One year has passed since I left the Revival Fellowship. This brief amount of time away from Christianity has afforded me the opportunity to reflect on the beliefs I previously held. In writing this list, I am ashamed that 25 years of my life went defending these beliefs rather than investigating them. This list is inconclusive and a work-in-progress. I’ll continue to update this list as they come to mind; feel free to make suggestions in the comments. [2011]
- The entire universe was created for me; my admiration, my pleasure.
- Everything in life was part of some divine plan: at which I was the center.
- The Bible had zero mistakes, errors or contradictions.
- It wasn’t just spiritually true, it was mathematically perfect.
- God had direct access to my thoughts and listened in all the time.
- World events, elections, tsunamis, wars—everything could be traced to prophecy.
- Armageddon was always just around the corner.
- I was able to communicate with God, at any time, by praying in my head.
- I believed that I could, through God, work miracles and heal any disease,
- If it didn’t work, it wasn’t part of God’s plan–or I didn’t have enough faith.
- When it did work, it was God; never a coincidence. Trying to deconstruct this mystery was likened to looking through a glass darkly.
- The Great Pyramid of Giza was God’s stone witness, a prophetic monument encoded with inch-based timelines.
- Miracles from other religions either didn’t happen or was they were Satan trying to deceive.
- Everything it said was true; evidence to the contrary had to be reassessed (i.e. ignored or ‘contextualized’).
- This included talking snakes and donkeys, raining frogs, walking on water, cross-breeding of men and angels, rivers being turned to blood, languages of the world being invented instantaneously, and so on.
- God gave me a divine and angelic language only He could understand.
- Hell was created by God, likened to an eternal lake of fire to torture bad people.
- I could end up here by not having the special language or by committing adultery in my heart (Matthew 5:27)
- Everyone who didn’t speak in tongues went to hell (always rephrased politely).
- I wholeheartedly believed testimonies recounted by members which opposed modern science, without skepticism. (And I was very skeptical of miracles occurring in other religions).
- Evolution was a worldwide conspiracy with an atheistic agenda.
- The Earth was created instantly and species could only reproduce “after their own kind” (Genesis 1:20-25)
- There were no transitional fossils (e.g. half-reptile, half-bird) if something like this was discovered it was fraudulent or at least up for debate.
- Numbers had magic meanings. Numbers like 7 were good and numbers like 13 and 666 were bad.
- Ordinary events in my life were able to be read into and God’s will determined accordingly.
- Dripping olive oil on someone’s head had magic healing properties.
- God was concerned about my personal well being and listened to my every prayer.
- As such, everyday mundane events in my life were able to be controlled by me/God, including traveling mercies, help in exams, assistance finding car-parks, confidence in a job interview, and so on.
- I believed this without questioning why my prayer would be answered – when He supposedly ignored the prayer of starving children, etc.