Preterism leads to IO (Israel Only)
THE GATES OF PRETERISM DEFINED Morgan Bradford
I understand that it’s shocking to many of today’s ‘Christians’ to discover that the bible’s god did not give his only begotten son for them, that Jesus didn’t suffer and die for them, that they never needed to say a little prayer, get dunked in water and believe Jesus saved and redeemed them from a judgement and then sent some nebulous ‘Holy Spirit’ to live inside them.
Like others, I had a moment of terror when I discovered the story wasn’t about me, that there was no biblical heaven for me, no resurrection and eternal life...but the moment passed. I worked through it. I grew from it. Personally, I’ve never been more at peace than I am now. However, I believe that people benefit from discovering the truth…and at the right time.
IO can also be emotionally devastating. Telling someone about IO when they’re going through some life tragedy, a death in the family or facing the prognosis of late stage cancer…Those aren’t appropriate times to tell them about IO.
I have considered whether it was right (or wrong) to use IO to take away a faux Christian’s ‘hope’. I understand that it’s difficult for a person to experience their religious worldview crumbling before them. However, in this writer’s opinion, we (IO proponents) should give those who are able a chance to work through it as we did. We need to give them a chance to be free, as we are.
People need to know about IO before missionaries, preachers and evangelists get to them first. Indeed, our “Christian” opponents eagerly try to convert others to myths and doctrines that separate people from their hard-earned money each week. Such doctrines give them hope that they may never know is based on false premises and is in fact, illusory. They’ve had their time, nearly two thousand years. It’s time for something better.
We have this wonderful knowledge of IO, a gift that helps others be set free from the false religion of today’s faux Christianity. With it, we can show people that nobody is a ‘sinner’ on the way to a judgement and in need of salvation and Jesus. Those who see this from the scriptures and work through the cognitive dissonance that may come from it are free to find hope in something or someone else if they choose, and many do.
Some migrate to a form of new age mysticism, some to deism, some to atheism while others like this writer, enjoy no particular religious or spiritual affiliation. This writer finds hope, meaning, purpose and fulfillment in some of the more mundane aspects of life.
IO is an invitation to return to sanity, to reason, and the opportunity to love other people without today’s Christian delusionary false hope. It offers the opportunity to live a meaningful, productive, and fulfilling life without needlessly fearing the bible’s imaginary god, and without feeling obligated to hand over 10% of one’s hard-earned money to people who use the scriptures to manipulate others from behind a pulpit.
IO also offers freedom from the shame and self-loathing that is required to believe people are born sinners, have wicked hearts and are sinners on the way to some imaginary eternal hell. It means freedom from other men manipulating the emotions and imaginations of others for their own gain or for the perpetuation of a religious drama that is completely contrived and imaginary.
IO offers freedom to care about your neighbors because they’re your neighbors, not because a guy that’s been dead for two thousand years told you to love them. IO provides an opportunity to value people for who they are, instead of how an ancient religious narrative from a time and culture vastly differently from our own says about people we don’t know and may not have even existed.
People who claim they are happy and fulfilled within Christianity are only that way because of what they have been indoctrinated to believe, not because of what is real. If someone would have never told them they were a sinner, they wouldn’t have a reason to be thankful for a presumed, imaginary salvation (that was only meant for Israelites). In this writer’s opinion, the world would be a much better place without a religion accusing people of being someone they are not.
I have found that since my own departure from today’s faux Christianity, I have become a better version of myself. I have benefitted immensely from the freedom from religious dogma and self-delusion that is required to remain in that faith. I have become more kind, tolerant, patient, less judgmental, more accepting and loving of other people, even complete strangers.
Does IO lead to hopelessness? For a short while, it felt that way for me. What caused those temporary feelings of hopelessness? It was the realization that I wouldn’t be getting what I wanted.... something that was meant only for Israel...covenants, promises, ‘eternal life’ as I misunderstood it.
The way I initially responded to IO demonstrated how superficial and selfish my faith really was. I learned quickly that my faith wasn’t really all about Jesus. It had always been about me. Many of us have been so emotionally invested in our ‘Christian’ faith that our personal identities became associated with it. When we discovered that we weren’t recipients of the biblical promises, that we won’t get what we want, it caused an identity crisis and we responded in various ways...with cognitive dissonance, fear, anger, depression, bitterness and in most cases, a desperate doubling down on religious faith.
It is primarily from this last group of brainwashed and highly indoctrinated individuals that we hear questions like “Where is your hope?” However, it’s arrogant and myopic to believe that someone (or billions of people) don’t have hope if they don’t believe in today’s phony Christian doctrines.
As this book shows, nobody today has the hope of Israel. This doesn’t mean that people don’t have any hope at all. Personally, my hope is in people learning to love each other without religious delusions, and that we can someday leave religious nonsense for historians and archaeologists to study in the same way they study extinct primitive cultures.
Today, I think more about life here and now, loving people more and giving hope to others in tangible ways instead of worrying about ensuring an imagined afterlife that nobody knows how to affect either way. Though my deconstruction was a shock at first and it took some time to adjust, I have since began to see beauty, love, meaning, purpose, and fulfillment from outside of a religious worldview.
Am I still a moral person? Yes, probably more now than when I was a Christian. Before, my worldview was interpreted through the lens of someone else’s ancient religion with its primitive laws, doctrines, and religious rituals. I practiced that morality religiously, with inconsistency and hypocrisy. Now, I'm able to see people from outside of the Christian worldview, which is to see people as they really are.
Today, I acknowledge that there is value in knowing people regardless of their beliefs. Since I began living outside of the religious bubble I had been in for over twenty years, I found that non-religious people (including me) are in many cases more loving, caring and peaceful than I ever was as a Christian. I recognize now that people in other cultures have their own moral values and cultural taboos that are beneficial toward leading productive, fulfilling, valuable and meaningful lives.
Am I an atheist? No. I believe a creator “god” of some type may exist, just not an ancient near eastern tribal deity like the god of the bible. If there is a god, it wishes to remain unseen, unheard, unknown and uninterested in our personal lives. It must have its reasons. Perhaps it found us boring? Maybe it’s waiting for us to evolve? In any case, a god like that isn’t one that I would want to know anyway, so it might as well stay in the shadows.
Humanity needed personal gods during its primitive cultural development to explain the world. We don’t need gods anymore. Apparently, gods don’t need us. What people need is common sense and each other.
By far, the benefits of returning to reason and loving others from outside of a Christian context have proven to be immensely more meaningful and beneficial than remaining in the Christian faith. Other people who have deconstructed from Christianity as a result of IO have reported similar things.
If you have made it this far in this book and have benefitted from it, then you are already part of a small but growing group of people in the IO community who see people differently. We have no leader, no budget, no office, no meetings, no jet aircraft, no rituals. We are ordinary people who have discovered an extraordinary truth that has the potential to change the world.
IO peels back nearly two thousand years of religious error that has helped shape western culture. If we have courage, and when scholars and theologians are ready to work through the cognitive dissonance associated with discovering that the bible’s redemptive narrative doesn’t pertain to people today, perhaps IO can be used for the benefit of all. If that happens, then perhaps we’ll begin seeing each other as potential friends and neighbors sharing a relatively small planet with limited resources in a vast, hostile universe instead of sinners born with wicked hearts in need of salvation to appease one of many imagined gods.
