Well said, Brad....that’s my main beef with Christianity in a nutshell. 

I may be taking it a half step further here, but the message being put out there to me is “God put you in a situation that you didn’t sign up for.  In that situation, you WILL fail.  It WILL hurt, and you WILL not live up to God’s expectations.  *BUT*, if you don’t realize this, repent and be forgiven, you will go to hell.” Sorry, that just mathematically doesn’t make sense.

So, I find myself coming to one of two conclusions:

1) God actually is pure love, and all religions that teach love and acceptance are on the right track.  The grace of God is sufficient for all who strive to be a positive influence on humanity, and Christianity as a religion got it wrong.

-or-

2) The no Jesus = go to hell equation is true, and God is not as warm and fuzzy as the evangelicals teach or seem to think.  He is a hard liner that is letting people into Heaven on technicalities and a strict rule book.

I realize that these are two extremes, but it illustrates my frustration in finding my faith. 

What is the point of making something broken, only to throw it into hell if it doesn’t somehow figure out how to get fixed?

That’s an interesting point Brook and I feel led to tell you that He doesn’t make us ‘broken’.  You + Jesus dying on a cross = Perfection . . but I believe religion to be a trick of the devil to keep people out of God’s love and kingdom . . for the Bible tells me so . . ok just kidding about that last part . . but seriously, don’t find a church, or a religion ~ seek Him, and everything else will make sense . .

Hi Melody,

While I totally appreciate your input/opinions, your post illustrates my beef with the evangelical message.  To say that “He doesn’t make us “broken”.  You + Jesus dying on a cross = Perfection” is no different than how I put it in my previous post, you just choose to put a nicer spin on it.  To focus on the perfection of one who has accepted Jesus is simply the other side of the coin. 

If God doesn’t make us broken, then how do we get that way?  Clearly the evangelical answer is that we choose to turn from God, and all have fallen short of the glory of Gad, etc.  But if you agree that no one can be perfect without Jesus, then who is turning from whom?  If he doesn’t make us broken, yet we have no chance of making it without becoming broken, then who is in charge here? 

Also, your comment “seek Him, and everything else will make sense� borders on the offensive.  I know you meant to ill will with that statement, but to suggest that all I have to do is seek Jesus and “everything else will make sense” not only overly simplifies the profound questions that have, but it is received as an easy out for believers to brush off legitimate rebuttals to the “we all suck and need to be saved” argument.

It’s very easy to say “I don’t know the answers to your questions, or have any input on thoughts like that, but if you’d just believe they wouldn’t matter anyway”.  I’m 31 years old, and up until about 2 years ago earnestly believed in the Jesus of evangelical Christianity, the Vineyard type specifically.  I found that the more I desired to get closer to the God that I was being taught, the louder the serious fundamental questions became.  They demanded answers BEFORE I could believe further.  Make no mistake; I believe Jesus was/is the son of God, a true manifestation of what and how God wants us to live.  I just have no idea what context that is supposed to take relative to me, my culture, my family, and other religions and philosophies. 

But many of these questions need to be resolved BEFORE I can believe further,...I can’t just “faith” my way through this one.

[/rant off]

Many times Jesus was offensive, and the Truth of the Bible says that you actually can ‘faith’ your way through.  It is the definition of faith - believing without seeing . . . There are places in the New Testament where Jesus Himself misquotes the Old Testament laws, and we know that He was never wrong so how could that be?  There is MYSTERY in faith, that is why it’s faith.  I can throw specific scriptures at you if you think it’ll help, but I feel that you’d prefer to be exactly where you are. 

And I earnestly meant seek Him, and the rest will make sense, because it absoultely will - I don’t need ‘an easy out’ - it’s simply what I actually do, and I felt like it might be something that you could also benefit from, but apparently you’d rather be ‘complicated’ which is your freewill choice, as I prefer to have simple faith . .