My Testimony of Conversion

[3 Resurrections]

Brother, I left before you did. Also, they were not known as Independent Baptist, (since there are many such churches in the upstate of S.C.) but called themselves predestinarians Baptist.

This congregation debated for a while which name they would adopt. LOL, I remember at the start, they decided to change "The Golden Strip" which was included in their church name. They decided it sounded rather lascivious to those who might misconstrue the meaning of that actual street's nick-name where the hotel conference room was located. They originally identified as Independent Baptist toward the beginning of the church's founding, but in reality, the classification is immaterial and has no real connection to the errors which they ended up practicing later on. A skunk still stinks, regardless of what title you give it. No offense to those furry, striped critters intended by the comparison.

 

[Arial]

All you have done is make an claim...I'm simply asking you to support the claim. Otherwise it's gossip.

And he offered. in a PM. Not here! Do you have a testimony you would like to share?

 

[Arial]

NA

 

[Arial]

We need @atpollard 's testimony ... it's mind blowing to the point that I kept a copy of it from a conversation we had awhile back.
I haven't seen him around for awhile

Maybe PM him and ask him if he would be interested in posting it in this section?

 

[fastfredy0]

Maybe PM him and ask him if he would be interested in posting it in this section?

My only contact with him is on this and one other forum. I haven't see @atpollard for a while.

 

[Arial]

My only contact with him is on this and one other forum. I haven't see @atpollard for a while.

I will PM him.

 

[Red Baker]

This congregation debated for a while which name they would adopt.

Yes, after I left and a few others as well.

A skunk still stinks, regardless of what title you give it. No offense to those furry, striped critters intended by the comparison.

Well, PW, you have a point. LOL

 

[Red Baker]

My testimony would be too long since it is a travel of over fifty years of serving the Lord~3 Resurrections only knows about four to five years of my travel, with the church in Greenville. Maybe I could just gives some timeline.

I was not brought up in a religious home, some of my time was spent in foster homes, etc., since my father died of cancer when I was around six plus years old, leaving my mother with nine children and I was in the middle! But, I well remembered I always believed in God and would pray to him the only way I knew how to pray~I knew not one thing about the bible, I was so ignorant of the most simple things that a person would laugh if they knew.

 

[Mr GLee]

Part 1: It is likely to get long if I include the back story and the follow up of how I went from a "choice and invitation", Charismatic doctrinal view to Reformed. And it is my hope that many will also bring forth their testimony of how they arrived in kingdom of the Son, not for the sake of focusing on experiences; but for the sake of dispelling the idea of defining being born again according to to set doctrinal parameters. We are not saved by theology or doctrine, but by God. To be sure, there are certain theological and doctrinal things we must and will come to know. But none of them can be known until we are "born again from above."


My family consisted of parents and five siblings, four girls and one boy. I was born smack in the middle of the pack. My father had been raised in Baptist and Presbyterian churches, my mother in Baptist and Methodist churches. (They switched to the Methodist after the Baptists condemned my grandfather of sin when he purchased rubbing alcohol to relieve the leg pains of a daughter who was confined to a wheelchair. That gives you some idea of the legalistic bent of some of those churches in that time.) When my father was in his twenties he left his home state of Kansas to work in California to help his widowed mother, as there were more opportunities there. This was the dust bowl era. When he returned, hitchhiking across the desert, no rides, thirsty, no doubt dehydrated, he finally sat down exhausted and prayed that God would just take his life. What followed was a mystical experience in which he thought he was told to rewrite the Bible as it should be written.

Long story short, after a stopover in Kansas, he felt led to Louisville, KY, and there one Sunday morning he was walking past a church and heard singing, and was pulled inside. There he discovered he did not need to rewrite the Bible as it should be written. Someone else had already done so. Someone by the name of Mary Baker Eddy. The church was a Christian Science church.

Thanks for sharing your religious testimony as a experience .

Many make personal experience of the temporal dying things the validator of eternal life rather than the unseen eternal things of God as it is written it reminds myself. Its prophecy we seek after. Not lying wonders, wondering, wondering signs of the Father of lies. The un-redeemed seek after as if it was true prophecy .(sola scriptura)

No signs were given to wonder after. We have prohecy till the end of time.

The Pagan foundation out of sight out of mind. Therefore making the foundation of faith, belief (the unseen eternal) to no effect .Taking away the spiritual understanding that powerfully works in the believer. yoked with Him our burder can be lighter

Three denoting the end of a matter. Three times the eternal Father gave His living words to His apostle/ prophet Jesus the Son of man as it is written

The word it representing the unseen power of our Faithful Creator Christ in us . You could say and it was God alone good.

The lying wonder given to Jesus had no effect . the imaginations of Jesus the Son of man weakened heart disappeared.

Strike three struck him out .never saw the faith ball coming lol .

Mathew 4:7-11 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

It would seem many use ones own imagination as a source of faith (belief) A new ability identify oneself to whatever tickles one fantasy is on the rise . The Cats. . . Bow Wow and Dogs. . . meow meow

The new Fantasy Island. The extended 3 hour tour the Gilligan 15 year kind . Lefty madness

 

[Arial]

Thanks for sharing your religious testimony as a experience .

It was not a religious testimony and the experience was not the point. Your post reeks of contempt for the work of God in people.

Many make personal experience of the temporal dying things the validator of eternal life rather than the unseen eternal things of God as it is written it reminds myself. Its prophecy we seek after. Not lying wonders, wondering, wondering signs of the Father of lies. The un-redeemed seek after as if it was true prophecy .(sola scriptura)

It is probably true that many people do. That does not mean that experience don't happen or that they are invalid. It is you who are focusing on experiences when you miss the point entirely.

There has been a discussion on the forum concerning regeneration. How does it happen, what does it do, etc. And because people are people, the definition sometimes comes down to declaring absolutes, as though one size fits all. We tend to think that however it came about for us is the way it comes about for everyone.

The truth of the matter is, to our minds it is somewhat of a mystery. What is clear in Scripture is that a person will not come to Christ because they cannot, unless they are first born again from above. And we also know that if they are born again from above, they will come to Christ. And if they come to Christ, there are certain things they will come to understand and believe about Christ. And that no matter to what degree their understanding is, or how much theological and doctrinal knowledge they gain over time, or how little, if God has chosen to regenerate them and place them in Christ, that is where they are and forever will be.

So the purpose of this thread and the testimonies given, is to dispel the idea that we can set fixed parameters around the working of God in a person to bring them to Christ. And that even if the church has gone off the rails doctrinely, and does things in a way that suggests we are saved by our choices, and therefore offers invitational prayers that are theologically incorrect, it cannot and will not stop God in giving every last one of his elect to the Son. The gates of hell will not prevail against his called out ones.

That has already been illustrated by those testimonies given. God puts his people where he wants them to be for his purposes of leading them to the Son. He treats them all as individuals, with their own personalities and circumstances, and brings about the new birth and following conversion in the perfect and best way for them. And each one is the apple of his eye, and his eye and hand upon them long before they even draw their first breath.

The rest of your post is such utter foolish nonsense, dripping with contempt. It actually sounds like the ramblings of someone high on pot.

 

[fastfredy0]

The rest of your post is such utter foolish nonsense, dripping with contempt. It actually sounds like the ramblings of someone high on pot.

Tell us what you really think. *giggle*

 

[Mr GLee]

Tell us what you really think. *giggle*

Its only funny when to people are laughing. Tell us what you really think Mr. giggles.

Can a religions experience be false?

 

[Red Baker]

There has been a discussion on the forum concerning regeneration. How does it happen, what does it do, etc. And because people are people, the definition sometimes comes down to declaring absolutes, as though one size fits all. We tend to think that however it came about for us is the way it comes about for everyone.

The truth of the matter is, to our minds it is somewhat of a mystery. What is clear in Scripture is that a person will not come to Christ because they cannot, unless they are first born again from above. And we also know that if they are born again from above, they will come to Christ. And if they come to Christ, there are certain things they will come to understand and believe about Christ. And that no matter to what degree their understanding is, or how much theological and doctrinal knowledge they gain over time, or how little, if God has chosen to regenerate them and place them in Christ, that is where they are and forever will be.

So the purpose of this thread and the testimonies given, is to dispel the idea that we can set fixed parameters around the working of God in a person to bring them to Christ. And that even if the church has gone off the rails doctrinely, and does things in a way that suggests we are saved by our choices, and therefore offers invitational prayers that are theologically incorrect, it cannot and will not stop God in giving every last one of his elect to the Son. The gates of hell will not prevail against his called out ones.

That has already been illustrated by those testimonies given. God puts his people where he wants them to be for his purposes of leading them to the Son. He treats them all as individuals, with their own personalities and circumstances, and brings about the new birth and following conversion in the perfect and best way for them. And each one is the apple of his eye, and his eye and hand upon them long before they even draw their first breath.

Amen for the most part! You said: "And we also know that if they are born again from above, they will come to Christ." (This I may not totally agree with, since some of God's children have, and will died in believing in some teachings of false cults, very sad to say ~ there are unconverted elect in this world and always will be to a certain degree)

Let me say more about my own walk with the Lord, since you trigged a couple of thoughts concerning my own conversions over the years. Let me get my thoughts in order before speaking. Later....RB

 

[Red Baker]

Okay, let me start by giving a brief timeline of my life as a believer in Jesus Christ my Lord.

1) My life before coming to Christ. Born and raised in what is known as the Piedmont area of North Carolina~Winston-Salem. As I said, I was not raised in a religious home, but just the opposite. Never went to church, while living with my mother and her father. In my early years before my father died, I did go with his mother, my grandmother to the house meeting they had at my great-grandmother house, where my father's mother, and her mother, and others met. They belong to a group called ~"The Way"~I truly do not know much of what they believe, and it was so hard to get my aunt to explain to me exactly what they did teach, that I never push the matter with her. My aunt just died being almost 100 years old~a truly humble person who was devoted to what she did believe~but since she lived in another state from where I now lived, I saw her very little over the last forty years or so. She most likely thought, since I was not part of that group, I most likely was not saved, even though she never said so, but her actions in so many ways did.

In Hi school is where I met my wife, who had just moved down from Montana, with her mother and stepfather, and two brothers, and adopted sister from her stepfather's family. Sherry was not brought up religiously either~maybe even farther from what I was brought up, since her step father was a profess atheist, and her mother a profess agnostic. I once said to her stepfather, that God used him to bring my wife to me, which he proudly said that he did not believe that~but, I reminded him that I had the proof living with me for the past thirty years, or so when that was said. He was transferred from Great Falls Montana to Winston-Salem right into the very school district, which I met my future wife only a few weeks (12) after she arrived being only fifteen, and we have been together ever since then! To Sherry's parents credit, when we went out to eat, they always waited until we prayed and then eat. They later thank me for treating Sherry like a Jewish princess (as they called it)~and said that we had almost a perfect marriage, which we have had.

Now to how we got from Winston-Salem, N.C. to Greenville, S.C. still being outside of Christ visibly~even though chosen in Christ from the foundation of the world. I worked at Roadway Express, and Sherry at AT& T (Bellsouth a daughter of AT&T). I worked on the loading dock and was offered a transfer to Greenville, with better hours and days off~this was in May of 1972, which I took. So Sherry and I moved away from both sides of our family and moved 3.5 hours southeast. Looking back~it was God moving us away from those that would had been a great influence on our life if we had stay there~much like he moved Abraham and Sarah~we left the tobacco capital of the world and headed to the Bible belt, actually, the buckle of the belt!

When we got here, and started to work, there were tons (at least it seems that way) of Bob Jones University and Tabernacle Bible college students who worked part time on the dock, and all I ever heard was the bible being discuss~by just about all folks, sinners and those who called themselves Christians. The same for Sherry at Bellsouth, but not to the same degree. Folks inviting us to go to church, and I would make promises, but would not keep them, but that soon change. I do remember going with my buddy to his son's baptism at Catholic Church. He asked if I would go, and I said yes. When there standing before the priest, he looked at me and asked: are you a Catholic, to which I replied and said~I'm nothing but a sinner, and he said you cannot be a witness of this baptism, but my friend who was just as sinful as me, if not more so, said that he wanted me there, so the self-righteous, comprising priest said okay.

2) Coming to Christ through a invitation call.

Later.....RB

 

[Red Baker]

2) Coming to Christ through a invitation call.

Some time during the year of 1973 I remembered asking a person who went to BJU to purchase me a bible with the money I had given to him, since I thought he knew more than me what to buy, because I was ready to learn the bible~he purchased a ASB which was the bible that BJU used for the most part. He only purchased the NT and told me to start there. It was all Greek to me literally, but I did learn who the apostles were and a few only thing that any elementary school kid could learn on his own. But, not very much more than that. I did begin to listen to BJU radio station on Sunday, because I begin to feel guilty of living the way I was living. My wife was right here with me, and even wanted us both me to go to church. We visited a few and then of all places went to a revival meeting at this small independence Baptist church~where there's are one every corner here is the upstate of S.C.

At the end of the meeting that night the preacher look straight at me and Sherry and said, why are you staying there (some thing to that effect) come to Christ, etc. Which we did, and I have never looked back since that day. I look back at that afterward and consider that moment a moment of the beginning my conversion to Christ, even though this begin much earlier, after we moved south. When exactly was born of God's Spirit, is really unknown since that's God work that takes palace in our subconscious, but truly the fall of 1974 is when my life was committed to Christ, and since that day I have went through several conversions to a more perfect knowledge of the truth. Let me give some details to help.

The small church was a church that taught freewill, against election, and taught a secret rapture theta, etc., etc.

I immediately begin to devour the scriptures and read as much as I possibly could, even though I had to read them several times to get a true understanding. I also purchased books to read and spend a lot of time searching for the truth. I went to bible college in 1975, and dropped out almost as soon as I started, because, what I was taking, I was getting more from books from men like A. W. Pink, etc. I devour every book that Pink ever wrote, and had a hard copy of them, which I gave my entire library, (a nice room full) to a young man and his wife with six small children so they could reap what I did many years ago.

I quickly saw the doctrine of unconditional election, which left me without a church (place) to attend in this area. I visited over 30 some churches, all of which, just did not teach this doctrine, they hated it with a passion. I also saw the error of premillennialism. and gradually converted over to amillennialism just about as quick, and then on to idealism but this conversion took much longer, maybe twenty years, or longer to perfect.

Now, let me come to around 1983, where Sherry and I met a elderly lady who worshipped in her home and invited us to come with her and meet, which we did and this lasted for around a couple of years. But she wanted to do what Arial mentioned above:

And because people are people, the definition sometimes comes down to declaring absolutes, as though one size fits all. We tend to think that however it came about for us is the way it comes about for everyone.

Miss Bullock (never had been married~she was in her seventies when we first met her and we were in our early thirties) always wanted to know how folks came to know the Lord~she thought that when God regenerated a person they come under heavy conviction of sin and this could last for several weeks until they let go and surrender their hearts to the Lord, etc. etc. She was guilty of thinking all folks get born again just as she thought she did, when her experience could have very well been a case of conversion and her conversion was according to her temperament, and circumstances , etc.

More on this point later....RB

 

[Red Baker]

Continue my thoughts from #35 above....

At the same time we met Miss Bullock, we met two others older folks who also worshipped in their home. Don Holp and Christina Fuller, who were just friends living separately, who spent their day time with each other, as though you were think they were married, but they were not, just Christian friends that were alone and wanted fellowship. I taught them for around two years in our home and in Don's. They were way too judgmental, and would eventful be less judgmental, yet could never overcome not judging others by what they thought constituted a Christian. Their were guiltily of creating a god in their own hearts, thinking if they think some thing is wrong, then surely God is against it, etc. We left on on good terms, yet never fellowship together after that.

This brings me to the Church of Greenville, around 1986. A church that both Miss Bullock and Don and Christian visited, once or twice, when I found them.

I found them through a person I had met, when talking to this person about his faith, the doctrine of election came up, and he quickly said that he did not believe in that doctrine, but knew a person which did~ and then I asked for his phone number, which he would not give it to me, so I gave him my number and ask him to give that gentleman my contact me, and ask him to call me because I wanted to meet him.

Finally, after two, or maybe three weeks I got a call, form a gentleman, who invited me to come to his house to met with him and his pastor, who was the pastor of the church of Greenville. We met and things that night went well, and the pastor, asked me and a friend that I bought with me some questions about seven proof of unconditional salvation~which I agree with all them, yet my friend who came with me did not, (which I had already knew he would not) and neither did the gentleman who invited me to his house agree with his own pastor, whim I found strange, but said nothing. (Bob Charron was his name for 3 Resurrections information.)

Well, I started attending this group and did for around around five years or so. I wanted to leave before then, for reasons mention by 3 Resurrections already, but did not until I knew we had to leave. I had private disagreements with the pastor that the church never knew of, but they remained private.

They were solid on Soteriology~but I strongly disagree on eschatology with the pastor, being a half bake Preterist. Where 3 Resurrections got some of his understanding, but not all, if he will confess that he did.

He also was a lover of power, and still to this day, as far as I know, is the single voice from that church, with not even deacons~much less elders having the gift to teach. We strongly disagree with him privately on church government which he did not like.

Even though some godly folks in that body of believers, it is dangerous to follow ONE MAN, as though God only speaks through him, and others have no gift to teach above that one man.

Maybe one more post to bring me up to today.

 

[Mr GLee]

Amen for the most part! You said: "And we also know that if they are born again from above, they will come to Christ." (This I may not totally agree with, since some of God's children have, and will died in believing in some teachings of false cults, very sad to say ~ there are unconverted elect in this world and always will be to a certain degree)

God is not served by the the dying hands of mankind . A man must been born like Jesus our brother in the Lord

Salvation is a gift it cannot be lost.

All who have been born again alone can come .

 

[Arial]

A man must been born like Jesus our brother in the Lord

Just to clarify and not to discuss as the above is a denial of the deity of Christ and his eternal existence. Jesus came to us, as one of us, to redeem a people for the Father. His Father was the Holy Spirit and he was born of a virgin. No one can be born like Jesus. We are all born in Adam. Jesus was not. The elect sinner is re-born, (born again, regenerated) by the Holy Spirit (John 3) into Christ. Through faith in the person and work of Jesus on the cross, he is justified. That is, his sins, having been paid for by Jesus, are not counted against him, but instead the righteousness of Christ is credited to his account and to him. It is Jesus' robes of righteousness that we wear.

 

[Mr GLee]

Just to clarify and not to discuss as the above is a denial of the deity of Christ and his eternal existence. Jesus came to us, as one of us, to redeem a people for the Father. His Father was the Holy Spirit and he was born of a virgin. No one can be born like Jesus. We are all born in Adam. Jesus was not. The elect sinner is re-born, (born again, regenerated) by the Holy Spirit (John 3) into Christ. Through faith in the person and work of Jesus on the cross, he is justified. That is, his sins, having been paid for by Jesus, are not counted against him, but instead the righteousness of Christ is credited to his account and to him. It is Jesus' robes of righteousness that we wear.

Hi I would think a differnce of the understanding.

Not a salvation issue .More of How can we hear God.as it is written ?

I attended a church 25 years called the Plymouth Brethren (two kinds) where I first heard the gospel(hearing of faith) They looked for three trinity to denote the work of Christ our husband . Two sems to be the nuber word used in parable to repsecnt God not sen has spoken . I cal the dynamic dual Three is a crowd.

God is not a Jewish man, dying mankind as King of kings

Satan the identity thief right from the beginning .SSSSsss Look at my beauty and live. SSSsss Why believe in things not seen?

In Mathew 16 the anti- christ, the spirit of lies Satan worked in Peter one of the many anti- christs. false apostles . Another teaching authroity other than sola scriptura

Mathew 16: 22-23 Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.
But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

Peter previously coming as a anti-christ (Pharisees with Sadducee). .A law of the fathers as .dying mankind. Peter our brother in the Lord was forgiven of His blasphemy against the Son of man Jesus dying mankind .

.Blasphemy against the unseen Holy Father .No forgiveness . the vail was rent there was no Jewish man as King of kings siting in the Holy of Holes . Satan the identity thief could no longer deceive all the nations of the world that God is a Jewish man as King of kings (Revelation 20:3)

Revaltion20: 3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

He will be released at the end of the age to again seduce all the nations to believe God is a Jewish man as King of kings .

 

[Arial]

Hi I would think a differnce of the understanding.

Not a salvation issue .More of How can we hear God.as it is written ?

I attended a church 25 years called the Plymouth Brethren (two kinds) where I first heard the gospel(hearing of faith) They looked for three trinity to denote the work of Christ our husband . Two sems to be the nuber word used in parable to repsecnt God not sen has spoken . I cal the dynamic dual Three is a crowd.

God is not a Jewish man, dying mankind as King of kings

Satan the identity thief right from the beginning .SSSSsss Look at my beauty and live. SSSsss Why believe in things not seen?

In Mathew 16 the anti- christ, the spirit of lies Satan worked in Peter one of the many anti- christs. false apostles . Another teaching authroity other than sola scriptura

Mathew 16: 22-23 Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.
But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

Peter previously coming as a anti-christ (Pharisees with Sadducee). .A law of the fathers as .dying mankind. Peter our brother in the Lord was forgiven of His blasphemy against the Son of man Jesus dying mankind .

.Blasphemy against the unseen Holy Father .No forgiveness . the vail was rent there was no Jewish man as King of kings siting in the Holy of Holes . Satan the identity thief could no longer deceive all the nations of the world that God is a Jewish man as King of kings (Revelation 20:3)

Revaltion20: 3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

He will be released at the end of the age to again seduce all the nations to believe God is a Jewish man as King of kings .

Like I said. Not for discussion here. It goes in the Trinity board. I was simply not leaving the heresy in the thread without identifying it and correcting it. The Trinity is an integral part of the Christian faith (religion.) Leave it alone.