How to convert from Atheism to Christianism

A comment in this blog inspired me to answer the question: How do you get to the stage where you believe that the Bible is the literal truth of God?

> I don't get how one goes from "I believe in God" to "I believe in the
> bible." It seems there is no reason for this beyond tradition, tradition
> that could easily change in another culture.

I think that the transition is part of a larger process of becoming a Christian. First one needs to take the steps out of the imoral secular world into partial Christianity, and I think that it goes like this for people in our western modern world:

1> First you will hear in the imoral secular world the rules to be a happy and successful person (or at least it was like that in my High Scholl in Brazil): Drink a lot, have sex with as many women as possible, be rich, use drugs, etc. So you attempt to follow those things and figure out that you are not the happy winner like they promissed that you would be, but instead you are miserable. Those things at most make you dizzy, make you forget, but in the end they don't satisfy and you need an each time stronger dose to feel something.

2> You are aware that conservative Christians do offer a whole alternative world view, way to be and in general a whole and completely different approach to what is the correct way of being and what brings happyness.

3> The holy spirit touches you

So with those 3 things in place you decide that the imoral secularism is not for you and you definetively need to try something different. But not just anything different: You make the first step into a conservative Christian church (I recommend any Church which believes seriously that the Bible is the literal truth from God). At this point you start joining the service, talk to people that, go to bible study meetings, make friends, etc. In the beginning it might be a little shocking as people there actually believe everything from the Bible, even parts which you rationally rule out as impossible. But if they are well versed in the scriptures they will tell you that it is normal that for unbelievers the scripture is madness:

1 Corinthians 1:18

"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."

So asome time (I'd say 6 months is enough) of participating in a conservative Church and studying the Bible will be enough to convince a person that:

1> There is no true morality outside christianism. Secularists are imoral, ruthless and mean, and they don't care about the damage they do when they attack other people. I am yet to see real, reliably, care about what people feal outside christianism.

2> That so many wonderful people can be found in the Church.

3> That the word of God is wonderful: The more you read of it the more you get convinced that everything in it is good, that everything in it points to the great plan of what God wants for your life and that everything in it is true. That there is nothing objectionable about it and that you are actually prepared to live by its rules as you know them very well and that it fits perfectly for the human soul. Even if you sometimes wish for something different from what the Bible says it is good, the truth is that God makes those things out of reach for our best.

And add to that some more work of the Holy Spirit and done! You just made the entire process right from Atheism towards conservative Christianity in 6 months! Or at least that's how it worked for me =) And I think that that's how it went for a lot of other people too. I was not very successful in the modern western model of how to be: Didn't have luck with women and neither did I ever use drugs. But I know of a very high profile case: A Brazilian rock-star (Rodolfo Abrantes) which was the extreme example of the well succeeded modern western: He had all of it: Drugs, sex and rock&roll. But he similarly concluded that he was miserable and that the modern secularist western world is a huge lie and he dropped it all for Christ.