WHY DO YOU BELIEVE THE WAY YOU DO?

[rauleetoe]

I enjoyed your testimony, but I'm having difficulty getting a grip on this statement. The person he was talking to had an Universalist view which can be very dangerous. I respect Jimmydigg's postings because he's not argumentative or spending time pushing his point. I also agree with him. Anyone who believes in all godsdoes not know the Savior. The Spirit of God will confirm this in the believer's heart that there is only one God.
However, I'm glad you came through the things you've experienced. It can be difficult when you've been a part of so many denominations. It could put you through spiritual burnout. I have met many on this site in the rooms that no longer go to church for such reasons. Hang in there brother. God has good things for you.

I never said that there is not one God..i am only going by what i know about your bud..jimmydiggs is a divine determinist..aka a calvinist in the highest sense.
I do not know if that young gal is universalist..i can only say it is pure disingenuousness to say to someone 'repent' when you believe that the grace may have been withheld to some to even have that ability to repent, so they cannot repent unless they are elect..and they are elect unconditionally..so in an essence, how can you require what a person may not be able to do/cannot do? Jimmy diggs contradicts himself and is being without integrity in the least..
i am not spiritually burnt out..i just hate reform theology with a passion, because of the stench it is in the nostrils of a loving God who had his son be the propitiation not only for our sins..but the whole world's 1 john2:2..
so before you go putting this on my 'many church' experiences..its based on what i have read in the bible and what i have read about calvinism..and putting them both together i realized reform theology is not taught in the bible.

 

[kenisyes]

Actually it was several years before the prosperity gospel(left in 75). It was a large nationwide cult that stemmed from EW Kenyon who basically was one of the key players of the later prosperity/faith movement. So the prosperity
part wasnt significant part really looking back it was maybe biblical since there surely is a truth: to he which soweth sparingly reapeth sparingly etc etc.

But it was big on the faith business and the gifts. Full of pride and i was sorta innocent then and took
the bait. Pushed so fast into leadership i found it kinda fun, although i didnt care so much for the responsibility of so many(hundreds) people seeking advise and council almost daily. It was like who am i...please go away and pray.Ha

Stephen the part that took me years to get over....if im over it i dont know was the spiritual gifts part.
Its not that i dont think the Holyspirit works in people. He does. But theres a side of it that is not dark
and is not evil at least it doesnt seem that way. That truly is powerful, supernatural, and is not from God.
Talk later.

I did the math. You left at age 20! Pushed into leadership at what, age 18? 16? No wonder! Jesus doesn't drive His sheep, He leads them. Part of real leadership is keeping people away from that dark side.

 

[Rock022]

I was raised Roman Catholic, like many I was told how bad the church is and peer pressure sent me to a Baptist church, after a while I went to a non denomination church and started growing in faith. Got a Pentecostal girlfriend and began to attend her church. We broke up and from there on I was pretty much church hopping from time to time. After many years I decided to understand and reason God. At this time I did not wanted to go to a Roman Catholic church I avoided it like a plague, but a ceremony I was invited took me there. I felt Home when I entered the church. I prayed for wisdom and faith. Then It hit me, Jesus is Lord he brought people back from the dead, cured the blind, Healed the sick, defeated satan and came back from the dead to name a few. My faith in him grew strong and I believe in Him when he said he will always be with His church. It is because of this faith I have in my Lord that I believe he has always been with his church even in dark times, and he never left. For me to think otherwise is to believe men have more power than Him. For this reason I believe in the Roman Catholic church teachings about God. But I also believe there are many God fearing men in other denominations. Our faith journeys are different one another.

 

[Miri]

First I wanted to start by saying that I do not belong to a denomination - I belong to God.
For the record I now "attend" a Pentecostal church.

I grow up and became a Christian in an evangelical independent church. They were a great bunch of people but looking back they were so afraid
of being labelled charismatic, that there was not much teaching about the Holy Spirit. But as a young person I would often read the verses about the Holy Spirit and wonder if there was far more to know and to experience. I remember at one time I bought a book about the Holy Spirit and I could not put it down, but then when I went to church on the next Sunday one of the youth leaders was speaking about the author of this same book and being very critical about them. So I did not feel there was anyone in the church I could ask about all the questions I had.

As a teen I visited the pentecostal church occasionally and it always seemed that there was something just so different about that church. It felt alive in a way I could not explain.

Well lots of time went by and I won't go into the very long story - but I eventually came to a point where I left my first church and wondered what to do with myself for a while. Then I decided to start attending the Pentecostal church every Sunday to see how things went.

I should mention that as a child i recall having dreams about Jesus but as I become older these stopped.

Not long after I started to attend the pentecostal church, I had a dream in which I was sat in bed reading a book, only when I opened the pages of the book, instead of seeing two pages open before me, there were three pages.

On each of the three pages was a picture of the the head and shoulders of a person, beneath each picture was a description of each person.
In the dream I remember looking at these pictures and just knew that I was looking at pictures of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

Then I woke up and I suddenly realised that while I knew God the Father and God the Son, I did not know God the Holy Spirit!
It was also the first time I had ever realised that God the Holy Spirit was also a person.

I could not remember what the faces looked liked and I could not tell you what the descriptions said under each picture, but I just knew
that the pictures were of each of them. I was so desparate to read this book again that I tried to go back to sleep and dream the same dream again, but of course I couldn't.

It was then that I realised the difference in the churches, the people in the Pentecostal church knew God the Holy Spirit and it was his presence that I could feel when going into that church. This started a journey for me and my own relationship with the Holy Spirit as a discovered more about the third person of the trinity. I know that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are for today, that when Jesus departed into heaven he left the comforter for all, he did not leave his children powerless just hanging on until he comes again. That it is through the Holy Spirit that we can understand the bible, that we can better communicate with Jesus and so much much more. For me personally, the best way to describe it is as if I was seeing in black and white and now that I know the Holy Spirit, I can see in colour.

Im not perfect and I know there is still so much more to learn and with the Holy Spirit's help he will teach me. But this is basically how I ended up in a Pentecostal church.

 

[Stephen63]

I very much enjoyed your testimony, Miri. There is so much more to the Holy Spirit than meets the eye.

One of the points I hoped to make in this thread is that in Pentecostal and charismatic circles, there are real Christians. For instance, those they came out of those churches were real, so there is some of our evidence. I want the readers to understand, especially those who came out, that I do sympathize with your situation and believe your testimony. I don't doubt that at all of the things I have read so far. Confusion, familiar spirits, psychological games, and just plain ignorance can be found in these movements. As a Pentecostal myself, I have witnessed the fakes, those who want the anointing without the responsibility, as well as those who think they have the Holy Spirit just because of the excitement that can be in the services. I saw these things with my own eyes and wondered how much of it was real.

Through the years, someone spoke to me about familiar spirits. Not the ones like in the Old Testament that were fortunetellers, but those who "copied" the Spirit's work in the church to destroy God's influence in the church through the Holy Spirit. I see how some of the revival movements have been corrupted by those with familiar spirits. It's hard to believe some of those movements were real when all you see is the end result. Let us not forget that the true church in the first century was eventually corrupted by the Phariseeism of Roman Catholicism. We should never get too big for our Protestant britches to think that can never happen to us.

 

[RickyZ]

I've noticed a trend in Christianity between Pentecostals and Charismatics, and other denominations of the church. For example, did you know that many hard-core non-Pentecostals and non-Charismatics used to be one at one time in their life? The same thing goes for many hard-core Pentecostals and Charismatics. It seems the one thing many have in common is that they were severely burned with the previous denomination or belief system.
I myself am a Pentecostal believer who has been burned by the same belief system (oddball, I guess), yet chooses to continue to believe this way in spite of those that walk in ignorance or teach false doctrine. I believe this way because of experience..... I've seen and experienced the supernatural work of God firsthand.

I would like to hear your story. No arguments, please, because this is not about who's right and who's wrong. What I would like to hear is how you came to be who you are. Please take all the space needed. I'm hoping that the readers will learn something about us they didn't know before. Perhaps we then could learn to show more compassion to one another.

I was born with this powerful connection to the spiritual realm. Demons are no strangers to me, I can see 'em smell 'em hear 'em and tell you where they're from and what they're up to. If God hadn't wrapped Himself around me I probably would have been a psychic or seer or such. I spent my lifetime seeking to understand what it was all about and the Bible best described what I saw and did with it, but not necesarily the way the church was reading it (at the time, that seems to be improving lately). That's why some of my postings may not follow typical dogma. But that's why I believe the way I do, not because some guy on a podium tells me about a book, but because of what I see with my eyes and do with my hands, and what I say and hear in return.

Charismatics/Pentecostals I believe have the best understanding of spiritual authorities, but like all humans they often take things to the extreme. I would say walk, but do not run, down that path if you will.

 

[Custos_Clavium]

Hmmm... not sure if this is for Pentecostals/Charismatics only, but...

Was raised in a nominally Catholic family and sent to a Catholic school until 6th grade, where 70% of the students were actually Protestants...so, since teaching the Catholic faith offended the sensibilities of many Protestant parents who wanted their children to get the solid Catholic education without the religion, the school downplayed the doctrine and focused instead on things like being a good moral person and a nice kid all around - note: in my area, that school was the only private school within reasonable driving distance, so it was that or public school.

Middle School-High School: family couldn't afford to do anything but put me in public school. I moved around to a lot of different schools in the South, where everyone was predominately Protestant, and mainly Baptists at that. In high school it was difficult for me to make friends with good kids. When I would make a friend with a good kid, we'd hit it off well until they asked me what church I went to, and upon discovering I was Catholic, would straight up say things like ''I don't like Catholics" or ''Catholics are going to Hell"" or ''Catholics aren't Christians, I can't talk to you.'' I lost a lot of potential friends for being Catholic, so I remained a loner until about Junior year.

During that time, my faith in Christ was waning, and since my Catholic schooling never really taught me my own faith, I didn't see much difference between Catholics and Protestants, and lumped them all together as exactly the same. Since my experience of Christians was mostly negative outside my own family during these years, I began to see Christians as jerks. My Catholic church was too small to have a big youth group or anything, so this was all I knew. I started making friends with the ''bad'' crowd of atheists and wiccan kids. They didn't care if I was Catholic or if I worshipped space aliens.

The ''Bad'' crowd influenced my thinking until I too became atheist. My atheism lasted for about 6 years, sometimes transitioning in and out of agnosticism and neopaganism. I went through this phase with a new-found hatred for Christianity and all religions in general. It was also a period of severe depression and self-loathing.

A few days before Christmas a few years back, I was out shopping with my mom and decided to do my own thing. In another store, I had a ''chance'' encounter with a priest. Priests are few where I am from, in the Bible belt, and they don't usually wear their clerical collars out in public as the largely non-Catholic population has a history of assaulting priests and spitting on them in public - all in Christian charity, of course. Since it was so unusual, it caught my attention, and though we passed for a brief moment, the priest looked at me and I looked at him -and I swear - Christ's eyes looked back.

I was stunned and stopped in my tracks. I turned to call after the gentleman, but he was nowhere to be seen. I felt stirred in a way I had never felt stirred, and my mind raced with questions and a desire to know something...to recover something. I was confused.

There was a bookstore in the same strip mall, so I walked down and began to look at books in the Christianity section. As an athiest, I felt I had to maintain intellectual integrity and learn about what was in my mind, so reading seemed logical. I picked up a copy of Theology for Beginners by Frank Sheed. I didn't have high hopes. I figured it would prove to be silliness. I read the whole thing in a few days, and was surprised to see how much sense it made. I began to find theology fascinating, and decided to return to the Catholic faith of was baptized into as a child.

I bought a Bible and read through the Gospel, attended Mass every Sunday and some weekdays. I allowed myself to be re-made by Christ. I also re-connected with the priest who had Baptized me when I was younger. He took me under his wing and helped me find a good job and get into a Catholic college in the region. I began studies toward a BA in theology, and graduated. I am now working on my Masters in the same field.

It's been an interesting journey, and I can't believe how much I would have missed out on if I had continued down my path to ruin. My faith is consistently challenged by the world and consistently reaffirmed by the work of the Spirit. I know love in a way that I could have never dreamed of in high school...not just love that I receive, but the love I am able to give. It is hard to love others when you hate yourself, and Christ has freed me to be loved and to love. I have been blessed to become a part of a loving, Christian environment - both Catholic and Protestant - and I also enjoy the experience of studying alongside others at a monastery where the Christian culture is as rich as I could ever ask for.

So, that's how I became what I am .... by being reminded of who I was.

 

[AgapeSpiritEyes]

I was a; mean, lean, mobile, agile, hostile, athletic boy and man of which I grew to a person capable of rage a person full of hate with the capacity of murder I vented most on the sports field, raised R. Catholic never experienced God or His presence as a devote Catholic I was faithful to all the Roman Catholic ceremonies sacraments etc., after one year of college a relative told me i could experience Jesus real in my soul and spirit, so i listened but did not believe , gradually over a few weeks i went to a revival meeting. I experienced during the meeting an invisible power far beyond electricity but greater in strength, i was even physically numb. This invisible electrical power led me to the front of the service area. The power left me, a person asked me to pray a prayer, i did not but i did say," Jesus if you are real i want to know if not i am not going to ever believe." Well i experienced nothing but was asked to go to a room to be prayed for. So, i did. I was uncomfortable i was told to raise my hands and praise Jesus; i was stubborn so i did not. A man i did not know came to me told me to raise my hands and praise the Lord i did only raise my hands half way but did not praise the Lord. The man grabbed my hands and raised them all the way up; i still did not praise the Lord though. Sitting there my body began to feel like i had been working out from exercising i began to sweat and my heart raced, i opened my mouth and when i did an invisible torrent of cool cold water gushed out, it surrounded me and in this invisible water was the marvelous presence of Jesus His Love surrounded me filled me i was so overwhelmed i drank this invisible water it was soooo good filled with Jesus and His love with this gush of living water i heard syllable and a language coming out of my mouth as the water flowed from me, someone asked me if i knew Latin i never had studied Latin, Two people heard me they both said they knew Latin that i was speaking fluent Latin, I ask them what was I saying, they said I was speaking about Agape Love, peace and the Good Book and joy in the Holy Spirit. From that time the Lord led me to return to College. When I arrived I was overjoyed and met some other the students I knew I was not shy or unfriendly but witnessed to the of Jesus, they were amazed at the difference that they once knew me. I met man others that had received and been dramatically changed the year before. We became a small body of close brethren and sisters in Christ learning and witnessing of Jesus to all we came to. We had meeting and fellowship constantly. We vegan to visit and witness in the student centers of various denominations; we did not meet resistance but continued to grow and love the Lord. Assembly of God pastor came to the town and began a church some of us attended and began to help and today they still have a Chi Alpha ministry on campus. After I graduated most of all the fellowship moved to locate for their careers. So, as of now ever since I graduated I have attended a few churches but could and have not found were the Lord has placed me in the body. I have traveled to speak a few times to independent churches in the Philippines still having sought the Lord I have not found His answer were He would place me in the body. My personal testimony of my new birth with Jesus was 36 years ago, i have grown and i have fallen and i have done many things that need and needed more of Him more now than ever before. My rebirth was in the Living Waters of Agape so it is my heart and soul experience freely He gave me His Agape so my greatest desire is to freely give to others His Agape to them.

 

[Stephen63]

God has not changed, my friend. The fellowship of the Spirit is still the same today as it ever was. We are the only ones that change. Our hearts can become hardened, & we can be fooled that times have changed with God toward us. But He does not. He cannot love us more than He already does, neither any less. Great things are in store for those who will seek Him out, even out of curiosity! Believe for the best, for God is for those who seek Him with a humble heart, & a contrite spirit.

 

[resurrection33]

One reason I believe as I do is that the Lord solves all my problems for me.

 

[Stephen63]

[I would just like to remind everyone that this thread is generally about those who went into Pentecostalism or Charismatic beliefs from mainstream denominations or vice-versa & why they did it. Please be detailed in your story.

 

[RickyZ]

[I would just like to remind everyone that this thread is generally about those who went into Pentecostalism or Charismatic beliefs from mainstream denominations or vice-versa & why they did it. Please be detailed in your story.

I went from mainstream to charasmatic because I was tired of hearing churches tell me about a living God, while holding His funeral every week. I backed away from charasmatic because so much of it is over the top. I still lean that direction, but it has it's time and place.