Belief

[XChristian]

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

 

[Lukaris]

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

 

[Bobinator]

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.

 

[OldChurchGuy]

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

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

 

[XChristian]

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).

 

[Lukaris]

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.

 

[Bobinator]

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).

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.

 

[XChristian]

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.

 

[ebia]

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

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.

 

[Stinker]

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.

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.

 

[XChristian]

Stinker,
So you honestly believe that unless someone is Christian they cannot feel empathy for others or honestly, truly want to help/protect (to the point of sacrificing their life) others? Ever?

 

[DerSchweik]

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[Maranatha27]

Israel

 

[XChristian]

Hmmm. So no inspirational stories of how you found religion? I wanted to believe, at one time. I never saw Angels or dealt with demons like Bobinator. God never answered my prayers. Which is fine, but if he really wants people to believe in him you would think he would be a little more proactive about it. I've never experienced anything that could validate the existence of the God of the Bible or any other God. I guess that's why I'm a skeptic. The whole needing a reason to believe thing.

 

[XChristian]

This is disappointing. I was expecting more than this. Noone really answered my question. I know why I believe in gravity. I know why I believe 1 + 1 = 2. I know why I believe the Earth orbits the Sun. I know why I believe the Earth is round. If you trully believe something you should know why right? Why is it no believers where able to give me a solid answer for why they believe in God? I guess they don't know themselves.

 

[ebia]

This is disappointing. I was expecting more than this. Noone really answered my question. I know why I believe in gravity. I know why I believe 1 + 1 = 2. I know why I believe the Earth orbits the Sun. I know why I believe the Earth is round. If you trully believe something you should know why right? Why is it no believers where able to give me a solid answer for why they believe in God? I guess they don't know themselves.

Two points - try telling us why you believe each of those things - the exercise may well illustrate quite a few things.

Secondly, a more comparible question might be "I know why I am in love". If that does apply to you over someone, you might try answering that one.

 

[Lyle]

it was conviction for me. More logical as the days grew on. I accepted it as i was little and gave it more and more thought as i got older. it started out like this, or more like this, I realized that I was sinner and needed forgiveness. Ok, that sounds trait and over done. I had done things that displeased God, even small things, and could not make it up to Him. I imagined it in my mind as a blackboard that I had drawn on and could not erase. I needed someone who could erase it for me, because I couldn't and i knew it was wrong before God.

As i grew older I began to form a more logical order of Christianity. God, who is absolute, holds an absolute standard. He is a judge. being absolute He must be absolute in every aspect of who He is. The Bible says 'God is love', but the context is to Christians. The context to the world is more 'it is a fearful things to fall into the hands of a living God.' I, through my actions, had defied God;s perfect law. Being absolute is is absolutely pure. No sin can be before Him. None, Notta, Not one imperfection. Since I was already muddy with sin I couldn't clean myself from it.

BOOM

Here is where Jesus falls into place. God is merciful completely, but also just. This was the divine delimma that has limped through the Old testament to the point of Christ. This was the solution. God (the Son) laid aside His divine power and was made just like people, except without sin. he was without sin. This means He was not dirty, even though everyone else was. if God's justice was a hammer, then Jesus stood between me and God and took that blow. Twisted, huh? It gets better.

Jesus was perfect and spotless so He took on Himself the sin of the world. The One who was perfect actually became sin. He died for the sins of the world. Sin had now been put to death. On the third day He came back to life so He not only paid for sin, but He reversed the killing effect on the human soul.. Problem solved. God's absolute justice was now taken care of and His absolute mercy could now run free (so to speak). This way God does not contradict God and He can now become love to mankind. Here's the catch... Like an umbrella, the sacrifice Jesus made in absorbing the
wrath of God only covers the people who choose to stand under it. The Bible is about One man, Jesus. The Old testament points forward, the New Testament points back.

The free will thing is now up to us.


This is just a small part of the logical conclusion I came to. Briefly stated so I don't go into detail about things that are not relevant to your question. I can atest to the changing power that the Holy Spirit has in my life. I am not who I was and i am becoming more like who Jesus was. It's not some mediocre self-help ideal, but a changed life that comes from a changed heart. I have seen people change completely. From bitter and angry to gentle.

it is a process of growth. it just makes the most sense also.

 

[theVirginian]

This is the short version.

http://foru.ms/showpost.php?p=34990951&postcount=2

 

[Ryft]

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

The answer to this question is not so cut-and-dried. There were several steps between the atheism I began with and the Christian faith I now live and affirm, and they were not easy steps to take. It was a long and complicated process that overturned my entire belief system more than once (not even my Christian faith is stagnant).

Each step, however, generally followed a similar pattern: being called to acknowledge and account for serious problems with the beliefs I affirmed (e.g. P is inconsistent with itself or with Q, or perhaps R is intrinsically incoherent) and then finally accepting the superiority of a competing view (whether that was a superiority in epistemology, ethics, ontology, etc.). I have always maintained an open-minded skepticism, always willing to admit I could be wrong about something if it can be shown to me, and never closed-minded toward alternative views, willing to accept them if they are more rational, more consistent, more robust, etc.

As my contact with Christian theology increased, so did my exposure to the Bible and the message of Jesus Christ. The more you hang around a person, the more you get to know them; and the more I got to know Jesus Christ, the greater my admiration for him became until it eventually turned into a transforming love for him. My journey to God was cognitive, an intellectual journey of abstractions, and my journey to Christ was affective, an emotional journey of personal relationship.


~ Ryft

 

[brinny]

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

I appreciate you asking. At first it was because I was afraid of going to hell.