Rebuttal to the "3 Christian Teachings That Made Me Leave the Church"

Patrick Reany

18 April 2024

The video essay I'm contesting was made by Drew (Genetically Modified Skeptic)
[posted 24 January 2024]:

3 Christian Teachings That Made Me Leave the Church

My religious indoctrination backfired. It was meant to make me a lifelong
Christian, but it lead me to question and leave the Evangelical church. -- Drew

Drew, did you make a rational choice to leave the "church"? If you did, does that mean that
you still believe in free will? Just the same, Drew, we have one thing in common: our mutual
hatred of Evangelicalism. The big difference though is how we have reacted to that evil thing.

---

I'm now going to make a claim that may at first seem outrageous, but I ask the reader for
the patience to give me the time to make my case for its truthfulness. Here goes:

Although it's possible that a child raised in a true Christian home and environment
might grow up to be a true Christian, it's almost certain that a child raised in a false
church will end up either a false convert or a disgruntled nonbeliever who wants to
deconstruct his or her religious commitments of the past. It sort of conforms to the
dictum: Garbage in, garbage out. And if that is true, I can say with confidence that
such a false convert either was never saved or he or she was a backslider long before
he or she decided to "leave the church." When someone claims to have left the church,
it's like they never really knew Jesus, and so all they can admit to is to "leave the church,"
which is what they did know. It's like Drew's church experience -- for better or for worse --
was real to him, but the person of Jesus was not. He was merely an icon or a religious
figurehead to him.

And if you never knew Jesus, you were never really saved. You were just a false Christian.
To be a true Christian, it takes a whole lot more than merely ascribing to a set of religious
doctrines and following some rituals or pious mannerisms and prohibitions.

So, the question naturally arises, "If I claim to be a believer, isn't that enough?" Well, no
it isn't anywhere near enough. That's why Jesus said,

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven;
but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. -- Matthew 7:21

So, are you a will-doer of the Father's will? And why Paul said:

Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not
your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?
-- 2 Corinthians 13:5

And why he also said:

They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable,
and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate. -- Titus 1:16

Why are these warnings out there, people? Because there will almost always be more false
believers than real believers, especially towards the end of the age before Jesus returns.
Paul said of this time:

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be
lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient
to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false
accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady,
highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of
godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. -- 2 Timothy 3:1-5

We can talk a big talk about being "saved," but if we aren't worthy of being saved,
we won't be:

Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and
they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy -- Revelation 3:4

And, lastly, Jesus said:

Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek
to enter in, and shall not be able -- Luke 13:24

It's a dangerous thing to be complacent about your salvation when you were ordered
to strive to enter into the kingdom.

---

If you watch Drew's video, you will see that Drew has so conflated the three terms "Christian,"
"Evangelicalism," and "Church" that he cannot seem to find any significant distinction between
any two of these terms. The true Christians are those that are actually born again, which means
that they have experienced a real change in their inner desires and feelings of entitlements. They
have experienced this change by being 'born again' by the power of the Holy Spirit within them.
Let me present a quote from the protagonist of my series of Christian speculative fiction books:

You either get control of your lusts and feelings of entitlements or they will get
control of you. -- Ilfinor

A false Christian is anyone who claims to be a true Christian, and might even be sincere in that
claim, but is not born again, and thus is not regenerated and not saved. The true church is the
set of all true Christians. I estimate that only 1 in 40 people who claim to be Christians are true
believers who will go to heaven. The rest are hypocrites, false believers. Drew tells us that he was
very "indoctrinated" into evangelicalism, and I see no reason to doubt that claim. But to be an
"indoctrinate" may make one zealous, as Drew was, but it need not make one genuine. Being
zealous can make one feel a heady, but false, feeling of being saved. Zealousness by itself proves
nothing. As Paul told us of the nonbelieving Jews of his day:

Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.
For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own
righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
-- Romans 10:1-3

So, where does this lack of knowledge come from in the modern false believer? For the
so-called believer in the West who has access to the Bible, it comes from their own
ill-attention to the Bible. They may be zealous over a select subset of verses that they like,
but ignore the rest. (This is at the heart of the cause of the scourge of denominationalism).
If you fail to become born again and be regenerated into a new person by the power of the
Holy Spirit, as evidenced by you actually getting the victory over your lusts and false
beliefs, it's because you have either trivialized, twisted, or ignored the very scriptures that
would have given you those spiritual accomplishments if you had fully believed in them by
following them.

I learned this myself the hard way -- by living it out. If I had known at age twelve what
I know now about how to walk in victory in Jesus [Galatians 5:16], I could have avoided
a lot of sin, frustration, depression, and falling away. I would have been a true Christian
at an early age, but, instead, I had to wait until I was in my 50s to finally have my eyes
opened to the truth, which lay in the scriptures all that time, hidden in plain sight, but I
was blind to them. I will present these scriptures later on, so please be patient. But I ask
the important question: How is it that I failed to learn of the needed verses in the Bible
and thus I did not rigorously follow them unto the victory that Jesus promised us?
Simple. I trusted in the religious teachings of those who were believers before I was. What
a mistake that was!! The problem is that it's very natural to do that. How many hundreds
of millions of people will end up in hell because they blindly trusted in the preachers and
pastors of their churches, rather than to diligently search out the doctrines on their own,
bravely willing to go their own way if need be?

There is one more thing that Drew and I have in common (I presume). We both hate
Moralism. I define Moralism as the evangelical effort to tell non-believers how
to morally live their lives, but this is strictly forbidden in the New Testament:

But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is
called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolator, or a railer,
or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. For what
have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that
are within? But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away
from among yourselves that wicked person. -- 1 Corinthians 5:11-13

So, to sum up: Yes, believers are to morally judge other believers, but not unbelievers.
Like it or not, Evangelicals, that's God's job, not yours! So, the problem I have with
Drew claiming to have been a real Christian is that if he really was a real believer, he
should have used this verse above to correct them, but he never seemed to try to
correct the Evangelicals. Instead, he seemed to use the faults and hypocrisies of the
Evangelicals as his excuse to leave the "church," as he phrases it. The true believer
does not flip off Jesus and walk away from Him just because there are "Christian"
hypocrites in the "church." That's one of the reasons we were warned ahead of time
that there will always be hypocrites in the church. The true believer is a man or
woman who has committed to walking with Jesus even if he or she is the last true
believer left on earth. (So, Drew, looking back, did you ever make that specific
commitment to Jesus?) It's important to get this down right, folks: To be a true
believer is not about fitting into the church you attend, unless you are fully
persuaded that your church has everything right. We commit to Jesus before we
commit to any "church."

---

Who I am and my personal salvation and eventual victory story

My name is Patrick Reany. I graduated with a BS in mathematics in 1983. I am not a
Christian apologist per se. I am just an ordinary Christian who has had to resolve
these so-called Evangelical inconsistencies myself. I have been a successful Christian
since 2008. On the day that I was converted, I was a changed person. I knew by intuition
that I was a very different person that morning I woke up. I won't go into details here,
but if you claim to become a believer in Jesus and you haven't experienced a radical
change in inner drives and personality, I question if you really are a true believer.
And beyond that, Jesus claimed that He would manifest Himself to His true
believers [John 14:21]:

He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me:
and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and
will manifest myself to him.

I was raised a Catholic, and I always believed in Jesus because I always believed that
I lived within a Moral universe. Without Jesus, I would have had no explanation
why the universe is Moral. This belief was encouraged by my parents and my church,
but it was not dependent on them. It has always been in me, even in those days when
I was backslidden. (Of all the friends I've had over my long life, I really can't say that
many of them shared my mystical intuition that the universe is intrinsically Moral.)

I knew that the universe is Moral by the Intuition of Truth. However, by my twenties,
being unable to get control of my lusts, I walked away from the Catholic church but
sought spiritual help elsewhere. I sought it in eastern philosophies and then eventually
in the Baptist church. But still, I needed more. In time I became a non-denominational
Evangelical Christian. This went well for a few years, but then the old lusts came back,
and the honeymoon grace period with Jesus was over. I tried to get the victory by using
will power, but this did not work. I lusted on men and women. I was not getting the
victory that a true believer in Jesus should get, so in 1986, I walked away from Jesus
until such time as I could figure out how to get the victory over the desires of the flesh.
However, it took me until June of 2008. But in the interim, I lived as an openly gay man
in a large American city.

The reason I'm bringing this up here is that Drew makes a big deal over how Evangelicalism
deals with gays and Moralism. I agree with Drew that the unscriptural and nonsensical
"conversion therapy" promoted by Evangelicals is both barbaric and ineffective. True
Christians do not use carnal methods to defeat spiritual problems, people! I have already
told you how to get the victory: Galatians 5:16! The lust of the flesh may seem like a
'carnal' problem, but it's not. It's really a spiritual problem, though having a strong
manifestation within our carnal desires, unless, with the help of Jesus, we get control
over them. When we walk in the Spirit of God, that Spirit turns down the volume on
these lusts we have to the point that we can get the victory over them. Furthermore, we
no longer miss their pleasures as we once did. And this knowledge should help alleviate
your fears of giving up these sinful, carnal pleasures.

For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
          -- Romans 8:6

Drew talks about gays, but I doubt that he really understands them. Lust is a spiritual
problem with a spiritual solution. The Apostle Paul said

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
          -- Galatians 5:16

If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
          -- John 8:36

And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
          -- John 8:32

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed
away; behold, all things are become new.
          -- 2 Corinthians 5:17

According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto
life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory
and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises:
that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the
corruption that is in the world through lust. And beside this, giving all diligence,
add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance;
and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly
kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and
abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the know-
ledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and
cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election
sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
-- 2 Peter 1:3-10

And what do you suppose this "divine nature" is? Is it a superpower to flaunt before
others? I doubt it. Is it a reference to our new lives in the kingdom of God after
Jesus comes back? I don't think so. I think that it's the ability to walk in holiness
and righteousness in this present world. And that is grace at work. But if we don't
actually employ the grace Jesus gives us, we are insulting Him. He doesn't hand out
talents to us for us to bury them until Jesus returns, either because we're too lazy
or too cowardly to use them publicly to gain some advantage for the Lord. People, we
true believers are to walk as Jesus walked [1 John 2:6].

And now one of the best verses on salvation in Jesus, the manners that lusts attack us,
and the works (obediences to God's orders) we need to be saved:

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the
world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust
of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father,
but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he
that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
-- 1 John 2:15-17

Victory in Jesus, at last!

Sometime in late 2007 and early 2008, while still a practicing gay man, I read the above
verses and then it began to dawn on me that the reason I failed at getting the victory over
my fleshly desires was because I had not taken them, and many others like them, seriously
enough. It occurred to me that I could not claim that Christianity (the religion formed by
Jesus, not the "church") had failed me until I had done all to stand within the faith.

Let's look at some more verses.

But rather give alms of such things as ye have; and, behold, all things are
clean unto you.
          -- Luke 11:41

As I continued to reread the Bible (especially the New Testament), I would from time
to time find another verse that promises victory, but every verse I read was conditional,
and it was very clear to me that I had not fulfilled all the conditions required of me.
This gave me hope to try again. So, I chose a day in mid-June 2008 to try. But before
I did that, I did all I could think of to rid from my abode all the stuff that would be
offensive to Jesus. I don't remember the exact day that I set for this challenge I gave
to Jesus to be there for me, but I officially celebrate it as 20 June 2008.

That morning I woke up, I felt very different. Very different! For one, I didn't feel that
typical morning lust that would have normally moved me to frennaq. And two, I could
sense in my intuition that I had changed inside. I just knew that those sexual lusts
would never come back so long as I walked in the Spirit. This was to me a personal
prediction from the Holy Spirit. And from then to this day in April 2024, I can honestly
say that they have not! Now, that's a miracle!

But to get this kind of victory, you can't just append a little Christian piety to your
already busy life and expect it to work. No. To make it work you have to be all in with
Jesus. After all, He was all in for you as He lived His life and died for you on that cross.
You can't get into heaven by being good according to some set of rules, not even if they
are Christian rules. The reason for this is because no set of rules died on the cross for
you, but the man-God Jesus Christ did. So, until you are ready to give every aspect of
your life to Jesus, I advise you not to make a partial, anemic commitment to Him.
If you're going to do it, go all the way, come hell or high water.

It's a struggle to make such a total commitment to Jesus, as it should be. I call it in my
fiction books the "Brenjah-Dar." It means "the spirit battle," because it will be a battle
inside of you for who will control your thoughts, speach, and actions for the rest of
your life. Will it be you? Will you submit those things to God, including your money?

It's ironic that, in a way, I have to thank the high priestess of Republicanism, Ann
Coulter, for steering me in the right direction, but for the wrong reason. Here's how
that happened. I had started my journey as a novelist in 2005 (IIRC), writing a story
about Ilfinor, whom I imagined at that time to be a young ranger in the time before the
Lord of the Rings in Middle-Earth. But after I found my country being taken over by
the demonic Moralists, I decided to see just how bad the situation was. So I found
one of Coulter's books in a book store and purchased it (I don't remember which book).
As I recall, this book set me on fire to rail against Moralism as the unChristian
evil that it was and still is.

So, I decided to use my fiction stories as a means of doing so. I redesigned the
location of my story to Panedom, a now lost continent in the Atlantic Ocean in the
second century AD. This means that my characters have access to the Bible. So, to
make scriptural condemnations of Moralism in my stories, I had to start reading the
Bible in earnest for the first time since 1986. But something strange and unpredicted
happened to me when I did this. Having 21 years of no Bible reading behind me, I
was able to read the book with a fresh and relatively unbiased mindset. And it
was because of that unbiased mindset that I was able to see those verses hidden in
plain sight for the first time. Let's look at some more of them!

He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion
of stumbling in him.
          -- 1 John 2:10

My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater
condemnation. For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word,
the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.
          -- James 3:1-2

So, those verses we've already seen are the Do's. What are the Don't's?

But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you. I am come in my
Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name,
him ye will receive. How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another,
and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?           
-- John 5:42-44

But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh,
to fulfil the lusts thereof.            -- Romans 13:14

Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see
the Lord: looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any
root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;
lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel
of meat sold his birthright.           
-- Hebrews 12:14-16

And

And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.           
-- Matthew 11:6

What is grace, really?

So, where does grace fit into all this? The following quotes are taken from my book Tristan.

After Tristan returned to the table, he sat down and said, "Ilfi, some claim that
grace is unmerited favor of God towards man. Is that right?"
   "That's hard to say because that particular expression is not written expressly
in the New Testament. So, we have to give an interpretation to it and see if that
interpretation is consistent with sound doctrine."
   "What do you say on it?"
   "I say that grace is every good thing God has given us, beginning with life itself.
From there, He has given us the knowledge of His existence and of Jesus Christ, His
only begotten Son, in whom, by faith in his substitutionary atonement for each of
us by His death on the cross and by obedience to His commandments, we can have
the forgiveness of sins. We are graced with the knowledge of His will. We are
graced by the witness and power of the Holy Spirit working in us. We are graced
by the money and things God has given us. We are graced by the secular talents
and skills He has given us and by the spiritual gifts given to every believer. Does
that make sense?"

   "Can you summarize the difference between grace and works?"
   "Think of 'works' that the Apostle Paul referred to as any means to get to the Father
that does an end run around Jesus, the Son of God. Instead, we get to the Father
through His Son, and when we encounter His Son, He tells us to go back into the
world and be salt and light and do good works, such as by taking care of the poor,
the needy, the stranger, and on and on. Jesus bestows on us grace to invest in His
kingdom, and by using that grace we hope to please God in all things. Receiving
something for free from God is called grace. Remember the parable of the talents?
The master graced his three servants with gifts of talents for each of them to invest
in their Lord's service while He took a trip. Two did invest (which are 'works') and
thus used their grace to profit, and were therefore accepted by their Lord when he
returned. But one did not use the grace given to him and he was therefore faulted
by his Lord and cast to outer darkness. He was faulted for not bothering to attempt
the simplest use of the grace given to him. Appropriately using the grace we are
given produces holiness and righteousness. Jesus told us each to strive to enter the
kingdom, which I interpret as using the grace we each have been given, or will be
given as needed, to its fullest degree."

   "Grace is every good thing that God gives Man: It's the beauty of the earth; it's
the rain in due season; it's the knowledge of God through scriptures and through
conscience; it's the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, and the knowledge of that
sacrifice through the New Testament; it's food on the table and healing in our
bodies; it's love people give us as children and hard work we must do to mature
properly; it's the power of God, working in us, for us to stop sinning and the
power to live righteously, by the good things we have been given us from God;
it's the goodness of God; it's the inner sense that truth, justice, and charity
are virtues to live by; it's patience to endure afflictions; it's wisdom to make
good choices in my life; it's discernment to know right from wrong and to
know truth from error; it's the power to live patiently as God works out His
timetable to bring Heaven onto the earth; it's the ability to work to earn money
to give to those who really need it; and, yes, grace is, without a doubt, also
the forgiveness of sins. I've never denied that."
   "Then, can you see, Tristan, that the love of the Truth is an early predictor
of who will believe deep down in their hearts the gospel message when it is
preached to them?"

Love Truth, Hate Lies

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto
the Father, but by me. -- John 14:6

Believing in conspiracy theories is just a sneeky way to justify believing in lies;
and promoting conspiracy theories can be damnable guile. And Jesus had to deal with
all kinds of conspiracy theories brought against His will for Mankind: The Devil
presented one to Adam and Eve claiming that God was holding out on them about the
effects of eating the Forbidden Fruit. The Pharisees used a conspiracy theory to
dismiss Jesus's ability to cast out devils from people, claiming that His power came
from the Devil. And the Sanhedrin used a conspiracy theory to explain away the
resurrection of Jesus -- that His disciples stole the dead body.

But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and
whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their
part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second
death. -- Revelation 21:8

Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the
tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without are
dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and
whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.. -- Revelation 22:14-15

Drew's 3 teachings that "made" him fall away:

1. Discernment
2. Putting others before yourself (04:54)
3. Be in the world, not of it (08:31)

Drew on discernment

Next, he will tell us that the grounds for his leaving the "Christian" faith are, ironically,
based on the virtues that were instilled in him during his school years. The first one he
admits to is "discernment," by which he means

"That means that we remember what God has tought us and we don't accept
things that are not true and honoring to Him." [Time-stamp 1:53]

My essay on discernment

Even secular discernment is more subtle than just applying an obvious rule. The
point is that if one can judge a teaching or doctrine as obviously true or false by the
application of one or more rules, then that's not what we should call "discernment."
True discernment involves dealing with subtlety or lack of rational clarity.

I do have every right to dispute Drew's definition of "discernment" even though
it may seem a bit petty and off his main point. But it's not really off the main point
I'm making. Here's why: True Christian discernment is so vital to true Christianity
that I doubt that the real believer can live without it. It's a spiritual attribute that every
true believer needs, but Drew doesn't seem to understand the spiritual nature of
Christian discernment. This is yet another piece of evidence for why I believe that
Drew was never really saved. His knowledge of Christianity is superficial. It's as if
his knowledge of the Christian experience has always been of that of an unbeliever
looking in from the outside, rather than that of a true believer experiencing the real
deal on the inside. I should know. I've experienced Christianity both ways myself!

So, what does Jesus mean when He says?

It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words
that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
-- John 6:63

For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him
shall be taken even that which he hath.
-- Mark 4:25

"Actual science disagrees with young-earth creationism." [Time-stamp 2:33]

Actually, it's not as simple as that. How could modern man have been on this earth
for 50 to 100 thousand years, yet not have established large civilizations tens of
thousands of years ago? Modern man explores and builds and invents, so where are
all these lost civilizations of the world, established long before ten thousand years
ago. Where are all the millions of graves or at least bones of all those hundreds of
millions of people? If the sedimentary layers on the Grand Canyon, Arizona are
hundreds of millions of years old, each layer set down slowly, why is there not any
tectonically cause tilting of the layers relative to each other? I know one way to
explain those flat layers: They could have all been set down rapidly, and not too
long ago. Of course that's not proof, but it's more consistent with the rock layers
themselves than the hypothesis that they were set down slowly over hundreds of
millions of years. In the end, science doesn't really 'say': People say.

One of the biggest problems naturalists have is their near total inability to be deeply
in awe of the wonderfulness of this world, which Darwinism doesn't guarantee has to be
here. Darwinism doesn't anticipate chocolate, yet we have chocolate! Darwinism doesn't
prove a priori that the world has cotton plants we can adapt for clothes, but isn't it nice
to have cotton clothes? I could go on and on about the gifts God gave us that most of us
take for granted. Taking things for granted will automatically secularlize you in the long
run. And to be a naturalists, you almost have to adopt a mindset that nothing that's useful
or fun for people on this planet is special, because it's all an accident of the Big Bang
and subsequent random evolution of the universe. This lack of appreciation is a
form of ingratitude. But a secularist cannot see it as such.

Jesus had to deal with people taking Him for granted. Once, ten lepers came to Him
for healing and He healed them. They ran off with their healing blessings and forgot
about thanking their healer, Jesus. But one of them decided not to be controlled by
group think. He went back to Jesus to give thanks:

And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan.
And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?
-- Luke 17:16-17

So, as I was saying, God did not leave us without a witness of His existence:

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
-- Psalm 19:1

Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath
shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the
world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his
eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.
-- Romans 1:19-20

Nevertheless he [God] left not himself without witness, in that he did
good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts
with food and gladness. -- Acts 14:17

On the other hand, God is not in the business of forcing the peoples of the earth
to believe on Him. So, He has to set up this earth and universe in which there is
"rational" plausible deniability of God -- leaving a possible naturalistic explanation
to our existence. For otherwise, everyone would be rationally forced to believe in God.
But God wants us to want Him through our hearts and souls, as well as rationally
through our minds.

And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul,
and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
-- Mark 12:30

"So it was my moral obligation to figure out how to cut through mis-information and
do so diligently." [Time-stamp 3:00]

So, Drew is relating to us how that his entire relationship with God and his faith was
at stake, but that his sole chosen means of vetting that relationship would be through
his mind. I'm sure glad that I never felt limited to just my mental faculties to decide
the God and Jesus questions.

How is Drew supposed to discern truth from error as he admits to accepting the bias
of secularism from the start, defining his highest epistemology -- SCIENCE -- as,
presumably:

Science is the investigation of cause-and-effect relationships imposed on
the natural realm, consistent with only natural forces and their interactions.

Secularism does not admit to an objective notion of morality. After all, we're all
just big bags of chemicals, aren't we, produced by the accident of blind evolution?
So, by which "morality" is Drew "being moral"?

[3:10] Drew tells us that when he was a senior in college, he took a class in statistics,
which he figured would give him an even better basis to test the truthfulness of beliefs
(to think critically). He went on to say that he thought he had a moral obligation to
think critically about his beliefs. About whether God was real. About whether experiences
with the divine could be explained naturalistically. Whether millenia old claims of
miracles should be taken at face value.

Do you see the problem here, folks? He claimed to have been a real Christian, but went
fifteen years and never once experienced a miracle from Jesus (one of His manifestations).
Drew, it's obvious why you began to doubt your beliefs, because you were running on
empty for years without any rationally confirming manifestations of Jesus in your life. But
that's not Jesus's fault.

Drew said,

"My new tools of discernment did not allow me to come to the conclusions which
my Christian community upheld." [Time-stamp 3:50]

"At no point did I deviate from the practice which I was taught as a child." [Time-stamp 3:55]

This is what the Apostle Peter had to say on it:

But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be
false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even
denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of
truth shall be evil spoken of. -- 2 Peter 2:1-2

Place Drew's commercial here: [Adam and Eve = sex without shame]. Well, I went
from being addicted to sex to now being asexual, and I am not ashamed of that.
It's one of the great blessings of Walking in the Spirit.

Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let
each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things,
but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was
also in Christ Jesus. -- Philippians 2:3-5 [Time-stamp 5:25]

And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
There is none other commandment greater than these. -- Mark 12:31 [Time-stamp 5:45]

Anyway, what about these following verses, Drew?

Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee
and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear
thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses
every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church:
but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.
Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and
whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say unto you, That
if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done
for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together
in my name, there am I in the midst of them. -- Matthew 18:15-20

Hence, if you want to pray with a fellow believer in your church and have Jesus be there,
you'd better be sure that you keep your body of believers pure, and that means to cull out
those who are unworthy. The Christian church belongs to Jesus Christ, not to its congregants.
Jesus has the total right to set down the rules of His church, to determine who is worthy to be
there and who is not.

And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled
to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal
life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but
one, that is, God. Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do
not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father
and mother. And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed
from my youth. Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One
thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor,
and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.
And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.
And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his disciples, How hardly shall
they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! And the disciples were
astonished at his words. But Jesus answereth again, and saith unto them, Children,
how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God! It
is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to
enter into the kingdom of God. -- Mark 10:17-25

[6:00] Drew then tells us that long ago his parents took up the cause of the poor and
disenfranchised, and that is wonderful!

[6:30] Drew explains that he was in a masters program in psychology from which he
read of gender nonconformity and sexual orientation. When Drew was confronted by
the secular information on these areas of human psychology, he found them troubling.
He believed the secular dogma that sexual orientation is immutable against any form
of intervention, which may be true when applying only secular intervention, but I can
testify personally that it is NOT true when applying the intervention of the Spirit of
God, How does it go again: Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the
flesh.

[Time-stamp 7:00] Drew quotes from an info source about clinical homosexuality:

Professional consensus rejects pathologizing homosexuality and gender
nonconformity and evidence does not support the efficacy of changing sexual
orientation.

1. I also do not believe we should pathologize homosexuality and gender nonconformity,
2. I also do not believe the efficacy of secular methods of changing sexual orientation,
3. and in any case, I do not believe that such effort should be coersive.

1. Get saved by accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior, and
2. learn how to Walk in the Spirit and get delivered that way.

Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. [Galatians 5:16]

It's true, friend. Look, I don't have anything against psychology or psychiatry, but those
are not the correct places to go to to deal with a spiritual problem. I already went over
all this above. Of course conversion theraphy won't work! No Duh!

So what if there's a genetic component to homosexuality? I lived with intense homosexual
lust for decades, but in just one day it was gone -- at least gone to the degree that I have
had the victory over it for all these years now. Besides, heterosexual lust, if not controlled,
can also send one to hell. The point is to have one intervention that allows us to
get the victory over all these lusts at once. Galatians 5:16.

Is being gay a choice? I think that if anyone on earth has some insight into this question,
it's me. This is one of the big insights I have learned after all these many decades on this
planet. You can, to a point, choose your behavior, but you can't altogether choose your
temptations. You can mitigate your homosexual lusts by making good lifestyle choices, but
that may not be enough to deal with them. But Jesus can give you that power to overcome,
whether it's homosexual lust or heterosexual lust, or any other kind of lust. Lusts can get
control over us and lead us to hell. But Jesus can deliver us, if we will be all in with
Him. The real questioon is, Just how much do we want to be delivered from those lusts?
Are we willing to pay the price?

Drew, I suppose you accept that there is a genetic factor to heterosexual lust, right?
But yielding to either lust inappropriately can send us to hell. And both lusts are fixable
by the power of the Holy Spirit working in us.

Drew then goes on to give statistics about how the gay orientation can be very difficult
for gays to live with. I agree; it was hard on me. It's false Christianity that has this
revulsion to gay people. I don't hate gay people; I don't have a great problem with them
just because they're gay. And I am against civil discrimnation on gays for most civil and
social situations. I disagree with gay "marriage" only because it's not marriage. Just call
it a "civil union." And I think it's hypocritical for so-called believers to complain about
gay marriage but they don't even care about straight marriage, even in the "church." For
Christian marriage means that marriage is till "death do they part," but if they part by
divorce, they cannot remarry until their divorced partner dies. If you don't want to live
under these harsh rules, either don't become a Christian or don't get married or don't
get divorced.

Drew, are you an atheist? If so, where do you get your ethics?

[8:00] Drew recounts the time that his "church" set themselves to fight in the political arena:
"we must fight so-called sinful lifestyle choices." As I already proved, this claim is true
for believer to believer, but not believer to nonbeliever. So, now Drew was at a crossroads. To
be in the world, but not of it. Christianity is not a political mission. Sure, the Herodians and
Sadducees loved political power. The Sanhedrin loved it too! Beware of their modern-day
leaven, folks.

[8:35] As a teenager, Drew was deeply into inline skating. Drew wanted to meet likeminded
skaters to show them the love of Jesus. Well, Drew, we can't claim to love Jesus, yet give
him the middle finger when our personal sensibilities differ from His. We're either submitted
to Him or we are not. He wanted to be in the world, but not of it, meaning that he would not
succumb to peer pressure and indulge his carnal desires while with the unsaved youths. But it
seems that something carnal was triggered within him because of his association with those
unsaved teens. (The Mystery of Iniquity.)

After he graduated college, he chose to leave the church, rather than "leave Jesus." He claims
that other Christians agreed with him that certain things are wrong but that he should keep quite.

Well, Drew, didn't I tell you that you were keeping company with a bunch of false believers?
No, better to say, a bunch of spineless false believers. So, Drew, you "left the church," but did
you ever know Jesus? I doubt it because you don't talk like you personally knew Jesus. Jesus is
the head of the church [Colossians 1:18], not the church. Maybe you should go to Jesus and try
to align with Him, rather than with the so-called "church." Drew, I haven't been in a church
for years because I think that they are all apostate. I'm still in a form of spiritual shock after
I learned that 82 million "christians" voted for DT. In my book, no one who supports or did
support DT is a true Christian. They sure didn't use Christian discernment!

[12:30] The question remains then, How did our parents's generation teach us these
values, but then apply them so inconsistently, as to let misinformation, bigotry, and
moral complacency permeate the church? I wish I knew.

[13:12] Most of our parents's generation -- at least in the US at least -- were raised
Christian, but not evangelical. Those who influenced them to join that tribe were part of
a political movement meant to create a voting block who'd consistently and dogmatically
support Republican candidates like Ronald Reagan. To the elites behind this, Christian
virtue wasn't the end goal. It was the bait with which lure good, trusting people into
supporting elites who acted out of pure self-interest.

Well, Drew, were they really that good? We're not proven to be good until we are tested
and we passed the test. But when they were tested, they failed the test, and their cheap
veneer of "being good" was revealed for all to see, and it's still being revealed today. If you,
reader, want to get to heaven, get out of evangelicalism for a start!

I grew up in the distant past as an evangelical Christian. I learned in those days that Satanists
would mock Jesus and Christianity by inverting the Cross of Jesus (among other ways). If an
Evangelical saw an intentionally inverted cross, he or she might associate it with Satanism.
And yet, Drew indentifies this same moral and spiritual inversion of values within the
"evangelical church." They've turned every good thing upside down and into something evil.
However, the evangelicals inside of this apostasy can't see it, because they are twice the child
of the Devil as their parents. Folks, Christianity is absolutely NOT a political or a social
movement.

[13:42] This is still happening today, by the way. Why do you think that oil billionairs
fund the dubious religious zealotry of the Daily Wire? They've got to make sure that
religious folks believe that voting for the interests morally challanged rich people is
actually God's will.

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was
set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right
hand of the throne of God. -- Hebrews 12:2

Jesus called 'divorce and remarriage' adultery, but they don't care. The Bible condemns
adultery, either directly or indirectly, more often than it condemns homosexuality. But
evangelicals don't care. They've lost the fear of God's judgements so they don't respect His
ways of doing things. Modern evangelicals are now intoxicated by their own political successes
that they will eject old-time preachers who want to repent of all this backsliding and heresies
of evangelicalism.

Once you've convinced a group of people that they are entitled to their 'best life now', then
they feel it's necessary to protect that entitlement against all possible enemies, foreign and
domestic, who could challenge it. So, they want to take over governments to be sure to get
their ungodly "entitlements." It's all based on selfishness. There's no Christian love of their
neighbors in any of this.

How easily all this can happen. If we don't strive to maintain personal and corporate holiness
and righteousness, they will slip away from us. If we don't stand up against heresies as soon
as they are introduced into our local body of believers, then that pernicious leaven will end
up degrading every part of that church body.

But it was clear to them that our democracy was not set up to provide for them all the
entitlements that they felt they should have, nor should it be. Giving that much indulgence
to the selfishness of evangelicals is not only not good democracy, it's not good Christianity
either. So they have been on the long road to dismantling our democracy to set up their
form of Dominionism. They claim that's its for Jesus, but it's not. They're not interested
in dying for Jesus and carrying their crosses for Him; they just want to live for themselves,
at the expense of everyone else.

Remember this: The righteous are mindful of the poor and help them; the wicked do not! (Proverbs 29:7)