Hello everyone,
I guess it's time I introduce myself. My name is Jason Lucas....married for 16 years with 3 children. I have posted some family pics on the "Who am I" board. Although I don't post a lot, I visit the boards regularly and feel like I know some of you well just from reading your post. Thank you all for sharing.
As for me....well, God used an atheist to bring me out of Babylon. I have always been affiliated with the Southern Baptist and believed everything as they taught without question until about 2 1/2 years ago when I stumbled across an atheist video on youtube titled, "The God Who Wasn't There". After watching this video, I became determined to prove this guy wrong and thus began my research. During my research, I came across Ray's paper that he wrote to the seminary student. From that point on, I could not get enough of this "truth." I have researched and studied much of Ray's teaching and the more I study, the more I want to study. God has truly given him wisdom and understanding.
I praise God for this marvelous truth that he has shown all of us and I look forward to talking with all of you more. I also have a website and a youtube account that I use to share this truth. If you would like to check it out, the address is http://www.sozoproductions.org and youtube is http://www.youtube.com/user/sozo2.
Hello Jason(Sozo),
I appreciated your Post, in some cases it takes an Atheist to get a sincere thinking person to find God's truth. It's my understanding that a large percentage of people that leave my former denomination (JW's) of twenty years either become agnostic or atheist. They were convinced that they had the true "Religion" and since they found this to be seriously flawed and the other denominations just as bad or worse, now they want better proof of God's existence and become much more cautious and skeptical. Of course this is God's Plan for them, but it's always interesting to discuss the Causes that led to these choices(effects). When I left my denomination of twenty years, I didn't join anymore "churches", however, I didn't abandon the Scriptures either, I already knew the Bible had mistakes, passages that were not in the oldest & best Manuscripts(Spurious Passages), verses rendered incorrectly, biased according to the translators persuasion;etc. I really didn't know to the full extent of these errors. That's why I appreciated Ray's point that the Bible isn't inspired, but the Original Scriptures are inspired; in his Audio: How We Got The Bible. I did much research after leaving the JW's, alot about them and research on other Bible topics.
Upon arriving at Ray's Site, although sensing a ring of truth, emotionally it was difficult for me to exclusively embrace these truths, because in the back of my mind, I said to myself: " Here we go again, someone else claiming to have all the answers, just like the Jehovah's Witnesses". I wondered if I could emotionally stand another letdown from another group claiming to have all the answers, because at one time, I thought the JW's were God's chosen channel of spiritual food. Well, I'm still here and can't get enough of Ray's Audio's and written transcripts. I admit that it's taken time to understanding these truth's and their are things that I still don't fully understand, but the Spiritual light gets brighter. Prior to coming here, I examined other Universalist Sites, but never joined any, I guess God didn't want me to.
Anyway, glad you are here with us and mighty glad that Atheist kept you from joining another denomination of Babylon. I will check out your Web-Site and look at your family pictures. Looking forward to your comments in the days to come.
Your Brother Samson.