I have been encouraged by others here on steemit to share my testimony. Before I get in to the entire story I figured I should share with you the 3 videos that changed my life forever.
After the Tribulation
This was the title of the first video that I watched that totally changed my life forever. You see I grew up in the church. I got saved when I was 5 and went to the Assemblies of God church til i was about 15. At 15 we started going to a non-denominational charismatic church, pretty much the same as the A/G church but with no denominational ties. All through my upbringing in the church I was taught about the Pre-Tribulation Rapture. That Jesus was going to return some day and take all the christians to heaven and then after that the world would go through the tribulation. As a teenager the Left Behind books came out. I think I picked the first one up when I was 14. I read it and and loved the book. I continued through the series, each book taking me less and less time to read as I couldn't wait to see what was going to happen next. The books were very exciting and it made me want to be here to witness these events happening, but I had always been taught that christians were not going to be here for it. I felt like I was SUPPOSED to be here for the tribulation. This was going to be the most exciting time on planet earth ever. The church will come under attack, souls will be won to the kingdom left and right, people literally being snatched out of the hand of the devil.
I mean what christian wouldn't want to be here for that time right? But there in lies the problem, I was taught that if you didn't get taken in the rapture that meant you weren't saved. I was torn inside, one part of me wanted to go in the rapture, that meant i was saved, the other part of me, wanted to miss the rapture and be here for these events.
This caused me to have some pretty deep introspection for a teenager. I thought, well someone has to preach after the tribulation. Its going to be all the back sliden christians then, all the pew warmers who went to church but never really believed. This didn't make sense either though. This would be like if you were the coach in a championship football game, and there is 39 seconds left in the 4th quarter, its 3rd down on your 30 yard line and you are down by 6, and then you decide to pull out your first string players and put in the third string players. That's not a smart move and didn't seem like something God would do. So then I thought, well maybe there are people who are strong in their faith that God has pre-destined to be left behind to preach the gospel, but that didn't seem right to me either, pre-destination kind of takes out the idea that we have free will. So needless to say I was torn between being taken in the pre-tribulation rapture and being left behind and I was like this through out my 20's.
Its all about the Pre-tribulation Rapture theology and how the Bible does not support this idea. It explains the origins of the pre-tribulation rapture theology as well. The video does a good job at proving that there is no pre-tribulation rapture, that christians are going to be here for tribulation. YES!! YES!!! YES!!!! I finally knew what I felt inside was true, that I was going to be here for the tribulation.
Disclaimer: One of the pastors in this documentary is Steven Anderson. He's pretty out there on alot of things, and I disagree with him on ALOT of things, but still, a broken clock is right twice a day.
Truth or Tradition
The next video I watched that changed my life forever was called Truth or Tradition. It was suggested to me by some people in a chatroom for an online conference called The Quest 4 Truth Virtual Conference that my wife and I attended. They also suggested another video called Identity Crisis, so I added both videos to my youtube watch later list. At the time I had a job working in an office. I had 2 screens at my desk and my boss didn't really care if I watched youtube videos as long as my work got done. So I would spend my days at work listening to videos about subjects that interested me, gaining more knowledge, while I worked. It was pretty nice, and I was getting paid to do it. So the week after the conference I decided to watch the Truth or Tradition video. Here is the video.
This video opened my eyes to the truth about christmas and easter. In my 20's I grew to not like either of these holidays. They both were over commercialized by the world and people would celebrate them with santa claus and the easter bunny and all that crap. I hated that part of the holidays. I was a champion of KEEP CHRIST IN CHRISTMAS. Oh how wrong I was. Christ has NOTHING to to with christmas at all and nothing to do with Easter either. This video showed me the pagan origins of these 2 holidays and how God doesn't want us to worship him in that way.
Deuteronomy 12:29-32 29 “When the Lord your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, 30 take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.’ 31 You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way; for every abomination to the Lord which He hates they have done to their gods; for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.
32 “Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it.
After watching this video I knew I was done celebrating these two holidays. I knew that it displeased God and I could no longer take part in these pagan practices. I was officially done with Christmas and Easter. No More keeping Christ in Christmas, he was never there in the first place.
The third video I watched that changed my life I watched on the same day as Truth or Tradition, and as you might have suspected, it was the other video suggested to me in that chatroom. The video is called Identity Crisis. Here it is.
WOW!!! What a combo! Talk about a 1-2 punch from God. After I finished watching this video I was balling my eyes out. I had to quickly exit the office to compose myself. I finally knew who I was in Christ. I finally had the answer to that nagging feeling I had inside me, that feeling that there was more than what I had and was experiencing in church, that there was something missing from just going to church on sundays and wednesdays and trying to live a good life. I finally had the missing piece. I knew now that I was not a christian, I am a Hebrew. I am a part of Israel, the tribe of Ephraim, who it was prophesied of that the fullness of the gentiles would come thru. I was the prodigal son, who took his fathers inheritance, squandered it in the world, woke up hungry in the waller of the pigs, and realized the servants in my father's house had it better than I did, and decided to go back and ask to be a servant in his house, but my father, seeing me afar off, thinking I was dead, saw me and ran to me, he put a robe on me and a ring on my finger and killed a fatted calf and threw a feast in my honor.
Well after watching that video my life took a whole new course. Stay tuned for part 2 of my testimony. It may be tomorrow, it may be this weekend, it may be next week or next month, but I did a part one so I'll have to do a Part 2.