An Unexpected Journey - Part 1

One of the Ligonier Conference optional sessions was given by Dr. Robert Godfrey, president of Westminster Seminary in California and reputed "professional church historian" (a conference joke).  Dr. Godfrey discussed his newly released book entitled An Unexpected Journey, the story of how he came to embrace Reformed theology.  Since then, I've been mulling over my own "unexpected journey," particularly to the understanding of the doctrines of grace.  I remember hearing someone say that everyone is born an Arminian, and it's only by the grace of God that eyes are opened to a God-centered understanding of salvation.  I can attest to that statement, because I held a man-centered view of salvation for the first thirty (or so) years of my life, and I am so thankful for God's leading in understanding His sovereign grace in salvation.  


What do I mean by a man-centered view of salvation?  The belief that it is solely man's decision whether he will choose to accept God's offer of salvation from the penalty for his sins, that Jesus died on the cross to make salvation a possibility for everyone, but not a certainty for anyone.  God is offering the gift, and it's up to man to reach out and receive it.  And that's where I was theologically until the late 1980s.

The embryonic stage on my journey, though, was the discovery of the "Grace to You" radio program earlier that decade when we lived in Texas.  Joel and I would regularly listen to John MacArthur on the local Christian radio station as we drove home from church on Sunday nights.  I had never heard anyone preach with such knowledge, conviction, and passion...I hung on every word. At the time, I didn't know what his teaching style was called, but I liked it!  

After three years in Texas, we moved back to Kansas (our home state), and Joel and I became members of a church in the denomination of our upbringing. But over time, we realized we were not lining up doctrinally with the teaching of the church.  My neighbor invited me to a ladies' Bible study, where I met some wonderful Christian women, one of whom spoke very favorably about her church and the teaching of her pastor.  Before long, Joel and I decided to visit Crestview Bible Church.  I remember that as we walked out of church that first Sunday, and we turned to each other and said, "Where has this been all our lives?!"  "This" meaning the style of Bible teaching.  (We also realized it was the same style used by John MacArthur.)  We couldn't wait to go back to church the next Sunday.  All our lives, we had been in churches whose pastors did topical sermons, so this was our first experience with expository preaching (in a church), teaching verse by verse through books of the Bible.  What a difference when you approach God's Word by allowing it to do the teaching and the interpreting, rather than having a sermon topic in mind and making scripture verses "fit" the topic.  This shift was foundational on my journey to the doctrines of grace.


When I began writing on my unexpected journey, I thought I would cover it in one post.  Since I try to avoid lengthy blog posts, and since I would like to mull over the next phase of my journey before continuing, I am going to end for now. I promise, though, that my journey will not turn into a book-length project, as did Robert Godfrey's.  

Have a wonderful day!