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July 30, 2024 43 mins
Today I examine the fundamental philosophy of Christianity. That is the idea that the only way anyone can be forgiven is Jesus just have died, resurrected , they must personally believe that. There is no other way.

Jesus sacrificial death and resurrection is required for absolving sin. Without blood sacrifice there is no remission of sins.

Your faith. And your belief that Jesus lived, died , and rose again is the only way to be forgiven.

Nobody else can have faith for you.

1 Corinthians 15:17,18

For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.

Romans 1:4; 4:25

And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead

Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

1 Peter 2:24

 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

Hebrews 9:22

And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.

Paralyzed man

Mark 2:3-9

3 And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four.
4 And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay.
5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.
6 But there was certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts,
7 Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?
8 And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts?
9 Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk?

Matthew 9:1-8
Luke 5:18-26
Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello, Welcome into another episode of the Brat Mason Show.
I'm the aforementioned Brett Mason. I'm so glad to have
you long for another episode. Today we're gonna get off
in the weeds again today. This episode won't be for everybody.
Luckily we don't have that many listeners, so it's not
that big of a deal. I have received since the

(00:21):
last episode posted, I have received more questions about my deconstruction.
I received more questions about my thoughts on the Gospels,
on the death and resurrection of Jesus, on forgiveness of sins,
on this concept of eternal life, and on and on

(00:41):
we could go. So this episode is going to be
a hodgepodge. It's not a hodgepodge. It's going to be
I'm gonna take a theme that'll cover nearly every question
I was asked. I'm not getting into heaven too much,
get into Hell. I'm not getting into heaven or hell

(01:02):
at all. We're mainly only talking about forgiveness, sacrifice, remission
of sins, healing, faith, belief. Faith and belief, I guess
probably the two main things. So let's jump right into it,
shall we. So the the fundamental core of Christianity, which

(01:28):
is you know, it has many branches today. You know,
there's the I mean, there's so many it's hard to
even say. But you have your you have your branches
of Christianity that are offshoots. So I guess the original
Protestant you have that. Then you have the Catholics, Then
you have Church of Jesus Christ, the Latter day Saints Amish,

(01:55):
I guess you know, several off shoots. They all have
several different beliefs things, but the one thing that they
all hold common is this. Every single brand of Christianity
out there holds this one thing common, and that is
that you must be forgiven of your sins. The only
way you can be forgiven of your sins is to

(02:18):
believe that Jesus lived, died, and rose again. Is the
Son of God died for remission of your sins. He
came as a sacrifice of flesh and blood to take
the penalty for your sins. He bore the penalty of
your sins bodily. And without this shedding of blood, without

(02:40):
the sacrifice that this remission of sins, this hope of
eternal life, none of that is possible. You can't do
any of that it's all foundational. So again, this is
the one core thing. There's not a ton of things
that branch across all different branches of Christianity. They all

(03:05):
starting to branch out of very widely after that, But
the one core thing they all believe on is this.
It's a very fundamental set of beliefs. Jesus' sacrificial death
and resurrection is absolutely required for absolvmentive sins. Without blood sacrifice,
there is no remission of sins. And finally, your faith
and your belief that Jesus lived, died, and rose again

(03:28):
is the only way to heaven. And I guess as
a sub component of that is like nobody else can
have this belief in faith for you. Like your mama
can't do it for you, your daddy can't do it
for you, your grandma can't do it for you. You have
to have faith and believe in this life, persecution, death,

(03:50):
resurrection of Jesus for remission of sins. Now, I'm going
to bring some scriptures out of the New Testament to
just briefly touch on this and affirmed that this is true.
But there's so many references to it, I shouldn't have
to justify this, Like, if you're a Christian and you
don't agree with what I just said, then you just

(04:13):
disagree with a lot of the Bible. So I'm a
similar in agreement. We'll throw some scriptures out there at you.
We'll start First Corinthians chapter fifteen, around the seventeenth eighteenth verse.
It says, for if the dead rise not, I'm using
King James, by the way, because most Christians I know
think King James is the only way to go, even

(04:33):
though it is hands down, verifiably the worst translation of
the old Greek text you can find. It's just the worst.
But I'll use it because that's what people said you
got to use, all right. First Corinthians chapter fifteen, like
seventeenth eighteenth. First, for if the dead rise not, then
is not Christ raised? And if Christ be not raised? Right,

(04:58):
so first he had to die, then he had to
be raised. But if he be not raised, your faith
is vain. You are yet in your sins. So if
Jesus had not died for your sins, and he had
not rose again for your sins, your faith is in vain.
Your faith in him is worthless, it's meaningless, and you're

(05:19):
still in sin. You can't get out of sin. There's
no way to get out of it. Like, I don't
think you can be more clear about it. Romans chapter one,
verse four, And it's talking about Jesus declared to be

(05:40):
the son of God with power according to the spirit
of Holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. He was
declared to be the son of God with power. How
is he declared to be the son of God with power?
The power? What the power to save? By resurrection from
the dead. The resurrection was required, which means the death

(06:00):
was required. Romans four twenty five says again talking about
Jesus who was delivered for our offenses and was raised
again for our justification. There had to be a sacrifice,
there had to be a death, and there had to
be a resurrection. This is just repeated over and over

(06:22):
and over again, like it will keep going. First Peter
to twenty four, who in his own self bear? Are
talking about Jesus again, who his own self bear our
sins in his own body on the tree. In other words,
he took our sins, and until he died on this
tree and bore our sins bodily, we still were stuck

(06:44):
with him and couldn't get rid of them who his
own self bear our sins and his own body on
the tree that we, being dead, descend, should live into righteousness.
By whose stripes you were healed. So this one goes
a step further in this Again, I heard what growing

(07:06):
up church. I heard this verst a billion times. By
a stripesure healed goes back to an old Testament versus. Well,
we're not gonna take that one up. But not only
was it required for him to bear your sins on
a cross where he hung and died for forgiveness and righteousness.

(07:27):
Not only was that required, you can't be healed without
it either. Pretty clear. So hes Hebrews nine twenty two.
And almost all things are by the law. That's true.
You know the Jews, before Jesus came along, it was
all prescribed in laws. It was most long as complicated,

(07:50):
most insane grouping of laws ever, unbearable laws by the way,
which we can find verses about that. But I'm not
going to Hebrews nine two. And almost all things are
done are by the law, purged with blood, and without
shedding of blood, there is no remission. I don't think

(08:13):
be more clear than that. It is impossible for remission
of sin. There can be no forgiveness. There can be
no salvation without blood being shed, blood sacrifice. Now, we
could go on and on about how Jesus is the
Lamb of God, he is the new human body form

(08:36):
of the mirror of the Old Testament, sacrifice of the Lamb. Like,
we could go on and on about this, Like this
is talked about all over but I can't quote every scripture.
But if you're a Christian and you have some of
you other than the one I've just shared, like you
disagree with everybody else in Christianity, and you disagree with

(08:57):
basically everything in the New Testament, what are we talking
about this today? Why are we talking about this? Well,
I've just had so many questions about my deconstruction of faith.
I've had so many questions about how did you go
from a believing the unbelieving? When did you believe that
maybe this wasn't right or this wasn't accurated? How do
you make that leap? When it was hard, By the way,
I've been very honest about it, very difficult. And then

(09:19):
and then even after I decided mentally, I'm like, okay,
it still was hard to move on because you're terrified.
You're scared. It's been drummed into you, and it's like
it's a long journey. But interestingly enough, in the same
Bible that gives you all those same scriptures, I just
gave you. The very same Bible that gives you all
those same scriptures I just gave you. There's passages of scriptures,

(09:43):
and not one, not two, but three gospels, not one,
not two, but three gospels. The Gospel of Mark, the
Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Luke. All three of
them have the same story, the same passage. And it
is impossible for this part to be true, and all

(10:07):
the things we just covered over various verses across the
New Testament to be true, it's impossible for them to align.
So you hear this story a lot, Like there's certain
stories in the Bible, you hear a lot. This is
one that is certainly popular. And this is the story
of the man will palsy, a paralyzed the guy. He was,
the guy who was paralyzed, he couldn't walk. His friends

(10:28):
carried him around on a cot right, and they heard
Jesus was healing people, which was one of his claims
to fame. Right, Jesus walk around, he would teach, and
multitudes wild gather, and then when he went from little
town to town, he would just raise people out of
their beds and just heal them. And this, you know,
this is what drew a big crowd. That's how he

(10:49):
got crowds to come. So, look, there's three versions of
this story. I'm going to read the one that I
think gives the most detail. Like, there's two of them
that give the most detail, and then one of them
leaves a few of the details out. I think this
one maybe gives the most detail. We're gonna go with
the mark two, and we're gonna be verses three through nine.

(11:10):
So March chapter two, verses three through nine, if you'd like,
follow along with the Bible reading home game. And they
come unto him bringing one sick of the palsy, which
was born of four. So he's one of four kids.
He was born paralyzed, He had palsy, born paralyzed, and

(11:32):
his friends brought him, right, why didn't they bring him? Well,
they heard Jesus was healing people. That's why they brought him. Now, obviously,
if Jesus making people stand up and walk and doing
all these crazy miracles and saying all these crazy things.
The crowds were huge. We have much documentation in the
Bible how these crowds were used. Were huge, five thousand

(11:53):
houses being pagged, shorelines, water, shorelines being pagged, size of
the out and being packed like it's always packed. So
Verse four picks it up of them trying to help
their friend out and when they could not come nigh
unto him for the press. So again just the worst

(12:15):
translation ever, let's translate it craigly. When they couldn't get
close to him because there were so many people, they
uncovered the roof where he was, and when they had
broken it up, so they broke through these poor people's roof.
When they'd broken it up, they let down the bed
wherein the sick of the palsy lay. So they chopped

(12:39):
open a hole in this roof, a fat roof, I
assume the way they're describing it, and they lowered this
guy down into the house on a cot or a
stretcher whatever, presumably right next to Jesus. They just plopped
him right in through the roof of the house. Verse five.
When Jesus saw their faith, he said, unto the sick

(13:02):
of the palsy son thy sins be forgiven thee what Okay,
we got to back up. We got it back up.
Like this one verse out of the Bible just it
ignites a stick of dynamite on all that stuff we
just read. It blows it all up, like it's like what,

(13:24):
so what do we know? What do we know? That
it's repeated endlessly throughout the Bible. Number one, without blood
there is no remission. It said it right in and
we read it. Without sacrifice, death, and resurrection, there can
be no remission of sins. There can be no forgiveness

(13:47):
of sins, there can be no salvation. It can't happen.
The Bible said it's impossible, it can not happen. Well,
here's Jesus alive as can be. There's been no sacrifice,
there's been no bloodshed, there's been no death, there's been
no resurrection, there's been none of that stuff has happened yet,
none of it. And by the way, the way you

(14:10):
could get absolution of certain things and not all things.
By the way, like people who don't read study the
Old Testament don't understand this, but all sins and stuff
wasn't absolved by sacrificing goats and sheeps and stuff. Right,
some there was specific circumstances were that's true, but it
was they didn't do that all the time for absolution
of all sins. It just didn't happen. Thanks to Rabbi

(14:32):
Tovia Singer for educating me on you know, the tora,
and you know, because it's pretty deep, like you need
you need a person who entire family for their entire
lives has been jew and speak the Hebrew language and
understand it. But that being said, there isn't if you
believe that that that's another way they could. He could have,

(14:55):
you know, sacrificed coming to sheep for something. There was
no sheep sacrificed either. There's been no sacrifices of blood
in any way, shape, form, or fashion. None of that
has happened. So that's the number one thing to understand. Right,
here's the number two thing to understand. They let the
bed down wherein the sick of the palsy lay so

(15:19):
their friends in the bed and his friends lowered him down.
Another blind mowing, mind blowing red revelation is about to happen.
When Jesus saw their faith, not his, not the not
the guy who's who was paralyzed. When Jesus saw their faith,

(15:46):
he said, into the sick of the Palsy's son, thy
sins be forgiven thee what literally, nothing that the New
Testament claims is required and mandatory and foundational to Christianity

(16:10):
aligns with this. None of it aligns with this. Not
any of it aligns with what happens in this passes
of scripture. And it's not in just one gospel. It's
in three of the gospels. Number one, there's been no bloodshed,
there's been no sacrifice, therefore there can be no remission
of sins. Number two, it's your faith. Your faith is

(16:34):
what will your faith and belief. It's the two things.
You gotta have faith and you gotta believe. They're the
same thing. I guess different worring though. It's your faith
and it's your belief. Right, that didn't happen here either.
Jesus didn't say, young paralyzed man, your faith, I'm going

(16:57):
to forgive you because of your faith in your belief. No, no, no, no.
By the way, wouldn't he have said that if the
guy had faith and believed. Wouldn't he have addressed the guy? No, no, no, no,
no no. When Jesus saw their faith, their faith, the
friends that let him down through the roof. When he

(17:17):
saw their faith, he said to the sick of the palsy, son,
thy sins be forgiving it. It's going to get a lot. Well, like,
we're not done yet, it's it was about to get
another step. We're gonna go on a step or two further.

Speaker 2 (17:31):
Now.

Speaker 1 (17:31):
Of course, there where Jesus went these scribes and people,
you know, people actually of the Jewish religion that went
to church, you know, studied the Tory Book, Hebrew and
all that stuff. They're always falling around to see what
kind of craziness he was saying. So they were there
and they started reasoning their hearts. It says, that's verse six,
verse seven, Why does this man speak blasphemy? Who can

(17:53):
forgive sins? But God only? So they have a good
point and one only God could do it. But number two,
there's been no sacrifice. You first got to have the
sacrifice before there were sacrificing sheep and stuff and goats
and stuff, and then God. Okay, So one these people

(18:16):
who you know, these are the people in the church
of the time, the Jewish Church, the Hebrew Church. They
understand the Torah, they understand the law. They know that
one a man can't forgive you two. There must be
some kind of blood sacrifice. There has to be the
communal forgiveness. Without it, none of that has occurred. Of course,
their question and that what kind of blasphemy is this?

(18:39):
Only God can consider can forgive sense. And that's when Jesus,
who of course knows everything.

Speaker 2 (18:45):
You know.

Speaker 1 (18:46):
They didn't say it out loud, they just perceived it
in their heart. He knew exactly what was going on,
and he stepped in to set them straight, and he
said into them this first eight, Why reason you these
things in your heart? And why are you thinking this? Well,
I mean, if he's the son of God, who wrote
all the laws and all the Old Testament, he should
know why they were thinking it. But okay, he asked

(19:07):
them anyway, which again to me, brings up a whole
ton of questions, like if he were a reasonable I
hate to say person, because you know, I don't want to.
I don't want to offend anybody, right, don't. I don't
want you to take anything I say inn offensive way.
But if he is God manifesting the flesh, if he
is the son of God. Why would he ask them
such a sarcastic question? He knows exactly why they reason

(19:30):
those things in their heart because they're Jews. They grew
up learning the Torah. They know what the laws are,
they know how sins it is forgiven, they understand these things.
Why would he be such a you know, a smart
alic about it, for lack of a better phrase, like
why would he go them? Like? Why reason these things

(19:52):
in your heart? He knew good and well why they
reason those things in his heart? And then he goes
on to say something that is truly fantastical. He says,
is it easier to say, to the sick of the palsy,
thy sends be forgiven or to just say, arise and
take up your bed and walk? Jesus said that forgiven

(20:15):
sense was just as easy as healing somebody one, just
as easy as the other. And he did both of them.
He didn't just do one of them, he did both
of them. So this begs the question, and we've arrived, Okay,
we've arrived at this time, and we'll talk about it.
Let's talk about it. This begs the question, why was

(20:37):
this whole rigamarole necessary? Because clearly it wasn't. Clearly, no
torture was required, no blood needed to be shared, no
virgin girl magically impregnated, no hanging on a cross, no dying,
no going to wherever he went for three days, no

(20:59):
coming back and rest. Clearly none of that was necessary.
To claim that it was necessary is a straight affront
to this verse that is not one, but two, but
three New Testament Gospels. It is an affront to this
like these two cannot coexists. The only way you can

(21:20):
make them to coexist is to make excuses either for
this story or make excuses for all those other verses
that I read. Not just those, there's many, many more.
You have to do some kind of logical cognitive leap
frog jumping thing to make this work, Like you have

(21:41):
to in your mind go, well, it's got work, so
I gotta figure out how to make it work, because
you can't read it in it work. And again, this
happens in the Bible all the time. And when the
people say the Bible has no inconsistencies, has no incongruencies,
that everything in it aligns up with everything else in it,
the way that that happens is anytime a believer runs

(22:01):
across a scripture that does not agree with some other scripture.
They just assume that the scriptures must agree. They go
on the humble with those scriptures gotta agree. So I
got to figure out how to make them agree. Pastors
do this your normal church and go where does it?
It's on you? This is what happens you. Well, it's
on me. I gotta make I clearly I'm in the wrong.

(22:21):
I gotta change one of them. I have to change
my interpretation of either this one or I gotta change
my interpretation of the other one. I gotta figure out
some way to jump through some hoops to make these
two contradictory things aligned with each other. And the entire
foundational teachings of Christianity are at odds with this passage

(22:42):
of scripture. Literally, everything said and done in this passage
of scripture flies in the face of everything that Christians
today are taught to talk to believe. One, there has
to be a sacrifice. There has to be a blood sacrifice.
Then they many Bible verses went past that it's not

(23:04):
just the bloodsi rest. There also has to be the resurrection.
Person also has to come back for that. And if
they don't. There's no remission to sins. There's no any
of that stuff. Two, you gotta believe it. Nobody can
believe it for you. Well, clearly that's not true, because
this guy was sins were forgiven, and he was healed

(23:25):
because his friends believed. And lastly, according to Jesus, it's
so easy to forgive sins. It doesn't require hoops, it
doesn't require nonsense, it doesn't require blood sacrifice. It didn't
require trial. It didn't require him being you know, turned
on by judas. It didn't require him being hung. It

(23:47):
didn't require him being suffering. It didn't require the crown
of thorns. It didn't require them being laid in the grave.
It didn't require him going to wherever he went for
three days. It didn't require him coming back and being
resurrected one off that was required. Because it's so easy
to forgive sins. It's as easy it's just healing somebody.

(24:08):
Both are easy. I didn't I didn't make this up.
This is in the Bible. This is in the Bible
that everybody believes. Now Here's what I know is what's
gonna happen, and I understand it. I'm not I'm not
downing anybody. Look, I don't have animosity towards believers. My

(24:28):
mom was a believer, and she's the person I loved
most in this world. I respected her more than anybody
I respect in this world. I trusted her more than
anybody I've ever trusted in this world. So let's just
get that right out the gate. I ain't coming at nobody.
Believe what you want. You know, again, as long as
you don't try to force it on me, I don't

(24:48):
care what you believe, but understand this. You to make
the fundamental concepts and aspects of Christianity the jive with
these passages of scriptures, you have to take some mental leaps,
you have to jump through some hoops, you have to

(25:08):
make some allowances. You have to somehow make this not
say what it says for it fit and there is
no two ways about it. Now you'll say, well, no,
you don't have understanding. You are carnal, you are not
guided by the Holy Spirit, and all these things. Well,

(25:32):
I understand English.

Speaker 2 (25:36):
I understand that if you're going to write the end,
all be all answer to salvation, why would you make
it so hard to read and understand and be so
complicated and convoluted that people who need to read it.

Speaker 1 (25:50):
In other words, people without the Holy Spirit. They need
to read it and believe it and understand it. You
make it so hard, you make it impossible for them
to understand it because they don't have the Holy Spirit.
What kind of nonsense is that? Well, here's the book,
here's the roadmap. Yeah, well I think it says this. Nope,
it doesn't say that says something different. You can't understand

(26:11):
it because you gotta have the Holy Spirit. Well, now
I got to take your word for it. I no
longer I'm taking the Bible's word for it. I'm now
having to take the word of the person telling me
that it means something different. Do you understand how insane
that is? No longer am I believing in the Bible,
because the Bible clearly says something different right here, just
as clear as day it says it. So for me

(26:34):
to make the leap that this jives with all those
other scriptures in the Bible that says this is impossible,
I know how to trust you, a human, not God,
not the word of God, not God's Bible. I actually
trust you when you tell me that. The reason I
don't get it because I ain't got the Holy Spirit,

(26:55):
but you do. And that's why you can understand it.
Because it's complicated. That is Why would an all knowing,
all powerful God make something so convoluted and complicated that
supposedly his creation that he wants more than anything in
the world to have a relationship with. Why would he

(27:17):
make it to where it's incomprehensible? Why would he do that?
That makes no sense. I love you, I want us
to resolve our differences. I want to enter in into
a relationship with you again. And here's what's required of
you for that to happen. I'm going to write it
down in this book. And then you read the book

(27:39):
and you're like, well, the book don't add up. Well,
you need a holy Spirit for the add up. Well,
for me, it's the Holy Spirit for the add up. I
got to believe what the book says. First, it's just
the old egg and chicken trick. By the way, this
is not the only time this happened. By the way,
it's not no isolated incident. It also happened on the

(28:01):
day that he was crucified. As he hung there, the
one guy next to him who was a criminal, you know,
he said, oh God, you know, cried out to him,
and he said, today you will be with me in paradise.
How was he able to obviously had to forgi him
of his sins. You can't go to paradise and be
a sinner. He had to forgive him of his sins

(28:23):
in that instance. How was he able to do any
of that when he hadn't been died and resurrected from
you go. You might say, well, he was bleeding. You
know there's been blood sacrificed, right, Well, there's more to
it than that.

Speaker 3 (28:37):
You can't You can't throw out the baby with bath
order if you go back to UH one Corinthians fifteen,
for if the dead rise not, then is not Christ rised?

Speaker 1 (28:51):
And if Christ be not raised, your faith is in vain.
You're yet in your sin. If Jesus hasn't died him
been raised yet, they don't matter how much faith you got,
it's useless. It's in vain. Didn't matter what that the
thief on the cross said or wanted or believed. That

(29:11):
none of that mattered irrelevant Romans one four. According to
the spirit of hollness, by the resurrection from the dead,
he was declared the son of God with power. How
has he declared the son of power by the resurrection

(29:32):
from the dead. He was not declared the son of
God with power until that happened. How is he transporting
people into paradise? How does he granting remissions and sins?
How is he bringing people over into this place that's
the only reserved for those who have faith and believe
in something that hasn't happened yet. None of it makes
any sense. It's a hodgepodge of stuff that doesn't add up.

(29:59):
You're like, well, your nitpicking this. I can go through
the Bible and find one hundred of these. The reason
that most people don't believe it exists because when they
don't read their Bible, they only hear the verses that
the preacher brings up from the pulpit on Sunday and
Wednesday or how many days you go because I want
church are in. But they not bringing up these verses.

(30:21):
They're not bringing up the ones that don't jibe. And
you don't read your Bible at home. I read the
Bible more times than I can count. I've studied the
Bible more hours than I can count. Back in the
day when these revelations started coming to me. I was
on my hands and knees or in the floor in
the church at ten o'clock and night, eleven o'clock and night, midnight,

(30:44):
one o'clock in the morning, two o'clock in the morning,
because that's how my mama taught me to do. And
I was praying and seeking guidance and wisdom and direction
and the Holy Spirit to help me understand the words,
to grow deeper in the word and understand the Word.
And the more I did that, the more I read,
the more it become to me that there's so much
stubborn here that doesn't make any sense. At some point,

(31:04):
I had to literally stop believing. And uh, you know,
I had a friend of mine. It's not really a
friend's acquaintance, but I mean I've known him for a
long time. But I mean, I'm not lie. We're not
friends with me his acquaintance. And he asked me, not
too long ago, how how can you stop believing what's

(31:25):
right there in the Word of God. I'm like you,
just reading it is what did it? All I had
to do was read it. All I had to do
was stop listening to the few scriptures that the pastor
preaches on and drives home on a regular basis and
understand that there's way more to the Bible than that.
And then once I started diving into it, I started

(31:47):
finding this all kinds of tomfoolery afoot and all kinds
of stuff that make any sense. And I'm like, h what, Well,
I ain't ever seen nothing like that. Yeah, I know,
because you ain't read the Bible with you spent all
day watching Fox News or something that you know, your
free time was spent on Fox News when you should
had your Bible open, when you should have been fasted.

(32:11):
When last time you fasted and prayed and read the
Bible for two three days? When's the last time instead
of going to the lake on you three days off,
you stayed home and you got your prayer closet, and
you fasted for three days, and you stuck your nose
in the Word of God, and you read the Word
of God, and you prayed and you fasted for some
understanding of the Word. When's the last time you did that? Well,
I hain't ever done nothing like that. Well, then don't

(32:31):
become telling me that I don't know something about the Bible,
because I've done that. I've been there That's how serious
I took it. You want to tell me that my
understanding of it is wrong. That's how serious I took it.
I took it serious. I wasn't taking it half heartedly.
I wasn't taking it on some kind of a whim.
And you want to tell me that I'm wrong and

(32:53):
I don't understand, like I'm confused and I need this,
that and the other. I was, to the best of
mine knowledge, right to the core of my being, and
all my beliefs and feelings and evidences and signs and
everything else that you could possibly come across. I was forgiven.
I was baptized, I was born again, I was filled

(33:14):
with the spirit. I was all. I had met all
the qualifications. And I'm reading the Bible. How how does
that happen? Well, because I read Bible works the Bible.
Nobody else don't read. I'm not sure there's much else
I can say about this. Again, I don't want to

(33:36):
be in atagonistic towards anybody that believes. Man, if you believe,
and that's what gets you through, I'm for it. If
believing in the Bible and believing in Christianity, and you know,
all this stuff gives you hope for tomorrow. It gives
you a level of confidence that everything is going to
be all right. It gives you a sense deep within

(33:57):
your being that things mostly work themselves out if we
have patience and we hang in there. If that's what
it takes for you to reach that level of confidence
about life, then I'm all for it. I'm not, however,
for you pushing the other stuff you believe on me.
I've arrived at a place where I believe that mostly

(34:17):
things work out, that patience and time fixes things, that
knows to the grindstone fix things, that being diligent about
trying to accomplish whatever your goals are will eventually pay off.
May it'll be today, next week. I do believe that
we all go through times in life where times look
grim and dire, and generally speaking, we all make it
through it. Now, not always. Sometimes we don't make it

(34:40):
through it. Well, I just understand that that's life, that's
randomness of life. Sometimes in life it doesn't work out
one hundred percent of the time for everybody all the time.
That's not how life works. Life is a bunch of
randomness thrown at a bunch of random people in a
random way, and so that works out great. For some people,
it works out okay. For some people it works out
and for some people, and there's a group of people

(35:00):
that works out horribly for that's just randomness of life.
How you deal with this is what important. Can you make
the best of it? Can you have one foot forward?
Can you must up to you know, suck as much
enjoyment and satisfaction and fulfillment out of whatever life you've
been given that whatever days you have are okay? Can

(35:20):
you do that? And if you can't do it without
a Bible, then I'm all about the Bible because I
want us all to stay on track and have a
level of confidence some for it. But don't come tell
me how long my sleeve's got to be. Don't come

(35:43):
tell me that my wife, and again I'm not married.
I'm speaking in a general term about men all across
the country. Don't come down with my wife can't get
medical treatment because you don't believe a doctor can perform abortion.
Don't tell me that abortion is wrong and so doctors
can't do it at risk going of jail. And a
woman whose fetus has died inside her is forced to

(36:05):
carry that fetus, which makes her sick, which makes her
start bleeding out, which brings her to death's door, and she,
by some craziness, managed to get medical attention and survive that.
When if you had to try pushing this nonsense about
you know, killing fetuses and zygotes and stuff, which are
not humans. It's a clump of human cells that has

(36:27):
the potential to be a human, but is not a human.
Yet if you want to pass that on so that
we have to sacrifice actual humans, people who were actually
here and alive and needed that abortion, like this woman
that was okay, actual grase hapened in Texas, then then no,
I don't support your belief because you're now causing harm

(36:48):
to people over some in my opinion, nonsense. Again, I
don't mean, I don't want to be hurtful to you
by calling it nonsense. But to me, it's nonsensical. The
whole thing is nonsensical. And that's from a guy who
was raised in it and had his button a pew
easily until I was like thirteen, I would say I
had a butt in the pew four to five services

(37:11):
a week. That's how much whiz in church. You talking
about a guy who hit a hard time and fell
into that and dove into the deep and did the
fasting and the praying and reading, and did it all,
you know, to a crazy level. That's the guy you're
talking to, Like, I'm not just some guy that has
showed up, Like I don't believe that's crazy. No. I

(37:32):
put into work, put in the effort. I approached it
as genuinely and honestly and as faithfully as anybody could
approach it and still manage to arrive at this conclusion.
And then you say, well, one day you'll find out
you're wrong. You know what, I can't say that I want.
That's the one thing. You know, people say, well, you
know unbelievers, boy, you just look non believers. Doesn't mean

(37:55):
I non believers. Is exactly that If I would say
I believe God doesn't exist, or the afterlife doesn't exist,
or Hell doesn't exist, and that would, by a definition,
mean I'm a believer. I believe something. That something is
a negative, but I believe it. I don't have a
belief on that because I've not been convinced of any
of it. I've not been convinced that this God of
the Bible exists or does not exist. I've not been

(38:16):
convinced that there's heaven or hell that's talked about exists
or doesn't exist. I've not been convinced that this blood
sacrifice in salvation and remission exists or none exist. I'm
not convinced of any of it. Again, does that mean
it's not possibly that it's true? Sure, anything could possibly
be true, even no matter how nonsensical it looks. I

(38:37):
guess it's possible. So but what am I going to
do pretend to believe it and pretend to have faith
and pretend to be saved to try to fool him? Well,
that's I can't do that. You can't. They're like, well,
you need to start believing now, or are you gonna
you can't believe something you don't believe just because somebody
told you you need to do it? I believe there's

(38:59):
what I believe. If this God that everyone worships exists
and he is just like everyone claims, and he is
merciful like everyone claims, he will have the knowledge to
understand that it is physically impossible for a human to
believe something they don't believe. Furthermore, I would say it

(39:21):
was his It would be his fault for not presenting
a more coherent, well thought out, non contradictory set of
rules and evidences, because the only evidence that I see
is I believe like you talk to people, well, I
just believe I feel it. I feel this, I've experienced this.
Well maybe you did, I ain't. You know, there was

(39:45):
a time when I thought I did, and I know
as time went on, I realized that what I experienced
was something, but it wasn't claimed. It was easily duplicatable.
I don't think is a word the words coming mine,
but I saw it duplicated over and over and instances
where for sure not real and or anything on the

(40:07):
grand nature that it's claimed it is. And it's like no,
just I mean, I just don't believe it. And so
am I held accountable for not believing something that I
don't believe that I haven't found compelling evidence a proof for.
And then as a matter of course, I've actually found

(40:27):
contradictory evidence for, like I. You know, if God is
just and merciful as everyone claims, if this judgment day happens,
I hope that he will continue to be just dimerciful.
You know what, I'll let you down on that one
man I gave you a bunch of contradictory stuff in
a book that was very complicated. People can't understand it.

(40:49):
You know, people studied their whole lives at the end
of it didn't understand it. And it was wrong of
me to try to give you a salvation plan and
supporting evidence that's so complicated and unbelievable. I should have
done a better job. And they'll go, okay, like I
don't know, maybe you don't go get living the mansions
and live on the street of Gold. But I tell
you what, I got this closet space and we'll throw

(41:10):
a mattress in there for you, and you can eat
crumbs from everybody else's table, because you know, you don't
deserve to be crispy forever. It's like you weren't. You
weren't deliberately defiant about something you believed. You just didn't
believe it. Like if you were, if you believed it
you were deliberately defiant against it, then yeah, we're gonna
send you down to the crispy space. But you know what,

(41:30):
you weren't the firm believer and you weren't sold on it,
And I get it. That's my faults here. I'm sticking
in one of these closets and we'll throw some crumbs
every now and then, and we'll keep you alive and
we won't torture you like I think that'd be the
least decision he would be. She should come to right,
that should be like, Okay, well, at least do this.
That's just me and you're and some people are sitting
there going, well, all this stuff you're saying is blasts man,

(41:51):
It'll be fair couple. I mean maybe I don't know.
I don't see how it could be. But you know,
if you're thinking this thing I showed Today's and ice,
it's not. This stuff is all through the Bible. It's
just it's just contradictory, nonsensical, makes no sense, claims of

(42:11):
things that are impossible, claims of things that don't make sense, things,
claims of things that are aligned that don't align, and
it just goes on and on and on, and if
you read it, you will discover it too. So I'll
just warn you with this. If you want to be
a believer, don't read and study your Bible, not in

(42:31):
a real way. Do it and do it in the
tertiary way like most people do. Take the yell of
highlight or highlight them few verses that the preachers preach
the sermon on eight hundred times already, it's about to
preach that summon for the eight hundred first time, and
he's going to go to that same scripture. You know
they'll read those, but will they dive in and actually
read the Bible? No, most don't. I want to wrap

(42:53):
it up there. I don't have much more to say
about it. Just understand that I love you, and I
care about you, and I want the very best for you.
I'm not into agonistic towards you. I don't think you're foolish.
I don't think you're dumb. I don't think you're ignorant
because of your faith and your belief. I was a
person who had faith and believed just as you one time,
and I wasn't dumb, I wasn't stupid. I was still

(43:15):
a good person. I was still a smart person. So
you know, wash that out of your head and don't
feel bad and don't feel like well, I can't talk
to him. He thinks up stupid, I don't. I think
you believe in something, and I think it's you know,
the way belief works is the more it's ingrained in you,
the more it sticks. And that's how they get you.

(43:37):
That's how they get you. Anyway, we're gonna wrap it
up here. I'm glad you're joined me, and we'll talk
to you on the next episode.
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