My Testimony: My Encounter with God

 

Bible Study ESV

My Encounter with God

    The foundation of my atheism was based on the theory of evolution. This foundation was shattered when I learned that there are problems with the theory of evolution. What challenged my belief in evolution is that mutations in DNA don’t lead to new structures, like new proteins, which then lead to new species. There’s no evidence for any of this. The assertion is that animals evolved over millions of years into new species because of mutations to the DNA that will lead to new structures, but there is no evidence of this occurring. To believe this, you have to accept it by faith. The assertion is that the evidence will eventually be found. After I watched Stephen C. Meyer tell Joe Rogan on You Tube that there isn’t any evidence of mutations leading to new species, I realized I had been closed minded for many years. This is important because I based my atheism on the theory of evolution. Once I understood that there is no evidence of mutations leading to new structures that lead to new species, the whole theory collapsed for me. The theory of evolution sits on this one assertion: that mutations lead to new species. I had a sudden realization that I was wrong about God and that maybe God did exist. I spent the next few weeks, not investigating further, but often thinking to myself, “I think I’m coming back to God.” I thought this because I believed in God before I became an atheist, but that belief was actually in a god more to my liking, which is another story.

    A few weeks later, after watching Stephen C. Meyer on the Joe Rogan Podcast, a video of an atheist debating a Christian showed up on my You Tube feed. I hesitantly watched it. As I watched the video, I believed what the Christian had said, and at the end of the video, I realized what I had done. I realized I had rejected God, who was real. I also realized that Jesus died on the cross for me because he loved me. I realized that I had sinned against God and I was sorry for it. I realized that I wanted Jesus to save me. I realized that there is something about life that is greater than me. I realized that I had believed in the lie of atheism for many years. I started to cry, then in that moment, I knew I wasn’t alone in my room. My attention shifted from myself to God. It seemed that God was before me or that the Holy Spirit had entered me. I didn’t see or hear God, I just knew. The best way I can describe it is when you are alone in a room with your back to the door and you hear someone walk into the room. You cannot deny the presence of someone in the room with you, except I did not hear or see God. I just knew. In my mind there was a thought that said, “This is what you did.” I responded with, “I’m sorry” over and over and I wept uncontrollably. The best way I can describe it is I felt like a very young child crying to his father because he had done something bad and he knew that he had hurt his father. In that moment, I went from being an atheist, who thought maybe he was coming back to God, to a man who believed in God. That morning, my wife and daughter went to work, I was an atheist. That evening, when they came home, I was preaching them the gospel of Jesus Christ.

    In the months following, my mind was flooded with all these sins I had done, and I asked God to forgive me. And I was filled with the need to forgive everyone who had hurt me and to seek forgiveness from anyone I could remember who I had hurt. And to remove the things in my life that were idols to me. And to shift through information about God and religions I found on the internet. And to begin to know God by reading about him in the bible. It’s been since May of 2024 when God brought me out of the darkness I was in. He saved me from an eternity of separation from his love. I am now 60 years old, but I am new in Jesus Christ. One thing I have learned is that many people are lost because they are following the way of this world, which is how I lived most of my life. The answer to know God is not found in people. It is not found in religion. The answer to know God is found in a relationship with Jesus Christ. Many people say they believe and follow Jesus, but I urge you to compare what they say about their Jesus to the Jesus in the Bible. Many people will tell you Jesus is make believe. Many will tell you about a false Jesus. Many will tell you to put your faith in science. But I say, put your faith in Jesus and get to know him by praying and reading the bible. If you have doubts about the bible, which I did at first, look at all the evidence, like all the manuscripts found and all the archaeological evidence and look at the character of Jesus in the bible, and look at the disciples. Why they chose to follow Jesus and what it cost them. The evidence is real and is there for you to see, unlike the evidence that mutations lead to new species. The reason I am writing about my experience is not to draw attention to myself, but to testify that God is real. I was an atheist. Now I testify that God is real.