A Call to Gathering for Christian ATS'ers

I have noticed some of you prowling these forums and I was curious to know how it was that you found Christ?

There's been an awful lot of anti-Christian threads on this site (especially lately), and it's been more than a little disheartening, so I thought it might be a good idea for Christian ATS'ers to share their conversion experiences with each other.

It would be appreciated if non believers refrained from making attacks on the Christian faith in this thread, since there's plenty of other places on ATS to vent your feelings about Christianity, and this thread has been made for the sharing of testimony and fellowship, so please be respectful.

Let's also be mindful that there are differences between denominations, and there's no need of theological debates here either.

Share your testimony here, and edify each other.

reply to post by ProfessorChaos


Thanks for the thread and opportunity opp. My walk with God has extended as long as i remember. However, if i was to point to a defining point in my life where i felt the closest to brothers and sisters and Jesus was in a summer camp many years ago. Our group was on fire for the lord and was having an unauthorized late night bible study. We were all kids between 9 and 12 years old.

That night it began storming something awful and a deaf and mute boy( since birth) spoke for the first time so clearly exclaiming over and over again "Look!" as he pointed at the ceiling. The rest of us couldn't see anything and started to get freaked out. We all decided to call it a night and go to slee. Well as one of the group members climbed to their bunk the took a spill to the floor. Protruding from his arm (under the skin) it was a clear break.

I'm not quite sure how my preacher found out whether he was just checking in or one of the members ran to get him. He picked up the boy who was wailing in pain the sound of a normal 11 year old with a break. The preacher told us all to get in bed and go to sleep no more reading tonight as he walked out the door with the boy in his arms. The rain was seemed harder now, but this may be because the silence had set in as everyone listened for the boy.

We all heard the unmistakable sound of an infant crying and the preacher speaking in tongues. Presumably they were standing in the rain there was no over hang outside the boys dorm as it was an old airplane hanger. Soon after the preacher returned with the boy still in his arms whom was fast asleep. The next day we all eagerly looked at his arm and it was as if nothing had ever happened.

The preacher was a Methodist and clearly we were never told of tongues or its practice in modern day, but i assure you it was clear as day.

My relationship with God hasn't been very good in my adult life and i struggle everyday with what is right and wrong and why's of who we are.

To be honest I really don't know what to call myself. Some days I like to call myself a Christian, other days a Buddhist. Sometimes I say I just don't know, and give a smile and look away.

I say that to say this, our individual spirituality is a hard thing to figure out, and all the religious and philosophic texts in the world really don't give us anything more than peace of mind. I'm still young and have so much to learn, and I wont learn it all sadly, god forbid they make robotic avatars for us(Off topic sorry).

I was raised for the last 9 years as a Christian, and I work at a Christian store also. I try to be involved with my community as much as possible. I haven't been involved with any churches for a few years, I treat nature as my church. I accept what people believe and don't challenge them because in the end it's up to them anyways, and who's to say they're wrong and we're right? Im not sure if this post is exactly what you wanted but its what ya get brother.

I was five and I still remember like it was yesterday.

It would take a book to tell you all the miracles I have been in the middle of.

Healed broken arm, illnesses healed, crashes avoided, Landrover being moved from 2 inches from a 200 foot drop in Italian Alps.
Angels seen, demons seen and cast out, many UFOs seen and other odd experiences seen. Been to Heaven many times; once while fully awake in Church, witnessed by elder's wife.

Not a typical or traditional christian but I like it like that.

I started life as a Catholic, then drfited into some Protestant and Charismatic groups in my teens and through my mid-twenties.

I was notoriously weak as a Charismatic and started some reading on my own. C.S. Lewis had a strong impact on my thinking. I did further reading and questioning, and returned to the Catholic Church. After that time I had "spiritual experiences" which helped to verify my decision and path.

I hope you'll forgive my brevity, I don't care much for talking about myself on this subject. I've seen that on ATS it causes outrage among non-Christians, and sometimes furthers the shameful disunity among Christians.

I was raised Christian so I suppose you could say I always was one, but I don't think I really understood it until I ended up messing around with some occult/satanism stuff and ended up opening a horrible can of worms that will probably haunt me for the rest of my life. My family went through some really crazy stuff as a result, and in the end Christ was the victor. As a result of those experiences, I have learned about what it means to really need redemption and forgiveness. I struggled a lot with my own salvation (and still do sometimes), but I also learned a lot. In a way, although what I experienced scarred me for life, it also left me no wiggle room as to how things work, and who is in charge. Thats the brief explanation

PS: I hope I didn't kill your thread

I was born into a Christian family, and became a Christian at the age of 5.
Coming to Christ was something that was fairly natural to me, having grown up with a knowledge of Him and His Word, but what prompted the actual decision was a dream that I had.

I dreamed one night that I was taken to heaven, to the throne room. Jesus sat there on a throne, in judgement over the world. He looked at me and said "depart from me, I never knew you."

I... plummeted. Straight into hell.
The dream terrified me... and I gave my life to Christ.

Since that day... I've remained a believer, though not always remained faithful. I went through something of a crisis of faith when I was about 17. I was in a leadership position in the church (teaching kids aged 4-6), and a lot of stuff went down that was really hurtful. I wasn't treated well by the church. They realized in time that I was right about certain things, but by then it was too late... and I'd actually been asked to leave. I won't go into more detail than there here - that's another story for another day.

Anyway. I got married at 20... to a girl who had always appeared to be a "good Christian girl". Turns out she wasn't. She was horribly abusive. I had a daughter with her, and was married to her for 5 years. Eventually her abuse started to turn from me to our daughter - so I left, and took her with me. Again, long story - but that detail is enough for now.

Through all of these things, I've had crises of faith. Opportunities to either stick with what I believe, or reject it. Times when I was so desperately lost, lonely and afraid that... in all honesty, I wanted to (in the words of Job's wife) "curse God and die!".

I didn't - and, I suspect, not because of my own faithfulness, but because God is faithful. He brought me through everything, and has restored to me all that I lost. A wife. A family. A loving relationship.

...and while not everyone in this life will go through the ups and downs I have... and while many will go through far worse... there are few things that can put life into perspective like spending time sleeping on the street in the rain, having been kicked out of your own home by an abusive wife.

Either way, throughout my life, God has always remained faithful, constant, and ever involved, through the good and the bad. ...and to pre-empt those who will argue as much...

Faith - my faith, is not and cannot be merely an emotive response to life and its circumstances. My faith is rooted not only in belief, but in evidence and in logic. The Bible is not a book that cannot be tested; likewise God Himself is not absent. If you're reading this and you discount my experience, fair enough. ...but as the Bible says, "seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near." Now is that time; now is the opportunity. Test. Search. Think critically. Think logically.

You think the Bible is a fairy tale? Investigate Biblical archaeology.
You think Christ has nothing to offer? Investigate the book of John.

...and so on, and so forth. The Bible itself clarifies: "If only in this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied, more than all men." If it's false, ditch it. But if it's not... then it's the most worthwhile thing you will ever do.

Search to prove it false.
Search to prove it true.

take your pick - but trust me... it's worth finding out for yourself.

I also was born into the Christian faith. As I grew older, I sometimed questioned that faith. I wouldnt call my self religious, but I am spiritual. I look at life and see all the miracles in it. The best moment in my life was the time I held my newborn son in my arms. Gods gift to me and all of society along with all the precious children that are born every day. So sad many other kids dont have the chance to become the wonderful 25 year old my son became this summer. Life is Gods gift to us. Please respect it.

It's interesting how most people who "found" Jesus had a negative terrifying experience. They tend to be desperate in the lowest depths of despair or they are terrified so they "turn to Jesus" hoping that he'll stop threatening them with visions of hell or scary thunderous rain storms.

Just making an observation...

I was raised as a Christian...but I have not been a Christian my whole life.

My parents divorced when I was around 11 or 12 & my family went through some hard times, split up & went different ways. After some hard years, I moved out when I was 17 & spent the next 5-6 years delving into alternatives trying to test the truth of Christianity (primarily Druidic, Agnostic, & Taoism)

Though my experiences have been interesting, I have only ever been personally validated by the belief in Christ as the one true God.

To be clear - when I say validated, I mean that my belief in Christ & his direct involvement in my life has been confirmed multiple times in ways that have left no doubt left in me.

Jesus Christ as the savior of mankind & I will be a Christian for the rest of my life.
It's the only thing that continues to ring true for me the deeper I dig.

Is it the rapture already?
I didnt get the memo

reply to post by arpgme

Really? How did you make your observation that most people turn to Christ through fear? I didn't. Other posters here didn't. Besides, I would rather people turn to Christ for any reason than to stay away from Him.

But I fear you and I have strayed from the purpose of the thread. Would you care to explain how you found Christ? That is the topic du jour.

Originally posted by dashen
Is it the rapture already?
I didnt get the memo

Nor did you read the OP fully, apparently.

reply to post by ProfessorChaos

. . . I thought it might be a good idea for Christian ATS'ers to share their conversion experiences . . .

"Come to Jesus" moments?
I was raised in a religious environment where it seemed to me to be mostly about God, kind of focusing on Old Testament stories, where Jesus was more like the kindly teacher who we should look to in order to have the same sort of righteousness as he had.
When I was about 20, I was exposed to a type of theology that make Jesus out as more of a representative for us before God rather than the other way around, and then I saw the importance of that, this sort of active role in what happens to us as far as our ultimate destiny goes, that is somehow out of reach of the machinations of Satan.
So, the point is, I probably then started looking at Jesus as the go-to person as far as where my thoughts should dwell when in the "heavenly realms" so to speak.

I've made a few changes to the OP, and think it reads better in the following manner. After all, regardless of what faith in imaginary super beings one has, it all boils down to faith.

I have noticed some of you prowling these forums and I was curious to know how it was that you found Odin, Krishna, Buddha, Allah, Satan, Benevolent Alien Light Beings, or even Atheism?

There's been an awful lot of anti-belief threads/comments on this site (especially lately), and it's been more than a little disheartening, so I thought it might be a good idea for ATS'ers of any and all beliefs to share their conversion experiences with each other.

It would be appreciated if opposing believers refrained from making attacks on thefaiths, or ideals in this thread, since there's plenty of other places on ATS to vent your feelings aboutopposing faiths or ideals, and this thread has been made for the sharing of testimony and fellowship, so please be respectful.

Let's also be mindful that there are differences between all faiths, and there's no need of theological debates here either.

Share your testimony here, and edify each other.

reply to post by DeadSeraph


I'm Jewish and I felt left out.......
Sorr-ry

reply to post by arpgme


Yeah, I noticed that as well.

I used to be terrified of going to hell, and this fear was a very strong motivating factor in my beliefs back then, along with my parents raising me in a Christian environment where my church and youth pastor hammered the idea of hell into my head.

I have since found myself though, and my "conversion" had to do with many factors including the death of my father and actually researching the bible and reading it for myself. The truth has set me free, and Jesus' words were another big factor in that.

Ignore the dogma around his words and you will find that little nugget of gold, and in time that nugget will lead you to a vein, and that vein will eventually lead you to a mine full of gold.

Originally posted by Druscilla
I've made a few changes to the OP, and think it reads better in the following manner. After all, regardless of what faith in imaginary super beings one has, it all boils down to faith.

I have noticed some of you prowling these forums and I was curious to know how it was that you found Odin, Krishna, Buddha, Allah, Satan, Benevolent Alien Light Beings, or even Atheism?

There's been an awful lot of anti-belief threads/comments on this site (especially lately), and it's been more than a little disheartening, so I thought it might be a good idea for ATS'ers of any and all beliefs to share their conversion experiences with each other.

It would be appreciated if opposing believers refrained from making attacks on thefaiths, or ideals in this thread, since there's plenty of other places on ATS to vent your feelings aboutopposing faiths or ideals, and this thread has been made for the sharing of testimony and fellowship, so please be respectful.

Let's also be mindful that there are differences between all faiths, and there's no need of theological debates here either.

Share your testimony here, and edify each other.

edit on 25-8-2013 by Druscilla because: (no reason given)

I'm just curious why you felt this was necessary? "Imaginary super beings" says it all. You really didn't have to bother with the rest

@OP: While I think your thread is a great idea and I was looking forward to reading the testimonies of others, it's obvious that ATS is not a very good place for such a discussion, as your thread has already been the target of trolling and we aren't even 2 pages in. I suppose Matthew 7:6 rings as true today as it did in Christ's time.

reply to post by DeadSeraph


Your bias blinds you to the point.
I'm not, nor was I trolling.

Think of it this way:To a Muslim, or some other non-Nordic faith, Odin, and the entire Norse Pantheon equates to 'Imaginary Super Beings', while all the trappings of Islam, or whatever other non-Nordic faith, from that faith's perspective remain TRUTH.
Perspective and reverse perspective.
Each faith has it's own favor bias.

To one perspective of Faith, all others counter to such tend to rank in the wings with fairy tales; Mythology.

Thus, why invite ONLY the Christian perspective?
There's more than just one faith, and to each their own, that faith is the TRUTH of the Universe.
It's ATS, so, we've certainly a number of Alien cultists, New Agers, Spiritualists, as well as belief in the more popular Mythologies.

Certainly there's something, and more that could be learned by listening to and sharing of all perspectives of all faiths? Even the perspectives of Atheism and Solipsism.
It'd certainly be or greater benefit to ATS as a whole for all faiths to share their views on their own faith without criticism of or from others.

reply to post by Druscilla

I'm not, nor was I trolling.

Yes you are.

You first come into this thread to rewrite the original post. You claim that it's for the benefit of all ATS members in order for them to learn about different faiths, while you outright mock ALL of it by labeling it "imaginary"!

Can you please give us a better term for what you just did here? We already know YOU have no desire to LEARN about any of it, so what compels you to be so disrespectful? I really would like to know.