Losing my Religion Redux part 2

Let's see where was I? Oh yes reliving High School (shudder). As I have previously written on the first week of the school year Chapel was the first hour of every day. And unlike the sermons that I had been used to these were ones directed to us with a distinct gospel message. It was torture. It was the most miserable week I'd ever experienced. Then came the schooling. They actually taught out of the Bible. Not only that but the answers they gave were so radically different than what I had been instructed in public schools. I was angry, upset, worse than that every time I questioned the answer they would pull a response from the Bible! I started reading the Bible just so I could argue against them. That would lead to my downfall, so to speak, because the more I read the more I saw exactly what they were speaking of. But I didn't want to believe it. You see despite my unregenerate state I had been taught by my father and mother that the Bible was God's word. So I knew that I couldn't argue with that. The best I could do was come up with the "well that's your interpretation" answer.

And every Friday there was Chapel. Now in Chapel we had a stream of pastors and the main thing they seemed to be preaching was the soon return of Christ in which all believers would be "raptured" to heaven while the rest of us would be down here going through the tribulation under the Antichrist. Now needless to say nothing like this was every preached in the Lutheran Church that I attended. So almost every week I was literally scared to death that Christ would return and I would be "left behind".

When I talked to one of the assistant pastors at my church about this he was totally shocked he had never heard of such a thing. Of course during Chapel I had been told that the "apostate" church wouldn't teach this doctrine so I became paranoid of my own church.

Things finally came to a head at one Chapel service. I knew I was a sinner I knew that if Christ came back I wouldn't be with those that were raptured. So there when the preacher said that if anyone wished to come to Jesus and accept Him as Savior to pray along with him. I did just that and trusted Christ as my Savior and Lord.

All that time after that I would learn about Jesus at school and go to the Lutheran Church on Sundays. I was very messed up. My pastor was teaching me one thing (a very social gospel, be good, do the right things change the society) and the teachers were instructing me on such things as the return of Jesus, the Antichrist, how we need to witness to everyone because if we don't then we are responsible for them going to Hell. Oh yes and the world was steadily getting worse and worse and this was according to the Bible prophecy.

The thing is I was never really discipled. Never really instructed on what the Christian life was to be. Oh I knew I was to read my Bible everyday. And I was supposed to memorize Scriptures. Not listen to Rock and Roll stuff like that. I remember reading these "Danny Orlis" books that told me how going to movies and playing cards were things that "real" Christians didn't do. Nobody really explained the concept of adiaphora (See LBC Chapter 21:2)to me so I thought that to be a follower of Christ I had to follow all these "rules" that would show that I had a changed life. (See even this is about sanctification in one way).

Well after High School I got married (31 years this month) and my wife disliked the Lutheran Church's worship. She felt it was too like Roman Catholics with is stylized worship. And I disliked her church as it was huge with over 600 people attending at one time. So we fell into the practice of not attending church. This continued until I went to college and met a man who changed my life again.

To be continued...

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