DrM
Member
Why did I leave Christianity and become a Deist? The answer is not simple, but I will try to give one. For one does not simply become a Deist when one was previously a member of a revealed religion, one must first have some experience which triggers Reason. Once Reason awakens, then the truth is known.
I was born into a protestant family. By the age of 22 I became a hard-core biblical reader and eventually entered seminary. I returned to my university in my late 20s because I had always wanted a degree in psychology; and figured it was time to do it.
Studying psychology leads one to critical thinking and reading; so I decided to examine the Bible in the same light as any other ancient writing -- believing that if God had endowed us with the use of Reason, then God intended us to use them.
Although I detested skeptics of the bible, I had to admit that at least on a textual level they were scoring some very good points after all, since we no longer have the authors to talk to, the text was all there was to go on; and it was not too much to expect God's specially selected agents on earth to communicate the divine will clearly and with care.
Then one day I was reading the Bible and read in Ezek. 26 that YHWH swore that he would get Nebuchadnezzar to destroy Tyre so totally that the memory of the city would be lost to history. Right then and there I knew something was not adding up, Nebuchadnezzar has long been dead and Tyre is still around today! Later in chapter 29, I read something which totally ruined my faith in the Bible. Now YHWH is admitting that what he said in chapter 26 could not come to pass, so he was giving Nebuchadnezzar Egypt to plunder -- but that never happened either!
It is well documented historical fact that when Nebuchadnezzar tried to invade Egypt he suffered a serious defeat at the hands of Aahmes, Pharaoh of Egypt, and never attempted another invasion. At that point I remembered something written in the Torah and I Sam. Here are the quotes:
Deut. 18: 21-22, "21 And you may say in your heart, 'How shall we know the word which the Lord God has not spoken?' 22 When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken ...." and,
Num. 23: 19, "19 God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent: has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will not make it good?"
I Sam. 15: 29, "29 And also the Glory of Israel will not lie or change His mind; for He is not a man that He should change His mind."
This makes sense. God should be able to make a prophecy which would come true as worded; and his prophets can be expected to accurately and clearly transmit such prophecies to humanity. So it became obvious to me that the Book of Ezekiel was nothing more than a collection of false prophecy, written by who-knows-who. At that time I started to pay even more attention to the skeptics and recognized the Bible as priest craft [see the 2nd note at the bottom], not the writings of anyone inspired.
I discovered much to my dismay that all the prophets failed in every single prophecy they made at the literal level, not a single prophecy as worded ever came true anywhere in the Bible; the New Testament has an even poorer track record, it distorted those parts of the Tanakh [Jewish Bible] it did touch, ignored ALL the real messianic prophecies, invented unreliable prophecies which its authors claim Jesus fulfilled, and failed to even corroborate each other on the events of Jesus' life.
I was born into a protestant family. By the age of 22 I became a hard-core biblical reader and eventually entered seminary. I returned to my university in my late 20s because I had always wanted a degree in psychology; and figured it was time to do it.
Studying psychology leads one to critical thinking and reading; so I decided to examine the Bible in the same light as any other ancient writing -- believing that if God had endowed us with the use of Reason, then God intended us to use them.
Although I detested skeptics of the bible, I had to admit that at least on a textual level they were scoring some very good points after all, since we no longer have the authors to talk to, the text was all there was to go on; and it was not too much to expect God's specially selected agents on earth to communicate the divine will clearly and with care.
Then one day I was reading the Bible and read in Ezek. 26 that YHWH swore that he would get Nebuchadnezzar to destroy Tyre so totally that the memory of the city would be lost to history. Right then and there I knew something was not adding up, Nebuchadnezzar has long been dead and Tyre is still around today! Later in chapter 29, I read something which totally ruined my faith in the Bible. Now YHWH is admitting that what he said in chapter 26 could not come to pass, so he was giving Nebuchadnezzar Egypt to plunder -- but that never happened either!
It is well documented historical fact that when Nebuchadnezzar tried to invade Egypt he suffered a serious defeat at the hands of Aahmes, Pharaoh of Egypt, and never attempted another invasion. At that point I remembered something written in the Torah and I Sam. Here are the quotes:
Deut. 18: 21-22, "21 And you may say in your heart, 'How shall we know the word which the Lord God has not spoken?' 22 When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken ...." and,
Num. 23: 19, "19 God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent: has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will not make it good?"
I Sam. 15: 29, "29 And also the Glory of Israel will not lie or change His mind; for He is not a man that He should change His mind."
This makes sense. God should be able to make a prophecy which would come true as worded; and his prophets can be expected to accurately and clearly transmit such prophecies to humanity. So it became obvious to me that the Book of Ezekiel was nothing more than a collection of false prophecy, written by who-knows-who. At that time I started to pay even more attention to the skeptics and recognized the Bible as priest craft [see the 2nd note at the bottom], not the writings of anyone inspired.
I discovered much to my dismay that all the prophets failed in every single prophecy they made at the literal level, not a single prophecy as worded ever came true anywhere in the Bible; the New Testament has an even poorer track record, it distorted those parts of the Tanakh [Jewish Bible] it did touch, ignored ALL the real messianic prophecies, invented unreliable prophecies which its authors claim Jesus fulfilled, and failed to even corroborate each other on the events of Jesus' life.
