# Any ex-atheists?



## JennyG (Jun 10, 2010)

Caroline's thread on "how did you become a Calvinist" made me wonder about this.
Most of the posters there seem to have come from some kind of churched background, as I did. I wondered if anyone here, or known to anyone here, had been converted to the reformed faith from an actual atheist (or agnostic, Humanist, Buddhist, Bahai or whatever) background?
Atheists do get converted - but is it always initially to a skewed or soft-core version of Christianity?


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## LawrenceU (Jun 10, 2010)

Nope. There are two men in our congregation who just a few years ago were burning a blazing path to the depths of hell as rather rabid atheists. They are now very serious minded Christians. One of them is on his way over right now to pick up some books through which most Christians would not want to slog.


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## LeeJUk (Jun 10, 2010)

I was an atheist up to the age of 15 till I had a pre-conversion experience of God and started going to a charismatic church and then I was totally converted a year later after hearing Paul washers stunning youth message.

So yeah for me it was a soft-core Christianity that replaced my atheism.


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## Just1covenanter (Jun 10, 2010)

One of my brother elders was a committed atheist for many years (despite being the grandson of a reformed theologian). I don't think anything about his conversion was soft-core. Now, he's going through Covenant Seminary courses online.


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## JennyG (Jun 10, 2010)

Just1covenanter said:


> One of my brother elders was a committed atheist for many years (despite being the grandson of a reformed theologian). I don't think anything about his conversion was soft-core. Now, he's going through Covenant Seminary courses online.


Not sure if that would count as much as Lawrence's example....if his grandfather was reformed, perhaps it wasn't absolutely from a standing start.
It's not that it's of any particular significance I don't think - I was just interested to know what proportion (like Lee, and also like me) saw "trees, walking" at first and only later saw clearly


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## T.A.G. (Jun 10, 2010)

I was an agnostic for about 2 months who wanted to believe in Christianity but felt there was not proof and it wasnt likely...I wouldnt call myself hardcore or anything. But I got saved from Messianic Prophecy and then became really involved with evangelism right off the bat and a calvinist later that year.


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## Galatians220 (Jun 10, 2010)

During my last few years in the RCC, I had made a descent into agnosticism but was anything but comfortable with it. There was a constant _nagging, nagging, nagging._ (I wonder Who was doing that?!) Went to mass one Sunday in January, 1992 and wiped away the usual tears during the homily and the "consecration." The next Sunday was the day after my birthday and I decided *enough is enough.* I went to a Reformed Presbyterian Church, where I was enthralled by the preaching of Dr. Bartlett Hess, and the scales started dropping away. They're still dropping away, by the grace of God. All of Him (none of me) and all to His glory!

Margaret


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## buggy (Jun 10, 2010)

Myself...
Left-wing Agnostic --> Broad-evangelical Arminian --> Fundamentalist Arminian --> Reformed

Was an great admirer of Marx and the other lefty socialists during my secular days.


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## larryjf (Jun 10, 2010)

I was raised in an atheist family and was a die-hard atheist until the age of 21. My family and i were the kind of atheist that has quite a contempt for Christians (not other religions, mind you).

When driving home to Philadelphia from Cleveland the Lord opened my eyes and at once i knew that the God of the Bible was real. From that moment on I was His, utterly conquered by His grace. At the very instant of conversion God gave me an unquenchable desire for His word. In fact, on the way home to Philadelphia i was either reading the bible or having my girlfriend read it to me (she was Christian, and had a bible in the car). A week later i married my girlfriend because of the Lord's conviction that we were living in sin. We have been happily married since 1992. 

It was not until around the year 2000 that i started going to a reformed church. At first i did not agree with much of what was taught, but God used the faithful preaching of His word to speak to me and give me understanding. After a couple of years i was fully reformed in my theology.


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## ReformedChristian (Jun 10, 2010)

I was an Atheist till about 3 years ago till I attended a Charismatic church and God revealed himself to me through his grace and spirit drawing me to him (John 6:44). A few weeks ago I came to the knowledge of the Reformed faith after listening to some sermons by Paul Washer.


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## Just1covenanter (Jun 10, 2010)

JennyG said:


> Not sure if that would count as much as Lawrence's example....if his grandfather was reformed, perhaps it wasn't absolutely from a standing start.
> It's not that it's of any particular significance I don't think - I was just interested to know what proportion (like Lee, and also like me) saw "trees, walking" at first and only later saw clearly


I'm not sure I follow. You mean that since his grandfather was a reformed Christian, he already had family that was visibly in the covenant? I guess I can see your point, now, on this side of things--but at the time it was pretty clear to him that he wanted nothing to do with God.


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## Curt (Jun 10, 2010)

I was an atheist, contemptuous toward all faith, and an avowed Marxist and Values Clarification devotee before God pulled me back from the fire. I never had to go through the pentecostal and/or arminian phases, though since God saved me while at L'Abri in Switzerland.


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## JennyG (Jun 10, 2010)

Just1covenanter said:


> JennyG said:
> 
> 
> > Not sure if that would count as much as Lawrence's example....if his grandfather was reformed, perhaps it wasn't absolutely from a standing start.
> ...


I was thinking that he already had known (and presumably also respected) at least one Christian. I'm not trying to hang anything on this, but I've heard it said that humanly speaking, conversion is much easier out of a milieu that already takes into account the idea, or the possibility of a supernatural faith. Sort of pre-evangelism, just as Paul in Rome was preaching to pagans, but they had at least already grasped that there is more to human life than the material. 
God could save Richard Dawkins tomorrow, and make him a full-blown Calvinist, if he so pleased, but I was interested in how common the one-stop, zero-to-hero experience is. Curt seems to have known it for one...


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## Just1covenanter (Jun 10, 2010)

JennyG said:


> Just1covenanter said:
> 
> 
> > JennyG said:
> ...


Oh, ok. Gotcha.


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## SRoper (Jun 10, 2010)

I was an atheist, but not the militant kind. I just thought that God probably didn't exist because his existence seemed unnecessary.


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## jayce475 (Jun 10, 2010)

I grew up as a buddhist/taoist/whatever you call South-East Asian Chinese folk religion. Had some kind of a belief that there was such a thing as souls and didn't mind chanting along to buddhist scriptures. As I became more literate and entered my early teens, evolutionary theories captured my imagination and Richard Dawkins' books occupied much of my free time. My worldwide became totally dominated by evolutionary theories but cracks came in when I read a book on creationism. It remained this way for a few years until my army days when I was about 18-19. In my mid-teenage years, I heard stuff about Christianity and found it ridiculous how anybody could think that he could go to heaven just because someone got nailed on some cross. A horrible army experience turned me into a hedonist who couldn't be bothered about life's true purposes and religion. 

After army, I came to Australia and matriculated in a university and somehow found myself seeking a social network in a charismatic church. Did everything a "good charismatic young believer" was meant to do without actually really believing. Eventually, Paul Washer's video was my means of true conversion and showed me the errors of charismatism at the same time, leading to me leaving for a reformed church after a while.


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## Jared (Jun 10, 2010)

I was Buddhist. I wouldn't say that I was an atheist though. Probably more of a deist/pantheist. I viewed God as distant. The concept of God wasn't very important for me as a Buddhist. I believed in reincarnation and practiced self-hypnosis. I also spent quite a bit of time meditating to smooth jazz. One day, unexpectedly, I was listening to DC Talk, which was something that I just didn't do at the time. At that moment, I saw the sunrise. It was like the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ was shining into my heart. I knew the gospel, but until that moment it really wasn't personal, and I had running away from God. In that moment, God conquered my rebellion and unbelief. 

In fact, before that, I remember God would come to me at night and convict me of sin and tell me that I still had a chance to repent. I know that all sounds strange, and I didn't see God with my physical eyes, or hear His voice audibly, but I knew He was there. I could feel His presence.

He kept pursuing me in His love, and at His appointed time, He conquered my heart and led me to worship. The blood of Jesus was effective on my behalf to wash away my sins. Jesus took my place on the cross, and the Holy Spirit convicted me of my sins, showed me my need of Christ, and gave me a new heart so that I could trust Christ as my Savior.


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## T.A.G. (Jun 10, 2010)

this is a really awesome thread!


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## Theoretical (Jun 10, 2010)

JennyG said:


> Caroline's thread on "how did you become a Calvinist" made me wonder about this.
> Most of the posters there seem to have come from some kind of churched background, as I did. I wondered if anyone here, or known to anyone here, had been converted to the reformed faith from an actual atheist (or agnostic, Humanist, Buddhist, Bahai or whatever) background?
> Atheists do get converted - but is it always initially to a skewed or soft-core version of Christianity?


 
Since many of the actual atheists I know have come from church backgrounds, but despise watered-down Christianity, if any of them converted, I'd expect them to end up rather devout immediately. Among a lot of the ones I've talked with, the Reformed faith and confessionalism garner tremendous respect and even interest. Even if they don't go Reformed, wishy-washy Christianity seems to have no appeal.

It's much harder for me to have hope for really nominal Christians who talk about their faith and go to church semi-regularly but live like the world than it is for the atheists I know. Obviously I need to have hope for both, but I have a lot more for most of the atheists. Most of the atheists seem to be rather binary switches in this respect.


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## reformed trucker (Jun 10, 2010)

jayce475 said:


> and Richard Dawkins' books occupied much of my free time.


 
Had I not been a Christian already, God might have used Dawkins' illogical rants to convert me. 

And praise God for brother Washer and other faithful preachers!


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## LeeJUk (Jun 11, 2010)

Some really great stories of God's work in this thread


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## JennyG (Jun 11, 2010)

Theoretical said:


> JennyG said:
> 
> 
> > Caroline's thread on "how did you become a Calvinist" made me wonder about this.
> ...


Binary switches - I like it! If you're right then my hunch about the commonest road is probably wrong. 
It's certainly true that many atheists have a much stronger grasp than mainstream pew-sitters, of Christianity's interdependence with for eg the literal truth of the Fall. It must drive them mad, just when they think they've successfully demolished the foundations, to find the liberals still happily saying, lalala, it makes no difference to our house of faith.. 
Thanks everyone for sharing some wonderful stories, -and all honour to Paul Washer who seems to have been greatly used of God


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## JonathanHunt (Jun 11, 2010)

I have seen three people here on this thread attribute God's work in them as taking effect under Paul Washer's online messages. That is marvellous.


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## ubermadchen (Jun 11, 2010)

I was an atheist until I was converted at 18. I asked the search engine "Is there a God" and God took it from there.


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## Laura (Jun 11, 2010)

ubermadchen said:


> I was an atheist until I was converted at 18. I asked the search engine "Is there a God" and God took it from there.




Wow. I'm imagining a different version of the Google commercial, starting with your question, passing through "predestination passages" and "Calvinism" and ending with...who knows? "OPC churches?"  But I'm sure the Puritanboard would show up somewhere on the way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnsSUqgkDwU


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## T.A.G. (Jun 11, 2010)

ubermadchen said:


> I was an atheist until I was converted at 18. I asked the search engine "Is there a God" and God took it from there.


 
thats funny, thats what I did as well!


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