Gennaro Brooks-Church

Eva Skog
Swedish secular upbringing, currently a born again Christian.

I didn’t grow up in a Christian family. I think that’s important. My background is that of a typical Swedish, non-religious family. The one thing that made it different was that I was sent to the church’s kindergarten, so I had somebody there who mentioned God and Jesus. Otherwise I don’t think I would have heard about God at all.

From kindergarden I took away a belief and faith that there is a God who created everything. I always kept that bit of spirituality in the back of my mind, even though the rest of my life was very much secular and materialistic. I had a good childhood in many ways, but there was no spiritual aspect whatsoever. Nothing from my parents.

Things stayed like that until I was fifteen. That’s when I had the experience that really changed my outlook on who God is. Somehow I got hold of a tape of Christian songs. I can’t even remember now who gave it to me. It was a Swedish heavy metal band that played Christian songs. I was sitting in my room listening to this tape and one of the songs really spoke to my heart. It was all about how Jesus had given his life, and how he was waiting to see if I would accept what that meant for myself.

He wanted to come into my life and be something personal to me. The lyrics went something like, “Will you accept this flower from Jesus? It is red as blood because it grew at the foot of the cross.” The flower was a symbol of the gift that Jesus could give me. I was really touched by the thought that He was standing there and really concerned about me, concerned about whether I would accept His gift, the sacrifice of life for myself. He wasn’t just concerned about the whole world, but personally concerned for me and my response to Him.

So, the next time the song asked me if I would accept the flower, I just said, “Yes.” That’s what changed it all for me. Up until then, I had never felt anything like what I felt at that moment. Before it had been very abstract, but by saying yes I felt something changed inside me. Afterwards I could put words to it, but at the time it was indescribable. Light, love and joy all mixed together.

I didn’t know where to go from there until I met some girls at school who were Christians. We became good friends. They took me to church and showed me things in the Bible that explained what I had experienced. This was a Swedish denomination that is maybe an offshoot of the Baptist church, but I’m not sure.

It’s called the Swedish Free Evangelical Church. Before that day, God was somebody who was out there, and I would pray sometimes for help and I usually got help. But after that day God became much more personal to me. He was still up there and powerful, but He was also more in my personal life. I could talk to Him about everything in my heart and in my life. I felt completely accepted by Him. The way a father is supposed to be, I guess.

My real father was always there for me. He worked a lot but we had good times together. I don’t think I had a lack. God is more than simply a father on an earthly level. There is a combination of authority, love and friendship in God. Because I feel the love and friendship, I can trust the authority. I know that whatever God is asking me to do, it is for my best.

He asks me through what He says in the Bible, which I believe is inspired by God, and also through intuitive feelings I get. I’ve often felt something in my heart, like intuition, that I should go speak to a certain person, and it’s turned out that that person really needed me at that time.

My parents are not against my religion in any way, but they don’t really understand it either. They’ve met my Christian friends and have come to church with me, and are happy to see I have good friends in my church, but that’s as far as it goes for them. They have not been open to thinking about what Christ means in their lives, from what I can see.

As far as other religions are concerned, all I can say is that I am not God. I can’t judge people because I do not know what is in people’s hearts. Us humans only see in part, not the whole. I think Christians sometimes come across as arrogant, because they are saying, “We have the only truth.” What we, as Christians, need to make clear is that Christianity as a culture is not necessarily better than others, but I think that Jesus is very central.

Whenever we say that we have the truth, it is not because we think that the Christian way is better. We say this because we believe in Jesus, and He said, “I am the truth, and I am the way to the Father.” He said that His mission was to come and open the way to God for everybody. He has already paid for all our wrongdoing through His death, and that is why Christians say that there is no other way.

But as I say, God knows our hearts, even if somebody never heard of Jesus, He can see their hearts, and He will judge. I think God is just and merciful. I’m just glad He is the one who will be judging, and not me.

I do believe there is also truth in other religions. There are parts of, say, Islam that I can agree with and learn from. As a Christian, I follow the Bible, and the Bible says that it is only because of Jesus that we can have forgiveness. I can’t be a Christian and not believe in that.

So, I don’t think anybody can come to God and be saved through their own lives, because we are human and imperfect. We could never reach up to his standard of holiness. Therefore, I do think that the only way to be accepted and forgiven by God is through Jesus, because he died for our sins.

But I also think other people can have some sort of experience with God. He speaks to people in different ways. My Muslim friends have a sincere faith in God. What I would like them to discover is that through Jesus they could have even more. I want everybody to be able to have the same wonderful experience I had.

Another thing to consider is Judgment Day. I believe that this day will come soon. At that time we will all be accountable to God for our lives, and the key deciding factor will be how we responded to Jesus. You have all these different religious leaders or prophets, such as Allah and Buddha, but I believe Jesus is offering something they can not offer.

The uniqueness of the Christian faith is that God made it possible for us to come to Him. Our sins have already been accounted for and punished through Christ’s crucifixion. In other religions you have a moral religious system with very good rules to follow.

If people follow those rules, they have good lives, but it is up to the person to follow those rules. For example, in Islam, it says that God is merciful and forgiving, but not because any punishment has been paid. He just forgives, period, without any consideration of how bad the person was. To me that means that God is not just. If you take an extreme example, Hitler, I think everybody would agree that he should be punished. So if God just let Hitler pass into heaven, forgiven, then we would say that is not right. Likewise, I think everybody should be accountable for their sins.

If Hitler were to really repent, to really feel terrible, to suffer for what he did and to ask for forgiveness, then perhaps there would be justice. What Jesus did for us was incredible. He is God, the God who created the whole universe, and He chose to suffer, to be tortured, crucified and killed for our sake. Because of that great sacrifice, He can cover any kind of evil acts, including Hitler’s.

That is why we can repent and be accepted by God. That is why God is not only merciful, but also just. He really cares about what evil happens in the world. He judged it and condemned it, but then He sent Jesus to take the punishment, and that shows His great love for us.

But on Judgment Day, if you have not accepted Jesus by then, then it is too late.. Since Jesus is the only way to be with God, I believe that not accepting Jesus also means not accepting God. An absence of God is…I don’t want to think about that.

Whatever good there is in the world, whatever kindness, whatever light and joy, God is the source of it all. If God is absent, then everything that is good is also absent, and that is a not a nice place to be.