Have you ever known an atheist who became a Christian due to your teachings about Jesus? There is one person I've been working with for a few years and she's making a little progress. She may never get there (although I pray she does), but it's been interesting to see the change from hardcore distaste for the subject to curiosity being piqued and asking questions.
Been working on a friend for more than 15 years. He's moved from avoid "God hating atheist" to "moral agnostic." He acknowledges that there is "something out there greater than us that makes the rules," but hasn't moved to faith. He's overcoming the abuses of an abusive catholic parent.
Also working on a friend for ~10 years, who (as an avid Christian maker-funerer), it now more open to Jesus than another friend who thinks he's already 'got it'. He'll be convinced by experience, rather than arguments.
I had a friend in high school who was an atheist and is now a Christian. I don't know how much I impacted her. Probably more by behavior than words. She says I was the only person she liked in high school. She's been saved about 20 years now.
Wow, this is really great news that y'all have impacted or made progress with someone! It gives me continued hope that my friend may eventually turn the corner. I have discovered that it's like walking a tightrope and I sometimes have to accept going two steps forward and one step back.
I went the opposite direction. Though I'm not certain I've landed on hard atheism. Somewhere around soft agnosticism, fatalism, or unable to care either way. To this day, someone's opinions or personal fact collections about Jesus have absolutely zero impact on my thinking, having sampled virtually every flavor of Christian thought prior to my apostasy. Seeing if/how their belief has changed them is the only currency that counts in my estimation.
HL, perhaps you haven't seen my question, perhaps you are thinking about it, perhaps not I have no idea how apostasy works, I suppose it is a gradually process of months (years perhaps) till a point when you realize that what you once had is gone. And I wonder when people arrive on such a point if there is a way back. It's so human once people finally (emphasis added) make a hard decision it's final and they never look back. Hence my question. Maybe the answer is even: nothing. ?