my conviction

I have recently come across an interesting website. evilbible.com Im sure I dont need to explain much more. The name is says it all. It is a site completely dedicated to disproving and distorting scripture. The organization is very zealous in doing so. I do commend them on their study (as bias and false as it may be). They have done an extreme amount of reseach and have sufficiently supplied their opposition. As I sat and read every article my spirit sank. I looked at the carefullly selected passages (mostly from of the Old Testament) & watch as they were misused and distorted. I began to worry. I wondered to myself, "How many of the people in our churches could read these articles & not be shaken in their faith?" I couldn't help assume few. My second question was, "How much damage has this done in the eyes of unbelievers?" I have no doubt that the issues are from scripture. They do an excellent job of siting them. They even stick to good solid translations (NAS, NIV). However, they have taken these verses and tried to understand them with no guidance from the spirit. They concentrate on the wrath of God and how in their eyes this is unjust, and cruel. Some examples: RITUAL HUMAN SACRIFICE IN THE BIBLE, RAPE IN THE BIBLE, MURDER IN THE BIBLE, JESUS LIED, EVIL BIBLE QUOTES, & lastly a TOP 10 LIST on how to figure on whether or not your a fundamentalist christian (which was quite funny). However, I wonder how many of my high school students can read this and be ok?

The Problem:

• The problem is not the site. In fact, they are asking some very important questions. Its just their in no position to explain them --- Then who should? Why does this suprise people in our churches? Are we avoiding these issues? Why does stuff like this directly oppose the heart of the American Christianity and its understanding of God?
• I think that given a few years back something like this would have rocked me. I would have had no biblical foundation to stand on. Which seems to be the norm of some believers. I think that in order better see things like this one must see the motives of people/groups who propose such accusation. This shouldn't be a suprise when we face this stuff, Jesus promised it. What to do you expect from depraved people? We were in no better state before salvation. Don't expect non-christaians to act like christians. We can't even get some christians to act like chirstians. The second thing is to know your bible and know your God. Accuracy is key. Not all things God orchestrates and ordains make us feel good. However, we shouldnt hide these or avoid them.

My easy solution is to hope that people never end up on this site, but I know thats not the answer. The anwser is to prepare and equip the body for these things. Im not speaking from apologetics stand point but a biblical stand point. We must do it by simply teaching it and not avoiding it. Im not talking about a special class limited to those who care to take it but a weekly theme in our services (given thats the subject).

Concluding... who knows if im right or not. I just get scared. Im scared that I wouldnt be prepare upon somebody questioning these issues and looking to me to have an anwser. I dont know all there is but I do take this as motivation to know more.

To my suprise this whole issue has caused me to evaluate some other issues. I have a dear family friend who is converting to mormonism. Her baptism is coming up and I am figuring out whether to go or not. My instant thought to the situation is negative. I have many opinions about the religion. Most of them taken from carm.org, my infaliable, one-stop-shop for apologetic truth (sarcasm) . They have a nice concise 5 point nutshell on what's wrong with the religion. I don't doubt most of the things CARM notes as truth. I know mormanism is false but I dont want to rely on CARM for that conclusion. After seeing Evilbible.com and the way they handled scripture I can't help think thats what we do with CARM (although I dont at all think thats the goal of carm). We goto site's like these with a presupposition of finding the proofs to prove the religion wrong. Ironically, this is based on the research of others with that very goal in mind. I know that CARM quotes the very writtings of Joseph Smith and others but so does evilbible.com do with scripture. I know Im spliting hairs and most likely being unclear in exactly what Im saying. None the less, I have decided to study the material in which morman author's develope. I have actually begun this process and have already validated some of the data carm.org has already confirmed but I feel better doing so through their writtings rather then carm. My goal is to better understand the religoin in the context of how they understand it. At the same time I want to discover & and uncover what is hidden (the skeletons in the closet). This is really nothing against carm or apologetics but rather the way people use them. I just feel that we rely too much on these sort of things and are never allowed to question them. Imagine if thats what we did with evilbible. com.

goodnight! (its late, sorry about any misspellings)