My aim of starting this thread is for Christians to share their stories of how they came to know Christ. It is not a thread for arguments, just one to share how we got saved, and perhaps we can move on to describe how we have been growing in Christ. I'll start with my story which by the way was inspired when a friend on this forum asked me to explain how I came to know Christ...............

I'm waiting for your story

How I came to be an atheist:

I was a "nominal christian" growing up (My parents got born again when I was about 7 years old) and gradually I began to have doubts about what I had been raised to believe. As I grew, I saw hypocrisy in church; Pastors literally fighting over money, people speaking in tongues and at the same time - while "in the spirit" stealing bibles in church, I even saw a female pastor who was teaching us about purity then secretly kissing and smooching with another guy in church who was not her husband.
I think one of the things that "broke the camels back" for me was when I was told to "have faith" and pray for my sick uncle. I "stirred up my faith" and prayed for him that morning and by evening he died. As you can imagine, I was hurt. That was not the only event but many other things happened as well but eventually I lost my belief in God. I promptly began to challenge people on His existence and threw at them every question I could.

Now there is something that comes with atheism which is the sense of liberation from any moral obligations placed on you by your religion. For instance if your religion forbids drinking alcohol and you denounce it, suddenly there is no reason not to drink alcohol. The same goes for every moral obligation and all the things you previously wouldn't do because you were afraid of what God will do to you if you did. Since you are no longer "scared of God" anymore, you find yourself defining what is right and wrong for yourself. For instance you might begin to ask questions like "what is really wrong with lying anyway?" or "what is really wrong with adultery?" and so on and so forth. Eventually, you find out that you are having to justify your actions based on you and yourself alone.

The next thing that follows is that you begin to observe other people and you find out (or so it seemed to me at the time) that they too are more or less doing the same thing including (and especially) the religious ones who to me only used God as a means of justifying their actions to themselves. The hypocrisy of so-called Christians did not help matters either and was further proof to me that people only adopted a moral cloak when it suited them or when they wanted you to do something but readily threw their moral values out of the window when they were pushed to the wall or when they just wanted to have fun. As far as I was concerned, moral values were just a thing of convenience. For instance we might say it is wrong to kill another human being but if there was a famine, we would happily go hunting humans to kill and eat.
As far as I was concerned, there was no God, no spirits, no souls, nothing but organized atoms trying to survive and enjoy life. For me, anything you did to survive was justified and if for some reason I did not survive or someone else killed me to survive then that's just too bad. I did not owe anyone anything and no one owed me anything.

I was alive to stay alive as much as possible and to enjoy it as much as I could and everyone else should do the same with their lives. If being nice helped me get what I want, I would be nice, if being nasty served my purposes better, then I would be nasty. I actually once argued during the time after 9/11 when the Americans were hunting Osama bin Laden that what Osama did wasn't necessarily evil and assuming the Arabs had prevailed, 50-100 years from now we would be singing his praises as our hero who saved the world from the evil oppressors of the West. My argument was that it is the person that wins the war that writes history and forms thought and that our thoughts were also formed by those who won previous wars. No ideology was necessarily better than the other, what matters is who won the war and who gets to educate the next generation.

Now the problem with this was that this was not how I acted. I remember when I fell in love with my first girlfriend, I couldn't explain why I just wanted to do things for her even when it inconvenienced me greatly. If it was true that all we lived for was personal survival, then why should I sacrifice for someone else and actually enjoy it and even want to sacrifice more.
I'll give you an instance; Incidentally, the girl I was dating was a pastor's daughter and I found her "christianity" amusing so I took a liking to her. She was a virgin and believed she should stay celibate until marriage. Obviously I didn't share such beliefs and I knew I could easily manipulate her into sleeping with me (and if I had tempted her properly, she would have happily fallen) but for some strange reason I didn't want to. I wanted to respect her wishes and let her come around in her own time and this bothered me because here I was depriving myself of pleasure in order to respect someone else who was depriving herself of pleasure because of beliefs that I don't respect. Indirectly I was acknowledging the same God I claimed didn't exist.
Anyway, as the relationship went on, things went south and we eventually broke up I concluded that love was madness anyway and promptly went back to bashing Christians in Christian fellowships. One method I liked to use (and still love to use) in argument was the Socratic method i.e. I would seat back and ask question after question until the fellowship leader usually contradicted his/herself. Sound familiar?


"I was at this time living, like so many Atheists or Antitheists, in a whirl of contradictions. I maintained that God did not exist. I was also very angry with God for not existing. I was equally angry with Him for creating a world."
— C.S. Lewis


How I became a satanist:

So as I was saying, I held onto the premise that morality is a man-made concept and there is really no purpose to life. I was browsing the internet one day aimlessly jumping from site to site when I came across Anton LaVey and read a bit of his biography and how he lost his faith and moved on to founding the church of Satan. I found myself a copy of the satanic bible and began to read it. Basically, it's philosophy agreed with mine because it also denied all good and evil and maintained that man is his own redeemer and should be free to do what he liked. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed the book. For me the book was the truth and the cure for the mental shackles of religion.

It didn't even bother me that the book supported human sacrifice and how to destroy another human being - well, they deserved it for trying to hamper my survival plus I didn't see anything different between it and those praying in church for their enemies to die (the devil has many flavours doesn't he now?).
Funny enough the satanic bible doesn't support killing babies because babies are "pure". . .but then I guess that's the limit of Anton LaVey's immoral madness thankfully, because if we follow his logic properly, there really shouldn't be any such thing as purity: baby or not, we are merely an arrangement of atoms that can see ourselves nothing more.

I lived with this philosophy for a little less than a year but it was becoming harder and harder to justify to myself (trust me nonsense of satanism takes some real nerves of steel to truly internalize) so around that same time, I began to look at new age philosophies which to me are really a softcore version of atheistic satanism only that they try to give a reason for morality by mixing almost every religion they can lay their hands on and then pry on our limited knowledge of quantum physics to try and tell you that you are really God but that everyone is God too so you don't have to hurt someone else because you are all one. I tried to believe that nonsense for a while but after trying to meditate a few times, I wrote it off because to me if we were all one entity in the end, it wouldn't really matter what we did to each other because nothing we do can stop us from being one consciousness anyway. . . .so back to square one. There is really no meaning or purpose to existence


How I found Christ:

As usual, I was still going to fellowships to bash my "victims". In fact I was in one such fellowship when I started asking "annoying" questions as always and watching them try to give answers. It was so much fun for me. I was enjoying myself and the fellowship leader was feeling really uncomfortable and humiliated so she said to me "I don't know all the answers, why don't you go and ask God?" I laughingly took her up on her challenge. I had won. I was going to pray and prove that God isn't real after all.

After the fellowship that evening, I went home and I asked God "if you are real, show yourself to me". Now I think about it, that was one prayer I prayed where for once I was honestly expecting an answer. Well, God did not answer me that day so I went on living my life.

A few weeks later, I was aimlessly browsing again and came upon a short story by Leo Tolstoy called "Ivan The Fool". Now it isn't really a wonderful piece of philosophical thinking, it is just a simple story about a man called Ivan and his foolishness.
He would never fight back, never insist on his rights, All he did wanted was to be able to work on his little farm while the rest of the world fought amongst themselves. He was foolish an naive as far as everyone was concerned but in the end he emerged the victor because while the rest of the world struggled and fought for possessions, they eventually consumed each other and destroyed themselves in the process while Ivan and the rest of the "foolish people" stayed on in their simplicity.

As I read this tale, something wonderful happened; I saw Christ! I began to see in Ivan what it meant to be a Christian. I saw his simplicity, his humility, his selflessness and how because the glitters of the world had no attraction for him, he wasn't tempted and didn't have to fight for things everyone was killing themselves over. I began to understand what Jesus meant when he said "don't worry about what to eat or what to wear....".
There was a part in the story when soldiers came to fight against the City of Fools but the foolish people wouldn't fight back because they were foolish and so while the soldiers killed them, they just sat on the ground and cried. The soldiers couldn't fight anymore because their consciences pricked them and so they retreated. I began to see what Jesus meant when he said "if someone snatches your shirt from you, give him your coat too...".

As I began to understand what Christ's message was all about, I immediately saw myself for exactly what I was: An evil, proud selfish self-righteous ruthlessly cruel tyrant incapable of love. Full of fear and suspicion of everyone else, incapable of trust, full of greed and wanting to have everything with no regard for who got hurt in the process. And I had rationalized it as life has no meaning so I create mine anyway I liked.
I saw for the first time how despicable and full of sin I was, I began to see how dirty and shameful my heart was and it broke me. Sitting there in my room, I knelt down and bowed my head to the ground and begged God for forgiveness. The Holy Spirit had convicted me of my sins. Not very long after that I was baptized in the Holy Ghost which was another experience that clinched it for me. I knew I had become His. I had given my life to Christ forever. My sins were forgiven. I am free.

I later began to study the bible for myself and the more I read about Jesus Christ, the more I loved him. I began to ask question after question and the more I asked, the more it seemed that whenever I was bothered about a question, God directed me to a verse that sorted it out for me. I can't really explain how but usually, in my next devotion I will see the answer to what I seek. I began to read the bible and it was as if almost every story I read in the bible pointed straight to Christ. Until this day, I can't explain to you the joy I feel when I read scripture. I have found the Truth and His name is Jesus Christ.


“There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus.”

― Blaise Pascal

Wow! You've come a long way.

Such sweet story.. *wipes tears*

*wipes tears* God bless you for sharing your story.

Funny thing. I was thinking about your story yesterday. Well, glad that you've found the 'truth'..

Good morning Mr. Anony,

This indeed is very touching and quite inspiring. God always finds a way and uses seemingly "foolish" things to bring the "wise" to their knees.

Nice thread. I just hope it dose not get derailed.

Good story Mr Anony...I feel touched and sober.

talking about mr ivan,i think so many gone people before christ lived like ivan,but they never knew christ,and still people that dosen`t know christ still live life like ivan`s,so must you be a christian to portray all these attributes?

achina boy: talking about mr ivan,i think so many gone people before christ lived like ivan,but they never knew christ,and still people that dosen`t know christ still live life like ivan`s,so must you be a christian to portray all these attributes?

Shhhhhh.... No arguments on this thread

nice story,but was not moved,don`t know how long you will last on this journey,viewing from my own angle,still have a looooooooong way to go

musKeeto: Funny thing. I was thinking about your story yesterday. Well, glad that you've found the 'truth'..

I am waiting for ur story too

A very wonderful testimony. Thanks be to God. It takes total humility to surrender to Christ. It also takes same humility to read the bible and understand it. God bless you and keep you shining for him. Amen.

@ Mr Anony

Many thanks.

achina boy: talking about mr ivan,i think so many gone people before christ lived like ivan,but they never knew christ,and still people that dosen`t know christ still live life like ivan`s,so must you be a christian to portray all these attributes?

I understand there isn't supposed to be an argument so this isn't one but a brief explanation. Even before Jesus came to earth, God (especially God the Holy Spirit) has always been apealing and calling to men.

Folks, tell us your stories. Let us hear about how you came to know Christ.

achina boy: nice story,but was not moved,don`t know how long you will last on this journey,viewing from my own angle,still have a looooooooong way to go

He will last and make heaven at last by God's grace. Amen. He has tasted atheism and satanism and seen that God is the best. So what again.
This is what i keep saying that when you have a real personal encounter with God you ll never doubt his existence. This is quite different from answering a christian just because you were born into a family of christians and taken to church right from childhood. That one does not give you enough conviction about God.

I am confused because the church of England have recently allowed gay priests and bishops into the church. Is that ok with you born-agains? It is part of tolerance preached by jesus i suppose. Would you attend the church of a gay pastor? I believe the missionaries came from England.

ifeness: I am confused because the church of England have recently allowed gay priests and bishops into the church. Is that ok with you born-agains? It is part of tolerance preached by jesus i suppose. Would you attend the church of a gay pastor? I believe the missionaries came from England.

Go and make that argument in another thread please.

ifeness: I am confused because the church of England have recently allowed gay priests and bishops into the church. Is that ok with you born-agains? It is part of tolerance preached by jesus i suppose. Would you attend the church of a gay pastor? I believe the missionaries came from England.

Off-topic

Front page plz

achina boy: nice story,but was not moved,don`t know how long you will last on this journey,viewing from my own angle,still have a looooooooong way to go

thats true for him.

@anony do u go to a church and whats the name?

Ymodulus:

thats true for him.

@anony do u go to a church and whats the name?

Yes I go to church but please permit me not to share the name of the church because it is not really needed on this thread. Are you born-again? If yes, could you share your conversion story with us?

Mr_Anony:
Yes I go to church but please permit me not to share the name of the church because it is not really needed on this thread. Are you born-again? If yes, could you share your conversion story with us?

hmmmm i wud like to knoww the curhch name.

to your second question.

I am myself. not religious

Interesting story...and thanks for sharing. However, not everyone has to go through such rendezvous before they can be a true Christian (as some people might think).

Mr_Anony: My aim of starting this thread is for Christians to share their stories of how they came to know Christ. It is not a thread for arguments, just one to share how we got saved, and perhaps we can move on to describe how we have been growing in Christ. I'll start with my story which by the way was inspired when a friend on this forum asked me to explain how I came to know Christ...............

I was born Catholic and became born-again when I was baptized as an infant. I got to know Christ in a very deep and pure way from what I was taught as a child by Priests, Catechists, Parents etc. Since then I (as St Paul urged) have been trying to work out my salvation with fear and trembling. I try to stay faithful to the teachings of Christ which I received and embraced at baptism. I try to improve my relationship with Christ through many devotions like attending mass, praying the rosary, visits to the Blessed Sacrament, reading Sacred Scripture, reading the Catechism of the Catholic Church etc. When I cut myself off the grace of God by my sins, I try to return to him by going to the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession) which Christ instituted in John 20:22,23. Through Holy Communion, I encounter Christ in a special and intimate way when I receive him (body, blood, soul and divinity). I hope to continue steadfastly in God's grace and love until when he calls me from this life...as my past journey won't matter if I fall away.

@op, your story is very inspiring...
My story; i wish i had a remarkable story but mine is just simple, i went to spend my third term holiday with my uncle. I's in primary 3 then. My uncle had a four month old son then, one day d wife left d house and i's left alone with her child, when it was time for me to feed d baby [cerelac], i finished d baby's food and gave him small quantity. Then i proceeded to d tin, i ate it all [i don't know why it didn't occur to me to remain small or at least take small quantity lest i be found...till date i don't know what i's thinking then]. When My aunty came back, she took her crying baby to breastfeed him, then she asked me to bring his feeder so she'll make his food, i went and brought d feeding bottle and stood at d door, she told me to bring d cerelac tin, i told her dt its finished, she got up with her baby, went and shook d tin to confirm and she screamed and asked me what happened, i told her dt i ate it...she laid her baby on d bed and gave me an unforgettable beating and then i cried so much and amidst tears i said to her so because i ate your baby food, dt's y you beat me like this, i will not come to your house again for holiday[as i'm writing this now, i don't see anything in this statement but it touched her], she called me to come, i refused...i continued crying until i slept off on d floor where i was. I woke up later, and she beckoned me to come to where she was, i did and she started preaching to me and told me dt what i did was wrong and she opened d bible and asked me to read eph 6, then i'd started reading, i read it[dt was my first time of reading d bible] and she preached to me and told me to be a good child.
Years after, i went to secondary school, i used to follow a particular pentecostal students to their church cos they are d only ones allowed to go to church outside d school[and a family friend of ours lived near their church, so i used to sneak in there and pick up some things dt i needed or just to eat sunday rice], one sunday, their pastor came inside school for d anointing service, i was there and after the preaching, the man began to worship and people were fallen under d power, some spoke in tongues and nothing physical happened to me and i said a short prayer, dear god i want to speak in other tongues. We got back to d hostel dt day and i went to my school mother and told her dt i was feeling somehow, she told me to go and lie on my bed, dt i did and i slept till d next morning, i woke up early, knelt by d side of my bed to pray and i burst into tongues, i tried to stop but it continued and dt was 11 years ago and till date it has not ceased. After i left secondary school, i met a man by name ken katas and one prosper, they both introduced me to reading inspirational books and d first book i read was the school of d spirit by liardon, since then my desire is and always will be more of him and less of me.

For me how i became born again...i was brought up by my "norminal christian" father and mother who sent us to church but they themselves never went as far as i knew tho.

i was in jos, plateau state and attended a programme and there was an invitation for those who want to accept Christ Jesus and i went out, said a prayer and that was it.

Later i got myself water baptised acording to scriptures. And since then, though facing real temptation but God helped me through uptil today.

So in summary, this is my simple story on how i became a born again.

@anony, yours was really moving and it points to one always having a personal experience of God. Thanks

italo: Interesting story...and thanks for sharing. However, not everyone has to go through such rendezvous before they can be a true Christian (as some people might think).




I was born Catholic and became born-again when I was baptized as an infant. I got to know Christ in a very deep and pure way from what I was taught as a child by Priests, Catechists, Parents etc. Since then I (as St Paul urged) have been trying to work out my salvation with fear and trembling. I try to stay faithful to the teachings of Christ which I received and embraced at baptism. I try to improve my relationship with Christ through many devotions like attending mass, praying the rosary, visits to the Blessed Sacrament, reading Sacred Scripture, reading the Catechism of the Catholic Church etc. When I cut myself off the grace of God by my sins, I try to return to him by going to the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession) which Christ instituted in John 20:22,23. Through Holy Communion, I encounter Christ in a special and intimate way when I receive him (body, blood, soul and divinity). I hope to continue steadfastly in God's grace and love until when he calls me from this life...as my past journey won't matter if I fall away.

keep living d faith!

Mr. Anony, would love to make U know that the devil always walk with the knowledge of what we know to make us loose faith.

2tim1:8-14 we make U Know that the road will not be smooth and the devil will want to make U believe that a prayer that U prayed has not been answered that God is not true to his word.

8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God,

9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began,

10 but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,

11 to which I was appointed a preacher, an
apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. [b]

12 For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day. Be Loyal to the Faith

13 Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard fromme, in faith and love which are inChrist Jesus.

14 That good thing which was committed to you, keepby the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.

[quote author=italo]


I was born Catholic and became born-again when I was baptized as an infant.

sorry, you cannot be born again by :

1. Baptism as an infant

2. Born into a church.

Salvation is not of works lest any MAN should boast , it is the gift of GOD through Christ Jesus.

I try to stay faithful to the teachings of Christ which I received and embraced at baptism. I try to improve my relationship with Christ through many devotions like attending mass, praying the rosary, visits to the Blessed Sacrament, reading Sacred Scripture, reading the Catechism of the Catholic Church etc. When I cut myself off the grace of God by my sins, I try to return to him by going to the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession) which Christ instituted in John 20:22,23. Through Holy Communion, I encounter Christ in a special and intimate way when I receive him (body, blood, soul and divinity). I hope to continue steadfastly in God's grace and love until when he calls me from this life...as my past journey won't matter if I fall away.

None of the above will save you.

You need only repent of your sins, be filled with the Spirit, walk in love and obedience to please GOD.

Anything else is works based salvation.

Hi Anony. Thanks for your beautiful and inspiring story. I wish you strength in your chosen path. I will like to make a brief comment on your points about atheists.

Now there is something that comes with atheism which is the sense of liberation from any moral obligations placed on you by your religion. For instance if your religion forbids drinking alcohol and you denounce it, suddenly there is no reason not to drink alcohol. The same goes for every moral obligation and all the things you previously wouldn't do because you were afraid of what God will do to you if you did. Since you are no longer "scared of God" anymore, you find yourself defining what is right and wrong for yourself. For instance you might begin to ask questions like "what is really wrong with lying anyway?" or "what is really wrong with adultery?" and so on and so forth. Eventually, you find out that you are having to justify your actions based on you and yourself alone.

My view on your above quote is that it can apply to some (probably many) but not to all atheists. There are some atheists that have genuinely not found God. For this group of atheists, their is not yet anything in their experience to confirm to them that GOD is. As they seek and search, they may one day undergo a multitude of personal experiences that will bring them the conviction that GOD is. The point I am trying to convey is that their are people who genuinely hold to atheism not because of "liberation from any moral obligations" but because they have not yet found any "reason" to believe in GOD. I think that what is important as men seek G0D or meaning for their existence is that they remain honest. If one is honest and humble, one will at some point find the TRUTH. Stay blessed.