CHRISTIANS: What exactly convinced you that Christianity (in contrast to everything else) contained truth?

Question

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I cannot presume to choose a best answer among all of these. I leave that to the voting members of this forum.

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Answer 1

Being born a PK ("Preacher's Kid") helped a lot.

But very interestingly, my parents never tried to force anything upon me, beliefwise. They even had no objections to my studying other religions, on my own.

After seeing how well the IMPORTANT aspects of the Bible (and not its less important contradictions) held together, and the fact that NO Bible prophecies ever *failed* to come top pass... sticking with Christianity was pretty easy to do. Not to mention the fact that MANY other proofs followed.

Answer 2

For me the truth of Christianity was Christ. Finally understanding who Jesus Christ was. I came from the "everything else" side. I did what was right in my own eyes. I made my own rules for what was right and wrong. I wasn't a bad person at all, just my own person. I had fairly high moral standards. But there was always a need for something else. Don't we all want to justify what we do and why we do it? And the range of morality is very wide. This is where truth makes the difference. Truth is a standard. There is no doubt that a man named Jesus walked the planet. His impact has been significant, no denying that. He came claiming to be from God. No other man made those claims or did what many eye witnesses said he did. He made the claim that in him was truth. His truth is written and I don't need to repeat it here. Here we are 2000 years later and his claims still hold true. All the science and all the philosophies throughout the years have wavered or fallen away. Reason? None are truth. Only one has stood the test of time. The words of God are unmatched. They bring life to the spirit. We also know that all men have spirits. It's why we are unique and above all other creatures of this planet. And most of all, it's this truth that made me different than "everything else" I used to do. The best part about it is, I did nothing. All I said was - Yes my Lord.

Answer 3

Although I have intellectual understanding of the gospel message (and wish I had much more), it has primarily been the supernatural evidences that have secured me.

A powerful conversion experience. A mighty flooding sense of the peace as I became reconciled with God, which is the position you are if your sins are forgiven, and that comes through belief in Christ.

Receiving of the Holy Spirit (not sure if this would be the "baptism of the Holy Spirit", but it probably was) by laying on of hands.
- my whole body head to toe was filled with the most glorious and exceeding joy - called in the bible joy unspeakable and full of glory.
I didn't notice anything nasty for the next 40 days or so I was so affected.

Other powerful actions of Jesus through the Holy Spirit in my life, including some supernatural healing of non-remediable problems.

The love of God seems to be far better than any other love.

Not that my life has not been filled with many difficulties and problems, quite nasty ones, and periods of discouragement etc.

Answer 4

Hello NH Baritone.. :)

I can tell you that just going to Church did not convince me..I hated going..

Being told by Christians did not convince me..They were too sickie sweet..

The thing that was a clincher for me, was when the day after I was baptized, When I woke up, I was thanking the Lord (who I can honestly say I hated, and mocked the day before) for forgiving me from my sins and for setting me free..I was also Praising Jesus..

I felt as though someone had reached deep within the empty and lonely pit of my heart and replaced it with such Joy and Peace..(that I had always longed for, yet could never find)..

My daughter heard me speaking and came to see who was there..I looked at her sweet little face and her beautiful big green eyes and For the First Time in her precious life, I said I Love you Sherry..I "felt the Love" is was radiating within my heart for her..this Time and ever since.. :)

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I had been looking for an answer, to why my life was spiraling down hill and out of control..not even the doctor, I had been seeing, could help or stop me..

But mostly because I wanted to be able, to not just say to my sweet little girl I Love you..but to be able to feel that I Loved her..that was the most hurtful 10 years in my life.. :(

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This is why I am a still a Christian to this very day..

That was on August 28, 1978..that changed from being the worse day of my life..to the best time in my life.. :)


In Jesus Most Precious Name..
With Love..your Friend..In Christ.. :)

Answer 5

It may interest you to know what were the points in religion by which my opinions at this period of my life became strongly marked, developed and decided, and what were the principles which came out into strong clear and distinct relief when this great change came over me .... nothing I can remember to this day appeared to me so clear and distinct as my own sinfulness, Christs preciousness, the value of the Bible, the absolute necessity of coming out of the world. the need to be born again, and the enormous folly of being saved by any works. All these things .... seemed to flash upon me like a sunbeam in the winter of 2003 and have stuck in my mind from that time down to this. People may account for such a change as they like; my own belief is that .... it was what the Bible calls " conversion " or " regeneration " . Before that time I was dead in sin and on the high road to hell, and from that time I have become alive and had hope of Heaven. And nothing to my mind cam account for it, but the free sovereign grace of God.

God be with you,
Evangelist, William M. Butler, St. Luke Ministries

Answer 6

it wasn't just one thing but rather many, each with its own validity and not in any specific order.

1. People were willing to die for it
2. reasoning: I have researched both sides of the debate of evolution vs. creation. and for those of you who like to call christians ignorant, i have thoroughly researched evolution and found many of its faults. i started as a third grader and seven years later, still find faults. I have found no fault in the words of Christ and his teachings.
3. God's word has no contradictions but rather verifies its truth by the recorded fulfillment of prophecies. 1500 years, over forty authors, three continents, and it all matches up. what are the chances? It wasn't chance.
4. more reasoning: The most commonly question asked me by evolutionists, agnostics, and athiests, is, "If God is loving, why is there evil in the world?"
Well, if you admit there is evil, there must be good or evil is not evil, but normality(if thats a word). so, if you admit there is evil, you must also admit there is good. and if there is good, there must be a moral basis that defines that good that all can go back to. we as humans all agree there is bad and good. we cannot define good for ourselves because that would be our opinion and fact and opinion are two different things
5. ok, so theres more but i don't have time. hope that was enough. oh yeah, i forgot, ive seen God answer prayers in ways that let you know it wasn't coincidence.

Answer 7

Personally, I don't beleive in Christianity for I've found it to be full of deception and hypocrisy, same as any other religion.

The key word is 'RELIGION'. I found my faith in my ability to choose what I feel in my heart is true. That took a lot of years of understanding and logically looking at questions presented to me from ALL points of view. Though Christianity presents some very truthful insight, it does not validate my faith. My conclusion?
God is real. God is not a religion. He is the Creator.

Very hard for me to look on this world and life with all its wonders and beauty and mysteries and buy into the notion that I was evolved from ape. Unless someone can ultimitely prove to me, with hard cold EVIDENCE that God does not exist, conversations and debates for me are just a waste of my time. Today, I had a little to spare.
My faith is not Chrisitanity because that is religion.
I prefer the word Believer over Christian.
My faith is God. My faith is personal.

High five to the Ghost Mom!

Answer 8

I was raised in the Christian church but also taught to read anything and everything spiritual I could as we are all here to grow-mentally and spiritually. The more you read, the more you notice how similar many religions are and how it breaks down to many of the same concepts on personal prayer and faith, how to treat others and way of life. I do think the Bible is the best written holy book of all time and that as a teacher and spiritual holy person that Jesus was the most advanced and taught us the most-ie;gave us the most tools to live by. There are others who had things to say and are important in spiritual history too-so don't limit yourself but as a whole I would definetly say I'm a Christian at heart. The truth is not the sets of little rules remember-its what helps you grow......

Answer 9

Is this a trick question? Cause I invariably fail the test...
For me it was the conviction of my heart when I asked God if Jesus was really His son and if He wanted me to be a Christian. I had a lot of Jewish friends and was really bothered by the idea that the Bible says that we can only get to heaven through Christ.
I don't have all the answers, but believe that if I can be a loving Christian my witness is more likely to win others to Jesus than if I hit them over the head with my Bible and tell them they are hell bound and damned. That didn't work for me, I don't expect it to work for others.

Answer 10

I became a baptized Christian only a few years ago. Born and raised a Jew, I began exploring other religions in my 20s and 30s. I never read the OT until I was in my 40's. Right after I read it cover to cover I read the NT. The OT had some resonance of truth for me, in particular the part about how God decided that the Jews were greedy and unappreciative of all that God had done for them, and that He was finished with them and that they were no longer His chosen people, except for the Levite tribe, and that the Gentiles were instead His new people. The NT is all about a God of Love. This resonated with me.

It resonated with me the same way Taoism's basic philosophies resonated with me; which was the same way Buddhist philosophies resonated with me; which was the same way Pagan philosophies . . . you get the picture.

I believe that Jesus came to teach us the One Truth, that one truth being love. I know many Buddhists, Wiccans, Taoists, Atheists, Agnostics, and many other ists who all have embraced this truth. I can therefore embrace them. Because that is the Truth Jesus was trying to teach us.