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Satan Does Not Care about Losing a Misotheist

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen  Every once in a while, people come across a report that someone has left atheism and become a theist. One famous example is Antony Flew, who was raised in a liberal denomination and decided he was an atheist in his teenage years. Later, he decided that the evidence proves there is a God . He apparently never came to a saving faith. Simply believing that God exists is nowhere near enough. Credits: Satan Calling Up his Legions / William Blake, 1804, modified at PhotoFunia Unfortunately, several reports have Christians rejoicing more than they should over former atheists that have joined heterodox religious groups, false religions, and even cults. Back when Adam, the federal head of humanity sinned, Satan took control of this world (Rom. 5:19, John 8:44, 2 Cor. 4:4). All have sinned (Rom. 3:23), and we are deserving of Hell (Rom. 6:23). Just believing that God exists is not enough. Even the demons know God exists, and they have more sense that the typical atheist

Toxic People, Overexplaining, and False Salvation

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen  While Christians need to obtain their spiritual knowledge from the Bible, pastors, godly teachings, and so forth, the Holy Spirit can sometimes prompt us to learn things from unexpected sources. Indeed, although psychology is entrenched in evolution and naturalism, it can have occasional benefits — but is dangerous to those who are not grounded in the Word of God. Credit: Pixabay / Gerd Altmann You and I may be souls whose intentions are good, so we don't want to be misunderstood. It's natural to clarify what we say to some extent. When it comes to dealing with someone who is accusing and unwilling to believe what we say, why try so hard? In " Toxic Misotheists, Being Alpha, and the Bible ", one of the points discussed was how toxic people manipulate others. A recent video by Ashley Berges (one of my previous sources) titled " Over Explaining is a Trap - Are You Trapped? " brought this into focus in a different way. For some reason, m

Mystical Feelgood Salvation

While Bible-believing Christians understand salvation as being made right with God and spiritual deliverance , other people want salvation in different ways. Because of its Christian connotations, other people seem to avoid the word. But they still seek relief from suffering and to obtain a feelgood experience. Modified from an image at Unsplash / Erik Brolin There is a trend in psychology toward mindfulness  which is a form of meditation that Christians should avoid . Actually, everyone should. Supposedly it relieves stress, but is actually counterproductive. Another secular feelgood technique is to count your blessings , but it leaves out God who provides our blessings. (I fell on Monday and needed medical care. Afterward, I thanked God that it wasn't worse, and that the people at the urgent care clinic had skill and compassion.) Another false feelgood salvation is to have people go to their "happy place", which often has a setting in nature. Mindfulness actually caus

Adam was not at War with Creation

Some opponents of biblical authority tamper with the words so they can change the meanings, or even impugn the character of God. Something that cannot be emphasized enough is context . Theistic evolutionists are known for manipulating context for their own ends. Credit: Pixnio / Luis del Rio There is an old joke that, although oversimplifying, makes a point. A man wanted to hear from God about a problem in his life, so he opened the Bible at random, plunked down his finger, and read that Judas went and hanged himself. Well, that was unhelpful. He tried again and found where Jesus said to go and do likewise. This was getting annoying. His third attempt gave him where Jesus told Judas to go and quickly do what he was going to do. The man realized he was using the Bible the wrong way. Context takes several forms, including the chapter and even the whole of Scripture. Sometimes people need to drill down into the original languages to understand context more fully. Some owlhoots riding for

Rejecting Lies and Herd Mentality

Many people who claim to "follow the science" really do not. Appeals to authority linked with lack of critical thinking, plus ignorance of actual science, are disastrous to societies as well as individuals. Culturally correct, consensus, and "woke" views actually dismiss scientific realities in favor of political trends and emotionalism. Taking a stand for truth and reality can be hazardous to careers — and even personal safety. Credit: Pixnio / Rachel Claire (slightly modified) Darwin's hijacked version of natural selection as well as neo-Darwinian evolution are thrown around as if they were established truth. We are bombarded with the "fact" of evolution, and assertions are often subtle. Most people go along with the herd and accept what is presented as science. What is more disturbing is that in recent years, secular scientists have been saddling up and riding with deviant behavior. Considering how the formerly United States is under divine judgmen

Answering the Critics Without Being Foolish

There is a pair of verses that may perplex Christians at first glance, and scoffers call it biblical contradiction. This is Proverbs 26:4-5. The claim that they are a contradiction is easily dismissed, but the question about not answering a fool according to his folly, followed by answering, can be clarified. It is also a powerful method for defending and presenting the faith. Originally, this now-public domain image by Sidney Paget was used to illustrate the 1903 Sherlock Holmes story " The Empty House " The Bible makes it clear that God calls unbelievers fools . That's not God being on the prod and calling them stupid, but it is deeper than that because it is about character, not intelligence (although some exhibit a lack of intelligence). Do a Bible search with theWord , other software, or online and look for fool , foolish , and similar words. It's not gratuitous abuse. I can't think of a good way to open a discussion by telling someone that he or she is a foo

Species Extinctions, Earth Day, and Christian Stewardship

Earth Day was established on Lenin's 100th birthday and is most definitely not  just a good idea for conservation and care of the planet. Political and economic Machiavellian machinations aside, however, many people sincerely want to do good things for the world. I thought you otter know that this photo was taken by  Joe Tomoleoni for the USGS (Also, I hope you sea that usage does not imply endorsement of site contents) Unfortunately, the environmental movement is saturated with evolutionary thinking. That is, humans and other living things ultimately came from a common ancestor. To be consistent, why should we care that various species are becoming extinct or are endangered? We crawled to the top of the food chain, so we should reign supreme and do whatever we please, right? Fortunately, secularists, pagans, evolutionists, and others are not  consistent. Christians (and especially biblical creationists) should care about the environment — God has created us in his image, and we

Evaluating Truth Claims in Genesis

Some people try to dismiss Genesis as myth containing spiritual truth using elements from the pagan neighbors of the Hebrews. Others say it is misunderstood, as if the Creator of the universe was unable to communicate with us. With closer inspection, we see that Genesis is a historical narrative. Credit: RGBStock /  Billy Frank Alexander The idea that the early chapters of Genesis are mythological should not be accepted by professing Christians, as there are serious problems that result. (One of these is that Jesus, Peter, Paul, and others referred to these chapters as literal history, so by denying this, one is calling them liars!) Also, there are repercussions with the gospel message. Read some classical mythology, then come back to Genesis and see the difference. Myths are vague and have a different flow, but the Bible is precise. Indeed, even the sequence of creation days is specific — a day itself is defined. Interestingly, many translations have in Genesis 1:5 less accurate by us

Misotheists and the Blue Pill

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen This article has several related sources that refer to the movie The Matrix , which has made its mark on modern culture. It added to discussions about living in a computer simulation , and the red pill/blue pill concepts have been quite interesting. The popular "What if I told you...?" line in the "memes" was not used in the move. In a previous article, I wrote about how narcissists, sociopaths, narcissistic atheopaths, and the like manipulate other people for their own purposes . This is somewhat related because many are attempting to create their own reality. One of my references was the YouTube channel of Matt Cross and "Alpha Male Secrets". While most of his content about how to get the girls and be the most interesting man in the room have no appeal to me (Christians should sanctify Jesus as Lord in their hearts and seek to please him more than anyone else), Matt has some interesting things to consider. In this video, he discuss

Answering Good Friday and Easter Questions

Many events occurred during what many Christians call Holy Week , leading up to the Crucifixion of Jesus on Good Friday and his bodily Resurrection on Sunday. Some professing Christians are confused, annoyed, and even judgmental about our celebrations of Easter, and misotheists join in the attacks. Credit: Free Christian Illustrations One of the questions people have is when they count on their fingers, they believe that Jesus could not have been crucified on Friday and rise from the dead on Sunday. This comes from shoehorning modern counting methods into ancient Jewish reckoning. We do  want to be honest with the text, don't we?  Another problem some people have is the claim that Easter is based on pagan traditions. Unfortunately, this nonsense is spread by modern church traditions and ill-informed pastors. Ignorance of history and languages are not excuses for Pecksniffian attitudes of religious people who look down on those of us who choose to celebrate Easter.  If you get up o

Proof and the Unbeliever

There are times when a mocker will say something like, "Prove to me your God exists". A Christian may ask, "What kind of evidence are you willing to consider?", which is a reasonable question. (One actually told me to provide it, then he would consider if it was acceptable. I knew where that would lead!) Unbelievers already have all the evidence they need, but they suppress the truth (Rom. 1:18-23). Credit: Photos-public-domain.com We can present all the evidence (or proof) we can, and if someone does not repent and make Jesus the Lord of his or her life, we may think that we've failed. But our job is to sanctify Christ as Lord in our hearts and be ready to make a defense of our hope (1 Peter 3:15), and salvation comes through the working of the Holy Spirit, not because of our skill and eloquence (1 Cor. 2:1-5). Considering how many Christians get uppity because they have the One True Interpretation of Scripture™, perhaps pride is one reason that God has not mad

Innate Goodness and Pre-Adamic Humans

Some professing Christians are setting themselves up as authorities to say that God did not mean what he said in the Bible. This is a serious problem. Unfortunately, gullible people are being deceived about our alleged goodness, and humanoids that existed before Adam. Credit: Unsplash / Krys Amon American author John H. Walton has some odd views that can be considered Gnostic , and Irish theologian Niamh Middleton presents some beliefs that are truly off the rails. These sidewinders are not only rejecting biblical authority, but are also accommodating atheistic views of origins as well when they accommodate theistic evolution. False teachings like these seriously damage the gospel message. Today, many modern writers who describe themselves as evangelicals openly disagree with the core Christian doctrine of original sin. Some argue instead that Jesus seeks out original goodness in us. They reject a historical Fall in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve rebelled against the clear instru

Toxic Misotheists, Being Alpha, and the Bible - Part 2

As planned, here is the conclusion from Part 1 . Harmful people in our lives can feel like we are in an emotional and spiritual whirlpool with our vitality draining away. Not Apologizing or Explaining This is a difficult area for me in several areas. Gibbs makes not apologizing his  Rule #9 , and he picked it up from John Wayne in  She Wore a Yellow Ribbon : "Never apologize, mister, it's a sign of weakness". Related to that is explaining yourself. In fact, the two can often be combined in pitiful displays of poltroonery. File under "Never say never". Credit: Flickr /  Dave Stokes  ( CC BY 2.0 ) One problem is when people offer apologies. Those sound like excuses most of the time, especially when they're strung together like in this humorous example: When we "own it", we are less likely to seem weak. It can also take the wind out of the sails of a detractor. F'rinstance, a different supervisor was armed for bear, ready to give me a deserved cha