$%*'`[Backslider]%*'`@Hi there free oh free, I've read your posts and agrre with what you're saying and i know where you're coming from. Like you I also was let down by the empty words of the bible. I don't blame Hollins because he was a man like many others before him who took up the bible and preached it, so the book is to blame, it controls people by fear, shame and guilt, and that is what Hollins ended up doing. How convenient an answer from the bible to talk abouty faith and that by it we will know god. Of course the book had to use this line of thought to convimce the reader because if it didn't then people would work out that there is no reality in the words. What a convenient way to expalin why there is no real power of god. Galien I was very much moved by your story and hope that you continue to do well and if reading the bible helps you good luck but it doesn't prove the existence of god because i know non christians who have had a shit life and have helped themselves to overcome those obsticles, just like yourself and they will tell you that they did it without the assistance of god.The bible is like the mormon religion when you ask them to view the golden tablets from which the book of mormon was translated they conveniently tell you that it was taken back into heaven, how very convenient. And so it is with the bible when you ask someone to show you the risen christ you are told that he was taken back int heaven, oh how so convenient. Just imagine the history of the world if jesus after he had risen had stayed in Jerusalem and ruled and rained the earth. There would have been no confusion, no religion, no war, no need for police, no need for hospitals,and the list goes on. Or even if he had of made a regular visit to the earth, say once a year since his ressurection, what a diference that would have made to the history of man kind. There would not have been a chance for the first world war, a chance for Adolf Hitler to have done what he did, all of the attrocities of history would have been prevented, just imagine how it would have been if jesus had of stayed on the earth as an eternal being. Now iknow what you will say to this that it's not up to us to say how god should have done it, but that is just another convenient way to not see reality.So there you go free oh free i feel the same as you that if god wants the confusion to go then the ball is in his court not ours, and i'll be very happy to bend the knee when he comes down to talk to me direct and rebuke me if need be infact i look forward to it as i'm sure you would also.cheers hope to meet you some day.....