This forum has been a
huge influence in helping me change my mind on many things. There is no better place to have discussions and logical debate because every word is documented and there are many sheriffs (experts) on both sides of almost any argument.
However, it was not the forum that started the changes in my life. I was already on my way to change. The forum just helped.
My sister sent me the entire audio from Dan Seagraves class at CLC on Romans and Galatians. Yes, I know that he is a three-stepper but the way he taught the class changed my life forever. I cried many times listening to him teach as I learned about the grace of God that I had somehow missed in my 20 plus years in the UPC. This got me to really thinking about other issues that I had always been taught.
See, I loved my pentecostal heritage and the fact that we were a separate people. I loved the worship and at the same time I was searching for a spiritual breakthrough that I thought I needed in order to be saved. Yes, I had been in the UPC all my life, played guitar on the platform, and followed every standard and rule. But I was dead inside.
I just couldn't keep defending a belief system that didn't line up, in my opinion. I wouldn't witness and invited people to church knowing that what was going to be preached didn't line up with what I had read in the bible. Now, I also have some of the best teachers as parents and they knew our oneness beliefs better than any so I was not someone who was easily swayed. I came searching for something else.
So, while I came to this forum looking for answers. I was looking for certain answers that lined up with what I knew had to be true.
I found out about Christianity Without The Cross, I learned that I could still be a pentecostal and still believe in salvation by faith alone. I found other websites like ChristianChallenge.org and InChristAlone.org. All these together along with my wanting a change brought about a huge change in my life. Much larger than I ever though possible.
I firmly believe that there are many young people in the UPC and other oneness organizations who are looking for the same things I was looking for.
Yes, many minds are being assisted in their search for change. It won't be long and the ideas that we are debating here will be debated withing the UPC and other organizations.
Also, there has been one huge change in my life in that last year I left the UPC as a result of a church split. Once I was out of the mothership I wanted to have nothing ever to do with the UPC again. In a few years, it is possible that my only connection withe the UPC will be this forum.
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