Lisa put me on to this thing the other day, and just now I saw it posted elsewhere too. It's called "The Blasphemy Challenge" and offers a chance for young people all over the world to upload video that is promised to "damn your soul to hell." It even contains instructions:
It's simple. You record a short message damning yourself to Hell, you upload it to YouTube, and then the Rational Response Squad will send you a free The God Who Wasn't There DVD. It's that easy.
You may damn yourself to Hell however you would like, but somewhere in your video you must say this phrase: "I deny the Holy Spirit."
Why? Because, according to Mark 3:29 in the Holy Bible, "Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin." Jesus will forgive you for just about anything, but he won't forgive you for denying the existence of the Holy Spirit. Ever. This is a one-way road you're taking here. Of course, how likely is it that there actually is a sky God who has a son who will take you to Heaven if you don't insult a ghost? Isn't it just as likely that there is a sky god who has a son who will take you to Heaven only if you do insult a ghost? Sure, we just made up that scheme, but it is as equally supported by evidence as the first one.
All we're saying is, you're taking chances either way. So why not get a free DVD?
A couple of things here:
1. Watching a couple of these videos made my stomach turn almost as bad as watching the video of the Virginia Tech killer's tirade. Some of these kids have obviously been damaged by "Christians" in the past, and abused by churches who haven't taught these kids well.
2. If you are going to develop a campaign for kids to "irrevocably send their soul to hell," you probably ought to do a little research into exactly what you're talking about. The blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is not saying "I deny the Holy Spirit exists." In fact, the Pharisees in question never said such words. Their sin was the sin of attributing the works of Christ on the earth to the work of Satan rather than the power of the Holy Spirit. And their sin was the last straw in their formal rejection of Jesus Christ as the Messiah.
3. I've seen the movie "The God Who Was Not There" that is sent out to every kid who sells his soul online, and my guess is subsequent releases of the movie will be titled "The Logic That Was Not There." Although the documentary is well-received by unknowing viewers who watch it with a preconceived attitude against Christianity, anyone with half a brain who takes the time to think through the movie's claims will notice logical fallacy after logical fallacy in addition to blatant lies which are reported as fact.
4. The bad news for these kids is really good news. They're not in actuality more powerful than the love of God. And one of these days, YouTube will start publishing videos of these kids who recognize that Christianity can't be defined by the heinous behavior of Christians. And someone, somewhere will point them to the Gospel.
2 comments:
I haven't seen the movie, but I watched the short clips and trailers for it, and I almost laughed because the logic is certainly missing. But then the sobering realization came that a lot of kids aren't being taught to use their brains these days. They're being taught WHAT to think instead of HOW to think. If those kids watch this video, it just might make sense to them, rather than sending up the red flags that would make them pause and reevaluate what they're hearing.
The great news is that they haven't actually done anything permanent, and that this Holy Spirit that they are denying will continue to work in their lives and call out to them. Someday they are going to bask in God's forgiveness, like I do for similar sins, and thank God for His grace.
You know, it makes me think of the passage in Philippians where Paul is rejoicing because false teachers were proclaiming Christ. The idea seemed to be that they were challenging the idea of Christ to the point that others were going to the accounts to verify the claims of the false teachers and were coming to Christ.
Wouldn't it be cool if something like the Blasphemy Project challenged kids to examine the claims of Christianity themselves, and ended up having a contrary effect to what the blasphemers want to see happen?
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