I constantly get told by Christians that the doctrines those of us in my church believe are wrong and that I need to stop believing and teaching these doctrines, because I’m leading not only myself, but those I teach, to hell. All this, while not even knowing why it is that we believe what it is we believe the Bible teaches.
This means that these Christians want me to ignore the interpretations of Scripture and the theological conclusions I’ve arrived at through my Bible studies (interpretations and conclusions that most of the members of my church have arrived at too), based on nothing more than the fact that they’re telling me I’m wrong. The problem is, if none of them will take the time to read my eBook where I explained what it is we believe the Bible teaches and why we believe it does teach what we believe it teaches, they’re basically asking me to take their word for it (or the word of their religious leader or denomination) that we’re wrong, even though none of them can show me where we went wrong since they don’t even know the reasons for what we believe (or even what it is that we actually believe, in many cases).
And if you’re one of these Christians who are asking me to just take your word for it that we’re wrong and to change my mind and believe what you believe instead, simply because it’s what you think the Bible teaches and because you’re telling me to, I hope you can now see what you’re doing. I mean, would you just take my word for it that you’re wrong about your doctrines simply because I said you are, without me explaining why I believe you’re wrong (perhaps in an eBook where I laid out my scriptural interpretations and arguments as to why I believe you’re wrong)? I know the answer to that question is “no,” so I hope you won’t be so hypocritical as to tell me to change my mind without explaining exactly where I went wrong in my studies of Scripture and writing it out in your own study or book and sending it to me.
So bottom line, if you’re actually serious about getting me to change my mind, put your money where your mouth is and read my eBook carefully from beginning to end, and then write a refutation of it. But I already know you won’t. How? Because, out of the thousands of Christians I’ve sent the link for my eBook to, a few dozen have taken me up on this challenge and promised to write a refutation and send it to me, but one of two things always happens:
- They give up before finishing chapter 1.
- They finish it and tell me they now believe pretty much the same as I do.
There have been literally zero exceptions to this rule, at least among the Christians who have gotten back to me, which is another reason I remain convinced that we must be on the right track. At most, they send me a few “proof texts” that they believe contradict our doctrines, not realizing that we believe those passages too (just as we believe all Scripture), even if we believe they mean something different from what they assume the passages mean (and 99% of the time, I’ve already proven in my eBook that these passages can’t mean what they’re assuming they mean).
But hey, maybe you’ll be the first to actual write that refutation. If not, though, you have no business telling us we’re wrong when you can’t even tell us why we’re wrong (or what it is we even believe, in many cases).