Hello, do you have a testimony? Here is mine:
You can find it at:
http://www.tentmaker.org/testimonials/craignolin.html
My Testimony
I was born in a border town in the Canadian prairies in the late 70's to a well-off family, where my father was a manager of an oil company, and my mom stayed home.
My family did not know the Lord until I was three years old, when my father came home after a business trip as a changed man. Visited by two angels who had led him into the heart of Calgary, he witnessed the sin of the world for what it was, and accepted the Lord as Savior, realizing that we cannot save ourselves. A few weeks after his revelation, I realized what my dad was talking about, and at the young age of three, I accepted the Lord with a full heart. The Spirit of the Lord came like a rushing wind on my life, filling me with His love. From that day forward, I have known the Hand of God was on my life.
The Visitation, Confrontation and a Lesson Learned
Not long after this excellent change from a child who knew nothing, to a child who loved the Lord and understood the Love of God that surpasses all understanding, my parents left my brother and myself with our next-door neighbor to baby-sit us. He claimed to know the Lord, and to that extent I will say he may have, but he did have a problem. Over the course of a month, I was tricked into playing a game, and then being sexually abused. I had known it was wrong somehow in my heart and I cried quietly to the Lord. My parents had no idea what was happening to me while they were in their outings. No parent could be blamed for trusting the person who was supposedly trustworthy to look after their children. I was only three years old, and did not totally understand. I asked Jesus to help me.
I woke up that night after the prayer to a dark bedroom. I felt strangely numb all over as I looked around. A light entered my room; it was bright gold and silver. When I focused I realized it was not just any light, but the Light of life. Jesus stood before me in glorious splendor; I saw his feet and his robe. His feet were strapped in brown sandals; his robe was not white silk, but a coarse tan fabric. I looked up to his hands. They looked strong, yet gentle. As I saw his hands I knew it was my Lord, because they were pierced. He knelt down beside my bed and I looked to see His face, but the light was too bright. I could make out His eyes, which were gentle against his bearded face. I don't know whether His form was true to life, or just one I would recognize, but when I saw His eyes, they were a deep pale blue, like the color of the oceans you see in satellite footage over the Caribbean. He put his hands over face and placed them on my cheeks and spoke to me.
His words were simple and not complicated."Craig, my son," He sincerely whispered. "Do not be afraid, I am Jesus who had died for you. I have been and will always be with you." I could feel the excitement in my heart rise as He spoke. "Do not be afraid to tell your parents what has happened, it is not your fault." He stroked my cheek, "Go now and tell your parents." He picked me up, and as I stood He was gone.
I didn't think twice about it, I walked to my parents' room. It was early in the morning; the sunlight of the new day was starting to shine through my parents' bedroom window. I remember their quilt comforter was like pillows as I jumped up on their bed. My mother sat up; she was somewhat startled at my pounce. "Craig?" she asked, surprised at the rude awakening. My dad was out of town on a business meeting that weekend so I only woke her.
"Mom!" I said excitedly, "I saw Jesus!" She didn't believe me. She thought I was trying to share a dream with her. "What did he look like?" she asked quizzically. "Did he wear white?"
"No mom," I responded with a chuckle, thinking she was playing with me. "It was like your color but brighter!" I could not explain what tan looked like, but my mother was wearing a dark peach night gown that resembled the color. My mom's face was glowing with blush. "Oh, that's good Craig!" She wanted more sleep. I could tell she didn't know I had more to tell her.
"Mom, He told me to tell you, that you should not be mad at S------." I do not remember Him saying this, but in my heart those words were clear by the Spirit within me. My mom looked at me with confusion. Without going into much detail, I told her what was happening by my baby-sitter. Her blush turned to crying as she held me in her arms. She understood that I had truly seen Jesus that night, and that He was protecting her child.
The next day, S----- was at first resistant. I could hear a large commotion in the kitchen as yelling anger spewed from my father's mouth forcing S---- to admit what he'd done. I was hiding in the hallway listening to the commotion. I walked into the kitchen and saw S---- cowering, surrounded by my dad and a group of his friends. I felt a great compassion for everyone. "STOP!" I yelled as I ran into the room, "Jesus loves S----! He said not to get mad." This is when S---- started to cry. My dad was taken aback by my entrance. The proclamation of Love melted S---'s heart, and he admited everything. Instead of pressing criminal charges on the seventeen-year old, he went to private counseling to help him with his life. Some have seen this as an injustice, but the Lord did not come with "an eye for an eye." He said love your enemy and that is what brought forth the repentance. (Romans 2:4 "do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?") The last I heard, S---- now has a family of his own, and is a pastor of a church in his city. That experience changed him, and the Lord taught me His justice.
Learning without Reading
Although at three years of age I could not read yet, I did "read" my Bible every night through audio Bible. I would play my tapes every night before I went to bed, visualizing the words in my life. My favorite books were Proverbs and Psalms; I could not get enough of them. I asked the Lord if I could attain anything it would be His Wisdom. The Lord gave me visions, revelations and prophesy-- and fifteen years later I was a young man of eighteen.
The Confrontation, Second Visitation and Revelation
In 1998 I was a successful salesman for a shoe company; I was divisional and regional salesman of the month of October that year and I was on the verge of running my own store. I had been feeling that the Gospel was wrong in most churches and was attending different churches trying to find out things about the Lord, but every time felt that they were missing something. I would find most congregations luke-warm or weak in their ability to teach the Word. Some of these churches were actually pure in intent and were faithful to what the Lord had called them. I didn't realize it yet, but my problem was pride; I felt my knowledge was far superior to them and they were not worth my time. So, in search for a church, I asked the Lord one night, "Lord, bring me to a church so I would know Your ways better, guide me to where You want me to be." It was a recipe for the Lord to bring forth righteousness, while I was going to be crushed in humility.
Within minutes of my prayer, two missionaries came to my store giving me a letter addressed to nobody in particular. It was an invitation to attend their church. Shocked, they also had said to me the Lord had guided them to me and I was supposed to attend. It was too much of a coincidence, soI took the invitation and prayed over it the next night. The Lord's voice was clear; I was to go with them.
The church was very lively and but artificially fake to the extreme. They had discipleship customs and strange authoritarian traditions but they believed in Jesus Christ. From the beginning I did not agree with their message, but the Lord told me to stay, so I did.To make a long story short, I learned that I knew less than I thought.
After six months, my heart was torn and I felt rejected and battered by the Lord through their words, "Craig," they would say, "You are not saved unless you obey the commands of God and are water baptized into our church!" They would say, "You do not have the Lord, you are not saved, you know not God!" To keep account of my actions I was assigned a 'disciple' to watch over me and be with me at all times. "If you do not give your pay-check to the church, you will forfeit all blessings of God!" they would continue. "Craig you broke the law of God, and unless you repent death is upon you!" They would drill me to the point of admission. They had convinced me that Jesus didn't forgive me unless I was part of their church, that I was not a Christian and that I did not know God.
One night I came to my senses and decided to give it to God. Falling to my knees in prayer and angrily pleading I demanded of God, "God! If I am not Your child, why did You visit me when I was young?" The memory of what happened to me at age three has never left me. "If I was not in Your arms, why did You say You would never leave me or forsake me? If I truly am not a Christian, why do You speak to me, and how have I heard Your voice!?" It was God who told me to go to the cultic church in the first place, because He had a better plan for me. I jumped inside to hear Lord's reply.
"Craig, My son," He said in a gentle fatherly voice that had a chuckle. "You are always My son! You are saved and made clean through the blood of My Son Jesus!" At once I felt a blanket of peace roll over my body, and I looked to the side of my bed to see the same Man who had seen me before, Jesus, sitting on my side chair in my room smiling. "Craig," He continued, "You know that I AM, but now know WHO I AM. Know why and what you believe! Do this and grow in Me!" The peace of God rolled over me like a blanket. Peace energized through my body starting from the top of my head down to the tips of my toes. I smiled knowing He was with me. "Now leave them, they do not know Me." That night I slept like I have never slept before.
When I awoke the Lord brought me to Scripture:
"If a prophet (messenger) or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, 'Let us go after other gods (or a god whom you have not known) and let us serve them, you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the LORD your God is testing you to find out if you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall follow the LORD your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him" (Deut 13:1-4).
"That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all" (Eph 1:17-23).
I understood it. The Lord humbled me, as He pointed out that if I truly knew Him, I would have never stayed in the cult in the first place. It opened my eyes to something that I never saw. I realized now that all things were made for Him so that we may know Him better.
"For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things have been created through Him and for Him" (Colossians 1:16).
From that point, grace has become more real to me. Its definition surpassed that of the dictionary and tradition. Grace became multi-dimensional in meaning, and I went into a wilderness pursuing the Lord with my entire heart and mind. Though I grabbed a hold of a better message, I still did not yet understand the completeness of the Gospel. Knowing grace, I tested the limits of His grace, not always with good results. It was an experience, but learning the the hard way, I received some really hard blows. (1 Corinthians 6:12; 1 Corinthians 10:23, "All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable; All things are lawful, but not all things edify")
My Depression and God's Intervention
The mind is a tricky thing, and mine is no different, it over-analyzes and seeks only itself. The testing of God's grace was not the best thing for my state of mind. Coupled with money troubles and relationship troubles, I went into a episode of depression.
When I was twenty, the wicked thought of suicide entered my mind and I held strongly to it. I moved back with my parents because of my money troubles and they were moving to a new address. I was borrowing my dad's television in my room and when we moved he just took it and put in another room in the house without consulting me. The thought of suicide came back and since I had not closed the door to its evil, I found a reason to embrace it. In anger to the stubbornness of my father, I yelled at him "If you don't want to respect me, then you do not need to worry about me any longer I am going to kill myself!"
To my dismay, my father in his anger responded, "Go ahead. Good bye Craig." My heart and soul broke. I got into my car, purposely forgetting my seatbelt, and visualized my death in a high-speed crash. Choking back my tears,I could hear in the background of my mind, "Do not go to the highway, go visit Erin your friend and talk with her." I fought it, driving past my exit to Erin's and continued to Highway One. "Slow down, you do not need to die." I shook the thought out my head. I could see my car at 210 Km (130 Miles) an hour, slamming into a cement barrier, ejecting me out of the windshield and into the wall quick and painlessly. After about five minutes, I realized that it was snowing and the roads were slick. It was then that I realized how foolish I was truly being--but it was too late. The highway turned and the cement wall was before me-- and at 210 Km/h on an icy road, it did not matter if I changed gears. I was heading for the wall and could not stop.
Time seemed to slow down and stop. The Father's voice (the voice I was ignoring), became loud and clear. "Is this how you want it to end? Is this how you want to be remembered? It is time for you to make a choice! From very young age, I've shown you my Love but you have kept it to yourself. If you want to come to me you are welcome but if you want to share what I have given you to the world, my grace is sufficient for you."
I chose life. The car slammed into the cement wall and I was stunned. I got out of my car and looked at the damage. The car was totaled and the front end caved I noticed blood everywhere and I looked around noticing I was cut across my forehead as a passer by told me to get back into my car. I sat there waiting for the ambulance. As they took me in, they cut my clothes off and checked my health. "Wow, blood pressure perfect! You are healthier than I am," said one of the paramedics. "Good thing you were wearing your seatbelt" said another, noting the red mark spanning across my chest diagonally. Perfect health? Seatbelt? They gave me two stitches in my forehead and I went home with a sore neck due to whiplash, but overall alive and well. That day my relationships changed. I was no longer selfish, but started giving. My dad and I started to heal our relationship. (2 Corinthians 12:9,10 "And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness " Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.)
<Continued Here (http://tentmaker.org/forum/index.php?topic=30.msg172#msg172)>
<Continued from Here (http://tentmaker.org/forum/index.php?topic=30.msg171#msg171)>
The Three Day Challenge and Revelation of Reconciliation
On December 23rd, 2003, I woke up with a dislocated neck and I had to get my dad to drive me to a doctor. While at the doctor we began to talk about the goodness of God and the Gospel of Christ. My dad said, "Craig, we understand that the grace of God and the sovereignty of our God is real. What if---and I ask this only for you to think about---what if all are saved?" He waited for my reaction.
In my heart, a piercing jab--like a sword tearing through my flesh--devastated my presupposition of God. I had known since I was very young about God's grace and soverignty. Could my father be right? Could it be that despite the things that God had shown me concerning Himself, that I had a very limited perception of Him? I recalled the words He had spoken to me: "You know that I AM, but now KNOW who I AM. Know why and what you believe! Do this and grow in Me!" Those words echoed in my heart as my dad continued to speak.
"Craig, would that not be the Best Good News?" My dad was not wanting to hurt me. He saw my expression of immediate anger slowly subsiding to reason.
"Yes, that would be, and that would compel me to tell the world of this good news." I didn't realize the truth as I said it, "That would mean that all our free-will is a joke." Though my pride was offended by the thought, my heart was telling me otherwise. "I will need to pray over this dad," I said to him. I wasn't about to going into deep debate with him over the possibility that God wanted to--and could--save all mankind. Though we ended our conversation that day, my dad's words continued to torment my mind.
I was thinking about this so deeply, that I missed my bus stop, and had to walk home. I'm sure it was the Lord's pleasure. All the way home, I argued loudly to God. I was hurt that this was not made a reality to me before. I was hurt the Lord had for 20 years kept me in the dark concerning this wonderful plan. I was hurt at the possibility that my perception of justice had been foolishness to God and that I had been deceived for so long. "God!" I said in anger, "Dear Heavenly Father!" I could hear my sobbing voice echo in the snowy streets, "You are not a God of confusion, and I ask you now to remove this thought from me! I cannot live a lie, nor can I follow You any longer if You cannot prove to me the Truth of your Word. If You cannot effictlively prove to me in two days Your purpose and plan, I will leave You forever and I will choose to live a life for myself." I was very hurt for some reason. It all seems irrational now as I speak it, but the emotion and confusion were very real. I got home just in time to open my Bible.
There was nothing but text, black ink on white paper. I could not read it for any understanding. I could not read in the reality of God, nor could I read in the reality of His existence. The words were dead to me as if God was a myth and I was atheist looking in on a foolish religion. I went to sleep crying.
The same thing happened the second day. No longer did I have a purpose to read the Bible; it laid bare in front of me, foreign and distant. I could not grasp any Truth from it. I could only read of a sadistic God who tormented His Creation with an iron scepter and whip. Hell was endless, with Satan and his fallen angels prodding the people who were imprisoned there. There was no hope in this gospel. I went to sleep crying.
Like Jonah in the belly of the whale, on the third day, I opened the Living Word for the first time. No longer were the words merely black and white, but color! I saw a broad spectrum of shades found in the rainbow promise of God! Praise God, He did save all mankind! He is the Savior of all mankind! I could not believe my eyes as every verse and chapter and book read of reconciliation and the Love of God. I read Isaiah 45; 1 Timothy 2:4; John 1:12-13; John 3:16-17; Romans 5:18-20, and the list goes on and on and on! I opened to obscure passages of Lamentations, Micah, and Hosea. I read strange Psalms and Proverbs that spoke of the immeasurable salvation that is found in the Lord, and how every knee would bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord--not out of fear but willingly. The Lord reminded me of my testimony; and for the first time everything made sense.
Needless to say, this revelation changed me and I know that the Lord will continue to show me things that will change me. I know the truth of this revelation, and now I can prove it by Scripture, experience, and tradition. It saddens me that many in Christ do not know how to believe or recieve this true Good News. The world freely accepts it, as I have seen more come to the realization of Christ through this message than any time in my life before--but it had a cost. I lost many of those who I call brother, and have been shunned from my Christian fellowships. I have peace in my heart however; depite the fact that I have not found many people to fellowship with who see this message as I do. I have a desire to continually surround myself with Christian brethren who know the Truth of this reality that is only found in Christ Jesus--our Savior who freely set the captives free.
Ok, here's the link to my testimony:
http://www.tentmaker.org/testimonials/florian.html
I was one of the scary ones that ET made perfect sense to. Some things just make total sense if you've been taught them since you were 35 seconds old. A friend that had embraced UR encouraged me to buy a copy of Jan Bonda's commentary on Romans called "The One Purpose of God: An Answer to the Doctrine of Eternal Punishment." The rest is history, because with my Pentecostal/Word of Faith background, all you had to do was show it to me in the Book and if it was in the Book then that's just all that there is to it. This was back in the Spring of 2001. However, it wasn't until about 2003 or maybe 2004 that all of the emotional baggage of thinking in the back of my mind that ET might be true was completely gone. I'd read Bonda, Talbott, Knoch's "All in all," Jukes' "Restitution," Allin's "Christ Triumphant," and a few other books, but the book that finally gave me solid roots in every way was "Dialogues on the Universal Restoration" by Elhanan Winchester. Since I normally get asked about 60% of the time when I bring up Winchester's "Universal Restoration" about copies; this year, I've been finding copies every time that I've needed them at www.abebooks.com (http://www.abebooks.com)
For people who've been as heavily "churched" as I've been, it's probably a 2 to 3 year process, just like it was with me, to get their mind and emotions renewed on the subject. But now I know where to direct them: Talbott's book, Jukes' book, Winchester's Dialogues, and Hanson's book on Aion. Perhaps if they get ahold of those particular books at the very start, then they might be able to work through all of the "baggage" within 6 to 9 months.
Charles Chauncy's "Mystery Hid From Ages & Generations" was also pretty helpful, but it's more for people with an absolute minimum of an Associate's in theology at the very least, and it's probably not very enjoyable to anyone who's not in a Master's degree program. He examines the Greek on Romans 5 word for word, as well as select other UR passages. A little heavier read for some folks. So, although it's great and I agree with 85% of that book, I don't often recommend that one. But if you ever led someone like a John MacArthur into UR, (i.e. a pseudo-scholar) then someone like him would probably want the heaviest meat that you could give him right away. So, for someone like that, start them off reading Winchester, Hanson, and then Chauncy immediately afterwards. He might even prefer starting with Chauncy although Winchester covers the most questions of any author that I've yet seen!
I, personally, have tendencies towards being a doubting Thomas, and hard headed, so I've leaned towards finding the hardest hitting, scholarly works on UR that I could find. The best I've seen so far are Winchester, Hanson, and Chauncy. Knoch seemed like he felt like he had something to prove about cessationism to where the books that I have by him seem to cross too many rabbit trails for me to be able to recommend much of his stuff. "All in all" seems the free-est of all of his stuff of any of that. But "All in all" reads like a J.W. book - although he's turning in his grave if his belief in soul sleep (or a version of it) proved accurate, over my having said that. But for real. I've given it to people that were Jehovah's Witnesses and they've been GREATLY BLESSED by the book. It teaches UR rather than their annihilationist crap, so don't misunderstand me on that. And I'm not implying that he held their accursed doctrines. The book just has that flavor to it, which to me is a little distracting and puts me on the defensive while I'm reading it, because it feels like I'm reading "WatchTower" propaganda at first. But I love the section on "destruction" in that book. Between Knoch and Winchester, I feel like I've got a good answer to J.W. doctrine. Because I not only needed to totally disprove ET and establish UR, but for my overly contemplative mind I needed the assurance that UR was the actual truth and that annihilation wasn't a "possibility."
As a postscript for anyone that would take exception with my classifying Knoch's theology as a varient of "soul sleep," that's just my own personal taxonomy on it. There are times when his writing sounds emphatically like "soul sleep" while at other times it seems like a variation on annihilationist theology - annihilated UNTIL the resurrection. Like any good Christian who is actually in a constant state of growth, his writings really defy classification in one sense. I've recently been sounding [in person] very much like Carlton Pearson, while in my writing there's still 50% to 80% of the influences of Jukes and Winchester and once in a very great while perhaps a teeny hint of Talbott. I'm in a season of extra special growth. I don't know if I'm going "Ultra Universalist," or if my vocabulary is just broadening a bit as I'm growing more comfortable with sharing the message. Books by authors are just snap shots of where they were in a given month/year when they were writing that. I definitely meant NO disrespect to Knoch, his memory, or anyone who may have possibly even known him personally that might take objection to the classification [of what little I've personally read of his work] as a varient on "soul sleep" in his theology.
I read your testimonies, Craig and Floyd. Very uplifting and edifying! :thumbsup:
Thank you for sharing those!
SeekerRuth
My testimony
Hello everyone,
I am new here but i have been studying this site for 2 years, so here is my testimony:
Back in 2002, i had no friends and i was raised Roman Catholic. I would pray rosaries for 40 days sometimes and I would attend mass regularly. I would pray to the statues because in my country (Philippines) there are many Roman Catholics and there are statues everywhere. So i would worship these 'idols' thinking that i was pleasing God. God revealed himself to me in the spring of '03, when he introduced me to this friend. He was a Christian and he would talk to me about Christianity and how the Roman Catholics got their rituals all wrong. For 6 months i started going to Protestant services at his church and i got to feel God's Godness and love. However I was never sure of my salvation and i kept wondering where i will go for all eternity. Then he told me that i had to let go and trust Jesus 100% for my salvation. So i had a hard time trusting him. 6 months later in June 2003, i sat in my bedroom and accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as savior, that was good. I cant explain in detail, but many strange, and some wonderful things started happening to me gradually. But i always had one question: Why would people be sent to hell if they were ignorant of accepting Jesus as savior? I would think to myself: "This is not fair, why doesent Christ save everyone, why does he only save a few". My friend would also tell me that thousands and thousands of people will be in eternal torment. I was so scared everyday. I would pray for the salvation of my parents and family everyday. Then when i made new friends, I would beg God not to send them to an eternal torment. I kept living a life of fear. Fear of the majority of the world going through eternal torment. The fear of eternal torment has caused me to shun Christians. I mean Christians are the cruelest people on earth!!!. I mean they will go to a church lunch and bake cookies for the pastor while 98% of humanity will be in flames worse than the houlocast. This is terrible, After the year i accepted the Lord Jesus as savior, i saw a very small article on universalism on Christianity Today. I then found the tentmaker site and i ordered books. I shunned church for a year, and i avoided everything Christian, except reading the wonderful news about UR. It has spread joy to my heart (keep in mind that i am still a 'young' christian). I forgot to mention that two people that i casually knew died in a car accident. I was VERY tormented beyond belief. I pictured her innocent soul being torment in the flames of hell because she was Roman Catholic and she is ignorant of knowing the doctrine that will save her. But yeah, after studying UR for about a year, I have found comfort, I needed to be isolated from Christians for a while because because i felt very cynical arond them. Then I had a feeling from the Lord that i needed to go back to church to be around other Christians because I was not growing. So I went to a megachurch that focused on the love of God.
But seeing people in church not being sympathetic to people being tormented in hell causes me to think that either, they dont believe in ET fully, or they are the most cruel people on earth. I mean, how can 10% of the worlds population be so blind and not feel a thing of compassion for the lost. The church should spend a majority of that money on mass evangelation efforts if the threat of hell is real.
Now in 2007, that i have the semester off i will vigrously study the scriptures about UR and hopefully God will reveal his truth and love towards the whole world. I am currently reading 'Hope Beyond Hell' and i hope i can back up UR with alot of scripture. The belief of UR has comforted me and i feel Gods love everywhere. God has even showed me dreams about UR....
God Bless
Michael
I even had a srange dream: I was walking through the Roman Catholic church asking God to 'get me outta here, i dont want to follow these strange rituals'. So then somehow i transported to the protestant church. I felt somewhat happy but between the line between these two churches i saw an image of a demon or Satan himself. While i was walking down the Catholic church, i was thinking nothing but man made traditions and doctrines. As soon as i walked into the protestant church i saw a childrens chalkboard (kind of like a school classroom) teaching kids about eternal torment.
As soon as i woke up i asked God to interpret this dream for me and i believe he said in my heart that Satan has blinded both the Catholic and Protestant churches with the teaching of rituals and ET respectively. Satan (or the demonic image) was in the middle acting like a security guard monitoring these churches to make sure that they are blinded by tradition. But in that dream, the security guard was sleeping! It is a sign that God is restoring everything that the church has lost during the dark ages!
Praise God
Thanks for sharing the testimony. I was raised Roman Catholic as well, and went through a similar journey of religiosity and fear. *hug*
God bless you! Take care.
Hi Michael,
as you can read in my testimony I was raised roman-catholic too and it is still the religion of my family. I loved your testimony and the sharing of your dream. Our Heavenly Dad truly has His hand on your life. Its so true what you shared about the traditions of men etc. Personally I believe that the ET teaching mainly entered the church when it got romanized and that this was the time when the spirit of anti-Christ set himself up in the temple of God claiming he's God himself (only one interpretation, I think there are many layers to it). Since that we've got that demon sitting in the church denying the true nature of our Heavenly Father and His only begotten Son Jesus Christ. But the day is coming when the Lord will appear in His saints and He will destroy this wicked one (including the ET dogma) by the Spirit of His mouth.
Man, don't even know why I am saying that, just feel the Holy Spirit raising up in me. Hope to hear more of you sharing your dreams etc. in the future. When I read it I got really excited. The Holy Spirit is doing an amazing work in the world at the moment it seems.
Quote from: Floyd on September 01, 2007, 09:34:02 PM
But the day is coming when the Lord will appear in His saints and He will destroy this wicked one (including the ET dogma) by the Spirit of His mouth.
Man, don't even know why I am saying that, just feel the Holy Spirit raising up in me.
Amen! Let Him rise up and flow out, brother! :icon_flower:
Thank you everybody,
I did not think that dreaming about this would make a difference in other Christian's lives. Thanks again because only 4 years ago i was 'born again' and i rarely knew the bible. My friend even made fun of me once and called me "Bible Illiterate". I have kept on searching and searching until i found. I believe the horrible trials i have been through drew me closer to God and taught me to let go of my worries of this sinful world and trust him.
God Bless yall
Michael
:laughing7: :laughing7: :winkgrin:
Good stuff.
Very cool dream! God is so good
kept
Yes, Praise him, he is very good, God is the source of all good, praise him, the king of kings, the lord of Lords,he is God alone...
:grin: :grin: :grin:
I will do the best I can to explain.....You will have to be the Judge as to weather words in type can explain.
I barely remember what Church was for my Family, a remote child hood memory from 5 years of age, which was the last time I attended a Church, my Mother used to sing at our local church but after 5 kids things got too busy at home, plus Athiest Father = a blessing I suppose that I was never really exposed to religions performance based tread mills which enslave so many today.
I was enjoying my life at the time, tall slim athletic, at 31 years of age, attractive to women, I was having a real good time....who needs God right!
Along the way I met a petite blond haired blue eyed Angel, who told me to my face that she was just going to use me...4 months down the road we had complete disaster in our lives because of her family which I will not go into here.....
You really do miss them all the more when they hang up the phone on you...crying...I Fell for you....
That was a real hard time in my life, she was a mild epileptic, she would faint now and then, I was aware that she was going to have surgery in the Future...however I was now out of the picture trying to cope with life with out her in it.
About 6 months later I was half asleep in bed in the early hours of the morning that afternoon of the night I went to bed I found out by accident at second hand that she was due for Surgery in the early hours of the morning the next day.
Now I am not sure if words can describe, but when the surgeon went into her brain after that little Black dot causing the problem, she must have gone into the balance of Life and Death...because somthing awefull big and very loving put one hand on me and another on her.....
Looking back there was a time when I used to think that he was testing me to see how far I would go....these days I relise that he always knew how far I would go....he just wanted me left in no doubt about how he really does feel about all of us.
WOA ! I have been a Universalist ever since.....never did get around to going back to Church either.....isnt it great how the Lord opens the heart to the words spoken by Paul!
There I was not contaminated by the Lies of Religion, all set to read the word...just needed to be dragged to it....
He knows the way to each and every one of us....his gifts and calling are irrevocable!
Dont listen to them Hell preachers....he is not the Spitefull maliciouse thing, they make him out to be......
I AM LOVE! (that is who he really is)
Peace
Thanks for giving us a glimpse into your life, Ray! :dsunny:
What a beautiful testimony Spiritdriven!
That was wonderful Ray! :icon_flower:
Well my story starts when i was qite young actualy but i will write it in this article insted of the main page bacouse if it was not for you guys i dont know how bad i would have gotten and thank you . .. I was thought in a normal family ,but in which there was so much love . I know my father had problems and fell in to drinking . My family did fell apart and now i live with my grandfather and grandmother and mother . But even then i was shown lots of love and i mean LOVE by my family and i love them . This is what drove me to dislike the ideas of wild living ,seeing life as just a fight for survival and kept atleast some kind of precious things in me . Those things did stay untill puberty when becouse of the harsh life and everywhere people preaching the same beastly doctrine of ->* Life is a fight for survival and nothing else .. *,this all combined with the lack of knowledge and my sinfull nature leaded me forward to depression and scuicidal thoughts and then to lusts and inventing my own worlds in which i could live . I started worshiping idols of beasts and even wanted to be such . Then i came face to face with reality of things and becouse of the FACT that i had responsibility which was made clear infront of me by God i tried to be better person . Before then God did not leave me alone ,but becouse my heart got harder i fell out and started to forget Him ...
When i started my first atempts to be better it was hard ,but it had a good result untill i looked in the Bible more seriously . That is when I saw the hell doctrines ..
In those days all hell broke lose. . I could not live my life in peace at all . The hope that God was in my eyes dissapeared . I did believe that there was hope ,but something was not right . I searched in the internet and found your traditional hell and brimstone sites wich made things to be worse ..I nearly went in making scuicide . I dont wanna tell you how much negativism was there in my mind .. I tried several times to follow the *real * God and no luck . I always fell apart and things got nasty .. This led me to depression and i fell out very badly . I lost my ability to study and everything fell apart . I had also stumbled on universalist sites ,but all the negativism ..the fear .. and everywhere the view * life is just a bloody fight for survival * made me too unhapy . The bad part was that i loved God and did not want to disobey His word ,so there was no where to moove . The result was that my life fell apart .Afterwords i even started to like the idea of hell ( I did not realy like it ..it was just some reinvented imaginary hell that in some way might be good ) ..
At last i tried what i called a last hope by sending a letter to Tentmaker and i spoke with Garry . Then with others and ..now things changed ALOT . I feel hapy for the first time in mounths . I still have things to solve ,but it is much better now than before . I can do my job and feel joyfull . This night is the best since weeks ..I fighted the bad thoughts evils that normaly had in my brain about hell with God and now this night suddenly i felt big joy ! I am very hapy and again feel that feeling that i have not felt since long ago . I need to thank my friend Bernie so muuch . I spoke with Him lots of time and asked him soo many questions and with his help and offcourse God's help i got to feel this Spirit again and have not ben able in so many time ... No more hell doctrines !!
I hope i can find a way to serve God ! I realy hope to learn to do it better ! I still have much to do and there are lots of things that i have to clean up , but right now i feel hapy .
Praise God praise Him !!!!!! and Bernie too !
:icon_flower:
Be blessed
:cloud9: Praise the Lord and may He strengthen your inner man even more to walk in newness of life! Blessings to you........
VID
Praying for you.
Will be praying for you as well. What a joyous testimony. God is good. In the Bible, Paul said that God is able to keep what we've committed to Him...He will hold you in His loving hands. God's blessing, James.
Bless you all :HeartThrob: