Here's a post that I am asking, from what type of (religious) background did you come from before you accept the Doctrines of Grace? And what do you feel about your previous background?

Obviously, this qn is not for those who were bought up in a Reformed background...

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Tian Long (you can call me LTL)
Reformed Baptist
Singapore
"God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble." - Psalm 46:1 (NKJV)

For His honor, glory and name!

Independent, Fundamental, KJVO, Dispensational, Premillenial, "There's evil in them-there woman's pants", Baptist.

I praise the Lord daily (and I mean that) for His grace in lighting the path of exit from that place.

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Kipp Soncek
Pastoral Ministry Apprentice--Grace Church of Dupage
Student--Midwest Center for Theological Studies
Illinois; 1689 LBCF
But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
Acts 20:24

I was converted at Vacation Bible School at Daisy Free Will Baptist Church. Even though the church was full 0 point Calvinist, I never "felt" like salvation was something to be lost. I did, however, subsequently over the years there, "rededicate [my] life" umpteen times. How ironic, that God in His mercy, would see fit to convert me where He did, then gradually bring me to His beautiful doctrines of grace.

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Josh Hicks, Chloë's Dad
Christ Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church, RPCGA
Facebook - The Calvinist Vent
Board Rules - Signature Rules - Suggestion Box

It is God that multiplies our sorrows.... God, as a righteous Judge, does it, which ought to silence us under all our sorrows; as many as they are, we have deserved them all, and more: nay, God, as a tender Father, does it for our necessary correction, that we may be humbled for sin, and weaned from the world by all our sorrows; and the good we get by them, with the comfort we have under them, will abundantly balance our sorrows, how greatly soever they are multiplied. - Matthew Henry

Erm, there is no atheist option... so I chose 'other'.

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Paul
No denomination, affiliated with FIEC
"Deliver me from worldly dispositions, for I am born from above and destined for glory" - Valley of Vision
"They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation" - Peter

I chose Arminian Evangelical, though that only half describes it. More like:

Confused-coming-out-of-the-Stone/Campbell-Restoration-kinda-Arminian-but-who-really-knows-mega-church-trying-to-be-purpose-driven Evangelical.

That should have been an option.

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Ray Nearhood
Layman
Rockdale Community Church (a Reformed Baptist Fellowship)
Conyers, GA
LBC 1689
Husband of Evelyn , Father of Oren and Elijah
"To suppose that whatever God requireth of us that we have power of ourselves to do, is to make the cross and grace of Jesus Christ of none effect." -

What's the difference between Arminian Fundamentalist & Arminian Evangelical. Cuz I would vote for one of those. I came out of Calvary Chapel...

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Alex - Orange County, CA - PCA

"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but
Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by
faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."
Galatians 2:20

Manton - "The sovereign dominion of God is a great prop to our faith."

Liberal Presbyterian PC(USA) background for me. "Converted" in Seminary to Reformed Orthodoxy.

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Benjamin P. Glaser, M. Div, Licentiate, Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church
Member Fairmount ARP Church
Pittsburgh, PA

Deo Vindice

Evangelical and mostly Arminian here

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Jake; Hold to Original WCF, member of SBC; Greater Atlanta, Georgia Area

The cross does not give us a minor shift or two with regard to a few of our ethical and moral and religious values; the cross radically disrupts the very center and citadel of your life from self to Christ. —Albert N. Martin

which one is considered conservative Arminianism?

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Joshua
Non-Denominational
Fair Haven, Vermont
Romans 1 = Smack to the face about the human condition!
24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. - Romans 7:24-25

Arminian-Evangelical means "Big-Box Mega Church NAE" background.

Arminian-Fundamentalists means Bob Jones, Oral Roberts-esque background

My coming to Christ and hearing good, reformed teaching started at almost the same time, although I was reared in a mainline presby church ....

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JWithnell
Member Bethel OPC
Virginia
http://learningyesican.blogspot.com/

Southern Baptist Finneyist/Charismania (NAR brand) hybrid is the best title I could boil it down to. Therefore I voted other.

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Rich Koster
1689'er
Browns Mills NJ USA
Often Goofy Reformed Eccentric
Romans 7:14-25

I voted Arminian Fundamentalist, but I was asking the "difficult" questions from the beginning. Funny how that happenes when you read the Bible.

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Ivan R. Schoen, B.A., M.A., M.L.I.S.
Pastor of Maranatha Baptist Church (SBC)
Poplar Grove, IL, USA
http://maranatha-sbc.org

I came originally from the PCUSA, than we (my mom) switched to the Assemblies of God (AG) and than to Baptist back to AG than I went to College and went RCC and finally landed Reformed. Quite a journey The only one out of the list I miss is AOG.

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Doug
Baptist
Hemet, Ca
Old Time Radio Podcast

Roman Catholic - hare krsna - evangelical - 5 piont calvinistic baptist

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* Ralph Wilms (7-10-1974)
* Church : Christengemeente Roermond (The Netherlands)
* 1729 Goat Yard Declaration of Faith & 1646 Baptist Confession of faith

"To our mind, either everything or nothing must be held in subjection to the will and providence of God. Even the wickedness of ungodly men is restricted by predestination, so that the wrath of man shall praise God, and the remainder of wrath He will restrain." - GILBERT BEEBE (1800-1881)

I'm a Church of Christ preacher's kid. I made a long pitstop at the Southern Baptist. Then landed in a reformed church.

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Evon Taylor
Community Bible Church
Swansea, Il

Roman Catholic -> Lutheran -> Baptist -> 5 point Calvinist Presby

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Norm
IA PCA

In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will. Ephesians 1:4-5

I just read the bible

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Stuart
Elder, Lambeg Baptist, Northern Ireland, UK

In Him the fulness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form and in Him you are complete (Col 2.9-10)

The Christian is a person who makes it easy for others to believe in God. (RM M'Cheyne)

I grew up in a nominal Eastern Orthodox home, and when I became a believer (through reading the Bible) I started attending an AOG Church. I was pretty much a Calvinist from the beginning even though I had never heard of the Doctrines of Grace or Calvin. So about a year later I left the church and shortly there after I was introduced to the OPC and became reformed pretty quickly....all by God's grace and leading of-course!

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Yvonne
Reformed Presbyterian
Currently seeking a Church

"A man's most glorious actions will at last be found to be but glorious sins, if he hath made himself, and not the glory of God, the end of those actions." -T. Brooks

Old School, hard-line Church of Christ > More Liberal Church of Christ > Reformed (OPC) (Thank God!!!)

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Jacob Mearse
Reformation Orthodox Presbyterian Church
Olympia, WA
Student, Reformed Theological Seminary (Virtual)
Lieutenant, U.S. Navy
Husband to April; Daddy to Wesley, Cyrus, FaithMarie and SarahAnn.

Southern Baptist > Independent Baptist > Southern Baptist > Reformed Baptist

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Mike Myers
Teaching Elder
West Suffolk Baptist Church
Suffolk, Virginia

Many a plain, honest, unlearned disciple of Christ, by meditation, experience, prayers, and especially obedience, attains to a more clear, sound, and useful knowledge of the word of God, than some great scholars with all their wit and learning. Matthew Henry

Roman Catholic -> King James Bible Baptist Church - > Westminster RPC

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Richard Kairelis
Westminster Reformed Presbyterian Church, RPCNA (Prarie View, IL)
Chicago, IL

Raised Nazarene, professed faith in a fundy Baptist church, became Reformed through my Christian High School.

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Johnathan Tate
Cornerstone Presbyterian Church (OPC), Arden, NC

Husband of one, father of 3 (1 in-utero); Time's "Man of the Year" 2006

Original hearing of the gospel was in a Southern Baptist church, which was half baked. They got that once someone was saved, they would not fall away, but it was "once saved, always saved". Most of what they believed was an amalgamation. Never heard anything much more than the gospel every week, but it did start my change.

The move to reformed was through an RPCES church.

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Brian Withnell
Deacon, OPC
Leesburg, Virginia

You cannot train for war in the midst of a battle. Prepare before the battle starts; if the battle is long and hard, you will wish you had.

Started out PCA (too young to remember what they taught); then confessed Christ in a Christian and Missionary Alliance Church (couldn't really recognize a doctrine beyond "believe and be baptized"); then a PCA, but still didn't get the good teaching, then Non-denominational (essentially baptist), then PCA (where I solidified my Presby beliefs), now we're attending OPC and will most likely transfer membership there.

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Jeremy Bailey
Deacon (Currently, not serving), PCA
Grace Church of Pleasanton (Seeking in San Antonio)
San Antonio, TX

: but started out as a Roman Catholic in my early 30's

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Brian
Grace Bible Church;E.Bridgewater
East Bridgewater MA
http://www.gracebiblehome.org

Wow, I guess I'm not the only one who dabbled in reformed theology before settling down.

Bible Church
Fundamental Baptist
Plymouth Brethren
Keswick brand of Evangelical Free
Reformed Baptist
PCA
Church of England
PCA (Church plant that flopped)
PC(USA)
PCA where I finally settled down about 11 years ago

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J Baldwin
Keowee Presbyterian Church, PCA
Pickens, SC
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27

Check Out My Blog: http://reflectjoy.blogspot.com/

• Raised in a Liberal UMC by more conservative mainline parents
• Became a Christian in my teens, and grew increasingly more conservative, even Fundamentalist until about 19 or so.
• Simultaneously exposed to TULIP & Keswick holiness stuff in my mid-to-late teens
• Nearly became conservative Lutheran or Anglican, though as a TULIP
• Became PCA in 2006, and strict subscriptionist by 2007
• 2 weeks away from joining the OPC

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Scott - Dallas, Texas - Faith OPC

"It is not what a lawyer tells me I may do; but what humanity, reason, and justice tell me I ought to do." - Edmund Burke

Dispensational Arminian Mystical Relationship Evangelicalism

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~ Charles Stephen Barribeau ~
Christ Presbyterian Church , OPC (They sing alot of Psalms!)
Original Westminster Standards (I need to study more...)
The Puritans were best! Also... I NEED TO READ MORE!!!
Philipians1:29(KJV) For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake;

Janesville, Wisconsin (In the fellowship of Bob Vigneault and Matt+Megan Meisberger)

Born and baptized a Roman Catholic
Raised Pentecostal since I was about 7
Came to Reformed/Calvinist convictions just before I ceased being a teenager

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Albert, The Republic of the Philippines
Pasig United Covenant Reformed Church (a Reformed church plant)
United Covenant Reformed Churches in the Philippines (UCRCP)
Three Forms of Unity and Westminster Confession of Faith

Psalm 27:1a (AV) The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?
“Perseverance is the badge of true saints. The Christian life is not a beginning only in the ways of God, but also a continuance in the same as long as life lasts.” -

I was brought up RC "til confirmation). Was saved in a Reformed milieu, so as a Christian I have never been anywhere else.

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Curt Lovelace
Pastor, Covenant Baptist Church (CBA)
Acton, Maine
Director, Lifework Forum
Sermons at SermonAudio.com/CBCActon
Blogging at Coffee with Curt

Southern Baptist>United Baptist>Church of God>Arminian Evengelical >Reformed Southern Baptist>Seeking Reformed "Home" (Praise God for His merciful hand of grace!)

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Seeking Godly Wisdom,

Melissa
Baptist>Seeking Reformed Church Home
Louisville, Ky

Myself:
- I was attending a Methodist church, was not very well-received by them. Got exposed to fundamentalism online by IFB online ministries.
- Then entered an Fundamentalist Baptist church. Despite this, I frequently disagree (albeit secretly) with many of their practices. Although I respected them for their zeal, I was getting more and more disturbed by their pietist, KJVO and separatist beliefs (esp. their denial of the universal church's existence). In addition, I don't understand why the leadership criticize Reformed theology.
- After leaving fundamentalism, visited a few Calvinist churches, and settled in a Reformed Baptist church.

I grew up Liberal Protestant Mainline. Became a Neo-Orthodox guy in seminary and in the pastorate in a PC(USA) church, God changed my mind, convinced me of the glories of His Word and led me to the Reformed faith.

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Rev. Toby L. Brown, pastor
Jefferson Center Presbyterian Church--in, but not of, the PC(USA)
Saxonburg, PA
A Classical Presbyterian
Proud member of The Westminster Fellowship

"The happiness of the creature consists in rejoicing in God, by which God is also highly exalted." --Jonathan Edwards

I checked cultish "churches."

Raised in Worldwide Church of God (WCG), the sect of Adventism led by the infamous father-and-son team of radio preachers Herbert W. and Garner Ted Armstrong. WCG began a leadership-led process of repentance from many of its signature doctrinal aberrations following the death of Herbert Armstrong in 1986.

I came to a generic Arminian evangelical faith in the mid-1990s, along with many WCGers, but began to be challenged by Reformed apologists and authors almost immediately. Over the next several years, WCG's leading lights drifted in a neo-orthodox direction (where they are mired today), while the majority of its membership left either for Armstrongist splinter groups or for evangelical churches of one sort or another.

I served in the post-Armstrong WCG's ministry for six years, ending in 2004. I began with great hope that our evangelical revival would survive and thrive, but over the years it became clear that Armstrong's successors at the top of this extremely hierarchical church would repent of neither their power over the pastors and churches nor their fascination with neoorthodoxy.

I've often joked that our jump to the PCA (after I got kicked out of WCG's ministry - another fun story ) was a bit abrupt -- that perhaps we should have sojourned in, oh, maybe a Reformed Baptist church for a while before making the leap to Baby-Sprinkling Central, sort of like Mr. Anchovy progressing from accountancy to lion-taming via banking or insurance. But here we are, and the Lord's mercies to us have been abundant.

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Aaron Root
RE
Crossroads PCA
Woodbridge VA

PC(USA) as a child, so I voted "liberal". I didn't get serious beyond a saving faith until I attended Tim's church, around the time we started dating.

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Anna
Wife of Tim/Marrow Man
Louisville, KY
Member of Midlane Park Presbyterian (Associate Reformed Presbyterian)