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Which of these choices best represent your reason for being a Christian?

  • It's just the right thing to do.

    Votes: 1 50.0%
  • My parents were Christians.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • My friends or acquaintances influenced me the most.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I just want to be saved.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I love the opportunities for socializing.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I get caught up in discussion and/or debates.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • My pastor influenced me the most.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I want to cooperate with God in ending sin and suffering.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I care deeply about people.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I fell in love with Jesus.

    Votes: 2 100.0%

  • Total voters
    2
  • Poll closed .

BarneyFife

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@amadeus @JunChosen @robert derrick @CharismaticLady @charity @Nancy @Backlit @Tong2020 @marks @Hidden In Him @Christophany @GEN2REV @ReChoired @Ziggy @An Apologetic Sheepdog

I think it is taken for granted that most Christians have basically the same reason for being so. But I also think it's worth exploring. What if you were tried for your faith by a system that was hostile toward it? What would your testimony be if you were faced with this seemingly simple question? I may add or change answers to the poll as requested within reason. Please don't be offended if I haven't included yours. And don't be afraid to make your responses very personal.
 
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Nancy

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Hi Barney!
Sorry, did not vote as the real reason for my seeking God is not there.
Simply just wanted TRUTH! He has been such an enigma since I was a very young girl. A lifetime of wondering which is the TRUE God brought me into really seeking, reading, comparing different faiths and, Christianity simply screamed truth to me :)
 

BarneyFife

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I'm a Christian because Jesus has drawn and called me by His Spirit. It may sound over-simplified (and this is not even one of the choices in the poll but it would only allow me to list 10) but there is no other way He could have gotten my attention. I first accepted Christ as my Saviour when I was 8-years-old, but I backslid and He didn't get my attention fully until I was 23. Then He hit me like a truck. I realized I had a Name that I wasn't living, that the world was spinning out of control, and I was doing nothing to cooperate with God in trying to save it.
 

GaryAnderson

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I arrived To God by trying to overthink and over-reason things, to the point of going insane.
Then I let go and had to come to the conclusion that we are not meaningless random molecules and that the universe didn’t come from nothing while there is a meaning for existence and that Objective Morality exists from the creator not as an evolutionary social construct.
 

BarneyFife

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I arrived To God by trying to overthink and over-reason things, to the point of going insane.
Then I let go and had to come to the conclusion that we are not meaningless random molecules and that the universe didn’t come from nothing while there is a meaning for existence and that Objective Morality exists from the creator not as an evolutionary social construct.
That is wonderful. Thank you. :)
 

MatthewG

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A void in my heart and realizing the need for something that was more than what the world had to offered; drew me closer to find and seek to know the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ. My heart had become a dark void of emptiness that needed to be filled which the light of all mankind could only fulfill.
 

An Apologetic Sheepdog

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I could say the same thing to a certain extent. The poll only allows for 10 choices. I might just scrap it. :)

Maybe combine a few

Its been my experience that nothing really gets ones full and undivided attention and makes them rethink everything in their life like the sensation of the werewolf's breath condensing on the back of the neck while you are running and you feel the flesh pinch off each time he "almost' gets you in his claws.
 

BarneyFife

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Maybe combine a few

Its been my experience that nothing really gets ones full and undivided attention and makes them rethink everything in their life like the sensation of the werewolf's breath condensing on the back of the neck while you are running and you feel the flesh pinch off each time he "almost' gets you in his claws.
Sounds like you were really delivered. :)
 

amadeus

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A full testimony of why would require a very long post indeed. I knew of God and in way I tried to live on His side from the age of 6 years, but it was not until after I was married and we had two children that God showed both me and my wife that something was missing in our lives. It was God that missing. Without Him our family was doomed. With Him, we just celebrated our 49th wedding anniversary this past June.

Give God the glory!
 

CharismaticLady

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I grew up in a Christian denomination that studied the Law. It was a great foundation. But everyone else in church was holier than I was and I felt like giving up. But then because I never received an answer to even the simplest prayer, I questioned if God even existed. But the what if's kept leading me. What if God was real. What if heaven was real. What if hell was real! So, to be honest, the desire to overcome sin and be worthy of heaven instead of hell if they existed was the reason I sought out God. Loving God had nothing to do with it ... at first.
 

charity

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@amadeus @JunChosen @robert derrick @CharismaticLady @charity @Nancy @Backlit @Tong2020 @marks @Hidden In Him @Christophany @GEN2REV @ReChoired @Ziggy @An Apologetic Sheepdog

I think it is taken for granted that most Christians have basically the same reason for being so. But I also think it's worth exploring. What if you were tried for your faith by a system that was hostile toward it? What would your testimony be if you were faced with this seemingly simple question? I may add or change answers to the poll as requested within reason. Please don't be offended if I haven't included yours. And don't be afraid to make your responses very personal.
Hello @BarnyFife,

Thank you for including me.

I hope that I am never put to that ultimate test, but if I am I don't see what I could do but state the truth, and take the consequences.

But if you have young children whose lives are being threatened on the strength of your testimony, and you have to listen to their cries, it would be so very hard. Yet you cannot but speak the truth.

Only God knows our hearts. Only He knows how we would react under duress.
Merciful God, Gracious Lord and Saviour.
May His Name be praised
In Christ Jesus
Chris
 
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charity

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Why am I a Christian?

'Neither is there salvation in any other:
for there is none other name under heaven
given among men,
whereby we must be saved.'

(Act 4:12)

Hello again, @BarnyFife,

I heard the word of God concerning His Son the Lord Jesus Christ, and believed it: recognised my lost condition and need of a Saviour, and asked the Lord Jesus Christ to save me. For He is the true and living way to the Father, and no man comes unto the Father, but by Him.(John 14:6)

I have the promise of life in Christ Jesus, by God's grace.

Thank you
In Christ Jesus
Chris
 
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Taken

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Why Are You A Christian?
OP ^

A long time ago, being a Christian, calling onself a Christian...had an express meaning.

More Modernly...I find it an insufficient... term, for multiple reasons.

More accurately...I would call myself...
A Born Again Christian
Or use Jesus' term...
Converted IN Christ.

AND WHY, I chose to be Converted IN Christ, is because, I was curious, and chose to read, hear, taste, and did so and experienced some of the partaking of blessings of God given a beginner, FOR hearing.
I chose to continue and chose to commit, via confession, as is Jesus' Way.
BECAUSE, All that I heard, learned, experienced I found highly favorable, pleasing and good, and the journey continues.

Glory to God,
Taken



 

robert derrick

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The Bible proved to me there is one God in heaven. I concluded there was no way so many men over so many thousands of years could have intertwined their writings so perfectly with one another, without a single contradiction between them, that they could have done so by the power of their own intelligence and minds.

And so, one day I read Jesus saying "Thy Word is truth", and I frankly agreed in my heart, It is the truth. And since the Bible is true and does not contradict itself, then there must be One guiding them all: God.

I believed all that was written was the truth of God. If Scripture said Jesus is the Lord, then Jesus is the Lord. No doubt and no debate.

From there to salvation was Scripturally simple: since I believed it without doubt, then I must obey it to be saved: Repent. Which of course was the hard part.

But conviction of knowing the truth compelled me to do it, in due time. My prayer was for God to keep having mercy upon me, until I did. When I repented because I believed and was fully convicted, then I was able to thank Him for His longsuffering mercy upon me and saving me.

When I knew by the Bible that Jesus is Lord, I could and did say so openly. But not until I repented of my sins could I honestly confess Him as Lord Jesus from my heart.
 

Karl Peters

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Like many multiple choice questions, I don't really see the correct choice in the possible answers. I suppose I'd choose "I fell in love with Jesus', but even that doesn't give the whole picture of why I am a Christian. The real answer is that He came into my life so that I got to know Him.

It is kind of like the Peter story where you read about Jesus asking Peter if he love Him. Peter says he does love Him, but uses a different word for love. Jesus uses the word agape , meaning a very deep love, but Peter responds using the word phileo which might be better translated that Peter liked Jesus. Our English translations don't really give that section of Scripture a fair understanding, but getting to actually know Him does.

The Lord is incredible. He is awesome. It is hard for me to understand why He came into my life like He did. I am a Christian because He did come into me life and know we are friends. There are times when I do feel an even deeper love for Him, but that then to come a go a bit. There are even times when I find myself getting angry with Him. Things too often don't work out like I think they should and I know He can change that. There are those Job moments when you just feel He is letting the devil beat up on you and that can get a person angry at Him.

So I am a Christian because I know Jesus Christ personally. We are friends and I like Him. I also get zealous for Him. I find Him interesting and worth while talking to. Yet for me anyway, my relationship with Him seems to be like Peter's relationship with Him. Maybe others have a better relationship with Him, but so many who say they love Him hardly ever seem to actually seek Him for advice, instruction, and such, so do they or are they just saying they do? Maybe they do but just don't have time to actually spend with Him?

Anyway, I am a Christian because that I believe in Him in a way that makes Him my Lord! He came into my life so that I can hear from Him and so He gives me instructions, counsel, teachings, and does a multitude of things to help me. That answer is not an option in the OP, but it should be.

Romans 10:9,10 But what does it say? “THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;
 

ThePuffyBlob

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the law of men says i am a christian but for me the only one who can truly judge me if i am or i am not is God i should not call myself a christian cause i truly am not worthy to be one