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Philosophy/religion

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How do people become Christians?

57 replies

Naijagal · 05/09/2022 11:55

I’m interested in what a wide range of people think is the turning point that makes a person a Christian.
According to the Bible, Everybody ( no matter what they are called) who trusts in Jesus (and all that He’s done) will be saved.
Christian as a name wasn’t there from the beginning but that’s what people began calling people who trusted in and practiced Jesus teachings.

OP posts:
Namenic · 09/09/2022 15:40

Pray - ask God to help you. Read the Bible. Listen and be open to God. Find a church and other Christians to pray with and support you.

Yes - be aware of more cult-like organisations. Especially ones that seem to promise prosperity or pressure people. But also be aware that God can call people to be Christians in different ways - John the Baptist was different from Jesus and Paul and Peter and Mary. I guess Catholics would say that Protestants put their own individual interpretation on the Bible - which may be biased and can change from person to person. They would say that tradition that has been handed down by the Church is a more stable framework for interpreting the Bible. Protestants might say that tradition may sometimes seem far from the text of the Bible. I believe these are small issues - I am a Protestant, but I believe Catholics are my brothers and sisters and would happily pray with them and respect their views. I believe Samaritans and Jews did not always see eye to eye in Jesus’ time - but it is how we love God and one another that is important.

Vincitveritas · 09/09/2022 18:53

I am a Protestant, but I believe Catholics are my brothers and sisters and would happily pray with them and respect their views.

Yes to this! I would agree with @Namenic about praying, studying the bible and finding a church for worship, prayer and fellowship with other Christians. The last one however is easier said than done as there are a great many different denominations of Christianity and some of them contradict each other and vary widely in biblical interpretation and practice.

As I said before, baptism is an important step, with a public declaration of faith in Jesus. Repentance of and turning away from sin is another step which should translate into a change of lifestyle and behaviour.

Aside from the things Saint Paul listed and the ten commandments, speaking personally, there are things which I avoid doing. That is to say, I try not to do them as a Christian out of respect for God and endevouring to be more like Jesus:

Getting drunk/ doing drugs
Having tattoos and excessive piercings (I do have pierced ears)
Gambling
Swearing
Superstition
Wearing anything too revealing
Working on Sundays where possible
Celebrating Halloween
Anything in the home/ jewellery/ clothing depicting other religious symbols or images such as the Ankh, pentagram, Buddha etc.
Materialism
Saying "For God's sake!" etc.
Music with anti-Christian themes or lyrics such as Marilyn Manson
Horror films or anything with gratuitous sex and/or violence
Occultism and New Age/ Eastern religious practices such as transcendental meditation, tai chi etc.
Reading horoscopes
Hypnosis

Vincitveritas · 10/09/2022 01:44

@Idontknowwhatto This is Doreen Virtue's testimony, I'm sorry it's so long but I didn't want to leave anything out:

"I was born and raised in a false church - Christian Science - we'd go to Unity sometimes, but basically it was Christian Science and it's a completely false gospel. It teaches that Jesus is a created being, the first 'Christed' person that we are to aspire to and that God is basically a genie who will grant your wishes and give you health. My mother had always told my brother and I that we were Christians because of Christian Science and I went right into the New Age; basically I was teaching Christian Science in the New Age and became the top selling New Age author at the top selling New Age publishing house. I don't say that to brag, I say that to bring glory to God because to be saved out of that deception is miraculous. What I was best known for in the New Age was called angel cards and they were based on tarot. Tarot scared me - it had the devil on it, it had pentagrams - I didn't like any of those things, so I created a deck of cards that didn't have any kind of evil symbolism, but still was used for divination. After a while I think I had about 25 different decks of cards for sale and I would give workshops around the world and on videos where I'd be demonstrating the cards or teaching other people how to use them. I didn't think anything I was doing was wrong, I hadn't read the whole Bible, I thought that Jesus approved of everything we did as long as we were happy and positive; that's what we were told. We were also told there was no such thing as sin and no such thing as hell or the devil, that the crucifixion was a metaphor and not literal. It was January 2015 when I first had, kind of this bubble of narcissism that I was in, where I thought that any thoughts I had must be from God. I had that popped - I was pierced by the truth - in January 2015 when I was driving and listening to Christian Satellite Network and Alastair Begg came on with a sermon called Itching Ears about 2 Timothy 4 and he talks about in the end times, that people will want their itching ears tickled by false teachers and he described what a false teacher did to give false hope. As he talked it was the first time I'd ever been convicted for being a false teacher and it just completely shattered my belief that I was supposed to give hope to people even if I didn't really believe it. I used to tell people, "Oh, everything's going to be fine, the worst is behind you." and I realised, listening to Alistair that I was not helping people doing that. I really consciously changed, I was still a New Age teacher, I was still spreading deception because I was decieved, but after hearing his talk it pointed me to go to church which ultimately pointed me to the Bible and when I got to reading Deuteronomy 18:10-12, that's when I saw a list of things that I was doing; fortune telling, divination, mediumship, interpreting omens. The passage says that God sees people who do those things as an abomination - not the actions, but the people. I was blown away by reading this, I thought before then that I was (I know it sounds ridiculous) 'helping' God in the New Age. A lot of false teachers think they're helping God because we seem to be comforting people, making them happy, we seem to be bringing healing to them, but it's all demonic and we are blind to that truth. So, when I read Deuteronomy 18:10-12, that's when I finally realised that I was an absolutely wretched sinner who'd been spreading lies - destructive lies - for 22 years in the New Age, that could send people to hell. It just broke me and I just got on my knees and started crying, probably did it for about 3 days; kept saying to God "I didn't know, I didn't know, I'm so sorry! I had no idea I was defying you, I had no idea that I was breaking your law, that I was sinning". I just kept saying, "I don't know what I'm doing, please, please Lord Jesus take over my life." and praying that he wouldn't send me to hell, or anyone to hell for my false teachings and that's when I was saved."

Ravensclawdropout · 10/09/2022 05:29

@Naijagal

Apologies I didn't see your further question regarding Baptism.
First theologically we believe in Baptism because Jesus commanded us to be baptized.

However there can be circumstances when Baptism is impossible for some reason when a person desires it or that they have received Jesus in their hearts and would get baptised if they understood it was necessary. This is called Baptism of desire, the thief on the Cross would be an example of this.

The third form of Baptism is by blood, this is when someone is martyred (murdered) because of their love of Jesus before they were able to be Baptized. This happened in the persecutions of the early Church when catecumens (those preparing for Baptism by being catechized) were persecuted and killed before their Baptism.

The normative form of becoming a Christian however is to be Baptized with water as Jesus and his disciples taught us.

www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/is-baptism-really-necessary

speakout · 10/09/2022 06:49

Doreen Virtue is a hypocrite, still making money from her New Age products, and maligning the whole pagan community that she was once a part of.
These christian testimonies leave me cold they usually insult large groups of people, while showing how god has "forgiven" them for their "worldly" choices.
For many paganism is a religion- and christians seem to take great pleasure in telling these people thay will go to hell or are playing with evil.
Would you say these things to a Muslim or a Jew?
These are words of hate, and have justified the torture and murder of many thousands of women across europe during the witch trials.

Idontknowwhatto · 10/09/2022 08:17

speakout · 10/09/2022 06:49

Doreen Virtue is a hypocrite, still making money from her New Age products, and maligning the whole pagan community that she was once a part of.
These christian testimonies leave me cold they usually insult large groups of people, while showing how god has "forgiven" them for their "worldly" choices.
For many paganism is a religion- and christians seem to take great pleasure in telling these people thay will go to hell or are playing with evil.
Would you say these things to a Muslim or a Jew?
These are words of hate, and have justified the torture and murder of many thousands of women across europe during the witch trials.

It was Jesus who said 'I am the way, the truth and the life. Nobody comes to the father except through me'. It was Jesus who stated that only belief in him leads to salvation, so yes, that extends to any faith system that doesn't believe that he is the son of God who died for our sins. By its nature, Christianity is the 'narrow way'that Jesus spoke about. Yes that is offensive to people who don't believe in him. Jesus was very offensive at the time and said his followers would be hated too.

According to Scripture, God hates witchcraft. I'm not suggesting burning anyone at the stake, but there is a rose tinted view that modern day witchcraft is just people who are in tune with nature, know about herbs, burn sage and make tinctures to heal the sick. It's not always so benign, in that witchcraft does exist in certain cultures, where horrendous sacrifices are offered or where people are cursed. It can be very harmful. I don't take any pleasure in telling anyone anything unpleasant about their beliefs: why would I? Nobody wants to hear it and nobody on the receiving end of it ever believes it , anyway. If anyone wants to ask me questions about my faith IRL, I'm more than happy to answer them but I certainly don't seek opportunities to go around pointing my finger at anyone.

As for Doreen Virtue still making money, she did a video answering questions about that. I can't remember what she said but whatever it was satisfied my curiosity at the time. Sorry for the lamest response ever but my baby was up all night and I haven't had enough caffeine yet.

@Vincitveritas thanks for that 😀

Vincitveritas · 10/09/2022 08:18

@speakout From Doreen's website:

Q: Why are your old heretical products still for sale?

A: I don’t sell the old products; other people sell them against my express wishes. I am working to get them off the market place. If they were self-published items, I would have immediately removed them all. Unfortunately, they were licensed to other companies before I was saved. I don’t know how to revoke these licenses, beyond taking legal action.
My former USA publisher, from what I understand (they don’t speak with me anymore after they fired me in November 2017 for my Christianity), is selling the old stock of the old products. They have removed my name from products that I co-authored, and my other products are going out of print.

Q: Do you receive money from your old products?

A: Yes, I receive a fraction of the money that I was paid prior to my conversion Christianity. The money goes to pay the enormous amount of back taxes owed from my prior income when I was a new age teacher. We gave refunds for the first two years following my conversion, and then we could no longer afford to give any more refunds.

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