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Top Ten Signs You're a Fundamentalist Christian
10 - You vigorously deny the existence of thousands of gods claimed by other religions, but feel outraged when someone
denies the existence of yours.
9 - You feel insulted and "dehumanized" when scientists say that people evolved from other life forms, but you
have no problem with the Biblical claim that we were created from dirt.
8 - You laugh at polytheists, but you have no problem believing in a Triune God.
7 - Your face turns purple when you hear of the "atrocities" attributed to Allah, but you don't even flinch
when hearing about how God/Jehovah slaughtered all the babies of Egypt in "Exodus" and ordered the elimination of
entire ethnic groups in "Joshua" including women, children, and trees!
6 - You laugh at Hindu beliefs that deify humans, and Greek claims about gods sleeping with women, but you have no problem
believing that the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary, who then gave birth to a man-god who got killed, came back to life and then
ascended into the sky.
5 - You are willing to spend your life looking for little loopholes in the scientifically established age of Earth (few
billion years), but you find nothing wrong with believing dates recorded by Bronze Age tribesmen sitting in their tents and
guessing that Earth is a few generations old
4 - You believe that the entire population of this planet with the exception of those who share your beliefs -- though
excluding those in all rival sects - will spend Eternity in an infinite Hell of Suffering. And yet consider your religion
the most "tolerant" and "loving."
3 - While modern science, history, geology, biology, and physics have failed to convince you otherwise, some idiot rolling
around on the floor speaking in "tongues" may be all the evidence you need to "prove" Christianity.
2 - You define 0.01% as a "high success rate" when it comes to answered prayers. You consider that to be evidence
that prayer works. And you think that the remaining 99.99% FAILURE was simply the will of God.
1 - You actually know a lot less than many atheists and agnostics do about the Bible, Christianity, and church history
- but still call yourself a Christian.
I'm not offended by this, I feel a bit hurt I guess, because Jesus is getting a bad press, and I believe that it misrepresents
the truth about Him, and I desperately want you to know that truth because I believe that it (the truth) is what we all really
need, He is what we need, in short.
So, in the spirit of the preceding paragraph I am going to try and answer some of the points raised in these anonymous
10 observations.
This may well be incredibly foolish of me, and I may totally lack the ability to do so well, for this I apologise now,
but my intention is to make you think, and I hope that perhaps you will do so, and even more than this I hope that perhaps
your eyes will be opened and you will see that God is not your enemy, but your deliverer and the lover of your soul.
10 - You vigorously deny the existence of thousands of gods claimed by other religions, but feel outraged when someone denies
the existence of yours.
No, I honestly don't feel outraged, I just feel very sad.
The thing about my God (who, yes, I do believe is THE God, the one and only), revealed to me in Jesus Christ, is that
He makes some very exclusive claims. Jesus said that He was the way, the truth and the life, and that no man came to the Father
(God), except by Him.
That's about as exclusive as it gets, don't you think?
Now, either Jesus spoke the truth when He said that, or He lied, it can only be one or the other. As C.S Lewis put it,
Jesus is either a madman, a liar, or He really is who He claimed to be.
If He lied, well, you know, those thousands of other gods are in with a chance. If He didn't then those gods are false
and He is true.
If He is true, then it's hurting you to pursue those other gods (who are incidentally lying to you via their claims, please
think about that), and if I really care about you, and everyone else, then I must speak up and talk with you about it.
I'm not outraged, I'm hurting for you, I'm trying to help you.
9 - You feel insulted and "dehumanized" when scientists say that people evolved from other life forms, but you have
no problem with the Biblical claim that we were created from dirt.
I don't feel in the slightest bit dehumanized, trust me. Again, I'm concerned, I care.
If we were created, by a Creator, which I believe we were because God tells us we were in His word, then we have a responsibility
to that Creator, we are accountable to Him, that means me, and you.
I want you to know that so that you can come to know Him, it is my responsibility to try and share that with you as Gods
witness.
As to the dirt, well I believe we were formed from that because I believe Him, which kind of goes back to no 10 and all
the implications of that..think about it.
8 - You laugh at polytheists, but you have no problem believing in a Triune God.
Hmm, this is tricky for me, I'm no theologian, but I'll do my best to honestly explain. I believe in one God, but He is one
God who exists simultaneously and eternally in 3 persons who are part of one indivisible whole.
God the Father (Our Father in Heaven), God the Son (the Lord Jesus Christ, who lived, died on the cross, rose from the
dead and is now seated at the right hand of the Father in Heaven, but soon to return to this earth to Judge us all), and the
Holy Spirit = GOD.
It sounds like gobbledygook I know, and to my shame I am unable to explain it any more clearly than the above, you'll
have to trust me on this..no, hang on, you don't need to trust me, you need to trust Him.
I don't laugh at polytheists, but I do want them to know the one true God as outlined above.
7 - Your face turns purple when you hear of the "atrocities" attributed to Allah, but you don't even flinch when
hearing about how God/Jehovah slaughtered all the babies of Egypt in "Exodus" and ordered the elimination of entire
ethnic groups in "Joshua" including women, children, and trees
My face does turn purple sometimes, this is true, but at my age it's usually after running up 3 flights of stairs.
God never promised me that I would understand or like everything that He does. And the truth is I don't, I don't understand
everything, and I certainly don't like it all, not just in the accounts referred to above, nor in my own life. But He did
promise me that He is Holy and true, and that He is to be trusted, that He is faithful and wise, Just and loving, and I have
found Him to be utterly so in my short time with Him.
Inadequate as it is I can only say to you that one day both you and I will know, and we will understand why the above
happened.
Now to allah, one thing is clear here, if Jesus is true, if the Bible is true, if God is true, then allah is most certainly
a false god.
This I believe utterly.
I have no allegiance to allah, but Muslims I love, very much.
6 - You laugh at Hindu beliefs that deify humans, and Greek claims about gods sleeping with women, but you have no problem
believing that the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary, who then gave birth to a man-god who got killed, came back to life and then
ascended into the sky.
I don't laugh at Hindus or Greeks.
Honest.
The Holy Spirit did not impregnate Mary in the sense of physically having sex with her a la tales of Greek gods, God performed
a miracle and she conceived, a very different thing.
As to Jesus, well, again we come back to the points raised in no10.. Jesus said that He existed eternally as a member
of the triune Godhead before he was born as a man, the Jewish people present when He said this understood that this was what
He was claiming, and indeed they sought to stone Him for it because they considered it blasphemy, a very serious crime in
their eyes, and even more so in Gods eyes..so, the issue, again is, was He lying or speaking the truth?
On this you and I make our decisions on Him.
5 - You are willing to spend your life looking for little loopholes in the scientifically established age of Earth (few billion
years), but you find nothing wrong with believing dates recorded by Bronze Age tribesmen sitting in their tents and guessing
that Earth is a few generations old.
I'm not spending any time looking for loopholes, I don't even think about them or Bronze age tribesmen (unless I need to knit
one or maybe make a themed birthday cake). Honestly, all I do is read the creation account in Genesis and believe it.
That definitively settles it for me.
4 - You believe that the entire population of this planet with the exception of those who share your beliefs -- though excluding
those in all rival sects - will spend Eternity in an infinite Hell of Suffering. And yet consider your religion the most "tolerant"
and "loving."
I do believe in Hell, yes, and in its eternity, yes, and yes I also believe that those who die without trusting Jesus
as their Lord and Saviour will go there.
Bear in mind that if my faith is not genuine, or I die having fallen away from the faith then this will include me.
It's a hard thing to consider, but yes, I do believe it to be true. I also, as you say consider my faith to be loving.
Why?
Because the sad truth is folks that our destiny is a choice, if I go to hell, then I go there because I have chosen to
reject Jesus, just as we, as a world, have been doing from the beginning of time.
Short of making us robots and denying us the choice to be masters of our own destiny, God has done everything He possibly
can for us, though we ignored Him and disobeyed Him and defied Him He still sent His Son to die for us, to pay for those (and
all the other) sins, so that IF WE WOULD, we could be forgiven and set free.
We are drowning in the sea of life friends, slowly being suffocated by our sin and separation from God..if He puts before
us the lifeboat which will speed us to freedom and we CHOOSE to turn Him down does this make Him unloving?
No, I don't believe it does.
God weeps for each and every one of us, He loves us and longs for us to be reunited with Him, but He isn't going to force
us to love Him (by trusting Him) in return. No, we have choices, and there are consequence to those choices.
Tolerant? it depends what you mean by that, tolerant as in loving everybody? yes, certainly. Tolerant as in allowing people
to make their free choices on Jesus? Yes, absolutely.
Tolerant as in not defending or sharing what I believe to be the truth of Jesus in case I offend you or your beliefs?
Certainly not! I would rather take the risk of offending you than leave you having never heard the Gospel of Jesus, it's that
important.
3 - While modern science, history, geology, biology, and physics have failed to convince you otherwise, some idiot rolling
around on the floor speaking in "tongues" may be all the evidence you need to "prove" Christianity.
I don't do rolling on the floor, and to date I have never been blessed with the gift of tongues.
I don't do rolling on the floor, and to date I have never been blessed with the gift of tongues.
I can promise you that I would not use either activity to try and authenticate Christianity for you.
I might try and use the evidence of changed lives and hearts to make you think though.
2 - You define 0.01% as a "high success rate" when it comes to answered prayers. You consider that to be evidence
that prayer works. And you think that the remaining 99.99% FAILURE was simply the will of God.
I don't define anything as a high success rate, I don't even think in those terms.
I know that God, my Father, is the perfect parent and has my best interests at heart.
This means that when I ask Him about things in prayer, like any loving parent sometimes He says yes, sometimes He says
no, and sometimes He says not right now RG.
His answer varies because He knows whats best for me.
If my child petitions me for a 3rd ice cream and I say no because I can see that it will make them violently ill does
that mean that their petition was a failure, or simply that they got the right answer, though it wasn't the answer they wanted?
Yes, sometimes the will of God is not what we want it to be, sometimes it looks like failure.
Look more closely.
1 - You actually know a lot less than many atheists and agnostics do about the Bible, Christianity, and church history -
but still call yourself a Christian.
You know, this really is true.
I've met a lot of people who devoted their life to studying Church History, and performing textual criticism on the Bible.
Mystifyingly I've known (and known of) people who made their living from God, and yet couldn't stand Him.
They knew and know much more than I ever will. But, with all that knowledge they still in their hearts rejected Him and
His sacrifice for their sins.
I couldn't write a 4 page thesis on it, but I believed what He said about my sin and I asked Him to forgive me because
He said that if I asked He would.
Thats the only thing the entitles me to call myself a christian.
After reading all this it is entirely, indeed very possible that you hate everything I have said, it was a chance I felt I
had to take.
I do believe in miracles though, and more than that I believe in the one who performs them, I hope I've given you some
cause to think on Him.
Let me know, wether your thoughts are positive or negative, I'd like to hear from you.
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