Dear God,
It’s probably not your fault, but I’m angry. I’m sorry. The reason is that I just can’t understand certain things. Some time after being born into this world, I just woke up one day and realized that I was here and I had no idea why I was here. I couldn’t remember where I came from nor where I’d be going after this. I was raised up to believe that there was a hell and a heaven, of which I have no way of knowing for sure if they actually exist. But I really can’t honestly say that those places actually do exist — I have no evidence. Just believing something doesn’t make it so.
But talking about belief, I DO believe, and I want to believe in something, but the problem is that the moral fiber that I am made up of, the way that I have been created, will not permit me to believe in something that is false — that’s the way you made me. I need at least a minimal amount of evidence that something is true before I can believe it. Unfortunately, there is very little to believe in. Doesn’t the bible say “be not deceived”, and “prove all things”? Now how can I believe something without being deceived if I can’t prove it? And to prove something is true, you have to have evidence and facts. Isn’t Truth based on facts?
Sorry to have to say this — it’s something you already know — but this whole world that you created is pretty screwed up. And especially screwed up are the religions that people have created that are supposedly inspired by you. However, they are all so different that there is no way that you could have possibly inspired them all, if any.
According to the bible, you’re supposed to be eternally the same and never changing, so what’s up with the whole religion thing? It has constantly changed throughout all of history. Over the years, I have read and been taught things that I really thought were the truth, only to discover later that these things were either not true at all, or there was almost no evidence whatsoever to support those things.
The New Testament of the bible for instance: there is not one original document written by Jesus or his disciples anywhere to be found. So how do I know what to believe? What are the facts? What did they actually say? And how do I know that they actually said it? How is it that some men get away with re-writing every bit of that precious information, then re-writing it several times and then burning or hiding or losing or whatever, the originals.
We can tell and prove, in many cases, that there has been so much changed from the original, so it’s just so hard to tell just how much of it is credible. What is credible and what is not? In a court of law if a man is caught telling lies, his whole testimony is thrown out. None of it is worthy of belief. How could the bible be any different?
It’s supposed to be a standard, but it’s not. I don’t really care whether Judas hanged himself or if he fell headlong on his sword and spilled out his guts, sometimes translators get these little details wrong. But some of the most basic and important issues have been been changed, taken out and added to. This has caused innumerable contradictions, and inconsistencies to exist, to such a point that it is difficult, if not impossible to understand what is meant.
Please help. Christianity is supposed to be the only true religion in the world and has all the “proof” to back up its claims. The problem is that there is almost NO proof. The bible that is supposed to be the infallible, inerrant Word of God — your word, containing the story of the most important man in the history of the world, Jesus… well, it’s really strange that in all of the world’s history (though I do believe in his existence) there is almost no credible information at all that he even existed!
How could this have happened? Jesus never called himself God, never considered himself equal with you and in fact he even called you, “my God”, and yet fundamental Christians insist on saying that Jesus IS you in spite of all the evidence in the bible shows this not to be the case. And Jesus is supposed to be sitting on the right-hand of… himself?
The Savior of the world was born with the Hebrew name Yashua which is Joshua in English, and in fact he was never even called “Emmanuel” as was copied from a supposed Old Testament “prophesy” to the gospel according to Saint Matthew. His name had already been translated correctly 400 years before his birth and the name Yeshua is even correctly translated in the book of Acts as Joshua, but they have continued, knowingly using the same “transliteration” in thousands of translations of the Bible, using the name “Jesus” instead of Joshua for hundreds of years! And no one knows why. Why is this so?
Mary is supposed to have been a virgin when Jesus was born so that he could be… you God, but if she were a virgin Jesus couldn’t have been the Messiah — it could only be one or the other, not both. You know that, I’m sure. The Jewish Christians, in the first century, knew nothing of Jesus being born to a virgin, to them he was the flesh and blood son of Joseph. Even Paul knew nothing about it — there is nothing in his writings whatsoever nor is there anything written in the epistles of the disciples at all about Jesus being born to a virgin.
How is it that this concept is a basic part of the foundation of the Christian faith? Did you give them the Okay to do that? Paul said salvation is not by good works. This directly contradicts what Jesus taught. Yet Christians only go by what Paul says, a man who never even met Jesus personally. How is this possible? Most fundamentalist Christians insist that if one is not of the Christian religion he/she are going to Hell, no matter how good one is or how many good works one has done, which means that the majority of humans that you created you will send to Hell in unfathomable torment for eternity, without any chance of escape — and it’s just because they were born in a different culture and raised to believe in a different religion. Would you really do this?
You, God, are a god of Love and Jesus came to bring peace on earth, but the history of Christianity of the last nearly 2000 years has been filled with millions of murders, torture and persecution of innocent people by Christians just because those people believed differently than they did. How is one supposed to know what the right way is to believe anyway? That doesn’t seem to be what you were trying to teach them in the bible, does it?
Having been created by you and instilled with the moral fiber, a logical mind and a desire to know the truth, I have a hard time calling myself Christian. In fact, I don’t feel I can any longer call myself a Christian if I don’t have sufficient proof of what is really the real truth. I can’t live against everything that was innately created in me. How is it that they can get away with calling the bible the “inerrant word of God”, when it is no such thing?
In all due respect, if you are really almighty, and the source of all Truth why don’t you DO something? I can not in good conscience call myself Christian if this continues. What do you think? So this is the minimum that I expect you to do for me in order for me to call myself a Christian — if that’s what you expect.
I must have access to the original gospel written by Jesus’ disciples and translated into English PLUS a copy of the original in Aramaic that gives me proof that it hasn’t been tampered with. I don’t think this is anything too much to expect considering the circumstances. The truth is, and you know it’s the truth, that the message you sent with your messenger to bring to the world has been tampered with and modified, in all sorts of ways. What do you think?
Anxiously awaiting your answers,
Yours truly
Ps: Since you know everything, you know my e-mail address. Please send me an answer right away. You also know I have been writing you this letter, so please check your spam box if you don’t see my letter arrive in a few days.
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