Shortly after I realized I can’t take reality and my knowledge of it for granted (see previous post), I was introduced to Christianity. I was raised atheist because Bulgaria under socialism didn’t permit any kind of religious worship. With the freedom of speech and religion newly allowed by the law, churches and mosques opened their doors, and all kinds of new for us spiritual practices began to appear. Hare Krishna monks chanted in the streets, and psychics conducted seances in theater halls.
One of my friends from school began attending a small Pentecostal Christian church and invited us classmates to visit. The church had been founded in the 1920s and gone underground during the socialist years (1944-1989). I didn’t have any particular interest in god or religion and was skeptical of supernatural phenomena, but I enjoyed begin with my friends and was curious to learn everything about the world I lived in. This church’s approach to sharing Christianity was to emphasize the love of God by quoting a text from the gospel of John, chapter 3 and verse 16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” This did not impress me at all. I had a good childhood; I left I was loved. If there was a God, I didn’t see why he would not love me. And eternal life wasn’t something I could relate to. But as I learned more about the Bible and it’s purpose in Christianity, I began to read it. Further on is that same passage, I read verse 19, “This is the verdict, that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness eather than light, because their deeds were evil.” Now this impressed me, because I had seen it in practice.
Growing up I was. taught that if all members of society were educated in the good that communism would create, then everyone would act on those precepts honestly and conscientiously, and we would all live in peace and harmony and material comfort. In reality, even as a grade student, I could see that people often refused to do something even when the result would be good. More education and instruction had nothing to do with it. People wanted to do what suited them at the moment, rather then what benefited their community. “Men loved darkness rather than light.” This described the reality I had been experiencing with accuracy I’ve never seen before. Now I was hooked to learn more.
