User:Tio Papo 2014
TIo Papo is the pseudonym for a person who wrote "What I wish Christians Would Tell You" . The material is currently on e-book format only. It is the story of a born to Christian parents who were also missionaries in three different countries.
His story begins with his early childhood growing in a Christian home with Christian values. But later in his life he found that the answers of others were not his. Why certain things expected of the reality of his faith,prayers and devotion did not square with his personal life?
The precepts of Christianity erode in his mind and things like hell, sin and providence ceased to have meaning in his life. Why God, who is love, would send sinners to eternal punishment for a mere 70-80 years of sins. And maybe those were not so horrible acts, simply denying Christ as God will get you there!
The teachings of a growing New Age were more palatable and reincarnation, in particular, answer all of ones possible mistakes others called sin. Tio started a journey to find alternatives to his early home teachings and found a new group of good moral and honest people who had peace, love and were by all outer facts, better Christians than the Christians he was so familiar with. This journey took 27 years.
The book then relates how Tio was able to reconsider all his New Age knowledge when he read a particular modern book on Christian Apologetics. Finding no reasons to deny nor object to the truth claims of Christianity he then made the choice of becoming a Christian again. It would be a new beginning, full of new excitement as he amassed a good portion of modern theology and apologetics. But the journey was not without obstacles and trials. The obstacles and trials came from within the church itself in the form of lack of knowledge and motivation toward the pursuit of clarity and explanations of the truth claims of Christianity. Incorporating some good philosophical principles to his renewed faith he found that not only he couldn't communicate effectively with most of his co-believers, but also he couldn't even mention the word philosophy. Discouraged a bit he decided to write the book which relates his reasons for loosing the faith in the first place and trying to answer the same questions many Christians are unable to surpass once they get to the university.
Currently he is working with a group to motivate Christians to use their minds in the basic yet profound truths of Christianity.