I’m going to stop short of making a determination on whether or not this guy was truly converted or not and the reason being is that I am not sure if he heard the gospel and truly believed it or not. That being said, this self-described atheist appears on stage at Arise Church and tells the audience that God told him to do it.

“Several people here know me and my wife Amanda,” he says, holding a microphone on the stage next to the pastor, Brent Simpson. “And something you might not know is, I am an atheist. But the funny thing is you know sitting up there in the back row, it’s hard to sit there and say I’m an atheist to myself in my head, because, God just told me to come up here.”

A cursory look at the church reveals that this church is heavily involved in the hyper-charismatic hyper-emotional sensationalism that is prevalent within many false churches like Bethel and Hillsong. So, is it possible this guy actually repented and believed in Christ? Sure, it’s possible. But the more likely scenario is that he got caught up in the sensationalism of the moment and did what he did.

At any rate, whether or not it was a true conversion, it’s extremely irresponsible for a pastor of a church to platform someone, especially a professing atheist, and exploit them as a model for their movement—particularly without vetting them thoroughly and waiting to see fruits. But this is the typical stratagem of the gimmicky charismatic movement. It’s all for show.