Evolution is unprovable and science should have no place in origins stories, it's created a whole lot of "religious atheists" who fancy themselves Lord Darwin's gift to science that constantly go around proselytizing theories as fact, I should know, because I used to be one. I still love science, but have since decided to stick with the Pure Sciences, hard, proveable science, reproducible results, chemistry, physics, you know, real science

As for DNA, Scripture says we're made from the dust of the earth, if it said we were made from LEGOs, and we see that bananas and HIV brussel sprouts are also made from LEGOs, instead of surmising that, hey, these are jars of clay/EARTHEN vessels(and everything physical will have similar base building blocks in this realm), a whole lot of people are on board with the idea that they are related to HIV and lima beans.

Darwin's finches though, it's funny to think if your kids and kid's kids and on down the line keep having difference sized noses, they will no longer be human. https://youtu.be/mvV1lD2qGYw?t=8s watch till the end for an extra treat.

P.S. here is Neil deGrasse Tyson chiming in on religious atheism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzSMC5rWvos

Last post was nearly a year ago, talk about necroing

Originally posted by Irritated Ninja:

I would say I adore fire as much as the next guy but I just like his appearence and all but I still think is wise for me to do this?

And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the scriptures? Luke 24:32
For our God is a consuming fire. Hebrews 12:29
Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? Jeremiah 23:29
His head and His hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and His eyes were as a flame of fire; And His feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and His voice as the sound of many waters. Revelation 1:14-15
JESUS FIRE

Reading back over my post I hope I didn't scare you off there.... Might've come on a bit strong.

I've had all kinds of crazy demonic dreams, usually when I'm helping someone who is demonized/needing deliverance. I will pray for you both.... I have to say, maybe it's just me, or maybe it's just those who are called to Spiritual Warfare, but when the demonic gets antsy it ENCOURAGES me, when they are not amused, I'm very amused, I despise the enemy of mankind, and I love it when a demon is squirming and squealing.

Maybe you were just doing something right, maybe you had said a prayer over a demonized person, maybe you had renounced and repented from a bad habit? They only tend to show evidence of themselves when they lose their cool, or, more darkly, when they think they have you where they want you and there is no escape for you. (that you are here pretty much negates that possibility, you'd be closed up in some room somewhere unwilling to talk about it if you were so oppressed.)

Originally posted by Egillholm:

"Out of Ymir's flesh was fashioned the earth,
And the mountains were made of his bones;
The sky from the frost-cold giant's skull,
And the ocean out of his blood."
—Vafþrúðnismál: 21


I'm just going to leave this here.....

There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
Gen 6:4

As to the OP, some of our ancient ancestors believed in Thor and Odin, then Jesus swept through the land like wildfire and shone into the hearts of men. There's really no comparison between mythology and superstition, and a real active relationship with the Living God.
They asked each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while He talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?" Luke 24:32

We talk about Norse/Celtic mythology every Christmas, that fertility symbol the evergreen, etc, it becomes an opportunity to talk about our ancient ancestors and their conversion. I keep saying ancient ancestors, because I was actually an atheist most of my life, my immediate ancestors saw to it I was raised in a secular home, so, yeah, that happened. :)

I've been around the block, The Servant King nailed to a stauros as a virgin (For who can speak of His generation/descendants, for He was cut off from the land of the living) is not just The Way by Jesus' own words, He is the Only Way that makes any spiritual sense at all, so many of the pantheons of yore are composed of lustful gluttonous carnal gods and goddesses, made in the image of the men who created them. The Servant King, The Only Wise King, stands apart, He makes no sense to the carnal mind, our very definition of King is about having our way, getting the women, ruling over and subjugating others. This world is a trap, we are woefully incapable of helping ourselves, and God, through His Love, helps us. World religion says you can help yourself, you can say hail mary's or mantras or whatever, your works will make you whole according to the world, the Gospel says the opposite, we can never do it on our own.

Originally posted by KAISER FURMICH II VON ZIEGEBURG:

" We are determined, as leaders of the nation, to fulfill as a national government the task which has been given to us, swearing fidellty only to God, our conscience, and our Volk.... ....will take Christianity, as the basis of our collective morallity, and the family as the nucelus of our Volk and state, under its firm protection...." Adolph H. - 1933
If you deny this, well, you have lost all credibility.

Hitler wasn't the first nor the last politician to pretend to be a Christian to initially gain favor, just look at Obama, Bush, etc. Are you aware Hitler was a rabid occultist, it's why he wanted the Spear of Destiny and other mideast artifacts(probably fake relics), in order to derive mystical power from them, like some WW2 era Simon Magus. Are you aware Hitler was an avid disciple of H.P. "Madame" Blavatsky, and was known to sleep with her new ager/luciferian tome "The Secret Doctrine" by his bedside, and did you know she greatly influenced him in terms of eugenics, spirituality, etc, and is even the reason he used the swastika?

Hitler was straight up possessed with some principality and power, when the little man with the funny mustache spoke, he enthralled and captivated millions, and the rare bystander that was not taken in by his unearthly magnetism was often totally creeped out and spooked by it, there are some choice quotes on that. French intellectual and philosopher de Rougemont attended a nazi rally and was one of those people, he pretty much said evil spiritual forces were occupying Hitler like a garrison. *CLICKY*

(EDIT:ehhh, written to the OP and additions just below the OP, I now see this thread is a can of worms, which I will at some point finish reading through),

Very good points, one of the biggest differences between Biblical Christianity (The Gospel) and world religion, be it catholicism, islam, buddhism, etc, etc, is that they are all some form of self-emphasis or works based salvation, through man's strivings he can reach God/heaven/nirvana/etc, it is the Gospel that says man is entirely incapable of saving himself, this world is a trap of sin and death, and God supernaturally reaches down with the Arm of the LORD(Isaiah 53/Jesus, that part of Him which saves us) and snatches us up solely and entirely through His Grace(unmerited favor).

To the OP, if this all started with you seeing a baphomet online, and that night you had a dream about it, i'd put that down to one of: your fear and/or obsession of it (even if subconsciously) or perhaps you have a weakness for the occult from an old generational curse, either way it's the same remedy imho:
There's a reason people say prayers at night, we are at our weakest and most vulnerable for attack when we are sleeping, the Christians who came before had plenty of experience with sleep paralysis/old hag(almost always demonic activity, but the former can technically be triggered purely via brain chemistry), spiritual warfare dreams etc. And so, you should be sure to pray a warfare prayer over your bed before sleep, and also, immediately, do one of those "I renounce satan and all of his works" type prayers, satan means adversary, it includes everything but if it makes you feel better you can say and demons, human agents of darkness, etc, and remember that you are at WAR, get fighting mad for CHRIST when ANYTHING like this happens and instantly rebuke it and pray and read warfare psalms and say the Lord's Prayer. I also like to play Alexander Scourby's KJV Audiobible at night, just for the ambiance. Outside of the poor lost souls who are occultists/devil worshippers/etc, Christians are the second most demonized group of people on earth, demons may attack you to discourage you, distract you from helping someone you've been delivering, etc, etc. demons can actually have a lot of interactions with a born again Christian if Jesus allows it, and from my personal experience He allows it when He is leading one of His flock into a Spiritual Warfare calling.

Now as for background, I was a particularly evil atheist for most of my life, raised in a secular Godless home, loved mocking and verbally abusing Christians etc, yet He made me His own, having said that, do not be embarassed or get defensive about your cultural background being that old HARLOT SCARLET ROME, the pope is straight up antichrist in all of his ways, I would strongly encourage you to renounce him as well, he has a 90% approval rating in a crazy fractured special interest driven world (This should be 'nuff said, as it is truly bizarre), and is preaching universal ecumenicalism (all roads lead to God, Christ's Blood is not necessary, Jesus is not One of a kind) and he is preaching earth worship/climate change fountain of nonsense, when the Scripture plainly states it will DEFINITELY get MIGHTY HOT down here and there's nothing anyone can do about it, I could go on about that prostitute adorned in purple and scarlet, but I gather you get the idea.

Well the Pope is preaching earth worship, "climate change", slippery slope, all roads lead to God, universal ecumenicalism (join with every religion), he is preaching just about anything other than Salvation through Christ alone by grace alone through faith alone, Jesus Himself made the Gospel exclusive unto Himself, and no one else did that, so it's not that the Jesus Only Christians are hard-headed fundie nightmares that hate gays and need to die, it's merely that they are taking Jesus at His Word. Having said all of that, the only crusade I can ever see Francis or any end times pope calling for, would be the death of exclusionary "false" "Westboro" Christianity. At the moment Evanglical Christianity still seems a BIT normal in America, but that is quickly fading, they will wake up one day to realize they are considered a nutbar fringe group, and the mainstream FALSE Christianity, full of Emergence and Postmodern thought and relativism will be crying for the heads of true christians on a platter, all the while doing everything they can to join with all aspects of the world, Rome, Mecca, et al.

I also don't really subscribe to the pre-trib rapture, (Blessed in the sight of the LORD are the death of His saints, etc, etc, etc) we are an evidence to the nations, just as the apostles/early christians were.

However pre-trib eschatology is not a salvific issue and I would caution against alienating or casting dispersions on other Christians over things which are not salvific. I do believe we should stand our ground over salvific issues and be as strong-willed as required in those cases, as it becomes a case of saving them from their own false doctrine, such as anyone who would bend a knee to that antichrist king in the vatican.

As far as your ongoing/other issues with this pastor/denomination, just keep being prayerful over each encounter beforehand and pray unceasingly in your mind during your encounters, that the Holy Spirit guides your tongue. I was an atheist for most of my life and had no cultural Christian background and every since I was called to Christ I too have had many run-ins with manmade institutions(denominations) each with their own pet peeves/hangups, many of them thinking they were the one true church/one true way in defiance of Jesus saying "I AM The Way"

Here are some of the things to consider when dealing with a particular denomination that seems false, or lukewarm, or otherwise full of prideful arrogant leadership(All leadership should be seasoned in humility well enough to be humble in the face of constructive criticism, teachers will be judged more harshly and if they cannot walk as Christ also walked there's something wrong there)- several motivations:

• Are they a cult, cults are controlling and exclusionary, they maintain monopoly via control and fear.
  
• Are they motivated by greed, more business-oriented but many of the same end results as a cult, they have a business to protect so they may in many cases stand by things they have even come to know are false, but they're invested, they have written books etc (This is where I would classify the SDA)
  
• Are they dead denominations, many of what I call "Dusty old protestant denominations" sit here, it has been a long time since the Reformation and they have very short memories, many of them are a part of the greater ecumenical movement to "Come Back to Mother Harlot Rome"
  
• Are they swept up in mysticism signs and wonders, some of the pentecostals (though it's my personal favorite manmade collective) and apostolics are here, the holiness movement of the 19th and early 20th centuries were in many ways a backlash to the aforementioned "Dusty old protestant" state of affairs, and while in many ways it was a true revival and created a lot of earnest zeal, it was also a breeding ground for apostasy and heretical teaching. I would also put the modern false revival called the Emergent Church in this category, as well as many independent charismatic churches. As well as the early SDA church who danced at the pleasure of their little prophetess Ellen G. White and what "she saw".
  
• Are they Evangelical? Evangelical seems to be the most generalized manmade collective where we can all mostly agree, indeed the Holy Spirit directed me, a Former Atheist, to read the Gospel and I personally experienced Luke 24:32, and no man nor congregation had a hand in my conversion, yet I knew that the overwhelming majority of what the Evangelicals had to say was right on the money, what could be wrong with Evangelical denominations/congregations then, if their doctrine is mostly made up of what the Holy Spirit directly teaches former atheists? Unfortunately they've come to harbor a lot of cultural Christianity, and will take things for granted without fasting and praying and seeking the Truth straight from the Holy Spirit and Scripture, Evangelicals have done more to further the pre-trib view more than any other group, for example.

So I feel I've really digressed here a bit, I could add a lot more to that list, but I want you to know you're not the only one who has had many strange run-ins with the manmade institutions of this world. There's more than one Church of Christ even I have heard of, so I'm not sure I could help you with specifics here, a friend of mine was raised in a Church of Christ, they believe they're the one true church, which is a very common pit, the one true church is the wheat among the tares, sheep among the goats, the Shepherd knows His flock and the sheep know the sound of the Shepherds voice, there is no membership card on this world to the "one true church", best we can do is go to congregation that's on fire for God, or shall I say, go where the Spirit leads us, because dusty old protestant churches need a chance to renounce satan and all of his works, perhaps you are being called to call that church out, I would prescribe serious prayer and fasting, be sure what you say is 100% from God, because I'd rather keep my mouth shut than to misdirect a congregation or their leadership in their own building. But God will give you the convictions you need either way if you are patient and faithful.