Martin Zender

I purchased this book because I was curious to find out why someone else would leave the church. I haven't been to church in over a year, though I had no animosity to those I left behind. For me, it was more as if I had been called out to the wilderness to seek God, and found that the wilderness is a beautiful and strange place. It is comforting to find that I am not alone in that thought, and to realize that the call is to blessings, not to despair.
Many of the things Martin Zender has to say resonate with me. The constrictions of tradition, the limitations of fellowship within the confines of a building and congregation, the hollowness an organization of faith can leave you with, and the freedom to hear God and His truth in the realm of His creation. I cannot identify with the seeming judgement applied to those still in churches. I don't agree that they are any more or less mature in faith than I am, or more or less deceived, either. Seems to me we are all on a path but at different places. Where he loses me is in his apparent anger and assigning twisted motives to those in the "Christian Church." There are certainly hypocrites and those who haven't thought through their faith carefully or studied the scriptures, but by no means can you paint them all that way.
Another area I cannot follow without more research are his teachings on Hell and damnation. It is a lovely idea that we have all through the ages simply misunderstood what Jesus and God were saying, but I for one would like him to explain with a little more basis in scripture than that "It can't be true because it makes me uncomfortable and I don't understand it." To be fair, at the end of this book he said he was working on another all about Hell, and I haven't read that one yet. What I will say, is that I agreed with enough of what he did say that it has given me a new desire to dig into the scriptures I know and do some research with Hebrew dictionary and other reference materials, so that is a good thing.… (meer)