Greetings from Finland

[Jarno]

Hello! My name is Jarno Moilanen and I am a Finnish man from Rovaniemi, the capital of Lapland (and the official hometown of Santa Claus). I was born in 1987 to a family who belongs to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. I became interested in God when I was a primary school pupil, but it was not until I was at junior high school that I really understood and believed the grace of God in Jesus Christ. When I was a high school student I became very interested in the origin issues and began to study diligently the creation-evolution debate. I understood fast that the first chapters of Genesis must be taken as actual history, and I have been a young-earth creationist Bible-believing Christian ever since.
 
After high school I went to a Bible school for three months. There I decided to go to study theology at a university. In 2015 I graduated with a Master of Theology from the University of Eastern Finland, majoring in Biblical Studies (especially the Old Testament). The subject of my thesis was the origin of the Book of Ecclesiastes. For many years now, however, my greatest interest has been the history and archaeology of the ancient Near East. Through my scholarly studies I want to strengthen the faith of my brothers and sisters in Christ and to show all the people of the world that the whole Bible can be trusted historically. I very recently published a book called From Flood to Fallen Kingdoms - A Biblical-Creationist History of the Ancient Near East: New Short Introduction, the first truly authoritative, detailed and coherent, young-earth creationist overview of the post-flood history of the ancient Near East (and the land of Israel). You can read the full description at Amazon, for example.

I happened to find this site when I was looking for some information concerning one well-known person (K.H.). Happy to find an active forum for Bible-believing Christians.

Blessings from Finland

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” Eph 2:8-10 KJV

“We love him, because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19
 

[strangersmind]

So when did you become saved in Christ

[Jeanne]

In some ways your introduction reads more like a resume than a testimony of your salvation through repentance (grief and godly sorrow for wrongdoing, NOT 'turning from sin') and faith in Jesus Christ, so I really have to wonder; are you honestly here for the fellowship, or are you just trying to promote your book?

Please read the article Chris wrote on repentance:
https://http://www.creationliberty.com/articles/repent.php

In our experience, people with 'theology' or 'Bible college' degrees tend to be effectively inoculated against true repentance and salvation because they would rather believe what they were taught in school than believe what the Bible actually says. I don't mean to sound harsh, but the teaching of sound doctrine in the faith is our primary concern here; everything else that you mentioned about your field of study is secondary.

[creationliberty]

Yeah, I agree with the others, I'm not seeing any testimony of conversion here. I see where you has mentioned the name "Christ," but there's no testimony that helps us to see your guilt/confession of sin, repentance (i.e. grief and godly sorrow of wrongdoing), and faith in the blood of the Son of God. The fact is that most of the information you provided could be found in an obituary. I'm willing to hear you out if you want to try again, but when you're putting your degrees up as replacement for an actual testimony, I don't trust you yet.

If you would like to more details about why, just ask and I'll explain more details of Scripture on the matter, but for now, it sounds like you just came here to promote your book, which I hope is not the case because that's not what this forum is for. I'll wait for your response.

[Jarno]

I am sorry if my introduction was not adequate for you. I just wanted to tell you briefly about who I am and what I have done in my life, that I became a believer when I was 15 years old and how I have grown in faith and understanding. I can only assure you that I am a genuine Bible-believing Christian who repents and feels sorry for sin and trusts in God's free mercy in Lord Jesus Christ. I am not a hypocrite, nor a liberal. I love my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and I am dependent on him. I did not lose my faith when I was studying at the university. Instead I learnt there many things that help me now to serve God. I mentioned my great interest in history and archaeology. I did not intend to raise any distrust by also mentioning my new book. Telling people about it is now important for me. I hope and pray God that it will be a blessing for many in the future.
I will come here to read new posts regularly, and may sometimes also comment. God bless you all.

[creationliberty]

Well, that's making me even more cautious because you didn't really say much of anything, let alone did you actually testify of Christ in the manner we are speaking about. You still don't understand, do you? You're even repeating what we said almost verbatim, as if you're not understanding what we're talking about, nor did you ask for an explanation of what we were talking about (which I offered in my response), which shows that you don't even want to know, and the reason I think that is the case is because your seminary college degree is getting the way; you already think you understand.
But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, AND UNDERSTANDETH IT; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
-Mat 13:23
Don't misunderstand what I mean; I do believe that you believe you are of Christ, as many do, but the problem is that not all those who "believe on Jesus" will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and Jesus was very clear about this:
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. MANY will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
-Matthew 7:21-23
If you want to understand what this means, again, all you have to do is ask, and I'll explain more details. If you don't want to understand, that's your business, but I can already tell you that people who come here and testify of Christ, and have that understanding, get a lot more responses from the community here than you've gotten. (You can see them in past introduction posts if you look around.) Typically, if someone doesn't get a lot of "welcome" responses, most of the people here just remain silent because they're cautious.

I'll just say that, in the past ten years I've been working in ministry, I've met numerous false converts who have repeated almost exactly the same generic lines you've written here for us. In fact, I may have said the exact same things when I was 15, and for a number of years afterwards until I was saved, because I was brought up in church buildings and taught the mainstream narrative. It's a common theme in church-ianity, especially from those who have "theology" degrees. You've got two posts now, and I've not yet seen anything that testifies of the Holy Spirit of God and salvation through the Son of God.

Is Repentance Part of Salvation?
False Converts vs Eternal Security

[strangersmind]

Jarno you said  I am a genuine Bible-believing Christian who repents and feels sorry for sin.  What is your definition of repents?

[anvilhauler]

Hi Jarno

Do you find now that you grossly dislike the theology teaching system at the university? 

Do you feel like you mainly completely wasted your time because useful Biblical teaching is only done at the church congregation level for the building up of the church? 

Of course a part of that teaching in the church is also to identify those who are not really of Christ who are either trying to make their way in to a church or are already there and need to be exposed and hopefully brought to repentance through Christ.  This subject is where real Biblical teaching leaves weak and watery seminary college and university theology department junk way behind. 

I also have a university degree but I know that that means absolutely nothing in the sight of God and is only useful in the same way that Paul used his Roman citizenship when it suited his needs. 

What everyone here is interested in reading about is the process by which God made it known to you that you are a sinner and how that brought you low with humility and brokenness to the understanding that you are wretched miserable and poor and in need of God's salvation.  Sorry, but your introduction didn't give me that impression at all either.

[creationliberty]

Btw, the records show that he logged in soon after these responses were posted, which means he would have seen these posts, but he hasn't responded, nor has he logged in since. So yeah, I think he came here to promote his book, and that's not what this forum is for. I don't mind someone mentioning a book or video they made if they are already a part of our community, but for disciples of corrupt seminary colleges to try and flaunt their vain education while trying to increase their sales, especially with no testimony of Christ; I'm pleased to usher them to the nearest exit.