Hi Sandman,
Originally posted by Sandman
Hmmm... I started on the other side. Was raised as a Baptist, before I turned away. I've done a bit of reading on Wiccan and even Satanist beliefs. Some of it resonates... up until the point where they speak of magic or magick. That's the point where my inner BS alarm becomes shrill.
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Ah, my mum was a "spiritist" so my Saturday afternoons were spent being taken along to the "psychic festivals" etc. In highschool, I started playing Fantasy RPGs (AD&D, Call of Cthulhu, etc.) and after getting bored with that went on to buying and reading as much on the occult as I could - the works of Aleister Crowley in particular. While most of my occult friends were Wiccan and "nature magic" types, I was more attracted to the Hermetic side and eventually joined a local chapter of the Golden Dawn. That involvement began to unravel after my marriage (ironically enough, my best man was the owner of an occult book shop and one of my wedding presents was an antique multi-volume set of Crowley's works.) After my conversion to Christianity in 1993, I came to realize that I'd spent almost a decade in a vain and self-absorbed quest for power over man and nature. Simply put, I'd been after the position of ruler of the universe, and wasted scads of time reading the works of people after the same end. I'd swallowed the old lie "you will be like God" (Gen 3:5) hook, line, and sinker. Odd isn't it? Trying to be God made me discontent, bitter, and miserable, serving the real one however had exactly the opposite effect.
"Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed."BTW - don't think there's no power in all that Magic, Magick, or Wicca stuff, my experience was that there is. None of it is good, and like Crowley it inevitably warps, destroys, and consumes its practioners. Even while I was still involved in the occult, I began to see that. I remember asking myself, "is it that only flakes do this stuff, or that we all end up being flakes because we do this stuff?" Like the old god of the canaanites Molech, eventually the idol consumes the worshipper.
My problems with witnessing began while I still considered myself to be a christian. There were many in my church that felt that to be a witness was to be some sort of salesman. I disagreed then, just as I disagree now. IMHO, a true witness is someone that is an enviable example. When you see them, you ask... what makes them so content?
I have absolutely no patience for the rest of the morons that knock on my door or stop me at the shopping center and begin asking if I have accepted Jesus Christ. My first answer is always the same, "It's none of your business." I try to say it with a smile and be courteous, but if they keep pressing, I just get angry. I get the distinct impression that they are trying to convince me because they have their own doubts and they believe that if we all agree, we must be right. Sorry folks, I'm not here to strengthen your faith.
The flipside, is that the true believers strengthen the faith of everyone around them.
Well Sandman, I pastor a church made up mostly of converts, almost all of us are the first generation of evangelicals in their families, but the interesting thing is that in almost every case the critical feature in their conversion was not an encounter with a stranger in shopping mall or a Christian home invasion, but the patient and gentle witnessing of a true friend. In most cases they went along to church because they trusted the individual who invited them, as you said they noted something markedly different about that individual and wanted it themselves. Now it wasn't an entirely silent witness - no one figures out the Christian faith simply by observing the way someone else lives - but they certainly do note the effect of that living faith rather than an empty profession has.
- SEAGOON
