Quote Originally Posted by jon1959 View Post
Truthpaste has taken to presenting himself as one half of a Christian double act with Gofer Blue.

They may indeed both be Christians, both willing to argue their case on a football messageboard, and both say they are anti religion (by which I take it they see organised Christianity plc of whatever type as antithetical to what they take to be 'Christ's teachings') - but there is a world of difference between Gofer and Truthpaste.

Gofer is humble and respectful of others, responds to other posters' actual views, explains himself without hammering others over the head with random biblical quotes, and shares his doubts and faith journey. Truthpaste shares none of those qualities.

I have nothing in common with Gofer's beliefs and faith - but I find his posts interesting and sometimes thought provoking. He adds to the board. Truthpaste doesn't.

I have never met Truthpaste but in a way I envy his rock solid Christian faith. I may be wrong here but I get the impression that he has never had any doubts on his faith journey. I wish I could say the same but as a scientist I struggled in the early days and I suppose you could say that I was dragged, metaphorically speaking, kicking and screaming to faith in Jesus. I never had a “Damascus road “ experience during those days and it was researching more about the resurrection that finally convinced me of the truth.

Shortly after I committed myself to faith in Jesus (when I was about 35 or so) I was baptised and sometime after that I did have a very strange experience which I subsequently discovered was very similar to that described by John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist church, back in the early 1700's. He described that he felt his heart being suddenly “strangely warmed” * which is exactly what I felt. I have no rational explanation for this as I was driving along in my car, alone, on a dual carriageway near home, just concentrating on my driving. At the same time suddenly my heart experienced a warming sensation, an overwhelming sense of peace came over me and I felt a kind of reassurance that everything was ok.
I had never experienced anything like it before or since.

*(These are the words Wesley wrote in his diary: I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death). (Ref: Journal 24 May 1738).

P.S. I do try to ensure that I too provide the references to Biblical statements that I quote despite the fact that I am often ridiculed by one particular contributor for doing so!