Miikael was a thoroughly skeptical agnostic with a strong dislike for Christianity and a God who burns people in hell forever. A chance brush with the dark world of spirits prompts him to ask some deeper questions.

<p>Miikael was a thoroughly skeptical agnostic with a strong dislike for Christianity and a God who burns people in hell forever. A chance brush with the dark world of spirits prompts him to ask some deeper questions.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Adverum Productions

Journeys Season 1

Christopher Laubscher

Should Christians Have Ecstatic Experiences?: Christopher’s Journey

Dan Millares

Searching for the Meaning of Life: Dan’s Journey

Cacyne Hernehult

Searching for True Love: Cacyne’s Journey

Maj Oblak

Can Faith Be Rational?: Maj’s Journey

Miikael Volkonski

I Would Never Become a Christian: Miikael’s Journey

Jan Haugg

Finding Hope for the Environment: Jan’s Journey

Conrad Whitaker

Beyond Rituals and Crucifixes: Conrad’s Journey

Samuel Jacobsen

Escape From New Age and the Paranormal: Samuel’s Journey

Grace Rose

Finding Peace at Last: A Miraculous Journey

Jonas Nygard

Hungry for More: Jonas’ Journey

Albert Jurgens

Learning to Trust the Bible: Albert’s Journey

Chris Berger

Existential U-turn: Chris’s Journey


So I said, bring me a stupid Bible. And I thought I would be able to free her from this darkness and superstition of religion. If there was 1 thing I could say with 100% certainty, it was that I would never become a Christian. My name is Mikael Valkonsky. For the 7 first years of my life I grew up in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, and after that we moved to Tartu, which is the second biggest town.

My grandparents were Lutherans, but like majority of Estonian people, they weren't practicing it. My parents were not really interested in religion, but I still got baptized as a child in a Lutheran church in Tallinn. I remember my grandmother telling me things from the Bible, like turn the other cheek etc. And we had a Baptist family friends, but we made fun of them because of their religion. Growing up I felt that because I was baptized, if God existed, I had an advantage or a brownie point.

My mom said that they had a Ouija board when she was young, and once she and her sisters, they asked the spirit to touch them and they felt a cold hand. As I got older, I became a very sceptical agnostic, although not ruling out the higher power totally. I considered myself a secular person, like most of my fellow countrymen. I remember learning about evolution in the school and thinking about how this step-by-step development can lead up to something like a human mind. I believed in evolution, although I couldn't really understand how this can work in reality.

1 of the things I enjoyed was partying. I did my share of drinking and drugs. I was actually looking for something more in my life. But that more was not going to come from Christianity because I disliked Christians. I thought they were a bunch of hypocrites.

I thought they said 1 thing and did another. And their lives didn't really seem inviting to me. I guess the main thing for me was just the silliness of the idea of a personal God. When science was actually proved everything, that's what I thought. And I just couldn't understand how people with degrees would actually believe in such a stupid thing.

And if there was 1 thing I could say with a hundred percent certainty, it was that I would never become a Christian. If I were to put my finger on another reason I disliked Christians, it's the concept of hell and punishment. That just seemed unfair to me. The idea of a God who punishes people whose only guilt is because they were born into this world and he's punishing them forever and ever. Another thing that put me off was Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons and their way of doing missionary work.

Estonians are very individualistic and I'm a real Estonian in that sense. So I don't like people coming up to me and offering literature to me in the street. But now it's a problem for me because now I am the 1 who's doing this. So I had this kind of a fear of Christianity. But at the same time, I was thinking about deeper things like life after death and the death itself.

If you die and you lose your consciousness, then what? I was working at this tech company in Tartu and this girl named Marianne came to work in this company and she became my teammate. So as we got closer I got to know her I found out she was a Christian but that didn't scare me. Although I was a party animal, I thought that I should maybe slow down and make a change in my life. And although I had had many girlfriends, I thought that maybe she's the 1 that I could settle down with.

So I started to pick on her about her religion to find a way to corner her. And at that time, someone sent me a link to the documentary called Zeitgeist. And it's a documentary about the current state of humanity. They talk about 2 major problems that you need to get rid of. 1 is money, that banks own everybody and there is a small elite who controls everything in the world.

And another problem, the second problem is belief. And they especially target the Christianity and they say that Christianity has been copied from another religions. So When I was watching it, Marianne was with me, and I was like, yeah, yeah, look, this is exactly what I've been telling all the time, or thinking. And she got very upset and she said that this is not true at all. So I said to Marianne, bring me a stupid Bible.

And I thought I would be able to free her from this darkness and superstition of religion. So he brought me a King James Bible, but I didn't start to read it right away. Around the same time I was invited to join the Freemason Society by 1 of my co-workers. At 1 of the parties he asked me what I was thinking, what I thought about God. And I said, I was not sure but there probably is something.

But I said no to the invitation because I didn't have the urge to rule the world. But I guess that actually prompted me to do some research on my own on this topic. While investigating, I discovered that there are dark forces and not only in financial world, but also in spiritual world. And I remember I was watching a video about exorcism and I felt that someone or something is trying to take over my person and I got very scared. And it suddenly hit me that this was real, that Satan was real.

And I got very scared. But I also thought that If Satan exists, then God also exists. So I was thinking about my own life, that if someone like me can actually be saved. But I think that was the moment I actually realized there is a way out. In my research, I stumbled across some videos on the internet on biblical subjects and I found them very compelling and I thought their approach was intelligent and made sense to me.

In the meantime everything went well at work, I had a good salary and I was living for motorbiking and drinking with my buddies on weekends. But after finding out about these Bible lectures, these would absorb nearly all my interest and time. So when I got off to work, I went through a shop, bought a bottle of wine and some pork ribs and went home, watching these videos while eating and drinking away. Because I was drinking, I got drunk and fell asleep. So it was often that I had to watch these videos again.

1 of the lectures I was watching was on genetics and it talked about different organs that we have that are so complex and showed how they cannot evolve step by step, that they're irreducibly complex. It also showed about the dinosaurs, how dinosaurs and birds have different lungs, so that the birds cannot be evolved from dinosaurs. So I remember this voice in my heart saying that, okay, you now have already so much evidence, make a decision. But I was still wanting some more evidence, but this voice wouldn't stop and then I remember myself deciding that, okay, I now believe in God. So 1 day out of the blue I got this phone call from this company in Tallinn, asking me, hey, we need a new boss, are you interested?

And so I moved to Tallinn for a new job. And as it was a different social environment, I didn't have many friends there and drinking buddies to go out and drink with. So it was a lot easier for me to starting to make changes in my life. And I started to read the Bible a lot. I was once telling Marianne about these biblical lectures that I was watching and she said that it sounds a lot like Adventists would believe and I said yes this guy he says he's 70-something and she said yeah but I'm a Seventh-day Adventist.

I had been watching these lectures in random order but it came to me afterwards that these were actually logical sequence that led me to discover the truth about God step by step in that order that was necessary to me. So I understood that God was actually leading me in my search. I started a blog about creation and God and became a laughing stock of my co-workers, former co-workers and friends. 1 of the co-workers even told me that, you used to be such a cool drunk, so what happened to you? And my mom got upset also because 1 of our relatives who works in this company, who worked, told her that everybody is laughing at her son.

About the same time I started to attend the church and I ended up marrying Marianne. But I was still learning about the faith, because I wanted to be sure that it's not some weird cult or sect. So I finally got to the point where I was convinced that it was the truth. So I made the decision to join the Church. So I got baptized on June 6th, 2010.

My story is still being written and I have much to learn about God and His love toward me. I'm not perfect but I'm looking forward towards the transformations God has promised to perform in me. And I have peace. I know that I can trust God to save me and to do the best with my life. So my passion today is to share with others what I have learned.

To me, truth is very important, and I want other people to be able to evaluate the truth that made the difference for me. Jesus says that I am the way, the truth, and the life. So the truth has eternal implications. And what can be more important than that? You

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Series

Journeys Season 1

I Would Never Become a Christian: Miikael’s Journey

Description

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Other Teachings in Series

Should Christians Have Ecstatic Experiences?: Christopher’s Journey

14m

Searching for the Meaning of Life: Dan’s Journey

14m

Searching for True Love: Cacyne’s Journey

14m

Can Faith Be Rational?: Maj’s Journey

14m

I Would Never Become a Christian: Miikael’s Journey

14m

Finding Hope for the Environment: Jan’s Journey

14m

Beyond Rituals and Crucifixes: Conrad’s Journey

14m

Escape From New Age and the Paranormal: Samuel’s Journey

14m

Finding Peace at Last: A Miraculous Journey

14m

Hungry for More: Jonas’ Journey

14m

Learning to Trust the Bible: Albert’s Journey

14m

Existential U-turn: Chris’s Journey

14m

Sound Doctrine