Excerpt from "Restoring the Restoration, The Christian Church - What Went Wrong?"  By Robert L. Hurley -

         "As I reached 18 years of age, I began questioning all of these teachings. I even began to question if I could believe in this God I was taught about. It seemed this God only wanted to catch me doing something bad so He could slap me down and cause me misery, and ultimately send me to Hell. When I was young I actually thought the only way to get to heaven was to have a chance just before I died to get off a quick prayer for forgiveness of sins. A great moment in my life was when I finally understood that I did not have to die on one of my good days to get to heaven."

 

Comments by author on "Restoring the Restoration."

    I want everyone who considers my book to know that I have not written anything about the effect of Christian Politics on the Church. What I mean is, "right" wing politics. There are churches that preach politics from the pulpit, from abortion to LBGTQ matters. Those are complicated issues and the discussion from intelligent people is a wide spectrum.

    I am referring to those churches who push a political agenda and are usually very narrow in their attitude toward many social issues, including divorce, marriage and others. My book does not address them intentionally. I focused on spiritual and biblical issues that have damaged the church. There have been so many issues since the early church was established that to cover all in detail, we might fill a library with books.

    I am leaving that to such books as the "Kingdom, Power and the Glory" and many others. There are many on all sides of the politics. Yes, I know church administration can be political. However, I am referring to Government control of the social issues that can have federal and state policy controlling them, and the churches that wade in heavily on one side or the other. I did not address the impact in America since 1985, whether positive or negative.

    I focused on the major issues that were doctrinal and scriptural in nature. I did explore the impact of Governments that controlled the religion in their country during the formation of the various christian movements. And, I discuss how that damaged the trajectory of the church since its beginning.   

    I write this because my intent is already being confused with the politics of the last 4 decades. Thank you for listening.

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