Cary G Dean.
By Sherry Shriner
Although I loved Jesus, I hated religion.
There was just something wrong with the whole thing, and I could not put my finger on it at the time.
Out of 100,000 plus denominations, by luck, I had landed in the denomination that had everything right, and everyone else was wrong.
Yes, I am being sarcastic.
But for these reasons, I have always been a nonconformist, and it has been an uphill battle to be forced to live in a world of conformity.
As a child, I was the black sheep, the rebellious one who would not conform and believe what I was told to believe simply because I was supposed to believe it.
I knew there were doctrinal errors in the churches, which was clear from a young age.
I had found my own mind.
I had my own views and my own thoughts, and I was determined to keep them even if they had to stay my own.
And yet at times, I did not even know where they were coming from or why I had them.
By the age of 12 I had read the Bible from front to back, being partial to the book of Revelation.
Not fully understanding much of the book, the beast rising out of the sea with 7 heads and 10 horns fascinated me.
By the age of 18, I had probably read the Bible more times than most pastors and had repeatedly read several of the Old and New Testament books.
I became an avid student of Bible prophecy.
I could not get enough of hearing about end time events, the arrival of the Antichrist, and ultimately, the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
It was also during those early pre-teen years that I had read my first Bible prophecy book which I had taken off my dad's bookshelf.
Reading Hal Lindsey’s Late Great Planet Earth not only changed my life, but seemed to give me direction.
I identified with it, and it seemed to define who I was and who I would later become.
As I read the pages of end time events, I knew I would be involved in these events and that I would be a warrior in the last days for the Most High God.
Bible prophecy has always had a strong hold over my life.
I can not escape it. I was born for these last days. I was born to be a warrior. For this reason Lucifer had targeted me as a child for death.
He had sent his forces to intimidate me and keep me from discovering my relationship with Yahweh or from achieving what I was destined to become.
He didn’t succeed then, and he still hasn’t.
And every day live, I use to fight against him and the kingdom he is trying to establish here in some way.
From the first time I had heard about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, I was hooked.
That is all I cared to hear about.
That is all I wanted to hear about.
Nothing else about religion interested me much.
I had seen enough and experienced enough of it daily to know religion itself was hypocritical.
Religion was a road paved with good intentions but rarely traveled correctly by anyone on it.
Most people in the churches just seemed pretentious and fake and more centered around man, materialism, and gossip circles than God Himself.
And to question theology and beliefs was almost blasphemous to them.
By typical churchianity standards, I was certainly going to go to hell if I didn’t believe everything the church taught and the way they taught it.
Yes, I am being sarcastic.
But for these reasons, I have always been a nonconformist, and it has been an uphill battle to be forced to live in a world of conformity.
As a child, I was the black sheep, the rebellious one who would not conform and believe what I was told to believe simply because I was supposed to believe it.
I knew there were doctrinal errors in the churches, which was clear from a young age.
I had found my own mind.
I had my own views and my own thoughts, and I was determined to keep them even if they had to stay my own.
And yet at times, I did not even know where they were coming from or why I had them.
By the age of 12 I had read the Bible from front to back, being partial to the book of Revelation.
Not fully understanding much of the book, the beast rising out of the sea with 7 heads and 10 horns fascinated me.
By the age of 18, I had probably read the Bible more times than most pastors and had repeatedly read several of the Old and New Testament books.
I became an avid student of Bible prophecy.
I could not get enough of hearing about end time events, the arrival of the Antichrist, and ultimately, the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
It was also during those early pre-teen years that I had read my first Bible prophecy book which I had taken off my dad's bookshelf.
Reading Hal Lindsey’s Late Great Planet Earth not only changed my life, but seemed to give me direction.
I identified with it, and it seemed to define who I was and who I would later become.
As I read the pages of end time events, I knew I would be involved in these events and that I would be a warrior in the last days for the Most High God.
Bible prophecy has always had a strong hold over my life.
I can not escape it. I was born for these last days. I was born to be a warrior. For this reason Lucifer had targeted me as a child for death.
He had sent his forces to intimidate me and keep me from discovering my relationship with Yahweh or from achieving what I was destined to become.
He didn’t succeed then, and he still hasn’t.
And every day live, I use to fight against him and the kingdom he is trying to establish here in some way.
From the first time I had heard about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, I was hooked.
That is all I cared to hear about.
That is all I wanted to hear about.
Nothing else about religion interested me much.
I had seen enough and experienced enough of it daily to know religion itself was hypocritical.
Religion was a road paved with good intentions but rarely traveled correctly by anyone on it.
Most people in the churches just seemed pretentious and fake and more centered around man, materialism, and gossip circles than God Himself.
And to question theology and beliefs was almost blasphemous to them.
By typical churchianity standards, I was certainly going to go to hell if I didn’t believe everything the church taught and the way they taught it.
About the Author
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Sherry Shriner
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