My name is Rich

[RICHinCHRIST]

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to introduce myself to the forum. I have been looking at a number of threads on the site for some time now, and I'm excited to become part of the discussion.

I got saved about four years ago (after my freshman year of college), from a drug-induced, pseudo-hippie kind of lifestyle. I used to be a part of the cult-like following of a number of jambands, some of the most well known groups being "Phish" and the "Grateful Dead". That kind of culture had heavily influenced my views of God and spirituality, where I had been exposed to a number of eastern philosophies and meditative techniques. I also became a self-professed atheist, which was a departure from my nominal Roman Catholic upbringing.

To make a long story short, God brought a number of circumstances in my life, and Christians as well. Through a strong conviction and drawing of the Holy Spirit one solitary evening, I prayed for God's forgiveness in sincere remorse for my sin. I was born again that evening and was supernaturally delivered from all of my struggles with substance abuse, as well as sexual promiscuity. I praise God for His incredible drawing power and mercy. After being baptized in the Holy Spirit, I was invited to a Calvary Chapel in New Jersey, where, through the teaching of the Scriptures, God confirmed to me His calling to discipleship in my life. My parents (who were dedicated Roman Catholics, although not born again), thought I was in a cult, and shortly after my conversion went to that church in order to spy out the "cult" their son had just joined. However, contrary to their expectations, the pastor spoke prophetically into their lives and they confessed that God was truly in that place, and they also repented and believed the gospel for the first time. We are all heartily serving Jesus at this point in our lives. My only sibling, my younger sister, also professed faith in Christ a couple months ago, after much prayer and pouring into her (although she was initially very hard toward the message of Christ.. considering her entire immediate family became born-again in a matter of weeks).

After my conversion, I spent a few days sitting in my room and reading the Bible. I experienced the incredible peace of feasting on the word of God, and desiring the pure milk of the Word. I did not eat any food for the first couple days after my conversion, but just read my Bible all day (this was one of the reasons my parents thought I was in a cult, notwithstanding that their hippie son was now talking about Jesus all the time, imploring that God is real and can be known intimately). God gave me a strong desire to receive, ponder, memorize, and study the Scriptures right from get-go of my Christian walk.

It took me about 3 years before I began thinking independently about Scripture. Before that, I tended to just agree with everything I was taught as "what the Bible clearly teaches". I had a number of Christian friends and role models who convinced me of many things such as the Word of Faith positive confession teaching (which I shortly later abandoned), Calvinism (I listened to many Calvinist teachers, and the pastor of the church I currently attend tends to lean toward Calvinism quite strongly--I also have abandoned the Calvinist framework, although I am still open to the possibility of unconditional eternal security, although I have abandoned my confidence in it, and am leaning toward the Arminian understanding as I'm continuing to search the Scriptures), pre-tribulationism in the dispensational framework, as well as many other things. It wasn't until my own study of Scripture made me begin to doubt my previous views, specifically of pre-tribulationism, that I began to realize that other views were held other than my own. After I began to personally doubt pre-trib, I began to look for other teachers who held other views. I did a Google search and came across Steve's teachings and I noticed that he had a series in which a number of the lectures specifically addressed the pros and cons of the pre-trib, dispensational view. I was glad to find a thorough analysis and exegesis of all the Scriptures regarding the topic and I have been blessed by Steve's teachings since (that was about a year ago). I was also super encouraged to hear his testimony about his theological pilgrimage which was very similar to my own experiences. Although I'm still searching the Scriptures on a number of things I've heard him teach, I've been tremendously edified by his devotion to the study and proclamation of God's Word, especially in regards to controversial and difficult issues. He always has Scripture to defend his beliefs, which is what I want to imitate. I appreciate that he doesn't try to convert people to his own views, but rather hopes to stir us up to think independently and exegetically. I look forward, God willing, to also studying at a module (or two) of the Great Commission School.


I look forward to meeting and conversing with you all!


Rich

[Suzana]

Hello Rich,

Great to meet you & read your testimony! Welocme to the forum.

[steve]

Rich,

It's good to have you in the forum! It will also be good to have you at the Great Commission School, if everything works out for you to go!

[jarrod]

Wow, Rich. What an awesome testimony... thanks for sharing and welcome to the forum!

[steve7150]

Thanks for sharing Rich, look forward to conversing.

[RyanSantaCruz]

Awesome testimony brother! Jesus did the same thing to me too, except I was a punk-rocking anarchist, I still have the tattoos to prove it! Great stuff Rich, thanks for sharing.

[Sean]

Great to hear from you Rich! I'm about 6 years into my journey as a Christian and have been down a similar road to yours. I have to admit my greatest challenge is seeing the churches in America full of a fair amount of people who are just kinda there, never even having the desire to read the word. It's very surreal. So it's great to see people like you, people who thirst after God.

Peace brother.