bobinfaith
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2025
- Messages
- 311
- Reaction score
- 317
- Points
- 63
- Age
- 69
- Gender
- Male
- Country
- United States
Hello David;
Your original thread, A Little History Behind Biblical Truth Forum was very interesting. I always thought BTF was newly created last year.
In 1986 I didn't know the internet existed, even with a dial up modem. Was there public viewing of the internet then?
My wife and I were only married one year in 1986, we signed up and received Christianity Magazine monthly by mail, owned a Bible (don't remember the translation) and attended Christian worship on a weeknight and Sundays at a theatre. The pastor had long hair, wore jeans and sandals. This was very different from a traditional Church atmosphere.
A computer wasn't a household item in our home until the early 90s. When we talked Jesus with our family, friends and Christian circle, I did more listening and struggled to understand. I thought anyone who read the Bible "daily" was already an expert.
It wasn't until the early 90s that Hazel and I took our Bible studies to a new level of serious study. We started attending weeknight Bible studies. I attended my first men's ministry retreat sponsored by a Pentecostal Church.
But the internet still didn't exist in our home. In 1984 I started using green monochrome computers at work and our OS was MS-DOs. In 1988 the company I worked for used all Apple computers. I trained on the Macintosh SE, learned how to use a mouse and they called email, internally, Public mail. But still, I wasn't introduced to the internet until almost 12 years later.
In 1992 we purchased our first pc, a 486 processor and Windows 3.1. By 2000 I was introduced to the internet. I was in finance management for a small dot.com company and it was my first experience of receiving orders on the internet and our website.
I learned about Craigs List and participated in one of their forums called Religion. That was a rude awakening. The crowd was very smart, worldly smart and some of the educated had disdain for Christians they called fundies. After getting bashed by the crowd because of my belief, I moved on and learned to "search" for a Christian site and found Talk Jesus. Chad is the founder and was only 26 at the time. This was all very new to me. It was a new site and I was member #615. I left a few months later.
As God grew and matured me I experienced the growing pains of internet Christian fellowship. I was appalled how Christian love could hold so much hatred over a post simply sharing Scripture, teaching and personal testimony. I held firm that aside from the internet, nothing beats live testimony but the world wide public also needs Jesus.
You wrote: "The online world has changed since 1986, but the Bible has not changed. “For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven” ~Psalm 119:89. The technology may change. The platforms may change. The software may come and go. But the Word of God stands."
Well said, David. I also have all the faith when a Christian website follows the above statement, God will protect His sheep even on the internet, and prune his tree from the evil doers and dividers. The ones who can accept correction and sustain the fellowship are part of the fruit and the vine, and that's a good thing.
If you can share more of your experience and how this has grown you and your wife as people of God would be interesting to know.
God bless you, David, and thank you for heeding to God's vision and guidance at BTF.
Bob and Hazel
Your original thread, A Little History Behind Biblical Truth Forum was very interesting. I always thought BTF was newly created last year.
In 1986 I didn't know the internet existed, even with a dial up modem. Was there public viewing of the internet then?
My wife and I were only married one year in 1986, we signed up and received Christianity Magazine monthly by mail, owned a Bible (don't remember the translation) and attended Christian worship on a weeknight and Sundays at a theatre. The pastor had long hair, wore jeans and sandals. This was very different from a traditional Church atmosphere.
A computer wasn't a household item in our home until the early 90s. When we talked Jesus with our family, friends and Christian circle, I did more listening and struggled to understand. I thought anyone who read the Bible "daily" was already an expert.
It wasn't until the early 90s that Hazel and I took our Bible studies to a new level of serious study. We started attending weeknight Bible studies. I attended my first men's ministry retreat sponsored by a Pentecostal Church.
But the internet still didn't exist in our home. In 1984 I started using green monochrome computers at work and our OS was MS-DOs. In 1988 the company I worked for used all Apple computers. I trained on the Macintosh SE, learned how to use a mouse and they called email, internally, Public mail. But still, I wasn't introduced to the internet until almost 12 years later.
In 1992 we purchased our first pc, a 486 processor and Windows 3.1. By 2000 I was introduced to the internet. I was in finance management for a small dot.com company and it was my first experience of receiving orders on the internet and our website.
I learned about Craigs List and participated in one of their forums called Religion. That was a rude awakening. The crowd was very smart, worldly smart and some of the educated had disdain for Christians they called fundies. After getting bashed by the crowd because of my belief, I moved on and learned to "search" for a Christian site and found Talk Jesus. Chad is the founder and was only 26 at the time. This was all very new to me. It was a new site and I was member #615. I left a few months later.
As God grew and matured me I experienced the growing pains of internet Christian fellowship. I was appalled how Christian love could hold so much hatred over a post simply sharing Scripture, teaching and personal testimony. I held firm that aside from the internet, nothing beats live testimony but the world wide public also needs Jesus.
You wrote: "The online world has changed since 1986, but the Bible has not changed. “For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven” ~Psalm 119:89. The technology may change. The platforms may change. The software may come and go. But the Word of God stands."
Well said, David. I also have all the faith when a Christian website follows the above statement, God will protect His sheep even on the internet, and prune his tree from the evil doers and dividers. The ones who can accept correction and sustain the fellowship are part of the fruit and the vine, and that's a good thing.
If you can share more of your experience and how this has grown you and your wife as people of God would be interesting to know.
God bless you, David, and thank you for heeding to God's vision and guidance at BTF.
Bob and Hazel
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