I am not a Christian

No. I am not an Atheist, Satanist, nor am I proposing a new religion. I am not a Christian, at least not in the way that America uses the term today. Keep in mind, I am not renouncing the name of Jesus; I love and adore him and will follow him for the rest of my life. I am renouncing Christianity. It has taken me a while to get to this point, but this is a confession that I've been working on for a while. Christianity as we know it today is perverted and not at all biblical. What I am about to say will probably offend you, in fact, I mean to. I hope you are. We need to wake up and realize that the gospel is not about us or labeling ourselves as Christians. The gospel is about the love and sacrifice of Jesus so that we can be with God. The gospel is about how we are incredibly sinful and need God to rescue us, and he did.

Here are the verses and definitions I am working off of that lead me to my conclusion. I want to challenge you to read them for yourselves and come to your own conclusion. It is not my job to decide what you believe neither is it your job to convince me otherwise, though I am open to any criticism you may have.

Christian:

"a :  one who professes belief in the teachings of Jesus Christ

b (1) :  disciple 2 (2) :  a member of one of the Churches of Christ separating from the Disciples of Christ in 1906 (3) :  a member of the Christian denomination having part in the union of the United Church of Christ concluded in 1961" -Webster's dictionary

Matthew 6:5-8

Matthew 8:21-22

Matthew 14:28-31

Luke 14:27

John 13:36-38

John 14:12

John 18:27

John 21:20-23

Acts 4:32-37

The top six mentalities that I hate about Christianity:

 (I stop at six at the risk of being Una Chismosa) 

1. "We know that we are better than you".

2. Waiting on God means taking no action until you get a sign to move.

3. If something doesn't work out, it must be the will of God or you are living in sin.

4. Your beliefs are wrong even if they have biblical foundation.

5.  Just because you pray in faith, your prayer will be answered, even though it is certainly not in God's will, and if it doesn't come to pass, you don't have enough faith.

6. If you are a woman, you can't preach/teach the gospel because God forbid you offend a man. If you're a woman, you must be a stay at home mom, tossing aside ANY aspirations you have.

GET OVER YOURSELVES!!!

If you are sitting there thinking that I am speaking out of hurt and anger, you are right. I am sick to my stomach of biting my tongue about these wrong ideas of what it means to be a christian. These ideals, in my opinion, plague the name of Christianity.

This is what it means to be a Christian:

"Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; ⁵ in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; ⁶ in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; ⁷ in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; ⁸ through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; ⁹ known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; ¹⁰ sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything." 

-2 Corinthians 6:4-10

You are probably wondering about the picture of the inverted cross in the beginning of this post, "why is she posting a satanic symbol?" This would be another misconception. If you can't tell by the verses that I provided you in the beginning, I am a great admirer of the Apostle Peter. When he was martyred (a term not coined till after his death thanks to the great apologetic writer, Jason Martyr) in 63-64 AD (historians debate the actual date), according to Christian tradition, he requested to be crucified head down because he thought he was unworthy of a similar death of Jesus. Peter lived up to the name of "Christian". He suffered for the sake of the gospel. 

Do I suffer for the sake of the gospel? No. I do not want to be called a Christian, I have not earned it. Nor have you, if you live in America. Christians in America believe wrongly that because they are fired from their job they are being persecuted. That couldn't possibly be because they have a poor work ethic and are being poor stewards of the resources that God has given them. Some believe that "Oh, my family rejected me, I must be suffering from persecution." Given that there are some circumstances where this may be true, but have you considered that maybe it's because you were being a dick? Real persecution does exist in America but not in the ways you are thinking. It more happens by the means of laws passed in the land preventing teachers from talking about God in the classroom, God being omitted from the pledge of allegiance, and being put under public scrutiny for saying a prayer before events and such. Honestly, the biggest problem that people have with Christianity is the fact that most Christians in America lord it over "non-christians" (see #1 of my list). Seriously, get over yourselves; you're just not that cool.

I'm tired of hearing about all this hoopla regarding abortion, gay marriage, Chick FilA, the recent Hobby Lobby issue. All of these things are ridiculous! WE ARE MISSING THE POINT!

This reminds me of something that happened when the bible canon (order of the books) was being established. One of the discussions was "how many angels can stand on the tip of a pin?" Not joking, this was a thing. 

I can imagine the debate going well, then all the sudden the topic changes and King James sitting on his throne face/palming thinking... "Where the hell did that come from?" (and cue Patric Stewart memes)

Do you know why Billy Graham was such a successful missionary? It is because he acknowledges that he doesn't have it all together. I recently watched a "happy birthday" video to Billy Graham, celebrities and politicians who all know him, love him. He never sounded condescending; he loves because Christ first loved him. 

When did we get these stupid ideas in our heads? Why the hell, are we not being the church as it was originally intended to be. The church as we know it is perverse and more people are getting hurt than healed. Why can't we just love without regard of what someone has to offer us? I realize that many of us have been burned by people claiming to be christian, which is probably a big reason why I don't want to be called a Christian any more, but we are brothers and sisters in Christ. We have been adopted by the same father who loves us all equally. We need to stop focusing on who is doing what and who's calling is greater than another. Jesus would say that it is none of our business. We just need to seek the kingdom first. We need to stop missing the point of it all.

The point is, What IS the point? Jesus. Jesus is the point... He is what the bible was written about. He is who we serve. While being in a church is nice... That is not who we serve. We serve a God who is SO much bigger than us. I pray that one day I will be worthy of being called a Christian, but for now I'll probably just silently cringe every time someone brings it up.

Origen says that Peter felt himself to be unworthy to be put to death in the same manner as his Master, and was therefore, at his own request, crucified with his head downward.” - See more at: http://amazingbibletimeline.com/bible_questions/q6_apostles_die/#sthash.3yN4ItwC.dpuf

Origen says that Peter felt himself to be unworthy to be put to death in the same manner as his Master, and was therefore, at his own request, crucified with his head downward.” - See more at: http://amazingbibletimeline.com/bible_questions/q6_apostles_die/#sthash.3yN4ItwC.dpuf