Choosing Hell Over the Mainstream Church? I Get It.

There are so many people out there that say they’d rather go to hell than live in paradise with their Creator.

Which is fine as far as free will is concerned, because God would not be loving if He forced humans to choose Him without a choice, you know?

I believe this often stems from a misunderstanding of Yahweh’s character and thinking everything is a sin, therefore life isn’t fun when you follow Christ.

There’s also the fact that Satan has infiltrated the Church (a building doesn’t count since you can find divine fellowship while hiking).

Satan loves to twist things that God created for good and make them look sinful.

I usually get side-eyed by Christians when I mention this, but it’s the truth.

I care about what the biblical text says in context and in the original languages, not what tradition has handed down for generations as the truth.

When I say things like drinking is not a sin, or that sexuality is far too repressed by pastors, I’m the bad guy because I broke with tradition.

But it’s always cherry-picked reasoning instead of taking the whole Bible at once in all its wisdom.

Many passages of the Old Testament suggest that strong drink or wine is a blessing from God, and while there are some proverbs that warn against alcohol, proverbs are not the Law of God.

They are wise and instruct us in good sense, but as I’ve said many times, sin is breaking the Torah itself, not deciding against taking a proverb’s advice about being careful with alcohol for a night.

Then there is the notion of God hating sexual expression.

Where is that in the Bible? Nebulous terms are not the truth. Sexual immorality is defined in Leviticus 18, 20, and a few scattered verses about religious prostitution. One of the 10 commandments tells men not to commit adultery with another man’s wife, too, but the list is not as extensive as pastors would have you believe.

Everything else is added by tradition.

If what pastors are telling congregants is true, then why is there an erotic poem in the Bible? We’re talking spicy-romance-novel-level poetry about young love, and the protagonists aren’t even married yet!

The text is saying something different from what pastors and “theologians” would have you believe.

Jesus Christ, the perfect example for believers to follow, hated when people added to His Father’s words.

“And He said to them, ‘You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition’” (Mark 7:9 [ESV])!

Jesus shook the ancient Judean province and Sanhedrin under Rome because the leadership hated that He called them out for their bull****. Now, I truly didn’t have to censor that word, seeing as the idea of using curse words being a sin is also tradition, but I mostly keep things PG-13 here.

In fact, the apostle Paul uses curse words to make points a few times in his letters. If cursing were a sin, why is that in the Bible?

We can’t let mass Christianity and tradition dilute the words of the Living God. When Yeshua came the first time, the faith had already been corrupted by the Pharisees and Sadducees. In our modern age, the faith has been corrupted by manmade institutions and traditions.

Often, I pick on the Church a bit, but that’s because they claim to know Yahweh. The world I leave alone, because they do not know our King.

My philosophy is that Christians should know better than the world, yet they hold to their traditions.

The two issues I mentioned earlier seem to be a common hang-up for people who don’t want to leave some good things in life behind.

But that’s the thing, though. You don’t have to leave things behind that are meant to be good.

We are to walk as He walked, and leave our old selves behind, sure, but having a glass of whisky (where’s the e?) while listening to some Latin salsa records won’t send you to hell.

Everything in the minds of people who don’t study the Bible for themselves sends you to hell.

I can’t get past how ridiculous that is.

Ironically, though, adding to God’s commandments is a far greater sin.

The mainstream Christian might interpret what I’m saying as my being self-righteous, but the truth is, I care about righteousness so much that I don’t add sins that don’t exist.

It is far more self-righteous to declare you know better than God on what to forbid.

Blessings and shalom to you!