Surprisingly, when my time at the church ended my spiritual awakening began. I needed to understand God/Life and resorted to prayer and studying the Bible on my own. I asked God to save me from ignorance and realized over time that my spiritual instincts, at thirteen, were true. I discovered that when I came across verses like John 14:24 where Jesus states: ‘He that loveth me not, keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me’. (KJV John12: 49-50; John14: 10; John7: 16, 17) To believe that Jesus is the Word of God is to believe that Jesus and God are indistinguishable, that Jesus IS God. I am sure that this belief is based on John 1:1 KJV where it states – ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God’. But the preacher at the church must have passed the verses that I’ve referenced which contradict John 1:1. Another problem I have with the story of Jesus is that human sacrifice did not start or end with him. In the old testament are other accounts of Pagans and Jews alike who sacrificed not only animals but people too (including their own virgin sons and daughters) to please God/the gods. (Jeremiah7: 30,31; Jeremiah32: 35; Kings11: 7) Many of these human sacrifices took place during the reign of King Solomon of Israel, widely hailed for his great wisdom. More recently, pre-Columbian Incas, Mayans, Hawaiians, and even some Mississippian Indians sacrificed humans too. To think that God wants, needs or demands blood sacrifice is a lie, an abomination. KJV Psalms 40:6 states that ‘Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required’ (Hebrews10: 6; 1 Samuel15: 22; Psalms51: 16,17; Romans12: 1; Isaiah1: 10; Hosea 6: 6). Yet devils want us to believe that God’s plan demands that we torture and sacrifice Jesus to go to heaven. Ironically most people would do the deed themselves if, by doing so, they could live in paradise forever. Psychologically, they have already done it. But verses in the Bible contradict the notion that Jesus saves. KJV Isaiah43: 11 ‘I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour’ (Isaiah49: 26; Psalms18: 31).