Jovial,

            I think I’ve seen some letters to you begin with “Jovial” and others with “Joe”, which one should I be using?

Before I was saved, in my Catholic parish, we considered all “Protestant” churches cults.

I got saved while I was in grad school, and came to the study area, to announce to my friends that I had gotten saved.

While they all looked at me like a deer in the headlights, I mentioned that I now believe that God created everything in 6 days.

They were shocked beyond measure, and were convinced that I was in a cult.

The same thing happened with the engineers & chemists in the research division that I worked at during the day.

My grad school friends, as well as the engineers & chemists, all wanted to “rescue me from the cult”.

They all took the approach to “win me back” by debate and by science.

They figured if they could out-debate me, or if I would lose a debate, I would be compelled to abandon my beliefs for theirs.

Since my faith wasn’t based on empirical evidence, or scientific method, I wasn’t interested in debating them.

Not only were many of them far superior at debating than I was, but I was as equally not interested in winning or in losing.

If I was to win debates with any of them, they were not therefore compelled to abandon what they believed for what I did.

As for me losing a debate, I knew that they would then consider all I believed as invalid, and dumbfounded by my continued belief.

When they saw that my reasoning for believing something was simply because, “it says so in the Bible”, they feared for me.

To them, that was the greatest proof that I was in a cult.

A scientific brother of theirs, basing everything, 100%, on a book?

Then him believing that book to be 100% perfect, direct from an invisible, Almighty, holy, loving Creator, was the capstone for them.

They figured I had been brainwashed by a cult and lost all ability to reason for myself.

Then when I left the Catholic Church, to join a Bible Church, my family thought that I had joined a cult.

Then when I believed that the LORD wanted me to begin street evangelism, the Bible Church thought that the “cult down the road” got me.

The “cult down the road” was an independent, fundamental, King James only, Baptist church.

They were considered a cult by every other church in the area.

Most considered it a cult more for the street evangelism, than for the King James only position.

The street evangelism involved handing out tracts, one-on-one witnessing, and open air preaching.

Since my church considered me to be in a cult for doing that, I set out to meet some of those other cult members.

I found that they believed everything like I believed, and they even had the same convictions.

They also believed the same thing about street evangelism that I believed.

However, my wife and 6 of her family members had followed me to the Bible Church.

My wife, her Mom, her Sister & her Sister-in-Law had all recently been saved in evangelistic home Bible studies.

They were quite concerned that the rest of the church considered me in a cult for street evangelism.

They were also not eager for me, let alone them, to darken the door of the cult.

Some of the members of that Baptist Church, were of the ilk that you had described.

They, like my scientific friends, attempted to persuade me by debate & reasoning.

That did not work, and I was not interested in debating them about Bible versions.

So for a year & a half, we evangelized together, but I remained a member of the Bible Church.

After they stopped brow-beating me over the Bible versions, I began praying about it.

I wanted the LORD to show me whether they were just like my scientific friends.

Or whether it mattered to the LORD himself.

Was it true, was it a lie, was it simply preference or conviction? I desired to know.

After a while, the LORD convinced me in my spirit, that the book in my hand was pure & perfect, preserved by him.

So I chose to believe the book in my hand, like I did when I first got saved.

Then everyone I knew was convinced that I was in a cult.

So, I then chose to join that Baptist Church.

My wife & her family followed me, and within a few weeks my Father-in-law & both Brothers-in-law got saved.

That convinced the rest of them about that book.

I still do not debate science, creation, or Bible versions, for the same reason that I didn’t before.

I believe that book because I know that the LORD convinced me in my spirit, not by argument, but simply by faith.

So being considered to be in a cult is not new for me, in fact I’ve gotten used to people thinking that about me.

                        Gino