Has anyone ever seen or heard of a person that was changed from a bad person to a good person in a blink of an eye?When I say bad person I guess I mean sinner!You sometimes here about some guy in church who supposenly used to be an axe murder or an ex con ,but now is a great guy or a preacher who loves God.Well I saw this happen with my on eyes.It was six of us that day, we were all friends, all drug addicts, some drug dealers.We were so addicted to drugs that we could not think about anything else.We have been to jail because of drugs.We had a house with no furniture because of drugs. You kinda get the point about what kind of people we were.No church background ,Jesus was just like Santa or the Easter bunny to us, but that day we were swimming at the lake and my best friend went out for a swim while the rest of us stayed on shore.We are excellent swimmers. We had been smoking pot ,drinking, doing coke,being stupid.So we get the bright idea to start throwing rocks at my friend Dale who's out swimming, every time he gets close to shore we bombard him with rocks,so he has to tread water the whole time he's out .well to make a long story short we almost drowned him.He went under a few times before we got to him and another one of us almost drowned trying to get to him.After we got back to shore Dale told me that while he was under water drowning he was sure that he was not going to make it and started to cry out to Jesus.He said he told Jesus that if he would spare him today he would live the rest of his life for him.And that's exactly what he did.That's been 22 years ago and Dale is still working for the Lord.He is now a preacher,and ever time I see him I think of that day.We all saw God that day.we saw God take a drug dealer and transform him into something good.Several of us have gotten saved since that day,some have died ,some still doing the same thing.God's really got a plan for each one of us.It does'nt matter what you have been or what you have done, God can use you.Has anyone else ever eyewittnesed anything like this before?

Having worked in the Correctional system, I saw men go from bad to good continually. Most did it for the chance of probation, some might even have meant it - until released. If the man that you refer to remained a good man (Christianity was only the crutch he used to maintain his "goodness") for such a long time, power to him! I have seen good men become bad men instanteously also, so really your point is only one half of the equation.

I know the skeptics will rubbish that story tallman, but to me, that just shows the power of God for salvation. I went to a Christian camp when my first year of High School - I didn't believe a word of it at the time. Two of the campers there were these asian gangsters - you know the type, look at them the wrong way (or any way at all for that matter) and they're calling their friends with their low-riders and making an example out of you.

Anyhow, I saw them again a few years later and they'd changed to Bible believing Christians. Now one is the head of the youth group that I help run, and the other is our Assistant Minister. The Assistant Minister topped his university doing a science degree - he could be in a job paying 150K. Instead, he's on 40K doing God's service.

This story doesn't even go into how I myself was at one time pumping myself with Speed three or four times a week and getting drunk the rest of the time. Going to work in such a state that I don't remember working (literally), and then the sudden transformation when I prayed to God, and simply stopped.

God's power is amazing.

Regards, PA

I have known people that converted to other beliefs that underwent the same sort of transformation as the tall man mentioned. It isn’t any particular religion, it is just that you accept something as a truth and use it to change your entire outlook. There have even been “Heroes of the State” back in the old USSR, that made the same sort of transformation (from capitalistic lackey to communistic hero), becoming sterling citizens of the People’s Republic. The point is, it is not god or some higher power that makes the conversion, but the individual seizing a belief and using that belief as a crutch, a direction of life, nothing more.

As a skeptic, I certainly believe in the power of someone to change their lives through a strong belief in something like religion. Especially if they have a so-called religious experience, like a born-again conversion.