Lived Experience Forum

[Bismuth]

@Sione That sounds extremely distressing. Have you spoken to anyone about it?

[Sione]

@Bismuth 

Yes I have told many people and those people have spread the news. It must reach bigger organisations like the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) and the International Christian Concern (ICC). Tell the Pope what is happening here in Australia. Christians make up over 40% of the Australian population which is roughly 10 million Christians. Tell them all what is happening here in Australia. The voices want me to abandon my faith in Jesus Christ our LORD and Saviour. They try to drive me to insanity or suicide for not cooperating with them. They don't want me to read the Bible or pray or sing hymns in the privacy of my own home. They threaten to make me homeless if I don't stop, but I'm too legit to quit. God has saved me from the voices many times in the past. The voices tried to drive me insane in 2012-2013 but I cried out to the LORD and he heard my prayers. I was eventually involuntarily hospitalized twice in the mental health inpatient unit in August 2020. The LORD heard my cry for help just like Peter who was drowning before Jesus saved him. The voices tried to drive me insane in 2021 and I was involuntarily hospitalized again in January 2022. The LORD saved me again from the voices trying to coerce me to commit suicide. The voices tried again as I was trying to leave the country in March 2022 and they've still been trying to demoralise me to this day so I can be more vulnerable to their Satanic suggestions for my life. My life doesn't belong to Satan. I am a child of God, our Heavenly Father. I believe in every statement of the Apostles Creed. Pray for me my fellow Christians. Pray for the future of the one true faith in this country.

Psalms 23:4 "Even when I must walk through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for you are with me; your rod and your staff reassure me."

[justanotherguy]

Hi @Bismuth ,

The main 'problem' with the Bible, as with most things, is interpretation. The section you quoted:

"I once saw a wonderful take-off of those inspirational verse artworks. I must find it again, but it was a heart artwork and in it, in beautiful calligraphy, was “then he took up his k**** and cut his concubine into twelve parts”. (That’s from Judges, where the Israelites behaved very badly.)"

I have actually read that part (I have only read parts of the Bible). You left out that the concubine was already dead, murdered by a gang of angry rapists in a town they were staying at. The man wanted to show to the surrounding people what had happened to this partner of his in the most graphic way possible. And you have to realise we are so far removed from that kind of thing it is hard to comprehend. I quote the Bible from time to time but if you misquote it you may as well quote Satan because it has the same effect.

The Bible is a lot of things, and it can be used to cause harm as well as good, just like the Quran and any other religious text.

[Bismuth]

@justanotherguy not quite sure of your point, sorry. My point was that inspirational verses can be used just for the feel good, often leaving God out of the equation entirely. I don’t disagree with anything you say in your post, and I’m not sure why you’re phrasing it as a counter argument to what I said. Sorry if I’ve misunderstood something there!

[justanotherguy]

Hi @Sione ,

Sorry to hear you are stressing out, faith is meant to give comfort but unfortunately it also has brought persecution throughout history.

For my part, I think a bit of religious ideation has been a contributor to my mental problems. When I was at a low point in life I opened the Bible for the first time, but as well as finding the answers I needed the world around me started to fall apart. I'm not even very religious, I don't pray, I have very differing views of Christianity and religion in general, I don't feel comfortable going to church, and I am a terrible sinner. But I just had reached a point where the things I was doing were not working and I needed something more real to focus on. I have felt the urges of society, of all the trendy issues that try and sway people from living a decent life. I am definitely not a pastor or minister, have you tried talking to one? That's their job, to guide people in spiritual matters. You probably won't get the religious support you need in the secular world.

[justanotherguy]

Hi again @Bismuth ,

Not very inspirational to say a man cut up his partner, would terrify any woman reading that who didn't understand the context, they might assume the Bible is about murdering women and then go on social media and say how evil the Bible is. I have to call out this kind of thing when I see it as it helps nobody, especially the vulnerable.

EDIT:

I agree with many people that the Bible is so filled with anger, retribution, murder, and all the horrible things in life that people find it easier to dismiss the whole thing which is fair enough. But I guess I am looking for the valuable parts in amongst it all, and even just a few words of wisdom has been enough to help me in life. It has helped me when nobody else could, and now it seems to be paying off.

[Bismuth]

@justanotherguy  Then that would be misrepresenting what I was saying entirely, as I didn’t say it was inspirational. Lots of bad things happen in the bible because people do bad things. It doesn’t mean God approved. Just that people are, as Calvin put it, depraved. And also made in God’s image. A strange mix of both.

[justanotherguy]

@Bismuth,

People are people, the people in the Bible were self-described as God's chosen people. When they behaved they were very much like God, but he was very quick to anger when they transgressed. Kind of like a very strict parent. I read the parts concerning God's appearance to Moses and straight away he seemed a very vengeful God with a short temper, much more so than the God of earlier books in the Bible.

[Bismuth]

@justanotherguy  Absolutely correct, people are people. In the bible, the Hebrew people did nothing to deserve being God’s people. They were supposed to be a light to the nations…

I know humans like the idea of a loving God who is not wrathful, but logically it makes no sense. Someone who doesn’t get angry, simply couldn’t care less. If you love children, you are wrathful about mistreatment of children. If you are not, then you clearly don’t actually care. 

[justanotherguy]

@Bismuth, yep, Moses convinced them to head out into the desert but at least a few protested all the way (that's explained in the Bible clearly). As for mistreating children, I agree it's right to get angry about that.