Re: Anyone know this Preacher or EX Preacher
 

Faith is never about feeling. It's a choice to believe - God's given us the measure of faith, we have a choice to use it. This guy gave up, maybe even has a grudge against God (it happens). God doesn't answer every prayer, or the way we expect. I'm sure Timothy asked God to to heal his stomach, Paul said take some wine. Paul asked God to take away the thorn, God offered grace.

Re: Anyone know this Preacher or EX Preacher
 

This guy is from DeRidder.

Re: Anyone know this Preacher or EX Preacher
 

He is formerly associated with the United Pentecostal Church.



http://www.meetup.com/ARfreethinkers/events/47453942/

Re: Anyone know this Preacher or EX Preacher
 

My former spouse told our children that he was agnostic now.

He was a licensed minister with UPC.

Re: Anyone know this Preacher or EX Preacher
 

Some folks simply struggle to believe, not that they are evil, they truthfully struggle with faith. Faith is the evidence of things unseen, making it hard for some to visualize the reality of God. I highly recommend every book written by Phillip Yancy, for those that struggle in this area.

Re: Anyone know this Preacher or EX Preacher
 

We had a pastor who had to be asked to leave our church a little over year ago because of his wife. After they left, she came on Facebook and declared that she has decided that she is an athiest. Alot of people talked with her about it. But one person finally said the thing that rings the most true in her case. She said to her, "You are not REALLY an athiest. You are just declaring that you are because if there is no God for you to be accountable to for your actions, then you are free to do whatever you choose because it won't matter". We are not an Ultra Conservative church. In fact, I wouldn't even say that we are conservative (at least not by Apostolic standards). But this sure bought her freedom to do whatever, whenever, with whomever, and wherever.

Wonder if this kind of thing might figure into this man's declarations as well?

Re: Anyone know this Preacher or EX Preacher
 

This doesn't make sense to me. Are you saying she became an atheist because she wanted to be free to do what she wants?

I can tell you from personal experience that losing your faith as the center of your life is terrifying. Everything that you've based your life on...gone. You have to start over from scratch. And I can also tell you it's easier to find something else to fill the hole (i.e., go to another church that's not quite as conservative or join a cult or whatever) than to say, "I'm an atheist/agnostic." Moreover, just because a person is an atheist doesn't mean that he/she is lacking common decency or moral values.

There's a lot more I could say about this but I don't feel comfortable exposing myself.

Re: Anyone know this Preacher or EX Preacher
 

I knew him.

Re: Anyone know this Preacher or EX Preacher
 

SR, I see what you're saying. I think that you might have to know this girl to understand how FOR HER this could be true. I can't think that it would apply to everyone.
And I think she is trying to fill the hole. I think she's trying very hard to fill it with her atheistic beliefs. She has really gone off the deep-end, I can tell you that. She had a husband who was a pastor. But she moved an 18 year old boy into their home that she had met online and it was pretty clear that this was not on the up-and-up, if you know what I mean. Her husband didn't want to lose his position as pastor and most certainly didn't want to lose his wife. But in the end, he lost both. They have 3 little children, all under the age of 5. He is raising them alone because she has very little to do with them. Her behavior caused him to lose his position as pastor. She's busy with her friends, with her search in atheism and with traveling anywhere she can get away too.
So while I don't think this probably applied to you - it sounds like you had a real relationship with the Lord, which would explain why you would miss Him when you walked away. I don't want to sound judgmental, but I wonder about her.

Re: Anyone know this Preacher or EX Preacher
 

“The next big issue was the failure of prayer,” DeWitt said. “People are passing away, whenever we pray for them to live. People aren’t getting jobs, whenever we pray for them to have jobs.

“The harder we tried to alleviate suffering within our church, it seemed like the worse things got,” he said. “It didn’t seem like prayer made any difference. It just continually crushed my heart.”

Several problems here. But chiefly, who said if you pray you won't die, and you will get a job?? Straw-man at best, and false "faith" at worst.

The article did have somethings right...

"I was the one on the right track, and you were the ones that were going to burn in hell," MacBain told the crowd. "And I'm happy to say as I stand before you right now, I'm going to burn with you."