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.

1. The entire universe was created for me; my admiration, my “pleasure”.
2. Everything in life was part of some divine plan: at which I was the center.
3. God had direct access to my thoughts and “listened in” all the time.
4. I was able to communicate with God, at any time, by “praying” in my head.
5. I believed that I could, through God, work miracles and heal any disease,
6. If it didn’t work, it wasn’t part of God’s plan–or I didn’t have enough faith.
7. When it did work, it was God; never a coincidence. Trying to deconstruct this mystery was likened to looking through a “glass darkly”.
8. Miracles from other religions either didn’t happen or was they were Satan trying to deceive.
9. The Bible had zero mistakes, errors or contradictions.
10. Everything it said was true; evidence to the contrary had to be reassessed (read: ignored or ‘contextualized’).
11. 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.
12. God gave me a divine and angelic language only He could understand.
13. Hell was created by God, likened to an eternal “lake of fire” to torture bad people.
14. I could end up here by not having the special language or by committing “adultery in my heart” (Matthew 5:27)
15. Everyone who didn’t speak in tongues went to hell (always rephrased politely).
16. I wholeheartedly believed testimonies recounted by members which opposed modern science, without skepticism (though I was skeptical of miracles occurring in other religions).
17. Evolution was a worldwide conspiracy with an atheistic agenda.
18. The Earth was created instantly and species could only reproduce “after their own kind” (Genesis 1:20-25)
19. 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 speculation.
20. Numbers had magic meanings. Numbers like 7 were good and numbers like 13 and 666 were bad.
21. Ordinary events in my life were able to be “read into” and God’s will determined accordingly.
22. Dripping olive oil on someone’s head had magic healing properties.
23. God was concerned about my personal well being and listened to my every prayer.
24. As such, everyday mundane events in my life were able to be controlled by me/God, including “traveling mercies”, help in exams, assistance finding carparks, confidence in a job interview, and so on.
25. I believed this without questioning why my prayer would be answered – when He supposedly ignored the prayer of starving children, etc etc.