Testimonies

Phillip Warren

Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada
Saved: March 22, 1988

My Testimony

My name is Phillip, and I have been saved or born again for 8 years. It happened on March 22nd, 1988, it was the happiest day of my life.

I was raised in a Christian home, both of my parents being born again. However, because my parents knew Jesus Christ to be their Saviour did not mean that I was saved. The Bible tells us through out its entirety that man is born sinful, one such scripture is Romans 3:22-23, "There is NO difference. For ALL have SINNED and have come short of the glory of God." My parents knew this and always taught me from God's word, that I indeed was sinful and needed to be saved. You might say, saved from what? Saved from my sin, yes, but the Bible also states that sin must be punished. It says in John 3:18 that because of our sin we are "condemned already." God has designed a place for those who die in their sins, and that is the Lake of Fire. In Revelation 20 we read of what happens to those who die without having their sin forgiven. They are eternally punished in a terrible place called the, Lake of Fire.

The condition of myself by birth was pretty hopeless. The Bible teaches all those things that are stated earlier, and they are solemn and convicting. Yet I can I say I am thankful to my parents who taught me that there is remedy for our terrible condition. That is why God sent his son into the world. God does not want to see anyone die in their sins, his motive is quite the opposite, in 2 Peter 3:9 it says that God: "...is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." In John 3:16 we read of God's love for man, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

Knowing all this you would think that I would have been in mad rush to get saved. Actually for a long time I put off salvation, Pride was a major factor. I didn't want to admit I was that bad. But in reality I was, remember, "ALL have SINNED." In 1988 I began to get serious about my salvation. One night during special gospel meetings at Mimico Gospel Hall in Toronto, I finally realized how serious the matter was. In fact during those meetings one of the Preachers, Jim Smith kept on quoting a verse, that spoke of the seriousness of not being saved, "The Harvest is past, the summer is ended, And we are not saved."(Jeremiah 8:20) The night I got saved I read in Isaiah 44:22 "I have blotted out as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, And as a cloud, thy sin: Return unto me; for I have redeemed thee." When I read that I knew my sin had been forgiven, now and for ever. Jesus Christ, God's son, upon the completion of Salvation's work said, "It is Finished" John 19:30