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Headline: Atheists choose 'de-baptism' to renounce childhood faith
Posted : 21 Jul, 2009 06:41 PM
Praise the Gorious LORD and SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST, WHO IS and WHO was and WHO is to come the ALMIGHTY; And Blessed be HIS Holy NAME Forever. Peace be unto the saints of the Only True and Living GOD with Love and Faith.
This headline I read today was the first time I've heard of someone being de-baptized, though I have witnessed even my ex-wife walk away from the LORD. Included in this post is the entire article. The ***** indicate my comments on various statements/comments made within the article. Let's be prayerful saints and remember,
" The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." Ps 14:1
Article:
Up until last summer, Jennifer Gray of Columbus, Ohio, considered herself "a weak Christian" whose baptism at age 11 in a Kentucky church came to mean less and less to her as she gradually lost faith in God.
*****Lesson #1 Obey the LORD JESUS CHRIST.
*****Mr 11:22
"And JESUS answering saith unto them, Have faith in GOD."
***** Ro 3:3-4
For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect ? GOD Forbid..."
*****Heb 3:12
"Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God."
*****Heb 3:19
"So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief."
*****Heb 4:11
"Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief."
Then the 32-year-old medical transcriptionist took a decisive step, one that previously hadn't been available. She got "de-baptized."
***** Umm, "a decisive step" JESUS said, "Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. Mt 15:14
***** Pr 5:5
Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.
*****Christians must walk in "steps of that faith" not unbelief.
***** Ro 4:12
"And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the "steps of that faith" of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised."
*****Job 23:11
"My foot hath held HIS steps, his way have I kept, and not declined."
*****Ps 44:18
"Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from THY way;"
*****Ps 37:23
"The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and HE delighteth in his way."
*****Ps 37:31
"The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide."
*****Ps 85:13
"Righteousness shall go before HIM; and shall set us in the way of HIS steps."
*****Ps 119:133
"Order my steps in THY WORD: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me."
*****Pr 4:12
"When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened; and when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble."
In a type of mock ceremony that's now been performed in at least four states, a robed "priest" used a hairdryer marked "reason" in an apparent bid to blow away the waters of baptism once and for all. Several dozen participants then fed on a "de-sacrament" (crackers with peanut butter) and received certificates assuring they had "freely renounced a previous mistake, and accepted Reason over Superstition."
*****Man's Reasoning, most Ridiculous if/when you "Reason" yourself away from GOD WHO'S BREATH you breath.
*****1Co 3:19
"For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness."
*****1Co 3:20
"And again, The LORD knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain (not beneficial)."
*****1Co 1:19
"For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent."
*****1Co 1:20
"Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not GOD made foolish the wisdom of this world?"
*****1Co 1:21
"For after that in the wisdom of GOD the world by wisdom knew not GOD, it pleased GOD by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe."
*****1Co 1:22
"For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:"
*****1Co 1:24
"But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, CHRIST the power of GOD, and the wisdom of GOD."
*****1Co 2:4
"And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the SPIRIT and of power:"
*****1Co 2:5
"That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of GOD."
*****1Co 1:30
"But of HIM are ye in CHIRIST JESUS, WHO of GOD is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:"
For Gray, the lighthearted spirit of last summer's Atheist Coming Out Party and De-Baptism Bash in suburban Westerville, Ohio, served a higher purpose than merely spoofing a Christian rite.
***** Umm, "Atheist "Coming Out" Party
*****1Jo 2:19
"They Went Out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us."
"It was very therapeutic," Gray said in an interview. "It was a chance to laugh at the silly things I used to believe as a child. It helped me admit that it was OK to think the way I think and to not have any religious beliefs."
***** Umm, She said believing in JESUS CHRIST is "silly" and she "laughed" at the things of Holy things of the Only True and Living GOD. That's what she said,
But GOD says "The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves." Isa 3:9
And,
***** Isa 5:20
"Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!"
And Again,
***** Isa 5:21
"Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!"
FIND MORE STORIES IN: George W. Bush | Ohio | Kentucky | United Nations | Christopher Columbus | Local churches | Bonaventure | National Secular Society
Within the past year, "de-baptism" ceremonies have attracted as many as 250 participants at atheist conventions in Ohio, Texas, Florida and Georgia. More have taken place on college campuses in recent years, according to Hemant Mehta, chair of the board of directors for the Secular Student Alliance, a group that promotes atheism among high school and college students.
*****2Ti 3:13
'But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse , deceiving, and being deceived."
"If we're having a winter solstice or summer solstice get-together or some other event, we might say: 'Who wants to get de-baptized?' " said Greg McDowell, the Florida state director for American Atheists, an advocacy and networking group. "It's a bit of satire. People will play the fool by waving their arms in the air and saying, 'I got de-baptized!' But the paperwork is still legit."
*****Pr 14:9
"Fools make a mock at sin: but among the righteous there is favour."
Some of the so-called "de-baptized" have used their certificates to petition churches to remove their names from baptismal rolls. One argument: they were baptized without their consent as children and should now be declared de-baptized.
Some churches, however, aren't budging on what they regard as an irreversible sacrament.
Atheist Gary Mueller recently mailed his de-baptism certificate to St. Bonaventure Catholic Church in Concord, Calif., and asked to be dropped from its baptismal record. The church told him, in effect, that he was all wet.
"While we do not remove a name/person from a Baptism register, we can note alongside your name that 'you have left the Roman Catholic Church,' " the Rev. Richard Mangini replied in an e-mail. "I hope that God surprises you one day and lets you know that He is quite well."
In Christian theology, baptism can't be undone. If a Southern Baptist renounces his or her baptism, then that person is usually presumed to have never received an authentic baptism in the first place, according to Nathan Finn, assistant professor of Baptist studies at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C.
For mainline Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox Christians, baptism is commonly understood as a sign or means of grace and a covenant that God maintains even when humans turn away, said Laurence Stookey, professor emeritus of preaching and worship at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington. He said "de-baptizers" misunderstand baptism when they caricature it as an attempt at magic.
Baptism "is a kind of adoption where you become a child of God, of the church and of the family," Stookey said. "You can renounce your physical parents, (the church and God), but they cannot renounce you because you are their child. Anybody who makes fun of baptism probably hasn't gone into it in enough depth to know that."
*****Wrong answer Sir, Water Baptism doesn't make you a child of GOD, You Must be Baptized with the Blessed HOLY GHOST.
*****Ro 8:9
"But ye are not in the flesh, but in the SPIRIT, if so be that the SPIRIT of GOD dwell in you. Now if any man have not the SPIRIT of CHRIST, he is none of HIS."
Also, if you fail to continue in the Faith, GOD will take you out of the Body of CHRIST (cut you off).
*****Joh 15:2
"Every branch in me that beareth not fruit HE (THE FATHER) taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, HE purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit."
*****Joh 15:6
"If a man abide not in ME, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned."
*****Ro 11:22
"Behold therefore the goodness and severity of GOD: on them which fell *, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in HIS goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off."
De-baptism efforts have been growing internationally in recent years. More than 100,000 Britons downloaded de-baptism certificates from the National Secular Society (NSS) between 2005 and 2009, according to NSS campaigner Stephen Evans. Upwards of 1,000 Italians requested de-baptism certificates prior to Italy's "De-Baptism Day" last October, according to Italy's Union of Rationalist Atheists and Agnostics.
***** Humm, the last I heard Britain was in Great Financial Distress.
*****Ps 33:12
"Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD;"
*****Pr 14:34
"Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people."
Public ceremonies to confer de-baptism, however, seem to be primarily an American phenomenon.
"I think a de-baptism ceremony (in Europe) would strike a lot of secularists and atheists as kind of pointless," Evans said. "They would leave the ceremonies to the religious."
Not all American non-believers have warmed to de-baptism rituals. Secularist Phil Zuckerman, a Pitzer College sociologist who studies apostates, said he would never take part in such an event because it "feels intrinsically negative" and "immature."
Even so, he said, de-baptisms may serve a cathartic function for some participants, as well as a political one.
"For a long time, non-religious people in the Bible Belt just kept quiet, but they aren't keeping quiet anymore," Zuckerman said. "I think that's largely a reaction to George W. Bush's presidency. (Atheists) were saying, 'The government is being taken over by very religious people. We need to stand up and say: 'We're here. We're secular. Deal with it.' "
Atheist groups expect more de-baptisms in years ahead. Mehta, of the Secular Students Alliance, says college groups already bring blow driers to campus recruitment events, offering to de-baptize undergraduates on the spot.
Meanwhile, organizers of de-baptisms are broadening their mockery to include other religions. At the American Atheists' national convention in Atlanta last April, the de-baptism event included a dance where women in burqas stripped down to red-sequined leotards, according to Blair Scott, the group's national affiliate director.
The goal, he said, was to say blasphemy shouldn't be prohibited.
***** Humm, he wants to promote the idea that "blasphemy shouldn't be prohibited." Be careful sir,
***** JESUS said,
"But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation:" Mr 3:29
"We made fun of Islam, we made fun of Hinduism, we made fun of Christianity with intent to be blasphemous on purpose to make a point" about a proposed anti-blasphemy initiative at the United Nations, Scott said. "It's not done with malice or intent to offend. But anytime you criticize religion or poke fun at what atheists would call the sillier parts of religion, you're going to offend somebody. There's just no way around that." End of Article
*****Beloved it is time for us who truly love the LORD to prepare ourselves. CHRIST is coming soon. Peace and Love.
***** JESUS said,
"Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the SON of man cometh." Mt 24:44
***** And Again,
"Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown." Re 3:11
***** Ro 13:11
"And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed."
***** Ro 13:12
"The night is far spent , the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light."
***** Saints, I encourage you, by the grace of the LORD JESUS CHRIST, to cherish and guard your Faith in CHRIST JESUS.
***** " For by faith ye stand." 2Co 1:24
***** Keep the True Faith Saints of GOD. Amen.
Thaddeus
In the Glorious Love of our Loving LORD JESUS CHRIST. Praise the LORD!
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