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Former Atheist to Speak at Legislative Day "98"
William J. Murray, the former president of American Atheists and the son of atheist leader Madalyn Murray O'Hair is scheduled to speak at Legislative Day '98.
Murray, who was used by his mother as the plaintiff in the Supreme Court case which removed prayer from the public schools of the United States, will speak Legislative Day, on March 23, 1999.
In 1963, the Supreme Court banned prayer from the public school because of a lawsuit brought by Murray's mother, Madalyn Murray O'Hair. In 1980, Murray renounced his atheist and Marxist background and announced he had become a Christian.
William J. Murray heads the William J. Murray Evangelistic Association. He carries the Gospel message around the world and even founded a Bible publishing company in Russia, while that nation was still under communist rule.
William Murray speaks over 200 times a year at revivals, crusades, prayer breakfasts and Christian schools. Many say a major revival began in Australia after his 1992, preaching crusade through that nation.
Murray's newest book, Let Us Pray, is a definitive work on school prayer. His best-selling autobiography, My Life Without God, has sold more than 300,000 copies and is still in print after 10 years. He is also the author of Nicaragua: Portrait of A Tragedy, The Church Is Not For Perfect People and The Complete Constitution. He has authored hundreds of magazine and newspaper articles.
Further information on Murray's appearance can be obtained by contacting NYFRF.
Link to William Murray's Web Site: http://www.wjmurray.com/
William J. Murray is the son of American atheist and Marxist leader, Madalyn Murray O'Hair. Yet at age 33 he accepted Christ and began to preach the Gospel.
I was born into a home of near constant rage and violence. My mother never married my father or my brother's father. As a result of my mother's constant angry outbursts she could not hold down a job and she, my brother and I lived with her parents and my unmarried uncle in a small row house in Baltimore, Maryland.
My grandfather had never filed an income tax return and most of what he did do during his life was illegal or ill advised. He had no savings. My grandmother read Tarot cards and sent out demons by burning human hair. My uncle kept hoards of pornography in his room and my mother filled the house with statues of mating animals which she worshipped.
My mother accepted the communist doctrine when I was about ten years old and from that time on there were socialist and communist study group meetings in the basement of our Baltimore home.
I was taught that because there was not God there was no such thing as right or wrong. My mother told me it was better to be a homosexual than to be a Christian. She taught me that the most important things in life were the physical pleasures of drink, food and sex.
For many years I lived the life I was taught. I drank a quart of vodka a day and by the time I was thirty I had been married twice. I lived only to eat, drink and have what I thought were sexual pleasures.
But a time came when the women and the booze no longer gave me the happiness that my atheist mother told me they would bring. I was consuming so much alcohol that it no longer got me high. I started using marijuana and other drugs to supplement the alcohol which had betrayed me.
At age thirty I began to realize how empty my life had been. There were no people in my life. My only friends were cigarettes and booze. It was that realization that led me on my search for God. I had seen every evil in the world and now wanted to see the other side of life..
I turned to a Twelve Step Program to stop the drinking and there found my first awareness of a loving God. Yet that God had no name.
In a novel, I read the story of the great physician, Luke, and I yearned to have the relationship and love of God this man had, but I did not know how to reach God.
On January 25, 1980, as I slept in my apartment in San Francisco, the Holy Spirit came upon me and directed me to seek the truth in the Holy Bible. This was the one place I had never looked for the nature of God, for it was this very book that my mother had removed from our nation's schools by her lawsuit in 1963.
Now awakened by the call of God I drove to a downtown discount department store and there found a Bible under stacks of pornography. The gay checkout clerk laughed at me for buying a Bible.
But, it was in this Bible that I found the truth about Jesus Christ. The truth that sets every man free. That truth is that Jesus had paid the price for my sin so I could be reborn and be a new man and have the gift of eternal life. I learned that this gift was mine for the asking. All I had to do was repent of my sins and ask Christ into my life as Lord!
My life began again when I accepted Christ into my life. Your life can begin again as did mine. Just say this simple salvation prayer:
"My Father in heaven. I repent of my sins and ask your forgiveness. I believe Christ died as a sacrifice to pay for my sins. I want to be born again and become a new creature in Christ. I now ask Jesus into my heart as my Lord with the promise of living for Him."
Once you have said this prayer cast all the sinful things out of your house and your life. Call a church at once and tell the minister about your decision to follow Jesus. Attend church the very next possible service.
The above is the text of a tract entitled He Fought Christ. To obtain printed copies please email the
William J. Murray Evangelistic Association, P.O. Box 77511, Washington, DC 20013
http://www.hoyweb.com/lh/faith2.htm
Faith 102: "Response to a Skeptic" of Answers to Tough Questions Skeptics Ask about the Christian Faith by Josh McDowell and Don Stewart
Dear Reader: by Lynette J. Hoy, NCC, LCPC
I wonder whether you have ever really studied the evidence for Christianity? Have you ever read C.S. Lewis' books:* Mere Christianity, The Case for Christianity or The Problem of Pain or Josh McDowell's book Evidence That Demands a Verdict: Historical Evidences for the Christian Faith or Know Why You Believe by Paul Little or Letters from a Skeptic by Gregory & Edward Boyd"? I guess I also wonder if you have ever read the Bible Holy Bible : The Niv Study Bible/, especially the Gospel of John in the New Testament? To write off Christianity implying that the leader of Christianity, Jesus Christ, is a joke, is very sad & probably the greatest mistake a person can make in his/her lifetime. Many people at least call Him a great moral teacher. Have you truly thought about it? Jesus is the one Person Who claimed to be God and backed it up with miracles, teachings, knowledge, and his own resurrection which was verified historically by over 500 eye-witnesses. If you don't believe Jesus was who He said He was- God, then you have only 2 other choices: to believe that He was a liar or a lunatic, because only a liar or a lunatic or God would or could make such extraordinary claims. C. S. Lewis, a converted atheist, wrote in Mere Christianity...
"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God." That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic-on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg-or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."
And what are His claims? That He forgives sins; that He is God: "I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins." and , "I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I Am!" John 8:24 & 58. Jesus claimed to be eternal and called himself "I Am" which expressed the eternity of His being and His oneness with the Father (compare with Exodus 3:14- God's I Am declaration). Jesus claimed to have power to raise the dead and give life, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live..." John 11:25. Christ stated that He must receive the same honor & worship that His Father receives & that He will be the judge of mankind: "For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom He is pleased to give it. Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent Him." John 5:21-23. He claimed to be the only way to heaven...."I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me." Jn. 14:6; that He is the Light of the world; that He is the Good Shepherd; that He came to seek and save the lost; that He is the Redeemer, Savior, a Friend, that He is coming back; that He is the Creator..... Can you mock and laugh at this Man Jesus... the Son of God, the King of kings and Lord of lords? Someday, every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Will you be for Him or against Him? Jesus said, "If anyone is ashamed of Me..., the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His Father's glory with the holy angels." Mark 8:38. I will pray that you might begin seeking the only One, Jesus Christ, Who can save you from sin and death. For Jesus said, "He who believes in me has eternal life, but he who does not believe in me shall suffer the wrath of God." John 3:36
http://www.hoyweb.com/books/index.htm
What a Christian Believes; An Easy to Read Guide to Understanding by Ray Pritchard
Know Why You Believe by Paul Little
The Case for Christianity by C. S. Lewis
The Best of Josh McDowell : A Ready Defense by Josh McDowell, Bill Wilson
Reasons by Josh McDowell and Don Stewart
Answers to Tough Questions Skeptics Ask about the Christian Faith
by Josh McDowell and Don Stewart
Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis
Answers to Tough Questions Skeptics Ask About the Christian Faith by Josh McDowell, Don Stewart
Availability: Usually ships within 24 hours. Mass Market Paperback (February 1986) Tyndale House Pub; ISBN: 084230021X ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.64 x 6.98 x 4.24 Amazon.com Sales Rank: 17,920
.More Than a Carpenter; Josh McDowell .Evidence That Demands a Verdict : Historical Evidences for the Christian Faith (Volume 1); Josh McDowell
Reviews Synopsis Why does a good God allow evil to continue? Are there two creation accounts in Genesis? Is Jesus the only way? Isn't Christianity just a crutch? Josh McDowell responds to these and 61 other most-asked questions!.
William Lane Craig's debates pages: http://www.leaderu.com/offices/billcraig/index.html His 5 pointed argument which he uses in most debates is about the best around... It's in the Willow Creek Video "Christianity Vs Atheism: Which way does the Evidence Point?".
My WhatIsTheGospel pages, aimed directly at skeptics: http://www.sydney-christian.net/whatisthegospel/ -- these may or may not be relevant to your target audience, but they try to integrate evidence with an explanation of what Christianity is. The serious-questions portal is not yet online, however.
CS Lewis is a converted atheist. He wrote Mere Christianity and other books. The son of Madeline Murray O Hair is a converted atheist and is now an evangelist. His name is William Murray. He would be a good contact. Also Josh McDowell has some good books for Skeptics. Mr. Geisler probably has a book for Skeptics. He probably has a book or some books. Below are some web sites. You can order the books from www.amazon.com www.bn.com or a Christian reseller such as Christian Book Distributors www.christianbook.com 1-978 977-5050
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