I really despise arrogant, uncaring, incompetence! I really detest hypocritical, bullying, liars! And why would you care what I detest and despise?

Well, because I think that many folks have been so beaten down by arrogant religious bullies, they are afraid to actually think and question what they have been taught within the realm of fundamentalist theology. And that’s a shame, because there is a lot of ‘stuff’ to stand back and question.

Here is a short list of things taught by Baptist Fundamentalists that are all internally inconsistent, not even taking into account if it is factually correct or not. This list is certainly not exhaustive by any means. .

Quick FYI:  I randomly searched for a list of fundamentalist websites, and found specific church statements of belief there. Here is the website: http://www.lovethetruth.com/website_links.htm  That said, I then scrolled down and found statements of belief by a couple of churches. I don’t know anything about any church that I quote, nor do I know anyone that attends any of these churches. (As far as I know) I chose to quote their statements of beliefs because they are very good examples for what I am writing about here.

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES

We believe the Bible, in its original documents, is the inspired word of God, the written record of His supernatural revelation of Himself to man, absolute in its authority, complete in its revelation, final in its content, and without any errors in its statements. (source: https://heritagebbc.com/statement-of-faith/)

THE BIBLE, GOD’S HOLY WORD
We believe in the verbal inspiration, inerrancy, and authority of the Old Testament and the New Testament Scriptures. We believe the Bible* reveals God, the fall of man, the way of salvation, and God’s plan and purpose in the ages. (Source: http://bereanbaptistwsnc.org/statementoffaith)

There are a couple of problems here.

1. There are no original documents, so nobody has any idea what the original documents actually said!

2. As the Bible wasn’t actually put into its current form until 393 AD at the Council of Hippo. (Source: http://www.aggiecatholicblog.org/2011/09/how-was-the-canon-of-the-bible-established/)  Why did it take so long for ‘God’s love letter’ to us to be verified authentic by believers? Shouldn’t it have been obvious? And there is still a basic disagreement between Protestants and Catholics over what books are to be included and which are not. Catholics include more books that Protestants reject. If the Holy Spirit was guiding all believers, then this shouldn’t even be possible.

3. How do they know the Bible is ‘final in its content?’  Refer to paragraph 2. 🙂

4. The word ‘inspired’ has not been defined here. What, exactly, does it mean to claim the non-existent original documents were inspired by God? I’ll tell you. . .not much.

5. The Bible has a number of documented errors, so the 2nd statement of faith is just wrong.  https://infidels.org/library/modern/donald_morgan/contradictions.html  https://www.cs.umd.edu/~mvz/bible/bible-inconsistencies.pdf  I ask this with great sadness – if Biblical literalists (as I was raised) believe that God inspired men/women to write each book within the parameters of their own times/cultures/education/personalities, while directing the overall product, and since God is taught to be omniscient, etc…then couldn’t God have absolutely made sure that His Bible was no-questions asked 100% accurate in every possible respect?? Couldn’t God have really ‘preserved’ the Bible to 100% accuracy through every culture and age? After all, wasn’t the Bible intended to be God’s Authoritative Word to mankind? But, as far as I can tell, nobody has ever asked this.

PREDESTINATION AND FOREKNOWLEDGE

We believe God is absolutely sovereign; and in His sovereignty, He gave man a free will to accept or reject the salvation that He has provided. It is God’s will that all would be saved and that none should perish. God permits man’s destiny to depend upon man’s choice.

I Timothy 2:4 | II Thessalonians 2:13 | I Peter 1:2 | II Peter 3:9 | John 6:64,65
Acts 10:34 | I Corinthians 1:21 | Ephesians 1:5-14 | Romans 8:29,30 | Romans 9:30-32  Source: (https://heritagebbc.com/statement-of-faith/)

a. If God is absolutely sovereign, then He could have created mankind without the need to accept or reject Himself. Depending upon the statement of faith, God either foreknew or ‘fore-chose’ who would go to heaven, and who would burn in hell eternally.

b. Paul teaches that mankind is responsible for choosing to believe in God regardless if he/she has ever heard the specific Gospel or not. There is no quarter given for being indoctrinated in certain cultures, never having heard of God.

The Westminster Confession of Faith (1646), one of the most important documents in the history of Protestantism, puts it this way:

By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are predestined unto everlasting life, and others foreordained to everlasting death. These angels and men, thus predestined and foreordained, are particularly and unchangeably designed; and their number is so certain and definite, that it cannot be either increased or diminished.

Those of mankind that are predestined unto life, God, before the foundation of the world was laid, according to his eternal and immutable purpose, and the secret counsel and good pleasure of his will, hath chosen in Christ unto everlasting glory, out of his mere free grace and love, without any foresight of faith or good works, or perseverance in either of them, or any other thing in the creature, as conditions, or causes moving him thereunto; and all to the praise of his glorious grace (Section III. Of God’s Eternal Decree).

Notice that God’s selection of certain individuals for salvation is based solely on His “free grace and love, without any foresight of faith or good works.” In other words, there is no freedom of choice where salvation is concerned; the matter was settled long ago, before the foundation of the world was laid, and cannot be changed. If you are one of the fortunate ones-if you are among those whose names were put into the Book of Life before the world was made-then you have no choice but to be saved! God has decreed it! And His decree has nothing to do with His foreknowledge of faith or good works or outstanding character on your part. (Source: https://www.cgi.org/what-does-the-bible-say-about-predestination-and-election/)

Paul seemed to teach two different ideas. Perhaps I am mistaken here, but I’m pretty sure that the brand of fundamentalism I was brought up in taught both things and they are absolutely contradictory to each other. And they were both written by the same man, supposedly under the ‘inspiration of God.’  I see in Romans 1, that Paul writes the following;

^” For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

¹⁷ For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

¹⁸ For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

¹⁹ Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

²⁰ For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

²¹ Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.  Romans 1: 16 – 21 from http://www.biblegateway.org”

And yet Paul wrote in Romans 10 the following. . .

“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

¹⁴ How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

¹⁵ And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

¹⁶ But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?

¹⁷ So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”  Romans 10:13-17 from http://www.biblegateway.org 

So which is it? Did God choose who will be saved, making missions irrelevant? Does God hold everyone accountable for not choosing Himself regardless if they ever had a chance to hear the Gospel or not?

 

THE TOTAL DEPRAVITY OF MAN
We believe that man was created in the image and likeness of God, but that in Adam’s sin all mankind fell, inherited a sinful nature, and became alienated from God; and, that man is totally depraved, and, of himself, utterly unable to remedy his lost condition as taught in Genesis 1:26-27, Romans 3:22-23, Romans 5:12, Romans 6:23, Ephesians 2:1-3, and Ephesians 4:17-19. (Source: http://bereanbaptistwsnc.org/statementoffaith) 

a. If man is ‘totally depraved’, then how is it that many good works such as hospitals, moral laws, good works have been and are currently in place by mankind? Our western culture has traveled a long ways away from the horrible ‘morality’ of the Old Testament.

b. If man is ‘totally depraved. . .of himself, utterly unable to remedy his lost condition’, does this imply they believe that God must intervene to save mankind from his state? If this is so, then does God directly choose whom to save, and whom to let flow down the river of humanity to suffer eternal hell?  I’m not sure if this church subscribes to the Calvinist view, (God chooses you) or the Arminian view (You choose God with your own freewill)

c. This seems to take the Genesis account as a literal historical event. To claim that all of humanity, as the result of one mans’ choice is by default born going to burn in hell forever is not the act of either a loving or rational God. How can anyone ‘love’ an invisible God who chose to create Lucifer ie Satan who deceived Adam into disobeying God, then blame the entire human race for that?? How irrational is this basic belief?

I’ve barely scratched the surface of the list of inconsistencies believed. . .

P.S. – It always amuses me to run a spell check and watch how the  spellchecker react to the King James era words!