In a Cheech & Chong skit, a homeless man is accosting people on the street asking them for change. He's not having much luck with them. Suddenly, he encounters a street preacher who says to him: "Have you talked to Jesus lately? He can save your soul, sir. Before, I was all messed up on drugs, but since I met the Lord, now I'm all messed up on the Lord. He can help you too!" Laying all jokes aside, many religions claim they know of people who like this street preacher have talked to Jesus and have been helped by him. Such cases are often referred to as "transformed lives." They involve people who we are told were involved in crime, drugs, alcohol, wife beating, kinky sex, and/or the occult. Fortunately for them, they "met Jesus" and today are clean and neat and sober and very happy staying out of jail attending church and Sunday school. Their marriages and families have been restored.
Does anybody here know of any examples of these "transformed lives"? While I think they are possible, I can't say I've seen anybody's life improved by Christian faith and practice. On the contrary, I've seen many people take turns for the worse as a result of adopting Christian faith. I was one of them.
There are other difficulties with these claims of lives transformed by Christ. Two Christian groups in particular claim they can change lives for the better: Evangelical Christians and Jehovah's Witnesses. Since these two groups see the other group as heretical, they no doubt are not impressed with the other group's claims of transforming lives. So the claim that Christ has transformed a life is a claim that even many Christians doubt depending on what group they belong to and which group(s) they hate.
Finally, if these claims are true, then why don't unbelievers see the people transformed by Christ and then hop on the bandwagon hoping to have their lives transformed too? You would think that Jesus helping people would be better known than what it apparently is.
Does anybody here know of any examples of these "transformed lives"? While I think they are possible, I can't say I've seen anybody's life improved by Christian faith and practice. On the contrary, I've seen many people take turns for the worse as a result of adopting Christian faith. I was one of them.
There are other difficulties with these claims of lives transformed by Christ. Two Christian groups in particular claim they can change lives for the better: Evangelical Christians and Jehovah's Witnesses. Since these two groups see the other group as heretical, they no doubt are not impressed with the other group's claims of transforming lives. So the claim that Christ has transformed a life is a claim that even many Christians doubt depending on what group they belong to and which group(s) they hate.
Finally, if these claims are true, then why don't unbelievers see the people transformed by Christ and then hop on the bandwagon hoping to have their lives transformed too? You would think that Jesus helping people would be better known than what it apparently is.