THank goodness this is a forum where people genuinely care and are there to support one another, I've been touched by some of the responses to Aleax as I was down myself, I see just how much fundamentalist ET christianity has affected people and the monstrous nightmare it has wrought on society
Aleax, for what it's worth
If the doctrine of ET is true, then it was preplanned in advance (Rev 13v8) , there is NO way of getting around it and nothing we can do about it anyway, we may as well eat, drink and be merry while we can!!!!, ironic that the ET doctrine actually (unwittingly perhaps???) encourages this philosophy and behavior more than either the UR or ED doctrines, as one could be screwed anyway, so what difference would it make, I'm certainly not confident enough to consider myself chosen, furthermore, I wouldn't want to be chosen anyway, at the expense of someone else's suffering anyway (Ironic that this makes me an apostate)
" Then God gave him a vision of good and rotten apples and asked him "Would you really think it would be just to put all these apples into the same basket?" It was after this vision the author gained peace with the ET doctrine.
This raises a couple of questions, not least of which is
1) How can he be so sure that he isn't a rotten apple himself? (funny how these types always consider themselves righteous)
2) Who created the rotten apple ????, the rotten apple certainly didn't create itself, in other words, if the rotten apple hadn't come into existence, there wouldn't be a rotten apple in the first place
Read "Heavenly Dog" by Charles Slagle and CONSIDER THIS
If ET is true then mr. Slagle wasn't visited by Heavenly Father but by the Dark One. And apparently God totally approved of that. This, to me, is just as egregious as it gets. It's like adding insult to injury. What kind of a crappy father this God is? His children are in great agony, asking for bread and not only he has Satan give them a stone but also he tricks people in believing the stone is actually bread given by God. I just cannot for the life of me muster out of myself love towards this kind of God. "You dislike rejoicing in my righteous judgments, huh? Okay, I let Satan have you then!" Is He really THAT indifferent?!?!?
You have a point there, HOW in the world does one KNOW for sure whether it's true or not it's totally unprovable, but one thing I know for sure is that ET christians would find this far less credible than the likes of Mary Baxter and Bill Weise and others of that ilk who have made MOUNTAINS of money broadcasting their (experiences??!!) to the world... a win win situation for them as they get to terrorize people AND make a fast buck whilst they are at it...whereas Gary, Charles and others haven't made anything, they have posted for altruistic reasons, if one is consistent then one has to rule ALL Nde's as possible deceptions, not just the ones that suit our mindset or theology....and what purpose does it serve for an all loving God to PURPOSELY deceive us
I must admit though that I personally think that if UR isn't true then there is definitely a stronger case for ED than ET, although this link makes it hard to refute ED in favor of UR (there are some valid points he makes in chapter 8), it successfully debunks ET as it's based solely on scripture, I personally think ED has more common with UR than ET
http://www.hell-know.net/They say faith starts where the knowledge ends. So... I admit I can't KNOW the eternal destiny of mankind so all I can have is faith. I choose to have faith in God one day being All in All. I'm not sure whether I should take that as "All in everyone who ever existed" (UR) or "All in everyone who still remain" (ED) but for the sake of whatever is left of my sanity I really must abandon the doctrine of ET.
If I'm wrong, then well... I'm going to counter that "Depart from me for I never knew you!" with "Sir, all I can say is I wish I never knew you either".
This is where I agree with you, one cannot love an ET God and retain their sanity without losing their empathy or compassion, I'll give a few analogies to put across my point
If I had the most kind and loving husband in the world, but later found out he was a serial rapist and murder or pedophile, I would divorce him at the soonest possible moment, his being good to me doesn't excuse or condone his vile actions (The BTK killer's wife divorced him once he was caught and exposed)
I get enraged when I hear about sexual abuse of children and the law that are there to protect pedophiles, I instinctively have such a revulsion towards it
However revolting I find pedophiles, I find the concept of ET a million times more revolting, every instinct in my body goes against this concept, I find it so morally repugnant, words can't express how I feel and I certainly can't reconcile this concept with an all loving God
All the responses have been very helpful, thanks all, chuckt I haven't read that Martin Zender book, but I do have one of his other books that I read (One about the ET doctrine)
