Belief

What convinced you Christians out there to believe in and accept Jesus Christ as your savior? Just wondering.

Knowing that I was a sinner in need of repentance and a Saviour of whom there is no other since He is God.

Seeing the power of God in operation, seeing miracles done in Jesus' name, like healings and exorcisms as spoken of in the Bible, hearing the Lord's voice, seeing angels, seeing and dealing with demonic forces in Jesus' name, etc, that are all consistent with what the Bible says.

If I can do these things in the name of Jesus in accordance with the Word, then the Bible MUST be true.

Partly because I grew up in the church and so accepted the idea. That changed by teaching a Sunday School class for high school age folk. Their questions caused me to re-examine what I had always accepted without much critical thinking.

For me, I believe Jesus is the Christ due to various experiences in my life which I believe to be by God's intervention.

Sincerely,

OldChurchGuy

If a knew God I could love him but I do not. That does not keep me from loving my neighbor as myself (or at least giving it a good shot).

I hope I did not imply that those who do not know God do not do this. I tried to be clear on that and clearly believe that all people should share a common humanity. I also believe the scriptures are clear in not definitively judging any particular individual (for ex. Matthew 25:31-46). It is also in this particular spirit that we as Christians have an obligation to witness the Gospel even in a casual manner like this and hope another will receive it but not assume the worst if someone does not receive it when common humanity need be understood.

No man or woman can love his/her neighbor as themself without the Lord. Self will always prevail. It is not in man's carnal nature to give up self for another in the greatest sense of the word. You can try and succeed on your own a little, but when push comes to shove, a person will always choose self, unless that person is transformed into the image of Jesus, which is what the New Testament is all about.

According to your theory Bobinator every fire fighter and police officer in the world has to be Christian. Because the only way someone could think to put their very life on the line for someone else is if they were transformed into the image of Jesus. Sorry Bobinator I don't buy it, I have more faith in my fellow man and myself than that.

If I can modify the question by removing the word "your" - Jesus Christ is the world's Lord and Saviour (whether the world knows it or not). You wouldn't have been able to sensibly say Tiberias Caesar is my Lord - with the implication that he may not be yours - the Lordship is complete. Describing Jesus as "my Lord and saviour" puts a individualistic slant on the thing that would be completely alien to early Christianity.

That out of the way: I grew up in a nominally Christian family (church at Christmas, Easter and Harvest, and God not spoken about much the rest of the time) and a nominally Church of England primary school. As a young kid I choose to attend Sunday School at the village's evangelical independent church, and at the age of about 11 I started choosing to go to the Church of England church in the village. Neither for any very clear reason. Drifted away during my time at university, but God kept calling me back and eventually returned - again to the Church of England. Eventually got around to reading through the bible for myself, getting to grips with what it's all about, and getting more and more committed. It's all been very much about God's call, and my (reluctant) response, rather than any initiative on my part.

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"Goodness is stronger than evil,
love is stronger than hate,
light is stronger than darkness,
life is stronger than death,
victory is ours through him who loved us."
(+Desmond Tutu)

This is as close as the world can come to the kind of sacrifice that all Christians are to make. The world uses a worldly glory as a recruiting tool to fill the ranks of the military, fire and police depts, etc. The Christian faith's sacrifice has absolutely no earthly glory in it.

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"No one ever turns against logic, until logic turns against them"
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