southernhybrid

Hey Lauri! Even as a brainwashed child I had a difficult time making much sense of the so called Biblical prophesies. If anything, the absurdity of these prophesies actually sped up my deconversion.

Since I deconverted from conservative Xianity while I was attending a fundy college, I think the ridiculous nature of the prophesies and the numerous interpretations of them probably helped me see the light.

JohNeo

Yeah, I'm right there with you. I only deconverted a few months ago. Last year I was playing guitar at church retreats and singing plainsong chant at the Sunday evening mass. My, how things change. It feels good and yet strange to be able to say I don't give a shit about Jesus.

JohNeo

Dean Anderson

Even when I was a Christian (of the Born-Again-Evangelical-Fundy type), I always thought that people saw far too many things as being 'prophecy'. I could see that a lot of alleged prophecies were after-the-fact rationalisation or were self-fulfilling (or were simply quotes taken out of context).

I always assumed that there were some genuine ones underneath the dross, although I never looked too hard to find them since prophecy wasn't an important part of my belief.

Of course, now that I have deconverted, I can see that there are no genuine prophecies in the Bible.

funinspace

Can't say prophecies had much of an impact either way. I only started really looking at them deeper as the house of cards was already falling down. So it was more like just another log thrown on the fire. Though Asaiah 7:14 was seriously on the radar, so it was there, at a level. Before I started questioning too much (so to speak), the usage of this verse made me realize that there were Xians out there willing to deceive for their cause. So this probably helped me keep my mind open for the later questions. How's that for a yes and no answer...

Biff the unclean

Even when I was a devout Christian the prophecies were, at best, embarrassing. Fortune telling like Jean Dixon or a Gypsy at a carnival. How hard is it for a prophecy made in one book to come true in a second if the author of the second owns the first? And half of them aren't even prophecies. The whole Emmanuel thing in Isaiah comes to completion in Isaiah. It has nothing to do with Jesus.
They were things you simply did not discuss with intelligent people, and hoped they wouldn't be noticed.

inquisitive01

If prophecy "never mattered much" to you, how do you know what it "seems" to be?

Btw, I don't believe the Bible says that a group of people should go up on a mountain and await a "trip to Heaven," as the date of this "trip" could be either a short time away or could be a very long time.

Also, if a cult forms for whatever reasons, one should not take the cults "reasonings" literally (just as stated earlier in another thread about the KKK's reasonings).

moester

I grew up super LDS. We had the 2 year supply of dried beans and rice in the basement and a huge barrel of water. Jesus was ALWAYS right around the corner. Armageddon and all that jazz.

I think even if big brother jeebus shows up, I don't think its going to be all the earthquakes and stuff that the primary teachers talked about. If Jeebus= love why would we need to have all the death and carnage and what not?

My dad also told me all the land would be level when I was a young'un. That was a big hurdle for me to jump when I was desperately trying to believe. Growing up in the Salt Lake valley, there are amazing mountains any way you look. It made me want to cry the first time he told me that. Why would god destroy these beautiful mountains? And I just realized that is the first time I questioned god. What a breakthrough. I was 7 or 8 and just amazed god would do a stupid ass thing like flatten the mountains.

I'm not sure if this is just a mormon prophecy or if this is for everyone. I never wanted to research it, because it just brings up some bad feelings.

On a side note-- Lauri, I finished reading your story the other day- a marathon day of reading- and I am so amazed at your strength and am very glad for you. Hooray for following your brain and not some dude in the sky.


moe
"This isn't about Jesus, is it?" -- Homer Simpson

WCH

My father, an Anglican priest, has an interesting approach to prophesy, in that he freely admits how ludicrous most of the claims are. As an illustration, he has demonstrated on several occasions how the American Civil War perfectly fits with some of the Old Testament prophesy (Daniel, was it? I can't remember). The passage talking about the the "army of the south" and stuff like that... it fits almost exactly with several of the major campaigns in the war, but the surrounding verses have no application to the United States, especially not that war. In the light of this, he says, he would be hesitant to point at various historical events as fullfillment of prophesy (reason being that most Christians think the passage from Daniel he applied to the Civil War refers to things which happened significantly BC.

jafosei

Flowers don't matter much to me either, but a flower planted in my back yard seems to be a Tiger Lily. American politics don't matter much to me, but Rush Limbaugh seems to be right-wing.

Things mattering to me is entirely seperate from me being able to have ideas about them. Pay attention.

I didn't say the Bible said that, did I? I said that I was told a story about a cult that had a particular prophecy, upon which they based major life decisions. I don't claim the story is true or based on any particular prophecy; I just related the story I was told in church.

You really should try reading posts before you reply to them. Without that basic courtesy, communication becomes very difficult.

I didn't suggest you should take anyone's "reasonings" "literally". I think people should think for themselves.