Satanic Alliances: Christians Unwittingly in League with the Devil

By Bruce G. Ohms

Existence of God didn't seem impossible to Bruce. After all, the universe exists, and something had to create it. All of the scientific theories that Bruce learned about the beginning of time, space, matter, and energy basically said that it just happened and perhaps cyclically repeated the process. He thought there was a critical piece missing because, according to his understanding, scientific principle requires a cause for every effect. But what was the cause? God seemed like a possible explanation. Did God exist or not? Without sound evidence, agnosticism persisted. Much of what Bruce heard about Christianity and the Bible seemed like nonsense. If that were the case, the Bible and Christianity could not be based on a real God. In a discussion with his wife-to-be, he was challenged to show her any nonsense in the Bible. What could be easier than that? Just find those nonsensical writings and be done with it. But what he found, no matter how diligently he searched, was that the nonsense was a misrepresentation of Scripture. Based on overwhelming evidence from Scripture and science, Bruce became convinced that the Bible is indeed the inspired Word of God. This book is a presentation of many of the interesting things he discovered as he continued his search for the truth. Both Christians and nonbelievers will find it eye-opening.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9781639038282

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ISBN 978-1-63903-827-5 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63903-828-2 (digital)

Copyright © 2022 by Bruce G. Ohms

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

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Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

About This Book

Where Is God

Bible Babel

Addiction

Sexuality

Divorce

Miracles

Creation

Tithing

Denominational Differences

Faith and Evidence for Belief

Heaven, Hell, Neither?

Death, Everlasting Life, Or Everlasting Death

The Gospel

Christian Responsibility

Index

To all those who guided me on my journey to Christianity

*****

With special thanks to my wife, who started me on the journey

Preface

Let me begin by making the purpose of this book clear. It is not to disparage either Christianity or Christians. On the contrary, the purpose is to discuss some of the misperceptions that have resulted in me and many other people having a distorted view of Christianity. Several of the topics covered are listed at the end of this forward.

This book did not begin as a book. It began as a written response that my daughter asked me to do for one of her friends that had no interest in Christianity because of incorrect information on several points. On completion of that effort, I was stimulated to continue pursuing corrections on a number of topics that had been related to me. That work became larger and larger which suggested to me that if it were a book, the research would become available to many people.

I am a Christian and am fully convinced that the Bible is the inspired Word of God.¹ For most of my life, this was not the case. The churches that I attended as a youth did a very poor job of presenting Christianity and the contents of the Bible. Most of my understanding about Christianity came from the media and poorly informed Christians. Much of what I heard defied reality to the point of being nonsense. After leaving my childhood home, I saw no point in wasting my time by attending church or by reading any book that I believed was full of nonsense, including the Bible. I quickly became agnostic.

This all changed after I was provoked, much to my chagrin at the time, into thirty years of Bible study. My intent when I started was to expose it for the nonsense that I believed it contained. Through the process of detailed study of several versions of the Bible as well as several other sources, I have gained a much better understanding of many biblical topics in addition to those included here. Frequently I encountered disparate writings from respected sources, which may be pointed out in the chapters that follow. Some of these opinions agreed with my understanding of what I was reading in the Bible, and others did not. At times my opinion changed, but not often. This was helpful in solidifying my understanding of scripture. What follows is the analysis of some of the inaccuracies I was exposed to prior to my salvation and what I believe scripture actually says.

I am a lay Christian and do not have any formal training in theology or in Christianity. Some therefore may believe that I am not qualified to give a valid explanation of my analysis of scripture. What is presented in this book is my understanding about many apparent inaccuracies that repelled me from Christianity for decades. I have studied the Bible diligently and have strived to be objective. I believe that the reason God gave us His Word in printed form is so that we can easily fulfill our responsibility to be thoroughly equipped to understand it.² I am convinced in my own mind that my conclusions are valid. To help ensure validity, at times I reached out to both Christian and Jewish clergy for clarification and received caution from both that there are often differing views of the exact meaning of scripture. The help from rabbis was much appreciated since the oracles of God (Old Testament) were committed to the Jews.³ Many times I gained clarification, or my original understanding was solidified. There were also times I needed to adjust my views. As a result, I became comfortable with were I ended up.

As discussed, in the Denominational Differences chapter, I believe the reason God revealed⁴ the printing press to us is so each of us can test a religious leader’s words directly against God’s Word. We all have individual responsibility to know the scriptures⁵ to protect us from those (including me) who would intentionally⁶ or unintentionally⁷ lead someone astray. Please judge what I present in the context of the relevant scripture. I welcome all scriptural and credible scientific explanations that correct any errors to my understanding within this presentation. Please be compassionate in your judgment.

Hopefully for nonbelievers, even if you disagree with my conclusions, you will gain a richer understanding of the topics that are discussed. For Christians, even if you disagree, I hope you will have a better understanding of why many nonbelievers see things differently than you. I urge you to use the information in this book as a guide to understanding what you believe scripture actually says when you are presented with possible scriptural inaccuracies. Throughout my years of study, I have tried to understand why many Christians view some parts of scripture so differently than I do. It is my desire that those whose views are different from mine will do the same for me. No doubt, none of us will be perfectly correct. But we can at least have a better understanding of each other.

These are some of the topics that are discussed:

Acknowledgments

Iwant to thank my wife and daughters for their patience as I engaged them in discussions during my study to clarify my understanding as I did my research. My wife deserves a special thanks for starting me on the Christian journey that resulted in this book. A word of appreciation also goes to my daughters who provided much valuable insight with their challenging questions and suggestions for related study. Also, a well-deserved shout-out goes to one of them for her almost too thorough editorial support of my drafts, which resulted in hundreds of hours of corrections and additional research. She made the editor of a previous work ⁸ seem kind. But her stringent efforts resulted in a much better final composition. I would also like to thank, without naming, all the others who did not know that our conversations were assisting me in my research and understanding for this book.

About This Book

This book is directed at two very different audiences. One, of course, is Christians, some of whom may not be familiar with various significantly differing denominational views of Christian Scripture . The other audience is non-Christians who may have a distorted view of Christian Scripture based on inaccuracies about it as presented at times by the media and, unfortunately, by some Christians as well. Hopefully this book will help more Christians to understand that by presenting Christianity without distorting scripture, ⁹ fewer nonbelievers will have a negative view of it. Many nonbelievers may have no interest in personally accepting Christianity. But it is my hope that this book will at least help them to gain an understanding of Christian Scripture minus the misinformation often associated with it.

As a child, I went to a Christian church on a regular basis. Even so, somehow, I missed the essentials of Christianity and had no understanding of the gospel. Because I had a rather weak foundation in Christianity, after leaving home, I quickly drifted into an agnostic view of any religion. At that time, I already knew that I had done things that were wrong in the eyes of the Christian God. I had sinned! I believed that from a Christian point of view I was condemned to hell.

However, I was greatly comforted by two things. First, much of what I was learning about the contents of the Bible at that time was fake news and clearly nonsense. If the Bible was full of such nonsense, it was obviously not the work of a real God. Therefore, Christianity could not be taken seriously. There was no certainty of life after death and equally no certainty of hell after death to be concerned about. Also, my faults were not as bad as what I saw coming from some Christians. So obviously if there really were a loving Christian God, He would know that I wasn’t so bad and that I would safely be spared from hell. As I said above, I did not know the reality of Christianity—the gospel.

Since Christianity could not be taken seriously, what could? From my point of view: no religion! Various religions professed to be the one true way. This could not be true for all of them! So I concluded that it probably was not true for any of them. Even within the Christian denominations there is no single unified view, therefore Christianity was clearly not the way.

Having a good reason to take a serious look at the Bible and Christianity did not come until after my first half century of life. It was only at this later time in my life that I had an incentive to attempt to use the contents of the Bible to expose it for the nonsense I believed it represented. I was confident that I would quickly and easily find a few examples to show the foolishness of taking the Bible seriously. Those easy examples proved to be elusive. There are some inconsequential things that I would like a better understanding of, but I never found what I was searching for. Keep in mind that my goal was to highlight the nonsense in the Bible, not to support its validity. What was the source of most of the misinformation I was exposed to? Christians! And quite a lot of the media loves to repeat it as an opportunity to ridicule Christianity. Through experience I have learned that often this fake news is not intentional. The major source of the problem is simply a result of accepting some poorly worded messages from the pulpit that are not supported either by Scripture or by the preponderance of other evidence. This is compounded when a little explanation is added to clarify traditional views, or some related Scripture is ignored that could weaken those views.

How often have we heard that Christians should adjust their beliefs to fit into the modern world? Of course, the first belief that we would have to modify is that God forbids us to change His word.¹⁰ If we were free to adjust one belief, why wouldn’t we be free to adjust all of them? The most difficult thing for me in accepting Christianity was that if I didn’t accept it all, exactly as God had presented it, it would no longer be Christianity. It would be my own personally tailored religion. There were many things in the Bible that I didn’t fully understand and didn’t even like. I finally accepted Christianity, and Christ, because of the overwhelming evidence for its truth. In spite of knowing that we don’t have the freedom to alter God’s Word, how often has each of us been tempted, or even indulged in, twisting the meaning of written Scripture to fit our personal desires?

I have heard more than one preacher say that when we show up in church for worship that Satan is right there with us in the front row trying to sow discord and misinformation. I believe the vast majority of our pastors are not intentionally teaching anything contrary to Scripture. They are simply trying to follow the doctrine they have learned and believe. However, when what they teach departs from Scripture for any reason, I believe that Satan is not in the front row but actually standing right next to the pulpit enlisting unwitting preachers in a Satanic Alliance. This should not be taken lightly. There is a scriptural admonishment that teachers will receive a stricter judgment.¹¹ I have strived to be accurate in my analysis in order to avoid this danger. A fate worse than being thrown into the sea with a millstone around my neck¹² is not appealing.

At a time when I was teaching a youth Sunday Bible class, out of respect for that church (a different denomination than my present church), I avoided teaching topics that I felt would put Scripture in conflict with church doctrine. My approach to the lessons was participatory analysis. This seemed to stimulate class member engagement in the lessons instead of being bored with another sermon prior to worship service. One of the topics I presented was on snake handling¹³ which I discuss later in the chapter, Denominational Differences. I think that at the beginning of that lesson some of the students may have suspected that I was preparing to pull a snake out of a box. Another lesson turned out to be quite tense when a visiting deacon from another church was observing the class. Part way through the class, he stood up and announced that he could not sit there and let me teach that such and such is okay. It was only after I assured him that was not what I was teaching and that the lesson was not yet over that I was able to continue. What he assumed I was teaching was not only in conflict with church doctrine, it was also in conflict with Scripture. I feel that unfortunately by skipping to the end of the lesson the students were deprived of the opportunity to come to a fuller understanding of the topic through their own analysis and discussion of the Scripture.

There is an extremely good example very close to the beginning of the Bible of how little clarifications can have serious long-term impacts. Additional detail is discussed toward the beginning of the chapter Where is God concerning the consequences of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It explains how even minor exercises in altering, adding to, or taking away from God’s Word can have unintended and severe consequences.¹⁴ How can well-intentioned minor changes presented as interpretations or guidance have these negative consequences? Satan embraces and cleverly¹⁵ takes advantage of our slightest attempts to improve