My Testimony on my Salvation Experience!

[Saint_of_Me]

Hello All. And God Bless. Good to be here. I am a new member and wanted to share my testimony. I am a Born Again Christian after a lifetime of ardent atheism and sinning.

This is what happened to me a little over 18 months ago.......

Well I won't go too deep into it since from my experience I know full well that most people's "testimonies" on their God Experience, or their Getting Saved tends to bore others. Especially non-believers. But suffice to say I was in a miserable state; suicidal; gun in hand, ready to end it all. In a crummy motel room in downtown San Jose, CA.

I had left my wife about a week before. I had lost a business I had--a CrossFit Box i co-owned--from my own recklessness and sinful behavior. (hookers, drugs, all that cliche stuff! Ha!) For some reason out of desperation I picked up a bible. Part of my story here is it was given to me about an hour earier by a guy I never saw before or after downstairs outside my motel. I wont go into how he looked because it too is too clicjhe on how a human angel (I know!) would look. (but he did!)

He goes..."Take this...and do it fast. You look like you need it!) (I really did not look too bad. I am well-groomed and fit and was dressed in pressed jeans and a sports coat).

So I am upstairs, I had a couple shots of chilled vodka (only two! I was not drunk!) and I loaded up the Taurus .38. I opened the bible at random and came to the part where, when Jesus finally expires on the cross the "temple curtain tore in two." (I know this is a metaphor, btw--more on that later.)
So i re-read it over and over. Weird, how it struck me. Obsessed me. I had read it before and considered it just another fabrication by a gospel writer. (I think it was Mark).
My heart-rate speeded-up. I get a ringing in my ears. The room gets bright like a dimmer switch is rotated ion but the light is orange.
Now the good part..the curtain to my window, well, splits. like a laser was cutting it from top to bottom. I actually held it in my hand to try and figure out where the light-laser was coming from but it would just pass through my hand with no pain. I even smelled smoke. And the curtain DID smoke. My smoke alarm in the room went off!

I look outside and that bible guy waves at me ans walks away. I sit in my bed. The curtain is now pure bright orange light, but in two pieces. And the bible is open to that page on the bed and there is a trace--a path of light form the curtain to the page and it lit it up. So I go to the bathroom to splash water on my face and to throw some on the curtain! Ha! but when I come to, t everything is normal, except that curtain is torn int two, still. Wit the edges burnt!

I was overcome with a feeling of total elation and calm. Everything made sense. My state of being and how to get out of my misery. Well, it was gone. it was a narcotic feeling. A state of arousal. Peace with the world. Again, yeah, this all sounds cliche but I'm explaining to the best I can.

I sudden became very tired. Went to sleep and slept for a good 10 hours. When I got up the same feeling of elation was there.Total rejuvenation. I had an insatiable yearning to know God better and read the Word as often as I could. Which I still do. I got back on my feet within a week. Got my business back, everything. (but I did get divorced).

The motel manager accused my of burning the curtain and I had to par for it!

Thank you for the opportunity to tell you my Story. I will be more than happy to expand on any parts of it or answer any questions or critiques.

[Divine Insight]

So it's a good thing that MY God, the REAL God, is noting like Yahweh. Who has been anthropomorphized to such an absurd level--endowed with the most base of human frailties and shortcomings--so as to be akin to a comic book villain.

So as a Born Again Christian who do you believe Jesus was if not the Son of Yahweh?

Also, speaking of hardcore fundies who support every jot and tittle of the OT here's a quote that has supposedly been attributed to one.

Matthew 5:17-18 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

It would be pretty hard to be more of a fundamentalist than to support every jot and tittle of the Old Testament Law. Law that supposedly came from Mr. Yahweh, the comic book villain to use your own description.

[Saint_of_Me]

[Replying to post 20 by Zzyzx]

Well, sure, admitted: when I say "My God" I can offer no proof that the God I think and feel has intervened in my life, and the one I pray to, is without a doubt the "true" or "real" God. Like you say, there are many ideas out there about this.

But I think one of the best ways to discern what God IS, is to begin with a list of things we know he is NOT. This is a sort of "process of elimination" methodology. Some religions do in fact use it in their Theodicy. (the study of the Nature of God.). I know for one, the Eastern Orthodox Church does this. (A church I like very much, BTW).

So I can say that I certainly do NOT think my God is the grossly anthropomorphized Yahweh sort of Deity. Ergo, my God is NOT: jealous, but secure in His standing. He is NOT petty, but rather is fair and Merciful.

He is NOT a nitpicker for His followers to engage in following trivial practices like not eating pork or bottom feeder fishes of the sea, or working on certain days of the week. Or using the perfect words and phrases and praises when Praying to Him. I talk to my God like I would my Father. Or personal confidant.

My God is NOT vengeful, but will give us chance after chance to follow Him. Those who won't will attract their own punishment without Him having to send them plagues are rain down Fire and Brimstone type Wrath.

My God knows the Bible is NOT his inerrant Word, but only a collection of ancient scrolls written by a Bronze Age tribal peoples attempting to convey their own personal ideas about him. And my God certainly is aware that these folks all had their own biases, flaws and prejudices.

Ya see.......MY God rocks! LOL

God Bless.

[Zzyzx]

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[Replying to post 22 by Saint_of_Me]

Of course everyone is entitled to think / believe whatever they wish about gods and their proposed attributes and characteristics. It is a personal matter and an opinion – neither of which mean much in public discussion or debate.

[puddleglum]

[Replying to post 22 by Saint_of_Me]

My God knows the Bible is NOT his inerrant Word, but only a collection of ancient scrolls written by a Bronze Age tribal peoples attempting to convey their own personal ideas about him. And my God certainly is aware that these folks all had their own biases, flaws and prejudices.

For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
(2 Peter 1:21 ESV)

The men who wrote the Bible had biases, flaws, and prejudices, but the Holy Spirit overrode these when he inspired them to write the Bible. As a result the Bible is inerrant even though it was written by fallible humans.

[Divine Insight]

[Replying to post 22 by Saint_of_Me]

My God knows the Bible is NOT his inerrant Word, but only a collection of ancient scrolls written by a Bronze Age tribal peoples attempting to convey their own personal ideas about him. And my God certainly is aware that these folks all had their own biases, flaws and prejudices.

For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
(2 Peter 1:21 ESV)

The men who wrote the Bible had biases, flaws, and prejudices, but the Holy Spirit overrode these when he inspired them to write the Bible. As a result the Bible is inerrant even though it was written by fallible humans.

Is this why people who claim to believe in this Biblical God see this holy inspired text as describing a God who appears to be a "Comic Book Villain"?

If we are to accept that these texts are inerrant, then we must conclude that is it is also inerrant to recognize this God is a joke.

Why people continually post numbered verses from these texts is beyond me. All they continually do is reveal the outlandish nature of the texts. Quoting from these texts does nothing to support them or vindicate them in any way.

Here's one of my favorite verses from this comic book:

Deuteronomy 25:11-12 ESV

“When men fight with one another and the wife of the one draws near to rescue her husband from the hand of him who is beating him and puts out her hand and seizes him by the private parts, then you shall cut off her hand. Your eye shall have no pity."

According to the verse you have posted this is the infallible inspired word of the Holy Spirit.

Is this the loving God everyone is drooling to serve for all eternity?

[Saint_of_Me]

[Replying to post 24 by puddleglum]

Yeah..sure.

I have heard this all before.

Riddle me this, Batman: if the Bible was inspired or corrected by the Holy Spirit..why so many flaws. Errors? Contradictions? Mistakes? Here is a partial list.

Don't know about you, but My God is a FAR better editor than whoever did the Bible! LOL

http://www.thethinkingatheist.com/page/ ... radictions

[puddleglum]

[Replying to post 24 by puddleglum]

Yeah..sure.

I have heard this all before.

Riddle me this, Batman: if the Bible was inspired or corrected by the Holy Spirit..why so many flaws. Errors? Contradictions? Mistakes? Here is a partial list.

Don't know about you, but My God is a FAR better editor than whoever did the Bible! LOL

http://www.thethinkingatheist.com/page/ ... radictions

Did you actually study all the contradictions to see if they were real? Here is the explanation for the first one.

A Young Earth?
Genesis 1:16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.
The stars gave light to the earth immediately, although the closest star, Alpha Centauri, is 4.3 light years away. So the very first star light would have taken 4.3 years to reach earth. The light we see from the Andromeda Galaxy takes 2.2 million years to reach earth, which also debunks the argument that the earth is only 6,000-10,000 years old.

Genesis 1:16 says God made two lights and set them in the sky but it doesn't say he made the bodies that produced the light at this time. The fact that light appeared on earth on the first day shows the sun existed then. The earth had been in darkness before, which shows that the earth's atmosphere blocked the light from getting through. On the first day the atmosphere cleared enough to allow light to reach the earth but not to allow the sun to be seen. On the fourth day the atmosphere cleared up enough so that the sun, moon, and stars became visible.

The Bible teaches that the earth is only a few thousand years old. It says nothing about the age of the rest of the universe. You can read more about this here:

https://clydeherrin.wordpress.com/2014/ ... -universe/

If you want explanations for some of the other I recommend that you go to this site:

https://carm.org/

and click on Bible Difficulties on the left of the page.

If you are going to read what an atheist site says about the Bible you should also see what Christian sites say about it so you can hear both sides.

[Divine Insight]

Don't know about you, but My God is a FAR better editor than whoever did the Bible! LOL

If that's the case, then what book did your God edit?

Also, why is your "Testimony on your Salvation Experience" based upon the Bible that someone handed you?

For some reason out of desperation I picked up a bible. Part of my story here is it was given to me about an hour earier by a guy I never saw before or after downstairs outside my motel.

I opened the bible at random and came to the part where, when Jesus finally expires on the cross the "temple curtain tore in two.

I sit in my bed. The curtain is now pure bright orange light, but in two pieces. And the bible is open to that page on the bed and there is a trace--a path of light form the curtain to the page and it lit it up.

You've just given a testimony that it was the Bible that you opened to the page of the temple curtain being torn in two, and then this God magically burned your curtains in two, and then with his "Finger of Laser Light" he directed your attention back to the page of the Bible where you read about the temple curtain being torn in two?

But now you are rejecting the God of the Bible?

Doesn't this bring your entire "Testimony Experience" into question?

You've just claimed to have a very powerful personal experience of a miracle that had clearly been performed by the "Biblical God", and now you are totally renouncing the "Biblical God" as being an inept editor?

Can you blame anyone if they find your testimony, and follow up comments, confusing and highly self-contradictory?

[Zzyzx]

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[Replying to post 28 by Divine Insight]

It is a bit surprising to see people claim to have developed their religious beliefs "on their own" or "independent of the Bible" or "right from God" -- and then parrot the Bible with, perhaps, a few additional twists or innovations.

Where do they think their religious ideas originate? Where did they learn about God or Jesus or other biblical characters and events?

[Saint_of_Me]

[Replying to post 28 by Divine Insight]

Oh, I do not reject the entire Bible. Please make no mistake about that.

Some of the stories are undoubtedly true and accurate insofar as factual accounts. I just happen to believe that there is a LOT of Allegory and Metaphor in the Bible. And while I am not a biblical literalist by any means, I feel that, like my signature says, "The Bible is not a book of literal truths, but rather, of ETERNAL Truths."

But yeah, sure, here I am a Biologist, working on a post-grad degree, a man of science and what I consider to be a "Liberal Christian" who denies an inerrant bible, but who also claims to have had a Salvation experience in which God intervened in my life in such a way as to almost duplicate a biblical passage--that of the Temple Curtain being Torn in two when JC gave up the Ghost on the Cross. I admit this is seemingly a paradox. Or even makes me look sort of hypocritical.

Yet...I stand by it. I truly related to you and all the good people here on DC the closest and most honest account of my Saving Experience as I can recall. I believe it happened to me exactly as I said. 110%. I was not hallucinating. I was not under the influence of any mind-altering substances. And I most certainly am not just making the whole thing up for fun! LOL

So why? Did God use that sort of Imagery on me? Straight out of the Bible?

Well, I think God works with us, and intervenes with us, in ways He thinks will be the most effective. The most persuasive. I was of course familiar with this Temple Curtain passage, even though I was an Atheist at the time. But I WAS raised Catholic, and even back then, when I was Saved, had a pretty damn good education on the Bible. Maybe even more so than your average self-proclaimed Christian. As an atheist I have shot-down Bible school grads and biblical fundamentalists with my interpretations of the Bible, in past arguments.

I always enjoyed the NT far more than the OT. And the Temple Curtain story in Matthew was on of my favorites. I understood what it really meant. How it was a sign that the Kingdom of God was for ALL--not just the orthodox Jews any more, once Jesus died. Recall who witnessed the tearing of the Curtain in Matt: a Roman soldier. A gentile. The Curtain was a sign for HIM! It showed that the Holy of Holies was not "off limits" anymore to his ilk.

I was of that ilk up to when I was Saved.

So I feel that God chose this imagery for me. Had I not been familiar with that story, or been so but hated it, and He STILL wanted to Save me (I have no idea why he did, BTW--such a sinner was I)--well, He would have used some other sign.

I think. This is all only my own humble opinion. I profess to know no more about God's ways than anybody. ALL I can ever offer is my ideas.

Thanks, and God Bless.