A month ago, legendary Christian rapper Jahaziel walked away from his faith. He’d been a professing Christian for twenty years. Online magazine Rapzilla called him the most important U.K. artist in the history of Christian hip-hop. But Jahaziel couldn’t reconcile the mass killings in the Bible with the idea of a loving God.
He posted on Facebook saying, “You can believe the bible and its God all you want but to me he just demands my fear because he cannot earn my respect. I cannot possibly agree that he is love unless I ignore all the men, women and little children he has slaughtered throughout the entire bible…I have tasted and seen – and my conclusion is that Christianity (it’s flawed book, bloodthirsty god and mythical savior) I have found unsatisfactory and unworthy of my allegiance or worship unless by threatening to kill me if I don’t – as Christianity does.”
Kirsten Powers, a Democratic commentator at Fox News, was an atheist for most of her life. Beautiful, bright, and successful, she had no desperate reason to need God. Christianity Today reported that Powers described herself as wavering “between atheism and agnosticism, never coming close to considering that God could be real.” She said, “I would never adhere to any religion—especially to evangelical Christianity, which I held in particular contempt.”
Her boyfriend at the time, wanted to get hitched but said he couldn’t marry a non-Christian. He asked her if she could keep an open mind about faith. That did it! Wanting to be seen as open-minded, she started attending Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City.
Pastor Tim Keller
After eight months of listening to Pastor Tim Keller’s astute sermons, she decided the evidence supporting Christianity was there. Still, she didn’t feel any connection to God and thought people who said they heard God’s voice or had experiences were either delusional or lying.
Right about that time, Powers took an overseas trip. One morning while sleeping, she experienced a strange cross between a dream and reality. In that instant, Jesus appeared to her and said, “Here I am.”
The experience was more than a little traumatizing.Continue reading
