Riaan Swiegelaar, in a 39-minute-long Facebook live video, tells his story about why he left the Satanic Church of South Africa and came to Christ.
At the beginning of his video, he puts up a disclaimer that he is “talking from his experience” and isn’t here to “diss people’s beliefs” whatever they are. He said that many people have been asking him why he “turned his back on Satanism” and he did the video to tell people.
Swiegelaar initially said he would quietly “slip out the back door” and didn’t think so many people would want to hear his story. He isn’t doing the video to get into arguments with anyone, but just to explain. Swiegelaar says he was not allowed to talk about his decision for more than a month.
Swiegelaar said people who want to write about his story can do so, but he doesn’t want to talk to media organizations directly. His Facebook video is his statement. On Facebook, it appears he has the comments turned off.
“So I got involved with Satanism because at the time it resonated with me. Being very broken and being very sad without realizing it and I think the reason a lot of people resonate with Satanism is they come from a very broken place,” he said, according to IJR.com.
The former Satanist said he initially was going to release a pre-written statement. He later decided to “speak from the heart” instead, by doing the video.
Swiegelaar said he didn’t realize how broken he was when joining the Satanic church, but that he isn’t claiming to be a victim either.
“Let’s start by saying that I’ve never known unconditional love in my whole life. Up to today, there’s only four Christians in my whole life that have shown me what unconditional love is”. He gets emotional and said he didn’t plan to break down. He went on to thank the four people for showing him that love while attempting to hold back tears. He addressed them directly and said, “I want to thank those four people today… …I don’t know, I can’t, words can not express what you have done for me…”
You can hear the entire story by watching the Facebook video below.
Watch:
Christianity seems to be gaining a foothold around the world, even as left-wing news outlets try to push stories about church attendance dropping. Ultimately many are finding that they need a higher power to find meaning in life, and this story is no exception to that experience that many seem to be having.
Swiegelaar wrapped up his video by saying that the love of Christ is unconditional and that some things people will never fully understand. “When you experience it, it is something different”. “I have for a long time believed I am not worthy of God’s grace because I’m gay… …the kingdom of God is not a gated community, the kingdom of God is open to anybody. It’s called grace, it’s called grace people.”
Swiegelaar says he’s “probably going to write a book” about his experiences.
