Tough Questions for Christians #16: False Gods

Image via Wikipedia

Question submitted to me by www.youtube.com/lazyperfectionist1 Go ahead and check him out, he's extremely articulate - and has some very good videos.

November 18, 1978. A visit to an agricultural commune in Guyana named Jonestown by U. S. Representative Leo Ryan leads to his death as well as that of three U. S. Journalists and a defector from the People's Temple at the hands of Temple Members. Hours later, the remainder of the cult, 913 men, women, and children lay dead; some by murder, most by suicide.

February 28, 1993. An ATF raid on the Branch-Davidian compound in Waco, Texas in search of illegal weapons escalates into a firefight between ATF agents and Davidians and later into a standoff which lasts until April 19. In the end, the whole affair adds up to 84 dead including 20 children.

The Branch-Davidians and the People's Temple were both composed of devout believers in Christ whose lives involved Bible study and prayer on a daily basis. So how then were these atrocities possible? Many Christians today chock it up to the misleading guile of false gods.

Looking now to the Civil War, many contemporary Christians are very quick to point to the numerous Union Soldiers who went into the field carrying crosses and Bibles and the eventual Union victory as proof that God was against slavery. Many an atheist, agnostic, and freethinker is just as quick to point to the numerous Confederate soldiers about whom the same holds true. But then the Christians use the "false god" hypothesis to explain this away as well.

Clearly, according to the Christians, there are countless false gods in the wings just waiting for the chance to mislead humanity by the hundreds, thousands, millions, and according to some, by the billions.

Now it is a foregone conclusion that no Christian wishes to be misled by a false god. And also that a loving God does not wish for his children to be so misled. So it also stands to reason that the God in question, being wise and intelligent, would have developed a system to prevent it; a system which can be used by any Christian with a trace of sincerity; a system composed of practices which the Confederate Christians, People's Temple, and Branch-Davidians overlooked or neglected.

It can't be the simple act of prayer because the groups in question did that.

It can't be simply the study of the Bible because they did that as well.

Nor can it be simply the having of faith in the guidance of a loving God because this also describes them.

It has to be something these groups neglected to do, or did incorrectly.

So the question is this: What system did God put in place, which the Confederate Christians, the Brand-Davidians, and the People's Temple all ignored - but you don't - which allows you to know you're following the correct God, while they were easily mislead by false gods?

TOUGH QUESTION FOR CHRISTIANS #16:
WHAT SYSTEM DID GOD ESTABLISH, WHICH "MISLEAD" CHRISTIANS IGNORE, THAT ENSURES YOU ARE FOLLOWING THE REAL GOD, WHILE OTHER BELIEVERS ARE SO EASILY MISLEAD?

If you are a Christian who can isolate nothing you are doing differently from the people referred to previously, then here's another question: "How can you be sure that you are not yourself being misled by a false god?"

originally posted on YouTube at: www.youtube.com/azatheist