Source: Crosswalk, June 17, 2024
A former Satanist and self-proclaimed witch is opening up about her conversion to Christianity, saying she bought a Bible at a low moment in her life to disprove God but ended up embracing Christ and getting baptized. KM Tepe shared her testimony with author and Biola University apologetics professor Sean McDowell during an episode of The Sean McDowell Show, saying she began dabbling in the occult in college after growing up in a Christian home.
“We called ourselves a coven,” she said. “It was like four of us, and we did a lot of rituals, spellwork, and tarot cards.”
Eventually, she found a copy of the Satanic Bible and “read through that thing in like a day.”
She joined The Satanic Temple and became a “full-fledged atheistic Satanist,” although “there was a point where I was a practicing witch and a Satanist at the same time.”
“I knew the names of demons. And I would call upon the names of demons.”
Her mom, a Christian, was devastated by her daughter’s turn.
“It was really hard on her because she knew if I would have stayed down that path, she knew what the outcome was,” Tepe said.
“When I came out as a witch to her, she was like, I want you out of the house. Like, I don’t want anything witchcraft [in the house],” she said. “At that point. I didn’t care because I was a very young adult and just didn’t care about anything.”
The turning point in Tepe’s life came when her mom developed dementia and later died. Her mom’s funeral was a Christian service.
“I was sitting there as a Satanist at my mom’s funeral,” she said.
She remembers being angry at God and telling Him, “If you love us so much, why would you take my mom the way that you did?”
“And I bought a Bible. I went to a used bookstore, and I bought a cheap Bible with the intention of reading it and highlighting every evil, malicious thing that God did to humanity,” Tepe said.
But “it backfired,” she said.
Read the full story or watch or listen to the interview (just over an hour long). For a shorter take, you can hear the story on Instagram.