Response to a Critic
Sunday, February 7, 2016 at 04:53PM
Barbara Symons

From my page titled, "Escaping Christianity" here is a comment from someone I don't know:

You are fabricating a different reality for yourself. When your son almost died and you had that weird experience....you should have turned to God for guidance. Instead you followed some weird "spirit" which has led you away from a reliance and need to see Jesus as your Savior. I feel sorry for you. If only you had the freedom God had provided freely in Christ....the knowledge and trust in Christ as Savior from sin. We are all dying, some faster than others, some suddenly, but must be prepared with faith....which is like a beggar clinging to a gift of priceless worth....after all...that is Heaven.....but for those who reject such a Savior....they get what they asked for....an eternity away from love. You don't want to go where love cant follow. So where can i mail a Bible commentary that can start you on the path to heaven?

Here is my reply to him:

I challenge you. I challenge your comfortable places. I make you uncomfortable because you need consensus to feel safe in your dogma. So I hear threats of hell, death and separation and that if I don't turn away from my sin (which is what by the way?) that I will get what I deserve...

King David said, "If I make my bed in Sheol thou art with me." You see William, there is not a place where love can't find me, comfort me, cradle me.

Jesus said the "Kingdom is within you" So how can I miss it? There is nothing that can separate me from the love of God. Not you. Not your dogma.

I am almost 60 years old. I have studied the Bible and read about every commentary out there for the last 50+ years. But there comes a time when "no man will teach you, save the Holy Spirit." I made the decision long ago to study for myself and not to rely on someone else's understanding. I had to rely on the Christ within me, the comforter - the same comforter that held me in the throes of trauma during my son's accident. You may call that Spirit "weird" but I call it love.

"A person with an argument is no match for one with an experience." That's how I feel with this exchange between you and I. You are no match for me. I know what I have. I know what true freedom feels like and I am sure that if you continue to seek that you will likewise one day, find.

Article originally appeared on barbarasymons (http://barbarasymons.com/).
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