Sorry, not sorry. People need to know that God loves them unconditionally. Christianity does not teach this…

Be warned, I will NOT play Bible Verse Tennis. If you come at me with a verse that you think contradicts something I’ve said, I will not play. First, because it’s tiresome and pointless and we can go back and forth All Day Long. Second, you probably know the Bible way better than I do and I don’t want you to make me look stupid. Third, my Biblical knowledge (such as it is) comes from smarter people than I am over at the Gospel Revolution. www.gospelrevolution.com

You can visit them and have as many arguments as you like, because those guys KNOW their Bible verses inside and out, up and down, and side to side. Ancient Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, Klingon, you name it. So don’t waste your time coming at a dullard like me, go fling your verses at those guys… that is if you’re really and truly looking for truth and not just an argument that you can win against an idiot (me). Please note that I am in no way affiliated with Gospel Revolution, Michael Lilborn Williams (their head smart guy) or anyone else over there. They don’t know who I am, they probably don’t want to know who I am, and if they knew who I am, they probably wouldn’t like me very much. But anyway, that’s my disclaimer/copout in regard to playing the verse vs. verse game.

There are more than 46,000 Christian Denominations. Please take a moment and meditate on that. It isn’t just Catholic and Protestant. When it comes to Christianity, the overwhelming theme isn’t what you would hope it to be: Jesus Christ the Messiah, or Love, or even Salvation. No, the most obvious takeaway is division and contention. That’s probably the best reason to question the whole aspect of this religion.

Part 1: Free Will and Personal Choice

Why it really doesn’t matter when it comes to the big stuff.

The fundamental principle of salvation according to Christianity is that each and every one of us is required to a.) Believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah and that He came to Earth to save us and b.) Confess that he is the Lord and c.) Repent of our sins, ask for forgiveness, and do our best to live according to His will and purpose for us. There may be some other conditions depending on the specific branch of Christianity, but that’s the main thrust of it.

In short, if you want Salvation, you have to work for it. You have to believe, you have to confess, you have to repent and then continue to work towards His favor. In Christianity, the onus is on us. The reason (of course) is because it has to be our decision. Our choice. God would never make us righteous and holy without our express consent. Apparently, that’s how much He loves and respects our autonomy… He would send us straight to an eternity of endless punishment because He respects us so damn much. How ludicrous is that?! But let’s indulge the craziness of that:

So, it’s our choice. Let’s start there, with all the things we didn’t choose. Like our very existence. The petulant teenager who shouts at his parents, “I didn’t ask to be born!” is technically, correct.

Things you did not choose:

· To be born – Your very existence has nothing to do with your choice. You had absolutely no say in the matter. You exist, but you can’t take any credit or blame for it.

· Your parents – You are a combination of your mother and father’s genetic makeup. You inherited your ancestor’s biological proclivities, both awesome and awful. On a purely biological level, they formed you and shaped you. All this was done without your say so.

· Your sex – You didn’t choose to be a male or female. Leaving aside all the nonsense about you being able to choose your gender is just that – utter nonsense. The fact that you were born with either male or female genitalia and all the other benefits and handicaps that come with being one gender or the other, had absolutely nothing to do with your choice.

· Your race – Like it or not, your race is immutable and for good or ill, it plays a huge part in who you are. You didn’t choose your skin color or any other aspects of race; you can only accept that you had nothing to do with it.

· Your physical appearance – Eye color, hair color, height, complexion. You may have an adorably short nose or a beautiful long nose. What you look like makes a huge difference in how the world views you and how you view yourself. It’s a huge factor and once again, none of it was your choice. Gorgeous or ugly – it wasn’t up to you.

· Your siblings – Having no siblings or one or more has an incredible impact on how we grow up. The influence of siblings (or lack thereof) plays a critical role in our upbringing. You had no say in it – whether you were to give or receive noogies, wet willies, or Indian Burns were just one more facet of your life that you have no control over.

· Your health – Genetic diseases and disabilities are thrust upon you, determining the quality of your life. You didn’t choose your health (not until years later anyway).

· Your talent(s) – We all have natural, God given talents, and whether we have one or two or a variety of them, we could only nurture them, but we couldn’t create them. If you’ve ever heard me sing or try to draw a picture, you would definitely agree.

· Your nationality – Which nation you were born in makes a huge difference in your cultural disposition.

· Your location - Heck, even the city (or countryside) you were born in determines much about you. The environment that we grow up in is not of our choosing. There are vast differences in kids who grow up in an urban vs. a rural setting.

· Your financial status – Rich kids are far different from poor kids… and the kids never had a choice in the matter.

· Your religion – Another colossally gigantic factor in who you are is determined by the religion (again, or lack thereof) that you were raised with. An orthodox Jewish upbringing is vastly different from a child born to atheist parents.

· Your “programming” – This includes the things your parents allowed you to watch on TV, which school you were sent to, if you were in the Boy/Girl Scouts, 4H, etc. To say nothing of your overall shaping of your political and philosophical views as taught to you by your elders (parents, teachers, family, etc.)

· Your enemies – Tragically, you didn’t choose to be affected by the neighborhood bully, or worse, the abusers or molesters that you may have had the misfortune to encounter. The damages inflicted on us by others can reach incalculable levels. No one chooses to be hurt like that.

· Your nature OR your nurture – That kind of sums up the above. You didn’t ask to be here, you didn’t choose the type of person you started out as, and you didn’t make the decisions on who or what would enter your life. You were a leaf in the wind, through no fault (or credit) to yourself.

What you make of yourself later in life is on you. But to some, the path to success and happiness is much easier than it is to others. Some are naturally gifted and have an incredible support network. They are good looking, intelligent people with strong ethics both taught and imparted into them. Then there’s the rest of us, who had to deal with all kinds of difficulties and hardships and had to work our butts off to get ahead. In those cases, it was our choices that brought us here, but it no way, shape, or form, was it fair. So why would it be fair to leave our ultimate (and likely permanent) destination up to us. For some, the choice would be easy, but to others, it would be nearly impossible to make the right choice(s).

Again, it is ludicrous to suggest that the decisions that affect your ETERNAL life – hundreds upon thousands upon millions of years – whether it will be in bliss, paradise, Heaven - or in torture, pain, and suffering, would somehow be left up to you.

How many bad or wrong decisions have you made in your life that have affected you to this day? From buying the wrong car, to having the wrong friends, to taking the wrong job or to marrying the wrong person? Yet somehow, the decision to whether you will live in love, in complete harmony with the Creator of the universe or suffer expulsion from His presence for eternity, is your call?

It couldn’t be. No covenant would ever be made between God and you, with your input or consent. You do not have the authority (or the Good Sense!) to bargain with God. He created us and He knows what is best for us. He will give us our whole lives to live with the consequences of our decisions. Our time for free will is while we are alive on Earth. This is our time to do right or wrong, to turn left or right, to go up or down.

Any new relationship or covenant from God is made solely from God’s provenance. He is not asking for your opinion or your thoughts on the matter. He knows that you’re a dumbass and wouldn’t trust you to make the most important decision of your entire existence. God the Father made a Holy Covenant with God the Son and imbued in us His Own Self – God the Holy Spirit. I know it’s a lot to grabble with, but there it is.

Even if it was your choice, do you think that you could consciously fulfill the requirements to get to Heaven or to gain God’s favor? Remember, the requirement is not to be a good person. The requirement is PERFECTION. You can only be made perfect by God. And guess what? That’s what He did.

“But” you will retort - smartie pants that you are, “That’s why Jesus came and died for us.” You may also add, “Jesus stands at the door of our heart, knocking, constantly waiting for us to simply open the door to Him.” Ugh. Do you realize how pathetic that sounds? Poor Jesus, standing out in the cold, just waiting for us. He’s the King of Kings… He doesn’t stand around for anyone.

But anyway, before I go off on a huge tangent about how Christianity belittles Christ by rendering Him into a beggar and an unsuccessful Savior who couldn’t do it right the first time so has to come back and finish the job more than 2000 years later… ahem. Smarter people than me have dealt with that over at the Gospel Revolution – another unsolicited plug for them: www.gospelrevolution.com

Let me wrap up the whole business of choice with this:

To God, we are children. In comparison to the might, power, wisdom, and knowledge of God, we are just… well, kids. Toddlers at best. Fortunately, we’re HIS little idiot kids and He loves us. Just like we allow our own children a certain leeway to make their own decisions, when it comes to the really big things, the things that matter, the things would harm us, or really hurt us, we step in. We intervene. Thank God we do, and thank God… He does too.

If there is no choice for us… what were the options anyway? We know that God wants the greatest place for us (Heaven, in whatever amazing, incredible, wonderful beyond belief form that make take) and since that is the only option for us, why would there even be a Hell?