What made you accept Christianity as an adult?

Originally posted by autowrench
reply to post by Iason321

 

I prayed to God for a sign that He existed, and the hospital phone rang, and it was a voice, asking me why I didnt believe in God, and if I believed in God now? every time I would say yes, then thought to myself no, im going nuts, etc , the voice would repeat again, in a more stern voice, if I believed in God or not. This happened several times, and while it was happening, the TV in the room was flickering and changing colors, nothing else in the room was different though, I was not hallucinating, I was not under the influence of drugs or withdrawing from any drugs....

Not to flame you, or call you anything, but if you really think God called you on the phone, please seek some professional help. You are delusional to say the least, and that would explain your posts in here. Please, get help.

Autowrench, I don't think that's a very fair thing for you to say when you've admitted on ATS that a professional told you that they thought you suffered from mental illness.

Originally posted by autowrench
reply to post by Iason321

 

I prayed to God for a sign that He existed, and the hospital phone rang, and it was a voice, asking me why I didnt believe in God, and if I believed in God now? every time I would say yes, then thought to myself no, im going nuts, etc , the voice would repeat again, in a more stern voice, if I believed in God or not. This happened several times, and while it was happening, the TV in the room was flickering and changing colors, nothing else in the room was different though, I was not hallucinating, I was not under the influence of drugs or withdrawing from any drugs....

Not to flame you, or call you anything, but if you really think God called you on the phone, please seek some professional help. You are delusional to say the least, and that would explain your posts in here. Please, get help.

Right, let's assume for a second He could speak the known universe into existence by a single spoken sentence, but...


COULDN'T MAKE A PHONE RING????

Originally posted by Iason321
reply to post by autowrench

 

Oh ye of little faith, so quick to judge

Yep, and Jesus refused to do any miracles in places where the people had no faith.

Might be hard to do miracles in front of people that know science too.

Jesus wasn't god, and there are only embellished stories.

Originally posted by MagnumOpus
Might be hard to do miracles in front of people that know science too.

Jesus wasn't god, and there are only embellished stories.

Thanks so much for enlightening us, but, as I stated in the opening post, this is not about you or what you believe to be true. You are derailing the thread by saying stuff like this. If you feel compelled yourself to wax eloquently on your beliefs, by all means start a thread and ask for opinions. There's nothing wrong with that at all, so have at it. But there's no reason to mess up this checkerboard just because you don't like checkers. That's being a bully. Go somewhere else. Really.

In THIS thread I was hoping to solicit stories from people who did not "grow up" with a particular religious indoctrination, but came to believe what they do as adults because of, well, SOMEthing that happened to them.

Once when I was in college I had a summer job working with a couple of guys I didn't get along too well with. One day the guy came to work and said God spoke to him and he was now a Christian. A bunch of us sat around the lunch table and discussed this. What was so frustrating for me was his lack of clarity in talking about what happened to him. He just said he prayed, God spoke to him, and that was that. When we asked, "Well, what did He sound like?" the guy offered only a vague response. Historically that's the kind of story I have heard, so I was hoping for some greater definition.

Some of you have offered your stories and I thank you for that. I hope we can have some more without disruptions.

reply to post by autowrench

Not to flame you, or call you anything, but if you really think God called you on the phone, please seek some professional help. You are delusional to say the least, and that would explain your posts in here. Please, get help.

Nothing is impossible for him. He did come here in the flesh after all, when even the jews claimed he could not. Kinda ironic how people think he doesn't have the juice to do what he wants yet when he does just that no one believes it. The blind leading the blind.

reply to post by Deetermined

Autowrench, I don't think that's a very fair thing for you to say when you've admitted on ATS that a professional told you that they thought you suffered from mental illness.

What is it not fair? Are you going to tell me God calling him on the phone is not a delusion? And yes, I said that. I said a lot more about it too, if I remember correctly. The terminology is used to describe that which the medical professional has no capacity to understand, or even process, in some cases. I have seen a great many things in my rather long life, full standing apparitions of the dead for one, astral traveled, and conversed with ETs, but never a phone call from anyone, or anything of a supernatural nature. Why would God need AT&T?

reply to post by autowrench
You said "the medical professional has no capacity to understand" could you imagine in your wildest, that maybe ,just maybe you have no capacity to understand the spiritual nature of Christianity ? I know I have no desire to understand your life's venture and would not want to go on your thread and ignore the op and tell who ever was participating , that they needed professional help because I thought they didn't know .Do you think we Christians have never heard the same little voice inside us, telling us that God is not real ,or satan doesn't exist . You see we Christians have Gods word to back up what we believe . What you got big guy? ..

I was agnostic for 14 years. Didn't know if there was a God or if Jesus was real and i didn't care to be honest. Read all kinds of gobbledygook from different mythologies, read Sitchins BS about the Anunnaki amoung other things. Had a bad childhood resulting from an abusive father who was a self proclaimed pentecostal "christian" so i ran away from home, turned 18 and dropped out of Highschool, got my G.E.D. and went straight into college and became agnostic while studying cultural anthroplogy as an anthropology major. Turned my back on the whole bible thumping thing and the hate and anger over my abuse as a child festered and began to poison me. I was being consumed by hate and anger and resentment and one day i just got tired of it and wanted to be free and i didn't know how to free myself from it. To make a long story short i met one of the deacons at my current church and it was refreshing to see that not all self proclaimed christians were hypocrites. So i dumped my misconceptions and went to church the next sunday and met the other christians and they were really nice people who would do anything for you and that began my healing process. The story doesn't end there, that was just the beginning and it's been about 1 year and 3 months since that day.

One day i saw something that pushed me off the fence and as for what that was...well, you'll have to find out for yourself sometime. Spoilers.

I know the darkness and confusion that path was leading me down, but i wanted to be free and i wanted redemption for things i had done that i wish i could take back but i couldn't. Only one faith would allow me to find redemption. I tried other religions, even the old norse but i felt nothing, just dead and empty inside. Nothing else resonated with me and the only peace i could find was with Yeshua (Jesus) the Christ. There's alot to my story, but i am going to stop here, the rest i am saving for my autobiography.

Originally posted by autowrench
reply to post by Iason321

 

I prayed to God for a sign that He existed, and the hospital phone rang, and it was a voice, asking me why I didnt believe in God, and if I believed in God now? every time I would say yes, then thought to myself no, im going nuts, etc , the voice would repeat again, in a more stern voice, if I believed in God or not. This happened several times, and while it was happening, the TV in the room was flickering and changing colors, nothing else in the room was different though, I was not hallucinating, I was not under the influence of drugs or withdrawing from any drugs....

Not to flame you, or call you anything, but if you really think God called you on the phone, please seek some professional help. You are delusional to say the least, and that would explain your posts in here. Please, get help.

That was my question too. I took it as, a counselor or a friend calling him, while he was in the hospital (detox?), and he had asked god for a sign, when the phone rang, it was a "person" wanting him to get more spiritual...?
The reoccurring synchronicity is what he is speaking of, I believe.

Are we on the same page Iason?

Originally posted by autowrench
Why would God need AT&T?

god needs AT&T!!! I find that not too god like a method.

But, ET did phone home too, but only in the movies.


I did experience a connect with god once or so it felt so, in an ionizing "fast" gas nuclear accident release, and learned about volcanic issues and Jesus wasn't god. Jesus was nowhere to be found, just pure visual knowledge exchanged. It was like the Avitar Movie thing with almost electrical connections to a universal consciousness that happened as the air became highly ionized and conductive around me. It was about presevation of truth and God's hand in nature. You just suddenly knew all that was truth in religion, and that which was not.

From that experience, I was compelled to help address a number of serious problems in nature due to man's carelessness on the environment. This was the beginning for the bans on Freon to protect the Ozone Layer, and various other experiments on the problems of loss of the natural balances on Earth. I elevated the importance of the Ocean's Sulfur Cycle on the damage to the Environment from anthropologic effects. Soon phytoplankton imaging satellites were put up to map the damage factors using color detection.

It soon followed that I met adventurer Ron Wyatt, quite by happenstance he came to my area, and all manner of revelation discovery issues continued to fall into place to support the message from the nuclear accident experience that had some sort of opening for information exchange of the ages.

I took up an interest in volcanos, and have been to some of the tallest and even active ones that illustrated Moses' Burning Bush issue quite well. These natural events are just as impressive now as they were back then, just we don't worship them.

It all changed how man viewed the vulnerabilty of Earth to those that don't have good stewardship toward others. But from that experience, it has been easy to see the corruption of the churches as described in Revelations, as the churches won't teach of the Essenes or tell of the associations of Jahve to Pagan Volcano god issues. The issues of Freon and ocean problems linked to Revelations, but also to huge liabilties the various poor stewardship industries don't want to admit. But for many of us, we have been well into the Revelations theme for some time now, complete with the weather changes and ocean problems, it is just all kept quiet. Just as quiet as the issues of religions origin in volcano worship of Moses and Jethro.

Science has always provided the most truthful understanding for religion, but that level of understanding is highly suppressed in the organized churches. Just as they suppressed the Flat Earth theme and Earth being the center of the universe, the churches don't want religion taught using science. Then there exists no miracles, only huge deceptions.

Jahve/Yahweh is much in evidence these days for anyone that cares to look:
endtimesrevelations.wordpress.com...

It is the central tennat for Revelations, and what happens when man forgot to care for the Earth's balance.

Originally posted by autowrench

What is it not fair? Are you going to tell me God calling him on the phone is not a delusion? And yes, I said that. I said a lot more about it too, if I remember correctly. The terminology is used to describe that which the medical professional has no capacity to understand, or even process, in some cases. I have seen a great many things in my rather long life, full standing apparitions of the dead for one, astral traveled, and conversed with ETs, but never a phone call from anyone, or anything of a supernatural nature. Why would God need AT&T?

First, I apologize for making the statement that I did out of pure frustration, but statements like yours are the ones that keep people from wanting to share their testimonies with the world.

Secondly, a lot of us already know how far out there some of your stories are and I just don't understand how you think they are less delusional. Maybe you were offering advice because you were speaking from experience, but you didn't do it in a tactful manner. Either way, I've seen God work in stranger ways.

Thirdly, help me to understand how seeing apparitions of the dead and conversing with ET's is not supernatural? You make it sound like these things are typical worldly creatures and you think a phone ringing and a voice on the other end is supernatural? I don't get it.

Autowrench, maybe I should have said all of this in a U2U, but for some strange reason I felt the nagging urge to reach out to you about a week or so ago and I didn't do it, but I'm going to now.

Out of all the far fetched things I've seen you say over the last year, there were a couple of times that I actually felt touched by your sincere questions about God and Christianity and it appeared as though you were really digging for some true answers. Now that's not to say that you didn't blast some people along the way, but I think a deep part of you is truly trying to understand and find more meaning in your life like some of the other people that you've read about here.

I know there isn't possibly a single thing that I can say that you haven't heard or read before, so I'm just going to end this post with letting you know that I have prayed for you in the past and I will continue praying for you in your efforts and search for the truth. You may not like to hear me say that and maybe you don't even care, but I do! I care about you and your search for truth. You deserve to bask in the glory of God! God bless you!

Schuyler,
you might enjoy reading William James' The Varieties of Religious Experience, A Study in Human Nature. (free to read online at many different sites, and also still in print -- I linked just one of the online versions).

The entire book (from a series of lectures he gave as an American psychologist guest lecturer in Scotland right before 1900) contains oodles of personal testimonials on exactly that...that was his premise....
how people 'got' Christianity later in life.

I'll look forward to reading the responses here....was thinking of starting up the same one myself!!

Cheers,
wildtimes

reply to post by the2ofusr1

A voice in one's head is not a voice on a telephone. We could argue over this point until Hell freezes over, I will still think anyone who believes in the teachings of Christianity are brainwashed, and you will still think they are God's chosen few, and the smartest people on Earth. This is all I will say about it.

BTW, we had a group of friends over last night, one is a Christian, as is his wife. I posed the question to them all:
"someone picks up a ringing telephone, and the voice on the other end is God." Possible? Believable? Is the person deluded?
To a person that all said it didn't happen, that the person made it up. Now you were not there, but I would bet if that same question were put to the membership here, you would get similar results every time.

reply to post by Deetermined

Out of all the far fetched things I've seen you say over the last year, there were a couple of times that I actually felt touched by your sincere questions about God and Christianity and it appeared as though you were really digging for some true answers. Now that's not to say that you didn't blast some people along the way, but I think a deep part of you is truly trying to understand and find more meaning in your life like some of the other people that you've read about here.

I am touched, friend. I do have a lot of questions, I just could never see, or believe, how an intelligent human being can come to believe all of the stuff they cram down my throat? I took my questions to the minister, the deacon, and their wives. They could not answer my questions, but told me to read the Bible to find the answers. Really? After studying it for a time, I had a rather long list of questions, and they could not answer them either.
As for finding meaning in my life? I am practically overflowing with meaning! I have a nice family, a hot, young wife who thinks like I do, a son and daughter who thinks the world of me, and also think like I do. I have the skills to be able to fix my own computer, car, washer, dryer, television, and I can still make good money working, even though I am permanently disabled. I come and go as I please, will live as long as I want, and die when I am ready, or simply just go back home. The Divine Mother provides for me just what I need, when I need it, and is is always with me, Her loving grace surrounds and keeps me warm and safe.

What more could I ask for, or need to make my life meaningful?
(Check your U2s)

reply to post by autowrench
First off I don't think Christians are the smartest people on earth ..actually God says He takes the weak to make strong ..the simple things to confound the things which seem great to man .... I cant know if what happened happened the way he described it took place but I have no reason to disbelieve him ...Your 2 Christian guest ,,do they believe that Jesus rose from the dead ? There are things in life that seem crazy but are actually true ..Quantum Mechanics being one of them ..Find someone that doesn't think that sounds crazy ..But then ask yourself is it true ...Have a good day

Originally posted by autowrench
reply to post by Deetermined

 

Autowrench, I don't think that's a very fair thing for you to say when you've admitted on ATS that a professional told you that they thought you suffered from mental illness.

What is it not fair? Are you going to tell me God calling him on the phone is not a delusion? And yes, I said that. I said a lot more about it too, if I remember correctly. The terminology is used to describe that which the medical professional has no capacity to understand, or even process, in some cases. I have seen a great many things in my rather long life, full standing apparitions of the dead for one, astral traveled, and conversed with ETs, but never a phone call from anyone, or anything of a supernatural nature. Why would God need AT&T?

You've seen full-standing apparitions of the dead, astral traveled, and conversed with ETs, but you don't buy into telephone conversations? For the record the guy did not say God called him; he said he heard a voice on the telephone. In any case, your own experiences have taught you there is something more out there than the material world including seeing dead people and the ability for your consciousness to leave your material body. That's pretty impressive, so I don't understand why you would dismiss a phone call. A whole lot of people would dismiss your own experiences as delusional and tell you to get help. Bear with me a sec here.

You may have heard of Spiricom, a device built with the idea of talking with the recently dead. John Fuller wrote a book about it, "The Ghost of 29 Megacycles." (1985). It used a combination of frequency generators and HAM radio equipment. I built one, the functional equivalent. No one, including me, has ever made one work. It is very controversial, of course. But the point is that it is POSSIBLE that the next world is very close to us and that it is related to frequency and vibration. I've heard it said that the next world is "as close as your television set." In other words, it shares our space. It's some sort of dimensional thing. That's why, for example, ET gets upset when we light off a nuke. Those are so powerful that they affect the next world, too.

Now, getting a phone call is really not that unusual. There are many stories about people receiving phone calls from recently departed relatives. Hundreds. There's the whole EVP phenomenon. If someone wanted to communicate, they might be able to tap into a phone, which works on low-powered electrical frequency and vibrations, more easily than other methods. The phone is the "medium" in the exchange. I personally think computers are ripe for this kind of interaction. It doesn't take a lot of physical power to put a character on a screen. You just have to know how to do it. The theme has been used in a few movies. Is some of this delusional? Oh, probably. It seems to me the EVP method of scanning radio frequencies to capture words, for example, is completely bogus.

But the idea that the next world has a physical component is not unusual at all. It has to. Indeed, this is the area where science and religion will find common ground eventually. Science doesn't believe it now and religion doesn't understand the specifics, but it has a general idea. Together they could figure it out.

Today's atheistic condemnation of Chrstianity and other religions is so superficial as to be nauseous. People will laugh at the story of Adam & Eve and the talking snake and proclaim, "How could anyone believe such nonsense!" And they stand there so smug and superior. And my reaction to that is, are you seriously that stupid? Do you seriously think Christianity is about talking snakes? Do you think educated Christian theologians, people like Albert Schweitzer, for example, believed in talking snakes?

If you were to visit modern seminaries today you would find a group of people who are much harder on Christian mythology than you are, and much more knowledgeable. They know that Christianity is not about talking snakes. In fact, you would be surprised at what they don't believe. What I think we need to do is condemn superficial criticism and dig a little deeper for the truth.

Originally posted by Iason321...
I prayed to God for a sign that He existed, and the hospital phone rang, and it was a voice, asking me why I didnt believe in God, and if I believed in God now? every time I would say yes, then thought to myself no, im going nuts, etc , the voice would repeat again, in a more stern voice, if I believed in God or not. This happened several times, and while it was happening, the TV in the room was flickering and changing colors, nothing else in the room was different though, I was not hallucinating, I was not under the influence of drugs or withdrawing from any drugs....
...

I've had some strange things happen to me also, so for describing it.

reply to post by schuyler


Watching those with the most money giving the horn signs and Madonna's half time ritual after reading L. A. Marzulli's two books and watching a couple of his videos and re-reading the Torah, Koran and Christian Bible.

I use to laugh at The Bible, Koran, Torah and many of the other various books held sacred with the same stories as being fairy tales.

I'm not laughing anymore.

Some of what Marzulli says makes all too much sense and David Jacob's book, "The Threat" also confirms my suspicions.

It's now smack in your face and right under our noses.

My husband says it's all "entertainment, stepping the debauchery up a notch", I don't think so. Entertainment and the state of our planet have now gone beyond sensationalism or accidental.

Now consider (and I use to be pro choice) abortion..............the most innocent of the innocent sacrificed, tens of millions.

Wars and rumors of war.

The entire planet and her inhabitants are going through some pretty strange times.

This will be my one and only reply.

Any trolling, snide, rude or witty remarks will be ignored.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

I've live almost six decades.

50 of those years as a non Christian. (Stopped being a Christian February 23, 1962 as I watched my mother's coffin lowered into the ground at age 9, being orphaned and going through the next 11 years being abused multiple ways).

It's now become so obvious that something wicked this way comes.

What people deem "magick" is basically opening up various portals, leading to other dimensions (and those who dwell there in) via the manipulation of vibrational frequencies.

reply to post by schuyler


I apologize in advance if this is off-topic, but I have a fundamental question. How do people know that it's really Jesus, the Holy Spirit, or God they experience/talk to? There always seems to be a "supernatural" religious event that leads to the acceptance of the Christian faith. I can think of a host of other "agents" that could make those phenomena appear.

How can one be certain it's God? How can one be certain it's not the devil keeping you away from the true Muslim faith? (Just a hypothetical).