Lon, it is possible for a HUMANIST to become a Christian. I am living proof! And my father and my sister. I was very much a believer in the dignity and worth of humans and our ability to accomplish much. I didn't not believe in any "narrow way" scenarios. I sat with Buddhists, meditated with Hindus, danced with Sufis, read theosophy and other arcane books, studied with Bahia's, and communed with the water and sky. I attended a Unitarian church. I lost total faith in any god, and became an atheist, although a good one, who cared for others.
But my soul was parched and empty. I was lost, sad, and beaten down. I had no firm footing, but my own. So, I started doing drugs and drinking. That got me no where. I stopped the drugs, but alcohol became my friend. Sadly!
Finally, i started reading the Bible, out of honour to my grandmother who was an Orthodox Christian, who got saved in a Pentecostal Church. I did not understand a thing! And I had even been to Baptist Sunday School as a child. Meanwhile, a revival started, and everyone was telling me about Jesus. It was really annoying. Some amazing conversions came out of that revival. I honestly believed some of those people were changed by God, even if I didn't believe in their God. Meanwhile, my grandmother continued to pray for me, like she always had. Many of my friends who got saved prayed for me, too! And kept telling me about Jesus.
Then, comes the weird part of my story. I was in college, studying science. I was working on a degree in biogeography - how the plants and animals interact with the physical environment. Basically, environmental studies. In geology, I learned that the rocks were dated by the fossils. In biology, I learned the fossils were dated by the rocks. Circular logic? That didn't work? It made me start wondering about origins of the universe. So, I read Genesis. Then someone gave me a number of books about creation, and I realized that evolution was false. Something had created the earth! But who or what?
Meanwhile, I had been getting to know my future husband. He sat me down and told me I had to repent of my sins, and believe in Jesus. I had tried to repent, but again, to whom? My future husband told me I need to repent to Jesus. Then, God spoke to me, and told me that he was the Saviour of the world, he loved me and I needed to repent. I immediately was delivered from alcohol. I have never had a drink again, and that was 40 years ago. (Not saying everyone has to stop drinking, but it was something God knew I needed to do.) And I was saved by the power of God. And when I opened my Bible, it all made sense! It was all about Jesus!
My whole life was transformed. I had been trying so long to make myself a better person, more loving, kind and compassionate, less self-centred and egotistic than I had been. Wow! Did God ever change my heart and my mind. He changed me, and continues to change me. Nothing static about God, and his relationship with us.
Being a Christian is so much more than just believing in Jesus and saying a sinner's prayer, or repenting. It is about serving the living God! It is about Jesus coming into your life, and showing you the way to go. And it is all about transformation! Only God can make that deep change within you, to make you into a person who is being transformed into the image of Christ.
Jesus Christ is perfect! He did not sin, but yet, went to the cross for our sins. If he was just a man, this would mean nothing. But he was also God, part of the Trinity. He has the power to make us new creatures in him. We don't have to follow in drudgery. Every step that God takes us is new and renewed. He is constantly changing us. And it is not rigid, or stupefying. No, it is alive, fresh and clean. It is exciting and real. The God of the universe stepped down from heaven to die on the cross but also to take us from darkness to light.
From the day I was saved in May of 1980, I began to pray for my family to be saved. I also witnessed to them, and they were actually impressed with how "I" had changed myself. I told my father, it was not I, but Christ in me. But, he had so many stumbling blocks and questions. He had a PhD and was a scientist. He believed in science, and in the good in man. And in himself. But I kept praying. Then, he got very sick with heart disease and ended up in hospital. My husband and I presented the gospel again. And God was pleased to save him! What a different man he became. He had been about money, and himself. He asked me one day, "How come I didn't know life was about God?" I told him he knew now, and that was what was important. As he got sicker, I read him the Bible, prayed with him, and played him Christian music. He told every nurse, doctor and visitor about how they needed God. He also told my humanist sister, who got a bit annoyed with me that I had "preyed" upon him in his last days. But when she flew out and saw him, she agreed he was different, and it was good he had something at the end, even if she didn't agree. My father died 5 months after God saved him. I look forward to seeing him again in glory!
I sort of gave up on my sister. I still prayed for her, and told her about what Jesus was doing in my life, but I was convinced her heart and conscience were "seared" as the Bible says! Then I would pray some more. Last year, just before Christmas, she phoned me to tell me about her little Baptist church she was going to. I could not have been more shocked!! I asked her if she believed in Jesus, but she was still working it out in her heart. I took up praying for her with a passion. But it was never about me! It was about God. He reached down and changed her heart and soul and mind. She was in love with Jesus. She didn't really know how it happened. (Maybe the 38 years of apologetics I had engaged her with?? LOL) No, it was God sovereignly touching her and changing her. And she is getting stronger and stronger in her faith. She was a lawyer, and she amazes me with the things she sees, which I never saw, despite having an MDiv and working on a PhD. She just understood the law, and how Jesus set her free, but now she willingly follows him. And follows him with joy. Following Jesus is not grim, but full of joy unspeakable. God gives us his best!
Sorry about the long bunch of testimony. I do believe you need to believe and commit your life to Jesus. But in the end, God is the one who will pick you. Not your parents, not your friends and not this group, including me. I pray you will ask God to reveal himself to you. Not mockingly, but ask him in humility and faith. I do hope God will save you. And you will realize you didn't just come here to find out about Christians and what they believe, but you will find out who Jesus is, and you will believe and be saved.