tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5181778018736561805.post5589183348856800151..comments2023-04-12T08:28:42.669-04:00Comments on What's Shakin'?: Putting on the UniAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00430521465953619322noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5181778018736561805.post-17252935200517981042008-07-31T01:45:00.000-04:002008-07-31T01:45:00.000-04:00Believe it or not, I have been baptized at least t...Believe it or not, I have been baptized at least three times in my life.<BR/><BR/>Once as a child at the strong suggestion of my father. Looking back on that, I had no clue what it meant or why I was doing it other than my Dad said I needed to do it, some of the other kids my age were doing it, so I should do it.<BR/><BR/>As an adult after I had pretty much rejected my parents religion which I grew to detest and started building my own from scratch (i.e. from atheism) I was baptized again, this time for the right reasons.<BR/><BR/>Then about a decade later I did it again probably about the time that I realized during my studies of the scripture that the concept of hell as an eternal torture chamber is not supported by the Bible. Perhaps it was out of gratitude that God led me to the truth about that issue.<BR/><BR/>My parent's church I was raised in was all obsessed about hell and eternal punishment and that we need to do this, that, or the other to avoid being tortured forever when we die. I now view that obsession as a perversion of the gospel.<BR/><BR/>When I look at my children, I often think that God feels about me the way I feel about them. Nothing they could ever do would cause me to stop loving them unconditionally. Nothing! I would never solicit their love by threat of punishment, and I can't imagine God doing that either, at least not a God that I would find worthy of love and worship.<BR/><BR/>But then I hear Christians say that if I don't believe in God and love him, I will be punished eternally for it. It reeks of the same kind of psycological coercion that my parent's church practiced when I was a kid. It is a moot issue for me because I have found peace with my decision to serve Christ for the right reasons, because we love one another, not because my Dad told me he would torture me if I didn't.Roberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05948657739567627581noreply@blogger.com