Maurice, am I to understand that the reason you choose to exercise your faith in the direction of not believing in God is because of (1) personal experience with a domineering father plus (2) the burnings of witches that have been done?
On point one, it seems no more reasonable than to have fear of flying because of having been in an automobile accident in which your vehicle flew off of a freeway overpass. I know a person who is this way. Ever since having such an accident, that person has had a fear of flying that did not exist before the accident. The reasonable thing, would be to have fear of, or be more cautious of freeway overpasses as dangerous places when there are freezing conditions as when the accident happened.
On point two -If you examine Jesus' teachings and the other scriptures in the Bible which describe how to define a Christian, it should be plain that the people who burned witches were not Christians. The "tests" they had for whether a person was a witch or not were unscriptural. They were no more Christians than a wolf in sheep's clothing is a sheep. At best, the witch burners were unknowing agents provocateur for the enemy, the devil.
But your misunderstanding is only human and is not uncommon. Though Jesus' teachings were plain enough for a child to understand, still, some of his disciples were slow to learn and were asking/expecting him to do such things as call down fire from heaven to destroy cities.
It wasn't until after Jesus had been crucified, buried for three days and resurrected, that they all began to understand fully. It wasn't until after the day of Pentecost, when Jesus baptised them in the Holy Spirit that they really caught on.
John |
