Atheists Who Embraced Christianity

Being a missionary to cults and non-Christian religious groups presents some interesting opportunities to share the gospel. Most of the time, we find that longer-term friendships are more productive in sharing the gospel. In “What I Learned from100 Atheists Who Converted to Christianity” Jana Harmon shares a number of insights about their journey into the faith:    

Over the past ten years, I’ve listened to and learned from over 100 stories of former skeptics as they described religious conversion from disbelief to belief in God. I’ve asked each former atheist, What is the best way for Christians to engage with skeptics? After all, they have an inside view of what worked and what didn’t when it came to interacting with Christians. Through my conversion research, I’ve also paid attention to the role of Christians in the lives of the skeptics that help bring them toward belief. One of the most remarkable findings is that a clear majority, 82%, were positively influenced by Christians toward becoming open to considering Christianity. Similarly, in his recent review of 32 former atheists, researcher Joel Furches also found the majority were positively influenced by Christians towards conversion. He concluded:

By far the most significant finding is the influence of a strong Christian friend in these cases. A whopping 72% of these biographies included a positive encounter with a Christian or Christians as a major turning point in the person’s opinion of Christianity.[1]

This surprising news is encouraging for us as Christians who often find ourselves dismissed out of hand, rejected, reviled, and reduced to cultural caricatures.  What seemed to make the difference?  How were Christians able to diffuse the negative stereotypes, break down walls, and build plausibility of belief as something attractive and good, worthy of consideration?  These skeptics’ stories and advice reveal common threads we as believers can and should learn in relation to helping others find Jesus.  

The insights are very similar to how we train others who are going to pagan conferences or the Parliament of the World's Religions. The first one is "Don’t presume.  Ask questions and listen." This may sound fundamental, and to us, it is, but many are so intent on giving the gospel message, which I understand, that they do not know what the real objections to the faith might be. For those with a passion for reaching the lost, this article provides some helpful insights.

https://mailchi.mp/f51cbabc1a49/freedom-vs-coercion-will-the-true-cult-stand-up?e=169825fd77