Michael777

Michael Mace

My name is Michael Mace, I was born in Paris, France. Michel is my French name. I never received a Christian education or heard about Jesus Christ at home or at school. My teachers were all communist or socialist… I didn't believe in God… In fact I very much knew that God did not exist! I was not that stupid as to be going to believe in a God!

What I was seeing of religion made me completely disgusted of it: It was more superstition, idolatry and hypocrisy than anything else.

My parents had a restaurant, loved food, alcohol and gambling…

I have had a scientific education. Of course I believed in "evolution not in superstition", and I was active defender of this theory against illiterate and superstitious Christians preaching creationism…

At the age of 20 I was pacifist anarchist. I was revolting against the society, revolting against the government, the family, the school, the army, the exploitation of workers in factories… Against everything…

Therefore I decided to drop out of college, to leave my family and to go on the road, hitchhiking with a backpack. Destination? Middle East…

I stopped in the mountains of South France, and I lived there taking care of autistic children. People were calling us hippies. I was looking for truth and by reading health books I became a vegan. I loved to read, and I read a lot about Natural Remedies, Nutrition, Veganism.

One day, when I was 26, I considered my past life, my readings and I said to myself, "Michel, you are against Christianity but you actually don't know what Christianity is, since you never read the Bible! You have to read the Bible to know what you are against, if you pretend to have a scientific way of thinking!". So I decided that when I will have the opportunity, I will read the Bible…

I also decided that I would go in Italy in September of that year to join a group called "The Red Brigades", the terrorist gang who had killed Aldo Moro.

Two weeks later, I had to go to live with a friend whom I knew was a drug addict, in the mountain. After 3 days of being with him he asked me what I thought about Christ and God. I said that I didn't believe in God, that I knew that there was no God, and that even if there was one I didn't need Him since I believed that everything could be (sooner or later) explained by science…

I went to bed and on a bookshelf I saw a Bible. I remembered my decision to read it, and I began reading. After one hour of reading I clearly heard a voice saying aloud, "This book is the truth, all the truth, only the truth. It's not what men say, what the churches say, but it is this book that is the truth." As I said previously, I was looking for truth. I accepted the conviction given by the voice, decided to put all my past behind me and to take the Bible for the guide in my life.

The next morning I went to the brook where we used to spend our days in swimming, “tanning” and reading. But that morning I went with the Bible in my hand. My friend had a hard time believing his eyes when he saw me reading it all day long! And I read it from cover to cover in one month!

After 2 weeks of reading the Bible, my friend invited me to church.

I went, but when I arrived there I physically couldn't enter! There was like an invisible barrier at the entrance. Only when my friend saw me from inside and made a sign to tell me to enter was I able to do so.

During the service, when people were singing hymns I had goose bumps, and during the sermon two voices were fighting in my mind. One was saying, "What are you doing here, Michel? This is not your world. You are an anarchist, a hippie. Get out of this place!". And the other voice was saying, "Stay, Michel, stay!". I stayed!

My friend presented me to the pastor who was his uncle.

The pastor invited us for lunch. Then after sundown he invited me to help him and his family move to the countryside the next day. We did so.

There he offered me to stay with them working in the garden on the farm they had just bought and to study the Bible. That's exactly what I wanted!

I said to them, "There is a book called "New Testament" in the Bible, I don't know what it is, I'll go home to read it and when I am done I will come back to be with you. Two weeks later I was back.

I remember especially when, one month later, a young man came to the farm, we became friends and he explained to me “justification by faith”. It was a rainy evening. I went outside in the fields. In my mind I saw like Satan showing me my sins of the past. Then I saw Christ taking them upon Himself on the cross. Then again Satan showed me other sins, and Christ was taking them on the cross. It was like this many times. I was crying for joy, laughing, dancing under the rain, and running in the fields. It was a wonderful experience. That's really at that time that I became a Christian.

I studied the Bible and I was baptized in a river, even though my parents wanted to stop me to do it.

As you see I am a Christian today because I followed what the voice told me: "This book is the truth, all the truth, only the truth. It's not what men say, what the churches say, but it is this book that is the truth."

This is to say that my religion is not of a church but of a book - The Bible - and of the true God - Jesus Christ.

....

I am amazed at what God did in my life. Praise be to God.

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2009-01-26 23:01:18   Big Lols to the 2009-01-21 19:22:53 post! I'd like to see you debate the Mormons in Davis. I'd pay to see that. —ThanhVu

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2010-03-26 11:46:17   Genesis 2:2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. _ I really do not see God resting on that seventh day and man continuing to work. God was resting and celebrating His creation and I would expect that Adam and Eve were celebrating with Him. _ This is common sense. _ Also, well before Moses, the Bible says (in Genesis 26:5) that Abraham was keeping God's commandments which includes the Sabbath (Exodus 20:8-11). This is a biblical fact and does not depend on specific article of faith of any church.

That the Sabbath was made for all men and not for Jews only is affirmed by Jesus Himself in Mark 2:27 where He states: "The sabbath was made for man!" He did not say for the Jews only, even though He had a great opportunity to do so.

Also in Isaie 56 verses 6 and 7: “I will also bless the foreigners who commit themselves to the LORD, who serve him and love his name, who worship him and do not desecrate the Sabbath day of rest, and who hold fast to my covenant. 7 I will bring them to my holy mountain of Jerusalem and will fill them with joy in my house of prayer. I will accept their burnt offerings and sacrifices, because my Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations."

It is true that Sunday keeping started in the late 1st century, but it was limited to Rome and Alexandria. Church Decrees from the 4th century condemns Christians that were "judaizing" by keeping the Sabbath. THE COUNCIL OF LAODICEA IN PHRYGIA PACATIANA 364 A.D. states in CANON XXIX: "Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath..." showing that there were still many Christians keeping the Sabbath at that time. And they got persecuted (i.e burned to the stake) for doing so.

—Michael777