Conversions, So Many Conversions

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Recently there seems to have been a sea change, in that a lot of high-profile people are going public with their conversion to Christianity and/or their Christian faith. Charlie Kirk's assassination seemed to have given many the courage to speak openly about their walk with God, but I think this goes beyond that.

For example I saw a video from this month (December 2025) in which Niall Ferguson (well-known historian, fellow at the Hoover Institution) talked openly about his baptism and faith. If the timestamp doesn't work, go to just before a hour and sixteen minutes in.

But I found in the end that atheism was not a basis for a meaningful
life and certainly not for a happy family life. And so I and my wife
recently were baptized and are now practicing and devout Christians
and it has made a profound change to my life.

So I have a I have a view which is that we're probably in the very early phase of a Christian revival.
And this reawakening will be the antidote to the ‘great awakening’ that has caused so much harm.
I very much hope that will be the case. I look around me in in England where I'm spending a lot of
time and I think how many unhappy people there are who would be so much happier if they
only went to church on a Sunday and open their hearts to Christ. It's that simple.

Not exactly a proper presentation of the gospel but it certainly took some courage to speak up, so good on him for it. No idea where they attend church, but he's not the only one. There are different things popping up on social media and similar. For example:

Apostate Prophet (former Muslim)
Larry Sanger (founder of Wikipedia)
Mason Kinsey (NFL player)

But also people who are not high-profile, such as these prisoners in Michigan, praying the Lord's Prayer on Christmas Eve from jail CCTV.

Maybe this is the repentance and revival that so many have been praying for.

Have you seen any others that seemed legit to you?

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Lily Philips, let's hope it is for real.

Update, maybe not legit.

[RAMCLAP]

Time will tell. I've lived through quite a few hopeful revivals that turned to nothing. Still, the Humanist/Atheist ethos of the last 60 years have left many a soul empty.

[Barang]

there should be a visible change for a new convert and it will continue as he/she get to know more about God. if not then most likely they went in to the water wet and came out wet as the same old self with no conversion.

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The heresy that salvation = accepting Jesus into your heart is widely believed. Though the Bible doesn't say that people are saved in that way, ("Repent and believe...") I think God graciously allows people whom He has called and chosen to sometimes mature slowly. Maybe Scott Adams, for example. I can't see his heart, so I pray for him and hope he is like the thief on the cross, saved right at the end of his life here.

[Barang]

yes! repent and believe not just accepting the gift of grace. repentance = acknowledging we are a sinners and need a Savior to pay for our transgressions. believe = making Jesus our Lord which is surrendering to Him. He is now our Master and us are God's children. we are now newborn and our behaviors must be Godly and no longer of the world.

[esy]

I have also seen a wave of new believers, and like many of you, I am hopeful, but a lot of it seems to be a fad. A lot of kids, wearing cross necklaces, clothing, etc., but still living in sin with no one to guide them.

I hope and pray the fad sticks, and they’re able to have proper guidance to lead them away from sin. I would hate to find out that social media is making it popular to claim you’re a Christian when you continue to devalue and degrade yourself, and continue to live in sin.

One of the big movements are the LDS and JW. They preach a lot social justice and DEI, so I can see a lot more impressionable people/kids gravitating toward them. They have those big time commercial spots during the Super Bowl too!

[socal m1 shooter]

Yeah I saw that the OF lady mentioned upthread was touting a new pr0n exhibition, so it would seem her "conversion" was not genuine. As some summarize it, "know Jesus, know change, no Jesus, no change."

I saw the "RIP" posts for Scott Adams this morning and his final statement, which was not encouraging. One responder articulated things pretty well:

Scott Adams, 68, "Dilbert" creator, just passed away today from cancer. Praying for his family as they mourn his loss.

Normally I wouldn't use this opportunity to correct poor theology, but I believe there's something sinister here in his final message that Christians to be aware of.

Scott wrote, "I'm not a believer, but I have to admit the risk-reward calculation for doing so looks attractive. So, here I go: I accept Jesus Christ as my lord and savior."

This doesn't look harmful initially. How could it possibly be? There's two key reasons:

1. According to his wording, he went to Jesus for the wrong reasons. He came to Christ because of the "risk-reward calculation." He didn't want to risk the possibility of going to Hell and missing on Heaven.

To put it bluntly, it appears that he didn't come to Jesus because he knew he was a sinner deserving of Hell, but rather because he wanted the benefits Jesus offers.

I of course can't say this for certain, but this is what he appears to be saying. This isn't a small matter. Jesus rebuked people for doing this very thing: "Truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled" (John 6:26).

If you go to Jesus for anything other than Jesus himself, you won't truly be saved—even if you claim him as your Lord and Savior. "Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 7:21).

2. This final message implies a damning lie: that repeating a phrase will get you to Heaven.

Many people stake their eternity on the fact that they "prayed the prayer," or that they walked up to the altar on Easter Sunday years ago to "accept Jesus" even though nothing in their lives ever changed.

But nowhere in the Bible does it say that that's how someone is saved. Only when someone genuinely repents of their sins and places their trust in Jesus alone can someone be saved (Luke 13:3; Acts 16:31).

In other words, if someone doesn't authentically feel the weight of their sin against a holy God, grasp that their good deeds can never outweigh their bad deeds, and that the only way to be saved is sincerely placing your trust in the resurrected Christ, they're not going to Heaven.

Not just writing words that you accept him, not merely acknowledging him with your lips, but authentically, on a soul level, clinging to Jesus with your whole heart because you recognize that Jesus paid the penalty for our sins on the cross and that only his perfect righteousness is enough to be in the presence of God.

False conversions are real, and we don't talk about it enough.

These are people who “profess to know God, but they deny him by their works” (Titus 1:16). In other words, a false convert is someone who thinks they’re saved, but has never truly been born again.

I'm not saying Scott isn't in Heaven. There is an example of a death-bed salvation in the Bible with the thief on the cross, so it is certainly possible. But my concern is that like many, he "prayed the prayer" and "said the words" in the hopes of inheriting eternal life. And tragically, the Scriptures are clear: if this is the case, genuine salvation didn't take place. The new birth didn't occur. He will hear, "Depart from me."

And perhaps more tragically, because of his final message, millions of people will think that it'd be wise for them to say they accept Jesus so that just in case he's real, they too will go to Heaven. But nothing could be further from the truth.

This won't get them to Heaven. It'll get them to Hell.

I pray Scott did truly become born again. And if you're reading this, you're alive, which means there's still hope for you. If you've ever told a lie, you're a liar. If you've ever stolen, you're a thief. If you've ever disrespected your parents, been selfish, or greedy, or gluttonous, or prideful, you have sinned against a holy God, and you're headed for Hell.

But if you repent of your sins and trust in Jesus, the Son of God, who died on the cross to take God's punishment for sin in the place of all who trust in him and then rose again on the third day, you will be washed clean as snow.

You will go to Heaven not because you're good, but because you have Jesus' perfect righteousness. Get right with God today. "Now is the day of salvation!" (2 Corinthians 6:2)

[TomMcC]

I first noticed these kinds of "conversions" with Kanye West. Of course, God can and does save anyone He wants to. Maybe the parable of the "sower" applies here??