isn't a loving god, or Occam's Razor - nobody's there.
the most devout prayer is unanswered. - me - trans rights are human rights
@kermitthorson9719 Sex is binary. There's male and there's female. You cannot change your sex. Lots of people don't like their sex; lots of people wish they were the opposite sex, but they are, for better or worse, permanently a member of the sex they were born as.
Scientific fact 👆
It requires a lot of faith just to exercise independent critical thinking skills
Hey Timmy, do you think we could get a video on Church International in Warrior, AL? HUGE culty vibes and weird stuff going on in Warrior. Would be a great video!
@@isaacsmith2317 I’ll look them up Isaac!
Here's a few:
1. Except for professed beliefs, the religious are just as obsessed with their Earthly bodies, finances, sex and survival as anyone else. No "changed hearts" here.
2. Scripturally promised powers over sin, disease and death through Christ, that simply need to be believed and claimed in his name rarely (if ever) work. Those that do can be easily credited to favorable odds, surprising human competence or just plain dumb luck.
3. A "Loving Creator" makes a universe "fine tuned for life." Yet about 95% of it is a vast, heavily irradiated void at -455'F. The rest is a chaotic mess of gas, dust, rubble and lethally radioactive objects. And except for this rock, no other signs of life yet (in a universe fine tuned for life).
Need I list more?
When I started questioning accountability as it pertained to g..........it was fairly easy after that. "Who are you to question g?" would be the push back. "We have to be VERRRRRRY careful when questioning the bible" WHYYYYYYYYY?????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The same people had no issues questioning everyone else and their belief but I ask these two things and suddenly I'm falling away and stirring up trouble. I'M FREEE........After 43 years of this nonsense I'm truly FREEEEEEE!
It's good to be free from believing in lies
@timmygibsonkc : The bible is truth and Jesus says in John 14:6 that he is the truth and the only way to the Father and in John 8:12 that he is the light of the world and that whoever follows him will not be in darkness but have the light of life 🌎! There is a hell to shun and a heaven to recieve and Jesus is the only way to the heaven.
The racism and bigotry of the “ Hard Shell “ Southern Baptist Church was always a challenge for me.
For me, it was a lot of separate things, but my end-game was as a Messianic, trying to deal with the feast calendar thing. Everyone had a different 57-page pdf reckoning of it to where it was just ridiculous. One day I threw up my hands and said "Any reasonable god would make his commanded feast days absolutely plain!"
you as an atheist seem s very much frustrated and can not keep talking about what you do not even believe, you know that?
The word hell did not come from the Biblical languages (Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic), like hades, gehenna, tartarus, and sheol. This is copied from page 1137 of the first volume of the New Standard Dictionary. Funk & Wagnalls. 1938. It says: "Although now almost universally applied to the state and place of eternal punishment, the word was originally used in the same sense as Hades, meaning the underworld, the abode of the departed, and in ancient Norse mythology Hel was the unlovely goddess of the sunless region to which the souls of those unworthy of Valhalla were relegated." The word "hell" is actually an extra Biblical word that was inserted into the English Bible. When the word "hell" was adopted into the English language its spelling went from "Hel" spelled with one "L" to two "L's", now spelled as "hell" I don't know why translators have done this, but it was wrong. Even my preferred translation The New American Standard Bible (1995) does this. In 2 Peter 2:4, it should say Tartarus but instead they use the word "hell". In Mark 9: verses 45 and 49 it should say gehenna but instead they use the word "hell". As a Christian myself, I cannot in good conscience give a good and solid answer as to what happens to a nonbeliever when they pass on. I’ve concluded that the Bible simply doesn’t tackle this issue of what happens in the afterlife. I know there are fellow believers that would vehemently disagree with me on this point. But it is what it is.
You are ignoring what Jesus said was the fate of those who didn't believe in him.
@@Garrison169 Ever since I became a Preterist, this has affected the way I see Scripture. The passages that support the idea of a "hell", are not talking about the afterlife. Yes, I strongly believe that we are separated from God due to the gult our have been put on us. And who come to faith in Christ are no long held to this guilt. It's the afterlife is where I have an issue.
Thanks from New Zealand Timmy! 💪😎👍
New Zealand! Woot woot!
If, according to the Bible and Christian belief, only a few people will go to heaven while the majority end up in hell, doesn't that imply the devil is winning and more powerful than God, since he manages to deceive more people?😀😀😀
It would seem so!
His reasoning is above human understanding, don't question him!
Amazing video. Thank you so much for sharing.
@@billy2896 Thank you Billy!
Still deconstructing but ive been back and forth for probably 10 years.
The big thing for me was the emptiness, I craved "gods word" be the more I asked questions the more i was told to pray/read scripture/have more faith/ or my favorite those questions are the devil tempting you (In Timmys pastor voice 😆)
The alter calls just started to feel empty and scripted. Even the worship started feeling kinda culty.
I get it Charlie! Deconstructing from our deeply held beliefs is a journey for sure.
Also, considering that the vast majority of evangelicals are single, what about all of the lonely nights after you go home after a singles event to an empty apartment
God does not judge you or condemn you because of your non-belief in Christ. We are condemned because of sin. Romans 3. The issue here is a clear lack in theological understanding. I was the same for about 20 years. And then I read the Bible and realized what it actually meant to be a christian. Not to mention, NO ONE can determine whether or not someone else is condemned or saved.
Just stop. Save the sky fairy story for another page.
@@johnsonunityour insults wont work with me. True christianity is about love. What a lot of people are exposed to, including this gentleman, is false prophesy, fake religion, and a colt-like organization putting on the image of Christianity. Which is dangerous in that it ultimately leads people away from Christ. Hardly anything this person said was theologically sound.
Your god created a creature that could become sinful. The responsibility to fix it is not mine, it is your creator's.
Anyone who believes that an eternity of torture is a good thing, has no empathy.
@ an eternity of torture is not a good thing lol thats like saying your child committed a crime but you the parent are responsible because you created a child that could commit a crime.
The older that I get, the more appalled I get about Christian _eternal torment in hell_ beliefs.
First, no one who has ever lived deserves *eternal* punishment for their *finite* wrongs.
No one should be punished in the afterlife AT ALL because they don't believe in the "correct" version of Christianity at the time of their deaths.
Finally, how could anyone other than a sociopath imagine themselves as being "eternally blissful" in heaven knowing that family, friends or even total strangers are being endlessly tormented at the same time?
I completely understand this. I kind of knew something was wrong when I had to go through communion classes at the age of six and was told about the love of god, but at the same time about the wrath of god, when us little kids had black little spots on our souls and were told we would go to hell. (On a side note, I have to mention that my parents never went to church, and my brother, who was 7 years older, also ran away from the church. So my sister and I, we're stuck with this fearmongering religion of roman catholic nature.) I remember afterwards the girl behind me, throwing up her lunch.
I am denominational. I also don't call myself a christian.Because I do not believe that he is the only way to get to the Source. I had a bad conscience about it for very long time because I was still influenced by the fearmongering of the catholic church. But after some profound spiritual experiences and two of my friends having near death experiences which were so similar in nature, but very individualized for that person, I realized that jesus does not even want us to think that way. Everybody is welcome of every religion and atheists etc. I finally feel more relieved of thinking the way or believing the way I do now without the fear of a religious wrath. I believe that there is a great spiritual awakening, happening, and people are moving away from churches or religion.
Love ❤
He started in a real sermon voice, but then he couldn't help going ironic. 🙂
my main path out of the indoctrination i started on learning about ancient religions. somehow the 90s when i grew up was fascinated with Greek mythology. i learned about Hercules and the stories of that culture. but they were always portrayed as stories or myths, so when i finally learned that these were more than literature but actually what a very large population of the world believed as much as what my parents believed in jesus....it broke when i was young, like 3rd grade i started questioning. catholic school is a tool tho. kept me assuming that christianity was just the default. i started revisiting those thoughts in later highschool and college. interjection, learned my parents were firmly homophobic and i was firm pro pride when i was 15,... in a burger king.... my internship was spent looking up reddit atheism. so i like to personally thank Kevin Sorbo hollywood's d star for making me atheist. because he taught me that fables are just man made and that applies to your parents fables too. at this point im an atheist, apistevist, and antitheist. i do not believe in any of the man made gods, i think faith is the worst position to hold, and i believe the religions are doing active harm to our species.
God made man, not the other way around. Just look at the complexity in anything at all, look at the order of the design. Look at the beauty in nature, even in death look at the blood, the color is beautiful. Did man make all of this to? No, you have to truly be a fool if you say in your heart, "God doesn't exist."
"Hell" is not a word or place in the Bible. This concept of an eternal place of torment came from Greek mythology and was never even a thought in the Old Testament. "Sheol" or "Hades" is the grave, and "Gehenna" (Jesus spoke of it) was a place of burning and child sacrifice outside Jerusalem. (The judgment He spoke of was the fiery destruction of Jerusalem and the temple of the "synagogue of satan" in AD 70, which was destoryed forever! He called the religious vipers!). To translate Sheol, Hades, and Gehenna, these three words as a place called "hell" is not even biblical. Lazarus and the rich man was a parable about how to live - not about a real place called hell! All religion is cultish and manmade. It divides humanity. Jesus is not religious. He is love....and He can reach anyone anywhere in any country or in any religion through His Holy Spirit!
Why does virtually every Christian sect teach that there is a hell, if it isn't biblical? Is it to frighten you to get control of you?
@@Garrison169 All religion is about power and control. Jesus is not religious. He is awesome. It is religion that is bad - not Jesus or God.
@@Garrison169 Look at the Greek and "Hebrew" (Hebrew was a dead language and was reengineered in the first century by the Pharisees - his enemies with an agenda!). There is no word hell in the original language.
@@Garrison169 I died from a racing spill in Saratoga (I was a jockey; my autobiography is Racing With My Shadow on Amazon). I left my body. It is all about LOVE. That is all that matters and is eternal! Please don't turn from God because of religious cults! He is REAL! (I don't do religion or church, but I do have a personal relationship with Him!)
I've experienced unkind behaviour from people who call themselves "Christians". I'm still Christian, with respect for other people's belief systems. Cyra xxxx
I was a Christian for 30 years, converted at like 6 in AWANAs even though I remember (I am neurodivergent so I have very early memories) that at like 3 or 4 I knew I wanted to convert but I knew that I was “too young” so I needed to wait.
When I was a young adult I remember asking an elder in tears how did I know I was a real Christian (we were calvinists).
If only there was a Church who has already answered these questions for thousands of years. This distilling Christianity down to Heaven and Hell is a much more recent development. It has resulted in winning souls instead of healing and caring for them. Christianity is about God incarnate creating an overlap between Heaven and Earth, here and now.
Why read Augustine and Aquinas when you can just read the works of Ole Jebediah Schmidt, the founder of my denomination, who did some figur'n back in '29 and through the Holy Ghost taught him what the Bible is "really" sayin, bc it's "right there in black and white?"
I guess if I ever figure out ole Smitty didn't really understand anything, I'll "deconstruct", get a bunch of tattoos, smoke dope and start sleeping around.
@@godfreydebouillon8807 sounds like you’d be better off than the hillbilly elegy lifestyle you’re living in now. 😂
I think this is the problem in the world today and the cause of so much conflict and bloodshed. That evangelicals feel it is their duty to convert other people to their way of thinking. As a species we need to move beyond this. Thank you for sharing brother.
One night I was pumping gas at a gas station. A Porsche drove up and parked about 15 feet in front of me. Suddenly..... WHOOOSH!!!!! it exploded into a giant fireball. It was a heck of a scene with that happening at a gas station. Near the gas pumps. His car had a gas leak and the fumes exploded the car into a fireball. So... with that as something that I have experienced.... If you were sitting in your car and I walked by it and saw and smelled that it was leaking gas... would it be my duty to inform you that your car was leaking gas? I think the answer would be yes. Any true Christian knows that God exists and they BELIEVE that there is a Heaven of amazing wonderfulness to be gained and a Horrific Hell to be avoided. Of course they are going to desire that someone avoid the latter just like I would desire you to avoid driving a car that was leaking gasoline.
What happens when your on this page. When You agree with everything in this video, but God actually revealed himself to you 10 years ago when he miraculously saved my family from carbon monoxide poisoning. There were real bonafide unexplainable miracles, and I know it was God. Now I have had a few other miracles like this, and then the rest of my life has been somewhat normal. If I am honest over time I start to forget. Or I want to explain it away by trying to find natural causes for the things that happened(there aren't). But yet when I hear modern day Christians, the 'spirit' within me cries out insanity! The Jesus I met who saved me... doesn't match up with the Christian Religion. How the hell do I process or deconstruct my faith, considering I heard from God directly? So much of Christianity is so wrong, but where do I go? I can't reject Jesus outright, or go to another church. I am simply (IMO) going to have to live out my life honoring the miracles I had and understanding that whatever force that saved me, even if it was through an old testament prayer(prayer of Gideon), is not the one current Christians point at, pray to, or serve. I am really concerned Jesus is true, and I pray he can protect me from his 'false church'.
If anyone would want to hear what happened, the miracles I experienced, please message me and I will share. If it didn't happen to me I wouldn't believe it. Yet my testimony has some sort of power being based in truth, and all who hear it declare it true and Praise God for the wonder and mystery of it all. I don't get answers to everything I ask, but I just prayed "How can this make sense Lord? How do I explain this" and the verse comes to mind - In those days many will say Lord oh lord here I am, I served you, I performed miracles in your name, and cast out demons" and he will say to the, "Depart me for I never knew you"
One thing I know is this Jesus I know, this God I talk to and pray to and occasionally hear from, is NOTHING like what I see in today's pulpit. He is extremely personal. And he is love. He is not condemnation. I have spoken many times to him, cried out asking to understand how to make sense of it all, and I am always pointed back to "90% of what Christians talk about is not actually in the bible. According to the bible I read there is no eternal suffering. There is an aeon of trial by fire, a time of immeasurable length, during which those who are separated from God are rehabilitated back into the fold by letting go of illusion. Nothing is lost. The worst sinner in the world, however much of them is sin, false, and untrue, will be gone, will burn away in the refiners fire and whats left will be only the good and true things. This all occurs with the least amount of suffering and loss possible, due to God working on our behalf in every way he can. 1000 years is as one day and vice versa.
We will not be judged the way we think we will. When all things hidden are made known, and we know Gods mind and will it will make a lot more sense, and we will judge with compassion(WE, not him alone). We are judged by how we respond to the light that is given to us that we are exposed to. The Good buddhist grandmother goes to heaven, and the Christian who discovers him and rejects him knowing the light fully, go to heaven. Their path to it, and experience of it will be vastly different. God is not punishing in this sense, We are our own judges. The bible says all of creation will be judged by the son, which includes all of this children seen through the lens of Jesus.
I can't for my life understand where they got all the fire and brimstone and extremism. I really need to write a book about this, because I love exploring the topic. There are truths that are infallible. But as far as I can tell the bible contains some of them with a whole lot of extra stuff that either isn't relevant or doesn't make sense, and as to that I can't explain. I believe it was the written word of God when it was first written. Now we played telephone with it and its like a fable that alludes to the mystery.
I wonder why the thousands of people who die of carbon monoxide poisoning weren't worthy of being saved. There have been times when whole villages have been wiped out when the CO2 emissions from a semi-dormant volcano. No one was worthy of being saved. Must have sucked to have lived there.
One of my Atheist friends was saved by chance while he slept in a house with a deadly amount of Carbon Monoxide. A Christian would call that a Miracle, or that it was God... it wasn't! I also know of a Christian family who all lost their lives to carbon monoxide poisoning while they all slept. Very sad, but those things just happen. There's no god stopping it. It's just luck.
I'll break it down for you: If you accept that God intervened to save your family from carbon monoxide poisoning, logic demands that you must also accept that this same God chose NOT to intervene to save all the people throughout history who have died from carbon monoxide poisoning, it's that simple. Consider the absurdity of what you're actually saying i.e. that this God intervened to save your family but chose to look on and do nothing while for e.g. between 700 000 - 900,000 Jews were murdered by the Nazis at the Treblinka death camp using carbon monoxide gas from diesel exhaust piped straight into the gas chambers. You really think that such a God exists? If so, he is thoroughly evil and completely unworthy of your worship. The simple answer is this: Evil is natural/accidental/man-made, no God or Gods/Devils involved. Quit overthinking things and tying yourself up in knots. Live a good life and be kind to others, that's it.
@Garrison169 Everyone is born to die. It's never bothered me that some people are miraculously saved from death (temporarily), while others are killed at the same time.
I don't know. Lots of people are mad that God isn't a cuddly teddy bear. It always made sense to me that God created me to kill me. I mean, that's just how it is, right?
@@timmygibsonkc I would be glad to send you my testimony. This was not by chance. I am a scientist/programmer. Even I don't get how it happened. But it did. I don't know if you can somehow pm me your email. I have a feeling you should hear it
As a kid, I was told about God and Jesus and I just accepted it at face value because I trusted my grandparents, school teachers, and so forth. Thankfully, my parents themselves weren't actually religious, and they allowed me to question the things I had been told. When I started doubting the existence of beings like Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny, I also started doubting the existence of God. He was in the same category of characters to me, something adults had told me about but which left no trace of its existence. And so, my already not-that-strong faith had to go to leave room for the doubts I was now cultivating, and this idea that was forming in me that adults could also make things up, just like children.
No argument I've heard since managed to even dent that doubt. So, funnily enough, the main reason I stopped believing in God was that I also stopped believing in Santa Claus, which was very similar in my child's mind. I was lucky enough to grow in a society that mostly left religion behind and to atheist parents, so I never had to suffer for where my thoughts naturally carried me back then.
I’m a believer in our God Jesus Christ. I could just as easily go to hell just like anybody else. No body is perfect and that’s okay, but we must all repent and try our best to submit to Jesus Christ. This world has been cursed with evil and it’s our free will to accept Jesus into our life’s. That’s not to say me being a believer in Jesus is a free ticket to heaven. It is when we are judged and ask Jesus Christ for his forgiveness on that day. There are some things in the bible that is hard to understand and we may never know some things. It’s not playing dumb, do your own research and judge it for yourself. I recommend Wes Huff. He has countless years of research to back his statements which are true facts. Another good source is the book called “ The case for Christ”. Lots of good conversations in that book.
Thank you for reading God bless
This isn’t Sunday school. We know the gospel and have rejected its very premise. Maybe try witnessing at the mall? 🤣
@ Then that’s your free will man🙏
..Simon Peter responds, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life".
Have you ever listened to Black Sabbath, Vol. 4? It’s really good. I’m even a Seventh-Day Adventist, and I still like it. Plus Del Delker. Is that weird or what?
You might like Aphrodite's Child's theme album 666 which is from the Book of Revelation. It's classic 70s rock. The Four Horsemen is the most famous song and has an excellent guitar solo.
ruclips.net/video/3KCbqhJt16k/видео.htmlsi=ph_idrcr2VUOZdLQ
Timmy, when you started changing the atmosphere for an alter call, I felt the need to get to the piano. 😂 we know what you mean…
I left because of the cumulative effect of too many teachings not adding up, and having to try to defend (mostly to myself, in my own mind) too many irrational claims. The more deeply I scrutinized the teachings the less sense the whole package made. I'm Canadian and religious authority isn't nearly so heavy-handed here, which I appreciate more and more as I see some horror stories on YT from people who have escaped or are trying to escape fundamentalism.
I just googled it and wow Canada is significantly less religious than U.S. I guess a bit too chilly for fire and brimstone!?
BTW and with tremendous sadness, I am truly very sorry about recent events which make absolutely no sense.
As a Catholic, this is the biggest question that I struggle with about my faith
Jehewah is the jewish god, Jesus was named Yeshuah as he was a jew and it is about attending jewish festivals. He had nothing to do with the heathen greek-roman-jewish cult that some greek authors made up with an Iesous character.
@@TorianTammas Is the bible authoritative regarding Christian cosmology and soteriology?
"Get them started on their brain washing" (at 24:13) Hahaha!
19:13 You mentioned prayer requests 😂😂😂. But seriously, what is a point of a prayer request? Prayers don’t work. And even if you are a Christian, you say that god has this wonderful plan for you. So what anyone is trying to achieve by a prayer? That god will change his mind? Or if you pray for something that it is a part of the plan, what’s the point? It is a part of the plan and it will happen no matter what. 🤷♂️
I think that the point of a prayer is to focus your intention on what you would like to happen. In the context of the rule of attraction it's a way to achieve your hopes and dreams.
I can remember when i was a youth group leader and a teen girl came to me and asked, is it really true that if someone is a different religion (her friend that she brought to youth group was jewish) and doesnt believe in Jesus as Messiah, will they go to hell?'
Do you know how hard it was for me to say, yes! It actally made my stomach turn, yet i said it!
From that point, i thought to myself, 'how self righteous can i get?, how haughty, how narcissistic of a religion'.
Below is RUclipsr i came across/still watch. That knows about cults and how we left JW ( Jehovah Witness)
Thanks again for a great video and discussion!
youtube.com/@owenmorgantelltale?si=JWgIS_mjeNvvPEUh
We’re human first. If you’ve ever couldn’t stop laughing in church you know that could be a sign you are human first.
My father was austere about being in the Holy House. Before service started an usher with a speech impediment made an announcement that there was a Cadillac Eldorado with its lights in the parking lot …My sister and I giggled for what seemed like 10 minutes.. my dad was so mad at us.. haha
Finding out Jesus was not the first crucified/resurrected saviour.
Yep!
For me it was actually about all the saved people going to heaven but one person having led a nice comfortable life and another having endured tremendous suffering and pain. They both get the same exact reward!?! C’mon!
I’ve been agnostic for longer than I’ve been deconstructing, and for me it was the “all loving God” giving newborns things like Leukemia or EB, aka Butterfly children. And that was before learning about all the genocides and all other morally wrong things he commanded.
My main issue with Christianity was 'the problem of evil '. It started bc of the hypocrisy I saw in the 'conservative Christian' at my church (very judgemental and snooty) but even though I agree that 'you shouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater), I never could accept any of the excuses I heard for why a loving god created h3ll.
Now when I hear all the blood dtuff (like washed in the blood, or drink this and think of me) or the stories un rhe OT especially, like K. Saul went to a necromancer to resurrect some prophet to see why God had turned on him, I think 'WTF?!'
Did you play 'Just as i am'? For the alter call?
Karma is very much a real force in our lives, woven into the connections that bind us all together. Each person and each thought exists within a shared consciousness, constantly growing and changing. As you think back on your thirty years as a Christian pastor, keep in mind that many individuals are still developing their sense of right and wrong. Without the guidance of laws or the moral teachings of religion-those frameworks that help people differentiate between good and bad-some might easily fall into their worst instincts, leading to chaotic and troubled lives. Greetings from Ukraine btw.
Crapola. 🙄 “Karma”, is nothing more than if you do good things for people, they will want to help you, and if you do bad things to people, they will want to hurt you. It isn’t supernatural
@ it’s deeper than that) for example: every time you do bad things, that do not resonate with your essence, your consciousness gets distorted, changing your perception as well, and in an effort to return it to initial state, it drives you to situations where you suffer the same suffering that you caused to someone else, then once you suffered distortion is gone)
Love this comment
Soical issues, especially surrounding LGBTQ+ and race, are what really made me stop calling myself a Christian. I couldn't group myself together with people who hated me and many of my friends and family even if i still wanted to follow the teachings of Jesus. Then I stopped believing in sin. It just didn't make sense to me. How can you wrong a perfect being? After those two things, i felt comfortable enough to think about what I believed about god and why I believed in god. At some point, I got into historicuty and stuff and lost any shred of faith left in Jesus, the man, let alone Jesus the god. At best, he was just some guy who was building a cult.
I'm a Christian and I don't believe in much of the Bible as it's taught today. However I think this world is a cauldron where we are purified. I don't question that. The miracles of JC etc. don't interest me. It's only the Christly character that saves!
Yep, as a former member of People of Destiny Intl (currently called Sovereign Grace Ministry) and Larry Tomzak & CJ Mahany, I'm familiar with Hillsong. We used them as a template for our services as well. My god, did I actually believe in all that shit? What was I thinking?
Were those years all just a waste of my life?!
Good move..stay well
First I learned that the old testament is totally contradictory to the new one (red flag) and I learned Bible history on how it was written and by whom, so actually studying it from different angles (historically, theologically, from the Jewish point of view on the Torah, from scholars who have a perspective on the authors and Romans, etc.). Then I spent time studying the relationship between phycology and religion (ie. how people get sucked into cults, or get behind evil people like Hitler, how groups of humans form groups alliances and against each other ie. the cause/history of racism, other isms, etc. yes this is important because this all ties together!). Believe it or not, I prayed about it, I prayed to be shown the truth and if it's something I don't like, to be open to accepting it and using critical thinking to cross reference and bring to surface more likely truths, this took a while. And I learned in my journey that I am a spiritual person (I strongly believe there is a creator/God and I accept I could be wrong (but that's ok), I believe prayer still works) but I dropped the Christian or any other religious beliefs and I took the parts I can use successfully, because its not all bad.
Since I did that many years ago on my journey, I realized that we really don't know a lot about God and that is OK, I think we are supposed to seek the answers for our own understanding, but once we say "this is the way" or worse yet, "this is the only way" we have gone off the path because then we are lying to ourselves, because no one really knows all the answers, but we can find it little by little, but we have to listen and ask and marinate on it. Now, I feel like I am free since leaving the religion behind, I have more compassion for people, I understand people much better, and I am an all around better person from freeing myself from that religious world view, that was holding me back severely. But, I commend you a lot, because it takes a lot of time and perseverance, and searching and having an open mind to get to where you are today, my hope is that everyone takes their own path to their spirituality because I believe since we are all one, it will go back to the same place eventually anyways!
Curious if there are any other Christian universalists here? When I studied the Bible for myself it seemed like the message of love expressed by Christ was intended to be universal . . . I don't believe in a literal Hell, and it can be confusing that so many theologians and believers seem to ignore the verses that persuaded me to believe in "Heaven for everybody, Hell for no one." Thanks for the incisive teachings, Timmy, you and Kristi Burke are my favorite atheist channels on YT :)
I think I was close to Christian universalism when I was a Christian. I believed that only people who genuinely chose hell - when given the chance to choose after death - would go there (I believed we all would get a last chance to choose with full knowledge of the truth after death), but that hopefully nobody would be that stupid. I even believed - or at least I hoped - that in the end even Satan would be saved.
My problem was the suffering we see here on earth. And also when I let go of my religious feelings, I found the dogmas of the Creed utterly unconvincing. So I stopped believing in the literal truth of the Christian myths, but since Christianity focuses on belief/faith in the Creed/main dogmas ... I was then per definition no longer a Christian.
I still kept most of the basic Christian ethics and values, though. (meaning the ethics/values of the "modern", non-fundamentalist, "European" brand of Christianity, I guess). I also find poetic/emotional value in some of the stories in the Bible and in some Christian songs. And I do love old Churches and monasteries, and old rituals like lighting a candle for someone.
Thank you Daniel! I love Kristi Burke's work too! I'd love to do some collab with her!
I think annihilatonism ( death-ism ) is most consistent in the Bible from beginning to end. Even the famous John 3:16.
@@CappieBG For me the monkey wrench in the works of annihilationism is predetermination . . . why would God predetermine the vast majority of our species to either Hell or annihilation (or both . . . the second death?) and save only a select few? If we were destined to be saved, that gives me comfort that even a killer like Ted Bundy could be forgiven, which of course gets into the problem of evil. Why evil, why suffering? I can only guess that our suffering serves some greater purpose, something to be learned from.
@@mailill I love that the crucifixion / resurrection story exists at all . . . a personal God who would take the harm done by people upon Himself, and absolve everything in the name of love? I think like Marx said, it's the heart of (an often) heartless world :)
I find that a lot of Church services is a lot of bad rock music, singing, dancing, tattoos and a lot of narcissistic self-help "Jesus loves me Jesus loves me", random bible verses tied to some new age messaging... and very very little bible
If we accept that a supposed God exists and its ways are beyond my understanding then it stands to reason that I have no way of knowing if said god is actually good or evil and therefore I should only rely on my judgement. 🤷
Our ancestors had a way of communicating wisdom through the art of storytelling/myth. It's such a shame that Christianity did well to destroy that aspect of our collective imagination.
The problem of evil did it for me...
“Amen!”, Timmy!😂😊
So with my experience receivin
God's Holy Spirit, I used to get
high & drunk all the time, I was
Fornicating all the time, lookin
at Pornography all the time, ok!
After I received The Holy Spirit
on January 1st, 2021 at 1:30a
I haven't smoked weed or got
drunk, I've been Celibate over
these last 4 years, I stopped
cussin & using Pornography...
When you lost The Holy Spirit
did you have to force yourself
to start cussing again, and to
also start Fornicating again,
so much that The Holy Spirit
had actually departed from u?
I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW, SO
THAT'LL NEVER HAPPEN TO
ME!