When one has invested so much of their life in an endeavor, enterprise, marriage, or religious BS (belief system), you can be darned sure that it will be a fight to change that person's mind. You can tell a person that 2 + 2 does not equal 5 and they won't believe it when that paradigm is applied to religion (any religious system). I know, I've committed the same SIN myself.

I've told people that the Bible says X (a clear and straight forward truth) and I've had people come back to me and say I know, but I am Baptist, Methodist, Catholic (or whatever denomination). In other words the denomination trumps the Bible. Ah, but it gets worse, especially if one uses the King James translation.

>Biblical ERRORS trump TRUTH! (Matt. 23:35 is an error- read II Chron. 24:20-22)
>CONTRADICTIONS aren't acknowledged (Matt. 1:16 vs. Luke 3:23- Who is Josephs dad?)
>Doctrines of HELL (Justice?) trump Love (even though James 2:13 says the opposite)

And when it comes to even listening to the fact that Jesus wasn't born on December 25th, you can be sure you're in for a fight. I've shown people the Papal bull (the serious kind of papal bull) where in 345CE Pope Julius said that since no one knew when Jesus was born, everyone would follow the dictates of the one true and only (at that time) Catholic Church and celebrate the birthday of Jesus on the 25th of December when all other pagan religions celebrated the birthday of their gods.

Unless people want to be open and HEAR the truth, they will continue in their NAIVETE and consensual ignorance.

St. Augustine wrote in his voluminous work, The City of God, "There are many things that are true which is not useful for the vulgar crowd to know; and certain things which although they are FALSE it is expedient for the people to believe otherwise." Maybe you should read that again and let it sink in. You and I are that "vulgar crowd". Well, I once was!

St. Gregory (329-389CE) who was nicknamed the "Theologian" wrote, "Nothing can impose better on the people than verbiage; the less they understand, the more they admire. Our Christian Fathers have often said, not what they thought, but what circumstance and necessity forced them to." Does that not bend your toes a bit- even in your shoes? Why do you think all (so they thought) of the Gnostic books and works were burned? We don't want to know the truth. Maybe Jack was right: we can't handle the truth!

It seems that II Timothy 4:3 still applies to today-

"For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear." (NLT)

Where are you? Are you OPEN or CLOSE MINDED, and bent on protecting the BS (belief system) of your youth?