Below in Red are the words of Ryan Bell (former Pastor turned Atheist) from the Christian Post.
They are followed by my response/commentary in Green to each point of his.
"Ryan J. Bell, former pastor of the Hollywood Adventist Church in California, launched an experiment to live without God on New Year’s Eve in 2013 after preaching for 20 years. A year later, he concluded that God did not exist. Five years into that decision, he admits that for a while he missed Christianity, but not anymore.
"My beliefs had been shifting for many years. I started out as a very conservative Christian and ended as a very progressive Christian,
albeit still in a conservative denomination. I sometimes say it was like whittling a stick — cutting away little bits, shaving off rough edges — and I kept at that project until one day I looked down and there was no stick left."
He was warned about those little foxes--or his "whittling" away of little bits...Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: Song Of Solomon 2:15
"Another way to think about this is that conservative Christianity is a very bounded community. There are clear markers of who is in and who is out. Part of the theological and ministry project I found myself a part of was widening that community to include more people and a broader analysis of politics. Eventually, it widens so far that it includes everyone and at that point, I didn't feel the need for Christianity, per se. It was just the human family."
So he went by his feelings rather than the Word and began his slide by getting caught up in secular Leftist Politics.
"I am an atheist, for sure, but there's so much more to me than that. I'm a humanist in the sense that I don't believe anyone is
coming to save us. We are the ones we're waiting for. I'm also a democratic socialist, which describes how I understand politics. My humanism and my democratic socialism go hand in hand. I can't separate existential questions about meaning and value from political questions about who has access to a materially good life."
The first part he is clearly rooted in SELF---that we are waiting for ourselves---sort of a naïve, post modernist, pop-psychology self-centered worldview where one thinks highly of himself.
Self is the essence. Self is displayed on the pedastool and from it stems his Leftist Politics. Here he had his spiritual life begin to bend to the temporal worldview rather than the other way around....a key factor in his fall it would appear.
(are those of you who may be on a similar path paying attention?)
"There wasn't one exact moment, but there were a series of moments.
--One was developing a personal friendship with a member of my
church who was gay. That led me on a years-long project of trying to figure out what the Bible said about homosexuality. The idea that the Bible may have gotten this wrong was a big moment for me.
--September 11, 2001, was also a turning point. It was in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 that it struck me that people of other religions also believe God is commanding them to do things, things I thought were unspeakably evil, which led me to recall the things that my people — Christians — have done and continue to do in God's name that are unspeakably evil. That was the beginning of me wondering whether religion is just a belief system that people use to justify their perceived supremacy."
A couple of observations:
1) There is a reason we are not to allow open sexual rebellion in our midst of the Church (see 1 Cor. 5). A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Galatians 5:9 You see, he let a Little bit of that Leaven into his Church and it began to sway his view. He was WARNED in Scripture.
2) As for so-called Christians who may have done evil in the name of God, the 3rd Commandment actually is about dealing with just that.
Taking God's name in Vain, in the Hebrew text, actually means doing something in the name of God (that you shouldn't be doing) that will turn people from God. It is the only Commandment God says that He will not hold you Guiltless. (as a Pastor he should have spent more time in the Word and less in his bitter politics-then he would know & understand this).
*As for comparing his fellow Christians wrong doings to Islam---it is Christianity only that has this 3rd Commandment.
"I'd also encourage folks to try to understand that those who are leaving are in pursuit of truth. They're not in open rebellion, as I sometimes hear Christians say. The same thing that led many people to Christianity (the pursuit of truth) has led many out of it. Perhaps that's something we can share in common."
Let Paul Respond to this point about Bell's situation- Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 2 Timothy 3:7
They are followed by my response/commentary in Green to each point of his.
"Ryan J. Bell, former pastor of the Hollywood Adventist Church in California, launched an experiment to live without God on New Year’s Eve in 2013 after preaching for 20 years. A year later, he concluded that God did not exist. Five years into that decision, he admits that for a while he missed Christianity, but not anymore.
"My beliefs had been shifting for many years. I started out as a very conservative Christian and ended as a very progressive Christian,
He was warned about those little foxes--or his "whittling" away of little bits...Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: Song Of Solomon 2:15
"Another way to think about this is that conservative Christianity is a very bounded community. There are clear markers of who is in and who is out. Part of the theological and ministry project I found myself a part of was widening that community to include more people and a broader analysis of politics. Eventually, it widens so far that it includes everyone and at that point, I didn't feel the need for Christianity, per se. It was just the human family."
So he went by his feelings rather than the Word and began his slide by getting caught up in secular Leftist Politics.
"I am an atheist, for sure, but there's so much more to me than that. I'm a humanist in the sense that I don't believe anyone is
The first part he is clearly rooted in SELF---that we are waiting for ourselves---sort of a naïve, post modernist, pop-psychology self-centered worldview where one thinks highly of himself.
Self is the essence. Self is displayed on the pedastool and from it stems his Leftist Politics. Here he had his spiritual life begin to bend to the temporal worldview rather than the other way around....a key factor in his fall it would appear.
(are those of you who may be on a similar path paying attention?)
"There wasn't one exact moment, but there were a series of moments.
--One was developing a personal friendship with a member of my
--September 11, 2001, was also a turning point. It was in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 that it struck me that people of other religions also believe God is commanding them to do things, things I thought were unspeakably evil, which led me to recall the things that my people — Christians — have done and continue to do in God's name that are unspeakably evil. That was the beginning of me wondering whether religion is just a belief system that people use to justify their perceived supremacy."
A couple of observations:
1) There is a reason we are not to allow open sexual rebellion in our midst of the Church (see 1 Cor. 5). A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Galatians 5:9 You see, he let a Little bit of that Leaven into his Church and it began to sway his view. He was WARNED in Scripture.
2) As for so-called Christians who may have done evil in the name of God, the 3rd Commandment actually is about dealing with just that.
Taking God's name in Vain, in the Hebrew text, actually means doing something in the name of God (that you shouldn't be doing) that will turn people from God. It is the only Commandment God says that He will not hold you Guiltless. (as a Pastor he should have spent more time in the Word and less in his bitter politics-then he would know & understand this).
*As for comparing his fellow Christians wrong doings to Islam---it is Christianity only that has this 3rd Commandment.
"I'd also encourage folks to try to understand that those who are leaving are in pursuit of truth. They're not in open rebellion, as I sometimes hear Christians say. The same thing that led many people to Christianity (the pursuit of truth) has led many out of it. Perhaps that's something we can share in common."
Let Paul Respond to this point about Bell's situation- Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 2 Timothy 3:7