This is a guest post written by Richard Hagenston. Hagenston is an ordained United Methodist minister, a former pastor, and the author of Fabricating Faith: How Christianity Became a Religion Jesus Would Have Rejected.

When I was a United Methodist pastor, I learned an unsettling thing from my own experiences and those of some colleagues serving other churches: Many ministers keep secrets about the Bible, lest things they learned in seminary (or otherwise know) hurt church attendance and the Sunday offering.

This put some friends of mine in a terrible quandary, forced to say things from the pulpit that were doctrinally demanded but which they had come to privately question. As for me, I resolved the matter by leaving the pastorate. When I did, I got calls of congratulations from two nearby ministers. One of those calls was especially poignant. He said I was fortunate to have other skills from my previous work experience that I could draw on. But he added that all he had been trained to do was to be a minister and that he felt trapped in the pulpit saying things he no longer believed in order to continue supporting his family.

It’s time our secrets about the Bible came out. It’s time for Christians to know what their pastors won’t tell them.

1) The Apostles of Jesus Seem to Have Known Nothing about a Virgin Birth

The earliest mention of the birth of Jesus to be written is not the nativity stories in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, but verses in Paul’s letter to the Romans. He wrote it after having met with Peter and others who had known in person not only Jesus but also his mother and brothers. Despite learning from them everything they could tell him about Jesus, Paul shows no sign of having heard of a virgin birth. Instead, he wrote that Jesus “was descended from David according to the flesh” and was declared to be the Son of God not through any special birth that Paul mentions but by his resurrection (Romans 1:3-4).

The nativity stories in Matthew and Luke, suggesting that Jesus had a virgin birth in Bethlehem (the birthplace of David), were composed later and even his own apostles showed no indication of knowing anything about it.

2) Jesus Said He Wanted to Offer Nothing to Gentiles

The fact that Christianity has become a religion largely of Gentiles who literally worship Jesus is a huge irony, because in his ministry, Jesus said he intended to offer Gentiles nothing.

Matthew 10:5 shows Jesus giving his disciples firm instructions to “go nowhere among the Gentiles.” It’s true that Chapter 8 of Matthew and Chapter 7 of Luke show Jesus healing the servant of a Roman soldier. However, this happened only after the soldier said he was unworthy of Jesus’ attention.

It’s also possible that Jesus assumed the servant was a Jew, because, as shown in Matthew 15:21-28, when a woman who was indisputably a Gentile asked for healing for her daughter, Jesus initially ignored her. She was so persistent with her pleas that his apostles wanted to silence her. But they didn’t ask Jesus to do that by helping her. Instead, knowing his attitude toward Gentiles, they urged him to send her away. When she finally knelt before Jesus, making it impossible to continue to ignore her, he told her he was sent “only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” He then made clear that he considered her as a Gentile to be no better than a dog, adding that it wasn’t fair for dogs to receive food intended for children. Only when she pointed out that even dogs eat crumbs from their masters’ table did Jesus praise her for her faith and give her the help she wanted.

Further evidence that Jesus had a harsh attitude toward Gentiles comes from the fact that, after his death, resistance from his disciples caused Paul problems in his Gentile conversion efforts (see Galatians 2:11-14). Christianity eventually became a religion of Gentiles not because of any personal outreach to them by Jesus during his lifetime, but because of the work of Paul and the fact that most Jews, whom Jesus was really reaching out to, rejected it.

3) Jesus Tells Everyone Not to Think of Him as God in the First Three Gospels

The Gospel of John shows Jesus saying he is divine — again and again. But nowhere in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, widely acknowledged to have been written before John and thus closer to the events they describe, does Jesus claim to be a deity.

In fact, all of those first three gospels show Jesus scoldingly saying that he should never be thought of as God. Mark 10:18 depicts Jesus as saying, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.” Obviously, he took offense at the mere thought that he might be considered to have the same righteousness as God. He is shown making the same point in Luke 18:19 and Matthew 19:17.

4) The Resurrection Appearances in the Gospels Have Irreconcilable Differences

The gospel accounts of the resurrection appearances of Jesus differ substantially, including where the risen Jesus is said to have appeared to his apostles. The gospels of Matthew and Mark place the appearances solely in Galilee. However, Luke, as well as the book of Acts, has Jesus appearing only in and around Jerusalem.

To add to the confusion, the Gospel of John shows Jesus appearing in both Galilee and Jerusalem. The actual appearance of a resurrected Jesus would have been so stunning that it raises the question of why there was not even one record of such an event that made a deep enough impression to be passed down in all the gospels.

5) Jesus Was Against Public Prayer

Those who argue for public prayer in such diverse settings as government meetings and football games don’t seem to know the Bible.

If they did, they would realize that Jesus was very much against it. In Matthew 6:1, he warns against practicing piety before others, saying that those who do will “have no reward from your Father in heaven.” In Matthew 6:6, as a preface to the Lord’s Prayer, he says that to pray one should go into a room, close the door, and pray in secret. In fact, the King James Version of the Bible translates that as going into a closet to pray.

Perhaps even more significant is that in Matthew 6:5 Jesus harshly criticizes those who pray out loud in synagogues, the local worship settings of his day. Based on that, it seems possible, jolting as it may be, that he may have also disapproved of public prayer in churches, much less government meetings.

I am still a Christian, but I don’t believe we should hide from the facts about our own faith. How many pastors know about these problems, but never mention them in a sermon? How many of them are depriving their congregations of a fuller, deeper understanding of their faith, with all of its complexities? We must be willing to embrace some uncomfortable truths.

SEX and SEXUALITY 

When we fail in certain expectations of God for us, He may not be able to admit us into His higher purposes.

There is an original design of God for sex and sexuality which He wants us to be aware of; it is not an issue to be raised only when people have to talk of sexual sins. 

God created things for different purposes and there is nothing bad in those things which God has created. These things in themselves are clean but something in people make those things unclean. (1 Tim. 4:3-4)

Christ is God made manifest in the flesh and this is why Jesus lived in the flesh, showing God in His daily life and what He had become at Jordan was pleasing to God. (Matt. 3:17, Luke 2:40, 52)

Christ has to grow in us and to develop in our spirit. This will make us grow in the realm of wisdom and wax strong in the Spirit.

Everything Jesus became in adulthood He grew with them from childhood. There is a way God ordains that we should grow to be a total man which should dissipate into our spirit, soul and body. 

We will dwell in this body for the space of our sojourn on the earth with others and the calibration of our growth will be how we manage our lives even in the body.

It is true that what defines a man is not what comes into a man but what proceeds from within. But what comes from within will also have effect on the body of the person from whom they proceeded. 

Whatever God will do with us will proceed from our inward but will affect our whole entity. This is why God wants us to present our bodies/vessels - spirit, soul and body - unto God as a living sacrifice.

Our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. (1 Cor. 6:19-20) Most people do not pay attention to how God wants us to conduct ourselves in relation to our bodies and this is important.

Most of the time, we do not care about things that are important like taking care of our bodies. Many people care more about their professions and careers than they care about their bodies.

Many were not taught from childhood how to be a good person; rather, it is how to attain to something in life that children are taught about. Sex and sexuality are usually not taught normally as a part of life but mostly now, out of fear. 

We need wisdom and understanding when it comes to the matter of sex and sexuality. Anointing cannot handle this terrain but the power of the Spirit that comes vis understanding. (Pro. 6:32)

The focus of the teaching on sex and sexuality is to raise men and women God actually created us to be. Jesus never struggled with sexual sin because He knew about it and had the understanding that kept Him pure. 

To ignore your sexuality is to ignore who you are. We are Christ in our spirit but we are indwelling a body which is either a male or female. (Gen. 1:27, 5:1-2)

Male and female is an issue of creation; but in the marital estate, they exist as man and woman. (Gen 2:21-24)

The rib of man taken to form a woman is a side of the man taken to make a woman that will fit into him. A female is complete without marriage.

Your own wife should be under you; not all women should be under you. In creation everyone stands as male and female; equal in creation. It is only in marriage the woman devolves under the man.

The feminine is not inferior in her creation neither is the man superior in his creation. The man is only the head in the domestic estate expressed in marriage. The man is not the head of every woman but only of his wife.

When you are born again, God wants to take us through the process of righteousness that will tamper with the way we have been raised differently from how God wanted us to be raised.

A child can be developed spirit, soul and body to become a total man in life. A child needs to learn the wisdom of how life should be lived in addition to learning spiritual things. 

No gender is better than the other; this is why the Holy Spirit makes no difference in coming upon the disciples; though male dominance seems to be more pronounced in the Jewish culture. 

Because of the patriarchal nature of the Jews, if God had sent a woman as the Messiah, they would not have received her. But from the Day of Pentecost, God began to give the sexes their true definitions.

The woman is not like the man; neither is the man like the woman. There is no point for gender clash or competition like the feminists push for. Creation has a purpose in view when men and women were created the way they are.

What feminists are pushing is not in the purpose of God. A man cannot carry a baby like a woman is designed to; not even when it is surgically achieved.

Marriage is just one thing that men and women can do together. That a woman is not married does not make her a failure. 

Marriage is not what makes those involved in it successful; it is the people in marriage who define what the marriage would be. Life is designed beyond marriage. 

The woman had always been there; God only formed her to fit into the life of Adam. Formation is shaping for the purpose of fitting into. There is a way Adam and Eve had been living before marriage came in view.

It is the fallen nature that makes a man see a woman in the light of which he was not supposed to see her if she was not his wife.

A woman's anatomy, physiology, biochemistry is all designed to make her what she is. That a man alters himself to become feminine will still not make her a woman. The things that make a woman what she is are more than her physical frame.

What God designed to make a man and a woman is more than what meets the eye. That you look like your father does not make you like him. 

Inheritance from your parents can make you pick some traits from either of your parents; but a male is a male and a female is distinctly a female. 

In a healthy world, cross-gender or transgender does not exist; it is a fraud. God has a purpose for each gender and his aesthetic value is so high. 

Genders are not primarily designed for sexual matters. It is for the world of complement. A world of all men or all women would be an anomaly.  Most of us try to be our best because of those who look at us; and mostly, it is the opposite sex.

The genders are designed to make human life beautiful. There is an energy in us that has to be unleashed. It can either be unleashed in appreciation or taking advantage of the opposite sex. When you truly appreciate someone, you would not want to hurt them. 

Jesus is a compassionate Being; He was compassionate when He saw the widow of Nain's loss. Today, parents raise their male children not to cry; that is an anomaly as they would grow up to become callous.

God does not want us to define the genders from their marital statuses. All we knew about women in the first few chapters of the Bible is women begetting. This is not God's design.

Nobody can rightly define the world of a woman outside God's revelation of who she really is. It is unthinkable to think that all a woman is created for is sex. Many religions even claim that a woman has the half brain of a man.  

For a man to be married to a woman and be truly satisfied without other standards is very uncommon. Many men are just managing to get by with their wives because they are not truly satisfied.

Any model man who has grown well should be able to take on the office of a bishop because it is an expression of faith - a good work.

The heart of a would-be Bishop must really be on his wife - husband of one wife; not just having one wife but having his heart on his wife! Many can have one wife but their hearts will still be on many.

God wants children to be raised with a focus of what they should become in God. A man should be grave and sober - live with purpose and have a reason for everything he does! (1 Tim. 3:1-2)

In God's design for a male man, he must be focused and be someone who is able to stay with his words without changing because a man is his words.

Christ is God in the flesh and He developed character and values. He was a man of weight; He did not just carry Spirit alone. He had grown to value words. He was His word and He grew that way.

As a man, you must know that your life is not food. You must not be greedy with food. You must be given to hospitality and you learn to communicate and speak out. 

When you talk, you must follow your words to see it do what you had in mind for it to be done. This is a value of life the Holy Ghost must open your eyes to from childhood. 

Largely today, in the church world, many are forbidden to take wine because they lack self-control and they can be taken over by wine. But a man who has grown must be able to bridle his tongue and be disciplined! (1 Tim. 3:3)

A male is supposed to develop to become a man! A man must not be given to filthy lucre. What many think a man is his money. Many unwise women also take a man to be one because of how much money he has. This is a distorted perspective and judgment. 

When a woman only values her husband in terms of the money he has, the man will go to any length to get money to please the wife; this is despicable. 

What gives you stature in life is not what you have in your pocket but values. A man who manages his house well has managed other houses well. When you live with people, you are learning how to manage a house well.

We must grow children who pay attention to details. Responsibility includes a sense of thinking ahead and having a sense of foresight.

The Holy Ghost in you must be able to teach you to be grave and full of values. You must wear Christ in your body; He has to be made manifest in every aspect of your life.

1 Timothy 3 is usually read at the ordinations of deacons and after this, many of them want to begin to live this life after being ordained deacons; this is what they should have grown with right from childhood, not when being made a deacon. 

When a man grows well and is full of values and character, it will show in his children who will be under subjection with all gravity. (1 Tim. 3:4)

A man must know indeed how to honour an elder, not because they are right all the time but because that is the right thing to do because it is a fundamental principle of life. (1 Tim. 5:1)

Activism is not righteousness! Most activists do not do well because they do not regard elders. An elder is not just one by tradition but also by grace placement. 

It is a privilege to lead and there is no absolute leader! As a leader somewhere, you should be a follower in another place. A normal human being must have people he defers and listens to. 

Sisters need to be handled with all purity of heart. It is not about running away from sisters. Many brothers erroneously believe that pretty sisters are possessed; they are not! It is the lust in you that must be dealt with!

Many male children did no grow up to see beautiful females; so, when they see beautiful sisters, they tend to lose their composure. Male children must be made to grow and see beautiful sisters and be balanced and not become dysfunctional.

You should not flee women but fornication! You must have enough grace to be at home with what God has created and not misbehave. Purity must be the hallmark of your life as a male man.