Greetings from New York

Howdy! I'm going to post several things at once, but I agree that I should introduce myself here.

I'm an old man. Well, 50 and feeling it.

My father was a pastor in the Untied Methodist Church (misspelling intentional). That caused me to be teased by the kids at school, and I wanted to be just as rotten as they were so I could be accepted, but it wasn't in me. Since I was afraid all the time and did not stand up for myself (even though my father told me to fight back), letting them bully me, :tonofbricks: and I lived in small towns, so when it was time to go to a full-sized high school in Lansing, MI, I begged to be allowed to finish my last three years in a Christian high school that I had heard about.

In this school, my beliefs were challenged because they were nominal and the school was operated and populated by fundamentalists. I went from one extreme to the other, even though the school was officially "interdenominational". Am I working these smilies OK? Not used to them.

So, I had to justify to myself what I believed. I got ahold of my father's Scofield Reference Bible among other things and learned some of the basic beliefs. Then I had to know why I could believe the Bible. One of my main influences was Josh McDowell, including Evidence that Demands a Verdict. Been a fan of apologetics ever since.

At one point, I was so devout that I was obnoxious. Also, hard to please because I am not a fundamentalist even though I believe in the fundamentals of the faith. I do not fit in with those churches, but I do not belong in liberal theology, either. My beliefs most closely fit the Southern Baptists, but I am not ironclad about rejecting the "sign gifts" of tongues, prophesy, etc. Never done them, but do not believe in forbidding them.

I am a nightmare to liberals, agnostics and atheists because I am a Biblical Creationist. Evolution? Nope. I reject it on both scientific and theological grounds. Want to challenge me and say that the days of Genesis were actually long periods of time? I'll drive you nutzo because I take a firm stand that the Bible says that they were literal days. In fact, I have letters of reference from churches where I taught Creation Science.

That was long ago. Eventually, I drifted. (Haven't set foot in a church in fifteen years, but that's about to change because I think I found a decent one in this apostate city.) Even though I drifted, I did not totally reject my beliefs. Had a mix with Buddhism, but still filtered it through the Bible; things that directly conflicted with the Bible had to go.

For three years, I've written a multi-purpose Weblog called "Stormbringer's Thunder". Sometimes, I wrote about religion. Then I did apologetics. I wrote about the follies and annoyances of cowardly Internet atheism. Even having fallen away, I still fought for the truth.

This last Easter, I got tired of the hollowness of my wife's family (mine is far away, and my kids hate me so I don't hear from them). I wanted to do something to observe Easter. My wife and I watched "King of Kings", and even watched some TV preachers (always admired Charles Stanley, she likes John Hagee as well, he's not bad). Then I got in touch with some of the Christian rock that I listened to in the 1980s and 1990s. DeGarmo and Key, Petra, White Heart, Larry Norman, Barry McGuire, Love Song and others. They really got to me, and I realized that I had to come back. Imagine, this old tough guy crying to old but excellent Christian rock.

Now I'm singing along with D.C. Talk, "What will people say when they hear that I'm a Jesus freak, what will people do when they find out it's true...ain't no disguising the truth!"

I have some questions, hope to make some friends. But they won't be anywhere near as long-winded as this thing! Hey, maybe I should tweak it for my Weblog...

PS--The name "Stormbringer" is from a song by Deep Purple, 1974. Later, I found out that it's also the name of an intelligent evil sword in a fantasy series that I've never read.

 

Thanks for the welcomes. I'll be careful not to believe what one says about the other unless it's verified.

 

Thanks, Dude, that's totally righteous! Sorry, in the mood to play with words. Too bad nobody can hear me do my funny voices.

 

I'm going to look for Dana when I get up there and ask how he did some of those guitar licks. DeGarmo and Key meant something to me for 32 years! Their music helped bring me back to Christ a few weeks ago, among other influences.