If someone came to you with the following account of how they came to be a believer looking for a considered response including your truthful opinion or thoughts on the matter, what would that response be?
There are going to be some passages here that some may find offensive... it is not intentional, but necessary to provide historical context of where the person's mind was at the time.

Attended Anglican church as a child (until about age 8) in a majority Catholic area. This amounted to Sunday school crafts and very simplified morality tales being delivered by a public school teacher who he already did not like or respect based on their weekday school interactions. Child could be considered "gifted"... higher than average IQ, reading equivalency at grade 10 level by age 7. No positive memories of early church attendance and no coherent understanding of the bible or any of the lessons therein. Stopped attendance altogether as noted around age 8-9. Despite all this, still firmly believed in God's presence and considered himself a "Christian" of some unidentified sort.
Almost all interactions regarding religion from this point forward was with Catholic friends and extended family. Also with some evangelical/born again sorts (sorry, don't have a better description). Never was able to square the idea of a pope against what little he did understand from the bible. Both of those groups did not represent themselves well, likely because the spokesmen were contemporaries (children/teens). That said, even the adults (with one exception) seemed intent on proving that the whole thing was silly, lacking basic logic and really any merit aside from what the child would have considered a common sense moral code. Still at this point a believer in God, with only a growing understanding that he did not understand.
At this point, it is early 1980's thru mid 90's. The catholic church is rocked by sex abuse scandals and it comes to light that leadership there knowingly exposed children to predators over and over again and sought to silence any whistleblowers through intimidation and fear. This did NOT sit well and the (now) young man decided there and then that he would have no part of that mess. Simultaneously, similar abuses are revealed from all denominations, along with similar failures to act in the interests of the victims. Televangelists are emotionally extorting millions of dollars from folks and being exposed as frauds, thieves and adulterous perverts. The young man is now completely jaded with the idea of organized religion of any type and moving into adulthood ceases to give it any thought or attention at all.
By mid twenties, he is now working a factory job with a comfortable wage and (mostly) good working conditions and winds up working beside a fellow that everyone warns him is "crazy" and maybe even "dangerous". The young man decides to see for himself and simply be friendly. It turns out, the co-worker is a devout Christian (Protestant... Calvinist) and a Libertarian. It is because normal folks have been conditioned to be uncomfortable with these ideas that this man was labeled such as he was. Many enlightening conversations, interesting and educational with this gentleman that were left to ferment in the young man's brain.
Shortly thereafter, the young man secures a seat in a ride sharing program sponsored by the company. Both the driver and one passenger are devout Christians of some unidentified sort. While it was never really discussed on the hour long commutes, it became readily apparent to the young man that both of these men were good, decent men... largely due to their Christian belief systems. Not long after that, the young man gets his trapping license and (as per usual) is immediately obsessed and begins lurking here on T-man to feed that obsession. It doesn't take long to notice that a good number of folks on here are self declared believers and that a great deal of what they have to say about morality, ethics, etc. is in alignment with the young man's beliefs.
The young man leaves his factory job... voluntarily. Eventually ends up working at a 66% pay cut, now married and struggling to afford even the basics and realizes he has no one to turn to but God if there is to be a path that doesn't lead to destitution, desperation, crime and immorality. Commits to read the bible, cover to cover, even if only to say he has done so and is surprised by some of what he finds in there.
Through determination, he manages multiple promotions... all the while still struggling financially. Then, just as finances are coming together... a baby girl. Then a baby boy. Each one a little miracle.

Here's the strange part...

Driving home after a particularly grueling day, a soul destroying day of personal and professional failures he comes to rest at a red light. It is late winter/early spring, bitterly cold but clear and bright. With the force of a sledgehammer, his mind which was previously reeling with multiple inner monologues is stilled and there is the sensation of a voice that is somehow gentle and yet as powerful as a thousand thunderclaps that says "It's OK. It will be OK. You will be OK. Be at peace." Simultaneously, sunlight... that impossibly bright February sunlight streamed into the cab of the truck and bathed the man in warmth and restful comfort the likes of which he had never experienced and he was filled with emotion so much so that he nearly cried for the first time since he was a child. And just as quickly, it was gone and he was alone again in the truck for his drive home.

Now... the man is a firm believer, but cannot bring himself to attend church. He also cannot identify where he fits denominationally (is that a word?) except to say "almost certainly Protestant". His method of understanding the bible and what God is trying to tell us there is to listen to multiple opinions on different subjects and try to weed out and discard any that can't be confirmed as biblically based and/or logically sound. He has no time for rules that aren't in that book and has serious reservations about any man or organization that claims to speak for God or on His behalf.

Apparently this doesn't sit well with a lot of folks and they would discount the (supernatural?) experience described as imagined at best and demonic at worst. They cannot believe that the man would seek no earthly leadership, that in fact he has a healthy distrust of anyone whom he sees as incentivized to seek and ever increase power or influence.

What say you? Is the man somehow deceived? Unrighteous?
You can be honest... the "unidentified" subject of the story won't be offended.

I don’t really understand what would be controversial or offensive about this testimony. To be a Christian, one has to believe in the supernatural on some level. Some people’s encounters with the divine are more dramatic than others. Humans abuse power. Abuse of religious power is the worst kind, but it happens a lot. The only real caution or advice I would offer (without actually knowing or having a relationship with the individual) is not to let his distrust of authority figures get in the way. Christianity is meant to be lived in community. Doing it alone will not only stifle growth, but it also leave one more vulnerable to wandering off the path. That doesn’t mean you need to blindly follow some smooth-talking pastor, but you need to be in fellowship with other believers.

It sounds to me of a young man who has always been sensitive and known of God. Most likely even heard His voice. But did the young man answer God?

At the end of the day all will answer that is a given.

So Peter who do people say that I am?

Lord, some say Elijah others John the Baptist.

But Peter, who do YOU say that I am?

Are you going to answer him?

All doctrine and eschatology aside the fundamental question is who do you say He is. Not the method of baptism, we only do that in obedience or whether one takes communion or not or method, again an obedience thing. None of the trappings confer salvation only your answer to His call.

Thank you for that jht.

Thanks to you as well Warrior

My own personal plea is that of the thief, even though I am deserving of my penalty, Lord remember me when you come into Your kingdom.

From what you told us.
I would ask this young man this . Do you believe that you are righteous, or are you a sinner?
If the young man answered a sinner I would ask him if he believes these Bible vs
John 3:16-18 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have ever lasting life. And if the yung man says he believes I would say, I believe this also.
Only God knows each man's heart.
If the young man had said that he was righteous I would reply , Jesus came for sinners not the righteous Then I would ask him again , are you righteous or are you a sinner?

My dad was a pastor till he retired in 2012. He and I went round and round on denominations. My personal belief is that denominations are the WORST thing the church ever did. It is ONE LORD, ONE BIBLE!! We do NOT have the right, the authority, nor the permission to make God’s word fit our lifestyle. Making a new translation of the Bible is a perfect example of that. A lot of the “modern” translations are nowhere near what the original text intended. They’ve made it “fit” a lifestyle. That’s not how this works. We make our life fit God’s word. If this person can honestly answer, for himself, that he believes he is saved, then absolutely, he is saved. The best of our ability to understand is all we can do. None of us will ever have it “all” figured out. I don’t go to church, but I promise you I’ll be in heaven, or at least I’ll have given it my best shot!!

I can relate to his walk in a lot of ways. I believe the Bible calls us to fellowship with other Christians (Church). But it must be one the only lifts up and gives Glory to God. One that puts God first and everything based of what God's will is. We are not designed to go at it alone. The God first Church may not be easy to find and may be harder to find in some parts of the country but it's a blessing when u find it. The guys heart is definitely in touch with the Holy Spirit

Our Pastors dad was a Pastor and it made him very jaded towards organized religion until he found the HS himself.

Great question! First, one does not have to walk into a building to attend church. The Church is the people, a community, not the physical structure. God calls all of us to be in community this allows us to grow, lean on each other in hard times, and build one another up in good times. I agree with Raptortrapper that denominations can be distracting from the work God has set forth. When Jesus established his ministry on earth he talked about one church. He commanded them to go and make disciples of all the world bringing everyone together in one community under God. Don't discount the building or the denomination, everyone here on earth is a sinner. Sinners hurt people and let people down. Find a small community of believers such as a life group or bible study, get plugged in there, and experience how life-giving it can be. Maybe it will lead to you attending a larger church setting, which very much have their place.

I say all this as someone who is in full-time ministry. I teach missionary candidates how to fly airplanes so they can use that to serve the Lord. Trust me, every day is a battle, and even our staff doesn't always get along. We are sinners and we bicker and we battle, we work through the issues afterward, because believe in the work God has called us to do.

I hope this rambling is helpful

As to denominations, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) ordain women and members of the BLT community. The Presbyterian Church in America does not. Knowing where not to go is a good start

Thanks to all responders so far. The thread has remained thoughtful and civil and I very much appreciate that.

Even though it is painfully obvious, I guess I should cut the crap and come clean that the "young man" is me and that I did indeed have what I could only describe as a supernatural experience that confirmed to me the presence of God's guiding hand in my own life. I've NEVER spoken about it before... and not sure why I felt compelled to do so in the company of strangers, but my faith in this crowd here has been confirmed.

I really did read the Bible cover to cover (NEV... because free copy on my phone LOL) and I really did gain some insight that was previously hidden from me. I have to say, that I was not prepared to listen to one word of it until some fine people finally started to set a good example of what it all means in practice.

I can say with certainty that had someone actually explained some very simple concepts to me as a 7 year old, instead of assuming that I wouldn't understand that the earlier parts of the story would have gone much more differently and I wouldn't have carried so much skepticism and ignorance this far into my journey. For instance... I had no idea that when they would read from the Bible to us every morning at school that they were selecting random excerpts and not trying to tell me a linear story. When someone read me any other book every day it was so... nobody picked up "Hatchet" and read random paragraphs from that book to us daily, they began at the beginning and progressed in order to the end. This immediately gave me two distinct impressions: 1. That the Bible made absolutely no sense and had no continuous, understandable narrative and 2. That there were a lot of contradictions in what was being taught. Without the benefit of someone explaining that, I had to figure it out on my own in my 40's LOL.

Hopefully we can maybe entertain some discussion here still without this thread going off the rails...

I enjoyed your story.

Thank you for sharing, slydogx. Always interesting to hear other people's experiences.

Great testimony slydogx. These types of stories always remind me of Deuteronomy 10:21;

“He is your praise and He is your God, who has done these great and awesome things for you which your eyes have seen."


Blessings,
Mark

Slydogx we call those "mountain top experiences" what u had in ur car. Pretty cool when they happen

I do not question anyone’s salvation because I believe only God knows the names written in the Book of Life. And I certainly wouldn’t based on one post on Trapperman. However, I will point out that not once in your testimony was the name Jesus mentioned. The Bible says we will know believers and unbelievers based on their fruits. If you have truly accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, you will see those fruits in your life. So, I ask you, what say you?

I had what seemed like a supernatural experience actually more than ones . The big one was at the time I was seeking to understand scripture. I was was starting to have some memory loss at that time . I started praying each time I read, that God would show me what was important for me in his word. I started having vivid dreams. Not so much visual but audible it was strange but exiting it was almost as if the authors of different scripture were planting gods ward in my mind. I would wake up in the middle of the night overwhelmed with scripture that I had read . So I started logging my dreams . First old testament would lead to new testament . Then new testament started to explain one testament. The most interesting part was my memory started to improve please don't tell my wife. this seemed to happen for maybe three or four nights in a row then my lack of rest would throw of my sleep patterns. Afternoon Knapps then I would reed more Scripture till I could get back to a normal sleep pattern. Things I didn't understand became clear. Then the dreams would start over again. This happened far several weeks maybe months then it stopped. I've had reoccurring dreams since and a couple of times I haven't gotten up to log them. And I forget the dream. That is until the time comes that the wards in my dream are meant to be shared then it just come back. I've talked to peaple who have had similar experiences. I guess it's one of God's ways of answering prayor.

This is a good observation Nbhunt and I'll try to explain.
I have come to understand more deeply the corruption that resulted from the fall and that as a result, I am an irredeemable dinner, not worthy or deserving salvation and yet God loved all of us so that he gave his only begotten son to die on that cross, as forward payment for my sins and everyone else's.
As my understanding has progressed, I have found myself in agreement with the idea of a triune God. I think that I grasp the idea and as a result, I also believe that it would simply be appropriate to use "God" whether in reference to the Father, the Son or the Holy Spirit. Jesus paid for our sins and our salvation is only through Him, but ultimately, God is the alpha and the omega...but I could easily be convinced that on this point I am mistaken and should refer to God and Jesus separately by name.