Hello Everyone

[Dan7]

Hello everyone, I hope all of you are doing well. My name is Daniel, and I am from the USA.

I am a sinner and have always fallen short of my commitment to following Christ’s teachings. I’ve gone to the same church my whole life on most Sundays, and have viewed my church as mostly biblical. They fall short in a few areas, such as in their belief that tithing is a Christian requirement. I fully repented and came to Jesus Christ in January of 2023. I’ve always considered myself a Christian, but I never truly repented until January of this year. I felt the need to truly repent after reading Matthew 7:21-23, as I knew that despite the fact that I continuously attended church, I needed to repent in true heartfelt grief over the sins I’ve committed (lying, cheating, etc…). Although I claimed that I was a Christian, I continued to sin. And I knew that I was a hypocrite. I needed to display humility due to the sins I knowingly committed while professing to be of Jesus Christ. I read that Jesus wanted me to come to repentance (the desire for ALL to come found in 2 Peter 3:9) and that I needed to humble myself (humble myself as a little child found in Matthew 18:3-8), or I “shall not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3-8). I was sitting on a chair with my computer at night following some research and realized that I needed to accept God’s gift of repentance. With all this in mind, I repented and truly came to Jesus Christ. Following this, I decided to continuously study God’s word, to study analysis of God’s word, and to study topics that are related and/or apply to biblical principles. And here I am today on creation liberty, fulfilling my desire to study God’s word.

As I told Mr. Johnson, he was the source for the claim that Billy Graham may have been a mason on an online encyclopedia, and out of curiosity I decided to delve deeper into this claim. I soon realized that Mr. Johnson recanted his claim, but what I soon realized surprised me greatly. Here were some of the thoughts that went through my head: “Christmas, Easter, Weddings, etc… are based on pagan customs?”; “The cure for cancer exists?”; “Vaccines aren’t safe and effective?”; etc… What a truthful surprise! I have searched for biblical websites such as this one for a decade, and when I finally came upon this one a few months ago, I knew that I found a “hidden gem”.

And now, let me introduce my beliefs. Keep in mind that I am a non-denominational (i.e. biblical) Christian.

I’ll quote parts of Mr. Johnson’s statement of faith, and will add my own words where I see fit.

1. I believe that “God's Word is the ultimate authority”. I believe that we should not question God or his actions; it is biblical to be inspecting ourselves in light of God’s word.
2. I believe that “Baptism does not grant saving grace, " and that all “Christian” denominations, such as catholicism, Mormonism, and seventh-day Adventism, are unbiblical and pagan.
3. I believe that the “King James Bible is God's pure, preserved Word” in the English language. I believe that the “new age” (i.e. NIV, ESV, NKJV, etc…) versions are corrupted by evil men who seek to change doctrines such as creation.
4. I believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died on the cross and was resurrected. I believe that Jesus Christ is alive, that we are saved only through His blood, that He is the head of the church, and that He is “the sole foundation for our philosophy”.
5. I believe that the Earth was created in six twenty-four hours days around 6,000 years ago and that any alternative interpretation (old earth, evolution, etc…) is foolish, unbiblical, and proof that one doesn’t believe in Jesus Christ. I also believe that the Bible is 100% scientifically accurate.
6. I believe that “God's Word is accurate to history”, meaning that I believe every historical event found in the Bible, including the global flood, occurred and is historical and scientifically accurate.
7. I believe that “the 66 books of the Bible are the inspired Words of God”. I believe that they are infallible, and accurate, and must be taken seriously.
8. I believe that God exists as the Godhead and that the Godhead is (and has always been) alive.
9. I believe in all that the Bible teaches regarding the rapture. In fact, I believe in every single thing the Bible teaches.
10. I believe that salvation comes through true biblical repentance (i.e. grief for wrongdoing against God). I believe that repentance is a gift from God that many will reject.
11. I believe that Jesus Christ is the sole giver of salvation, and I also believe that faith and repentance are necessary for Christ to gain salvation.
12. I believe that all of mankind is sinful, and the only way to heaven is through Jesus Christ.
13. I believe that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and was born to Mary, a virgin.
14. I believe that Atheism is foolish and irrational.
15. I believe that Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Valentine’s Day, etc… are all of pagan origin, and I believe that “traditional” wedding customs are also of pagan origin.
16. I believe that homosexuality (and any form of adultery) is a sin. I also believe that God made all of mankind either male or female and that no other genders exist.
17. I believe that abortion (and any form of murder) is a sin.
18. I believe that most if not all of the so-called “Christian” symbols are not Christian (fish, cross, etc…).

In short, I believe in every single thing the Bible teaches. What I listed is not opinion. On the contrary, what I listed is either God’s doctrine or is based on His word.

I joined this forum as I plan to join Mr. Johnson’s church and Bible study.

Nice to meet you all.

[Kenneth Winslow]

Thanks for the thorough post Dan.

I don't expect anyone will have any contention with anything you've said, but some may want to discuss things further for various reasons, simple fellowship not being the least of them.

With that said, would you mind telling us what state you live in?  I live in Tennessee and others live in Alabama, Missouri, California, Virginia and Indiana.

[Dan7]

Hello there, nice to meet you.

I am from the state of California.

[Ellie]

Hi Dan, thanks for the introduction. I was just curious to clarify--did you get saved before you found CLE or after? If I'm understanding correctly, you were researching things and found CLE on an encyclopedia, and then you started seeing different articles Chris wrote, so was this when you realized you needed to repent and then got saved? After reading about repentance in CLE articles? I might have put that together wrong but anyway I was just curious.

I'm from California too but I moved (or escaped )  to Alabama. I was in Northern CA-- are you northern or southern?

[Dan7]

Hello there.

I’ve considered myself saved for a long time, even before this year. However, I’ve only “repented” throughout the years with a simple prayer prior to reading Mr. Johnson’s article. After I read his article, I realized the need to truly repent (i.e. in grief). I’ve also sinned along the way, so I felt the need to “truly” repent.

I’m from Southern California, and I feel the need to escape as well. Who wouldn’t!

[Kenneth Winslow]

BTW, we generally just refer to one another by first names around here.  It's not a big deal, but just so you know.

[Dan7]

Sure thing, Kenneth. Thanks for letting me know.

[creationliberty]

Kenneth's just trying to help you relax. We know you're respectful n' all, but we're not lords or priests. Just sinners saved.

[Dan7]

I agree. I’m sorry if I sounded so “in your face”, as that was not my intention. In any case, it’s nice to meet you all. I’ll post often, as I do plan on joining the church. Chris, I wanted to mention that your shroud of Turin article brought a point that’s overlooked by most articles on the subject. It was interesting to notice the prophecy in Isaiah 50- Christ would not have had a beard!

By the way, Kenneth, I watched parts of those street preaching videos you linked, and they were interesting. I assume you see lots of Jehovah’s Witnesses around your area. I have yet to read the article on them, but I always see them around deceiving people. They act so mellow around my area, but in reality they are wolves in sheep’s clothing.

[someguy85]

Hi Dan

Yeah, interesting fact is that it's never mentioned Jesus had a beard in any of the four gospels that I've found, I wouldn't even give the shroud of turin a second thought though, just like the "spear of destiny" or the "holy grail", yes I've heard stories that they are real but just put in a museum somewhere (guessing someone was mightily disappointed when they found out that movies like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was only fiction and that these things have no divine powers), although what's mostly the images you see of "jesus" today are taken after Cesare Borgia, a relative of a 15th century pope. (Best depiction I've come across as to what Christ MIGHT have looked like was a non descript rough skinned short haired Jewish tradesman...just someone in the crowd who didn't stand out as described in Isaiah 53:2:

"For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him"

That's one thing that far too many Christians and proclaiming Christians forget to do, the more you read the bible, the less likely you are to be taken in by false doctrine. If you do want to try witnessing to Jehovah's Witnesses, just remember that they are being lied to as well, they aren't told the whole truth because they're at the bottom rungs of the ladder, if you've had a chance to listen to Chris' teachings on the Watchtower Society, there's every possibility they won't listen to you first time around and especially since they rarely travel alone, but a seed planted can always grow, and if they're open at all to the truth or repentance, then that seed will grow.

[Dan7]

Hello there Chris, nice to meet you.

Yes, I'm completely sure that many "Christian artifacts" are either forgeries or are unrelated to Jesus.

Have you ever witnessed to Jehovah's Witnesses? I see them everywhere. However, no one is interested in them, and for the most part they are just baking in the sun. They don't preach or anything like that; they just stand there waiting for people to get their literature.

By the way, I noticed that you mentioned how horrendous the "The Message" Bible translation is, and I had to check it out for myself. It's safe to say that I completely agree with you- just look at how they translated Genesis 1. What a horrendous translation! Is it some sort of "modern" translation?

[someguy85]

"The Message" perversion is some attempt at putting biblical passages into modern English (so they say) but if anything it comes across as just being more broken. Whenever I get questioned about why I  use the KJV I put it quite simply, if you can find me another version that exhalts and glorifies the name and deity of Christ more than the KJV, confesses the Godhead more, and holds up the sacrifice of Christ more than the KJV then I might consider using it, but every version I've seen so far seems to not only like downplaying every part of that, but if you know what to look for it's openly deceptive about it, not the last of which is when they omit a verse, they won't adjust the numbers for the rest of the verses to match. If their translations are so good, why do the deceivers who make these new translations still use the King James as their gold standard and blue print?

I did try talking to a couple of people who were out witnessing for the watchtower a while ago, but I didn't know as much about them then as I do now, but they spoke with all sincerity that they believed that the watchtower was the one true organisation. I'm guessing these days because of the scam-demic of course you're not going to see them knocking door to door as much, either way their methods of trying to gain converts just like most other cults are sneaky, but once you're inside of course, a lot of people find them legalistic to the max. Your big aim to make a breakthrough would be getting them to question what they believe, and especially if you can do it using scripture, but don't forget when you do talk to them you're looking at someone who is very much engulfed in fear of the watchtower, they're brainwashed into blind loyalty so don't be surprised if they get defensive and want to leave or if they start holding you in contempt.