Table of Contents
David McDonald tells Derek on MythVision he was a charismatic youth leader. He walks three biblical knots. From a copy marked in ministry training, he reads Jesus answering praise of great buildings by saying the stones will come down, with betrayal and a promise that people then alive would see it all. The plain sense failed, he argues. Repairs such as a festival outpouring or a hilltop vision days later still dodge the line that some listeners would not die first. The temple’s fall is only a partial hit. Saying the end already came in that era, a view he once tried, still yields no renewed heaven on schedule. A closeted friend and a marriage vote made church answers on same sex love look cruel, and he asked if the revulsion was trained. Covered heads and silenced women were dropped in practice while the page’s reasons remained. Death for sticks, an unruly child, or a woman who did not cry out came to look immoral. If those predictions and ethics fail, the book is no longer flawless for him.
Key points
- He was a serious youth leader, and this conversation is his detailed case against treating the book as flawless.
- He argues that sayings about the temple, betrayal, and a figure coming before those listeners died simply failed on a plain reading.
- Fixes he has heard, including a festival outpouring and a hilltop vision days later, still dodge the sentence about people who would not die first.
- The temple’s destruction is, for him, a partial hit that does not save the rest of the prediction.
- A closeted friend and a public marriage vote made church teaching on same sex love look cruel, and possibly trained.
- Commands about women’s covering and voice, and death penalties in the older books, no longer looked moral or safely ancient to him.
Short quotes
It's like, you don't have time to kind of like actually seriously examine the fundamentals of what you believe.
David McDonald, David McDonald on Leaving Christianity
He says training for ministry left no room to test the basics while the whole social world pressed in. Watch at 11:27
The Bible says that women need to cover their heads in prayer, but the church kind of got rid of that doctrine.
David McDonald, David McDonald on Leaving Christianity
He asks why one command was retired as outdated while neighboring commands stayed in force as moral law. Watch at 45:16
Look Like, the Old Testament started to seem a little immoral to me.
David McDonald, David McDonald on Leaving Christianity
Death penalties for small acts and for children are what began to look wrong to him in the older books. Watch at 48:46
Video by MythVision Podcast. Watch on YouTube.