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Are you claiming that I, for instance, didn't used to be a Christian, when for many years I had a devout belief in Him?

The claim is that you were never a Christian. A Christian is someone who has met Christ, personally, and has a real and personal relationship with someone. It would be pretty hard to do that if you current profess a belief that you don't believe. Kind of like saying your mother never existed, or your first high school girlfriend, even.

Christianity isn't simply claiming to have a "devote belief", it's knowing, believing beyond all doubt. It's personally having a real relationship with the Christ.

Since your "devote belief" evidently didn't include that, you couldn't have been a Christian. You were just playing one.

I could no more be a former Christian than a former man. To have a personal relationship with Christ is the greatest thing ever to happen to me. I doubted for years, tried to "get religion" many times. It didn't work.

Jesus' parable of the sower says it all. Let he who hath an ear let him hear." God bless and Merry Christmas.