This conversation led me to an intense curiosity of other religions. Several books around the house plus several library books were helpful to me as I desired to understand this issue. I then concluded that all religions were OK and each one was merely a different cultural and regional expression of worship to the same God.

At about this same time I also read a book called The Late Great Planet Earth. I read this because though I figured all religions were merely regional expressions to the same God, my background called for Christianity. I remember learning about the Rapture for the first time in this book. This was not the best thing for me because now I could blow it all off until I noticed millions of people disappearing! That would be my two-minute warning to get serious again. And so I passed it all out of my mind and went on.

I then entered my teenage years and became a typical worldly teenage boy. The main difference now was that I had swept all spiritual matters under a rug somewhere in my mind and thought nothing about God. I, along with countless other teenagers and young adults today, found my spirituality in modern music. It became a big part of my life. Who you listened to and what you liked became a central issue of identity and expression. It became a large part of my thinking, my time, and my money for years to come. 

During my freshman year in college I was asked to teach 4^th grade Sunday school in the Methodist church I was raised in. This request came as a total surprise to me since I hardly ever went and wasn’t even confirmed. But I thought I’d try my best and make a go of it. After about a month I realized this was a real mistake. Though I meant well, I had absolutely nothing to offer those kids. It was literally the blind leading the blind and I knew it. I began to resent having to do this and hoped someone else could take over. In fact, I was surprised that the church needed someone like me to teach Sunday school in the first place. It wasn’t right for me to be there. I guess the best result from all of it is that I began to really see my inadequacy and I realized more assuredly that I was lost.

In college I became a political activist and was heavily involved in several political organizations. This was in the early 80’s and during the height of the "Christian right" political influence. I was very much against their views and thought these individuals were ridiculous. This, as well as my bad Sunday school experience, caused me to be very negative against Christianity. During this time my brother gave me a Bible and a copy of the devotional booklet "Our Daily Bread" for Christmas. He wanted me to read a little bit of it every day for a year and give it a chance. Fine. I read it for about a week and canned the whole thing out of boredom. I knew my parents were concerned about me, too. I never went to church unless I absolutely had to. I refused to even go on Christmas Eve one year and sensed their disappointment. But why should I go? I got nothing out of it. Thomas Paine once said: "Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe." I, for one, was not going to be an infidel anymore.

On Easter Sunday of 1983 I did go to church. As usual I got nothing out of it. But later that day as I was walking over to school to study I began to think. "What is this Christianity stuff anyway? I mean, what do people really see in it. How do they get their Neanderthal political views out of the Bible? Why do they (as was the case of my old high school girlfriend) go to church 3 or 4 times a week for several hours at a time? What do they see in this stuff?" I saw that for some people this was a very big part of their lives, like they were on the cutting edge. Not like what I was used to where it was all very nice and mild but you never really thought about it. I realized I really did not understand it at all. I knew that Christ died on the cross but that did not compel me to spend 8 hours a week in a church over it or join the Moral Majority! So I decided to look into this and try to apprehend it. I was curious, but only for the sake of understanding it; and certainly not to embrace it! The very next day I bumped into an old high school friend at school.

I called Mike that evening to arrange to buy some of his albums. I figured everybody was heckling him about his new found faith, so I tried to sound supportive and maybe that way let him know I was interested at the same time. I stumbled out a few words to that effect.

It must have worked because about a week later I was at UMD in the MPIRG office with a couple of friends. Mike stopped in which was quite unusual since we really had gone our own ways since high school - me into political groups and him into fraternities. But he came and soon we began talking about God. This was a significant day for me because for the very first time I heard the Gospel. Mike explained that God was just and that this meant He was perfectly fair. Since man is sinful, and I had no qualms with that, there was nothing we could do to bridge the gap between us and God. And so God sent Jesus Christ to die on our behalf and fill that gap for all time. Now the issue no longer was sin, but instead it was acceptance of Christ. 

I was very interested in all this and so I started attending Bible study on Sundays with Mike. As the weeks passed and I went every week, I’m sure my parents were stunned! The subject of study at the time was on God’s grace, which meant God’s unmerited and undeserved favor. God had to treat us in grace because the alternative would be that He treats us as we deserve, which would not be a good thing at all. The Bible teaches that "there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not" (Eccl 7:20). In Genesis we read that God "saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." Galatians 3:22 says "the scripture has concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe." As a history student I saw this as an indisputable truth. One could readily see that human history is full of oppression, injustice, wars, corruption of every kind, selfish greed, and then some. In this sense history definitely repeats itself and thus, God’s evaluation of humankind was easily recognized. 

I learned that God is holy and man is not. The Bible teaches clearly that the penalty for sin is death and death defined is "separation." A holy and righteous God is perfectly fair and reasonable in separating Himself from unholy man, and that for eternity. But God in His love solved this dilemma. He became man in the flesh by way of Jesus Christ and lived a holy and acceptable life on earth. He then went to Calvary as an unspotted sacrifice on our behalf. Isaiah 53:5-6 tells us, "he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all."  

1 Peter 3:18 tells us that, "Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God." 

I now saw that when Christ died, HE DIED FOR ME. He was there as my substitution and He took my rap and paid it in full.

I also learned how simple it was for one to acquire salvation. This work of Christ on my behalf was mine if I simply trusted in him. That meant turning from whatever I was trusting and counting on Him alone for my eternal destiny. There was not one single thing I could do to help God out, and if I thought I could do something, I couldn’t be further from the truth. Romans 4:45 says "now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." If I would simply trust Christ, I would receive the free gift of salvation. And I don't have to work for a gift: it is by grace. That is why Ephesians 2:8-9 says "for by grace ye are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast."

This issue of eternal security sounded too good to be true. I decided to check this out with a few others I thought might know about this. I was about to make a serious mistake and see what man had to say instead of taking God at His word and trusting it. So I called my old high school girlfriend and asked her about it to which she replied "oh no, your not one of those, are you?" She said it was a terrible doctrine and to watch out. I hung up thinking "I thought there was something wrong here." I then decided to call my brother and see what he had to say. God in His providence caused me to think of the right person. He assured me that this issue of eternal security was absolutely correct and he even sent me literature pertaining to it which lined up squarely with what I had learned at Bible study. This pointed me back to the only real source of authority on these matters, the Scriptures. Jesus Christ says in John 6:37 "him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out" and 1 Peter 1:4-5 says that we have an inheritance that is "incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God". 

I began to realize that the security of salvation was a vital part of the Gospel and without it you did not have the Gospel at all. Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer (founder of Dallas Theological Seminary) said it best when he said: "Failure to trust in Christ alone is disclosed when salvation is supposed to depend on anything other than believing in Christ, and security is made to depend at any point whatsoever on human faithfulness. Men are saved and kept in sovereign grace through simple faith in Christ alone. This is the heart of the Gospel of divine grace. If any other Gospel than this be preached, it must fall under the unrevoked anathema of God (Gal 1:8-10) There are those who deny that salvation is by simple faith in Christ, and that the grace of God will keep those who are saved as His own forever. Those who discredit the absolute reign of grace in the salvation and keeping of a soul, should ponder well the fact that there is no other way of salvation."¹

I was very much impressed with what I was learning and, for the first time, I understood the message of Christianity. This posed one last problem for me. I still could not resolve the issue of all the other religions. I mean, there are too many people out there who are not Christians. This hang-up prevented me from personally accepting Christ. Nearly every week at Bible study a certain man named Dave would ask me if I was "saved" and I would have to reply "no." I’m glad that he kept on me (though I didn't think this at the time) because it forced me to keep dealing with this on a personal level, instead of on an intellectual level which I probably would still be doing without those bumps.

And so I was back to the same childhood issue with the guy on the phone! I wrestled with this for some time. I read some of the Upanishads (Hindu sacred texts), the Eightfold path (Buddhist), talked to several Hindu profs at UMD, etc. There seemed to be too many similarities in the great teachings of these religions. But God kept challenging me. I knew that what I was seeing in the Bible was true, but how do I reconcile it with everything else?

I soon began to see that Christianity and religion really were not similar at all. There may be similar teachings regarding morality and human kindness, yet Jesus Christ and Christianity are very much different in several key aspects. 

First, the Bible tells us about God's search for man rather than man's search for God. C.S. Lewis said that man's search for God is like the mouse’s search for the cat. How true. The Bible paints a very real but ugly picture of humankind. It exposes sin and depravity as a result of the very nature of man, while the Eastern religions say man is good and just needs refinement. They search for God but not the God of the Bible. This leads us to the next big difference. 

The Bible reveals God as a personality, one who can be known and indeed seeks us out so we can have a relationship with Him. He has revealed himself in visible deeds and written words. How utterly foreign to the Easternist whose God is an enlightened consciousness, a part of all and all a part of it. 

Another important distinction I saw is that Christ claimed to be God unlike any other great religious leader. He alone makes this claim. Christ’s teachings were very objective, down to earth and public. He went out and taught and openly sought listeners. This is unlike the mystical gurus you find in Hindu tradition who pull away from society and expect to be sought out, and then, only reluctantly, offer their profound wisdom.

Perhaps Hinduism provides the best example. Their teachings are deep. Not just anyone can spend a day in these writings. They are very subjective and esoteric in nature. The very point of it all is self-realization, self-enlightenment. The road to this may lead you to a monastery or a mountaintop. You become less and less attached to relationships and things in an effort to gain full enlightenment. As one Swami says: "As we increase our happiness we also bring unhappiness. That which brings happiness to one brings misery to another. That which is good for one may prove to be evil for another. The sum total of happiness and unhappiness always remains the same throughout. This process is the play of the eternal. While the play goes on eternally, one can attain self-liberation through self-realization...Self realization is the secret of all happiness and all peace." Better to withdraw from life's entangling relationships and seek self-realization than waste one's life on the suffering of others! 

This is the core of Hindu thought. I read of an educated Hindu who said that if there was to be any hope of reversing the process of deforestation, erosion, poverty, urbanization and despair in India, it would come through Christian, not Hindu influence. What hope does one in the mire of the caste system have of obtaining self-realization? What hope does one have of having access to the esoteric teachings or of having the educational tools to decipher them? 

This was the telling point for me. Jesus Christ taught a very simple message. He did not preach self-realization. We are the problem. We don’t need more of the self, we need to be born again! Our problem is that we are sinners and that we are rebellious toward God. But God loved us anyway and sent Christ to settle the debt and offer salvation to all who would accept His work. Anyone can exercise faith, no matter what the economic or mental status may be. The message is simple, the teachings are very understandable and the result is everlasting. Christ offers a relationship with a knowable and personal God who is the creator of all. He offers it on the basis of what He has done for man, not what man has done for God. This message is very different from all other religions. The difference comes down to grace versus works.

I was convinced. This is why Christ said such things as "I am the way the truth and the life: no man comes unto the Father but by me." Or, "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved." Or, "He that is not with me is against me." Or, "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace but a sword." This is in reference to His word which causes divisions, since it claims to be the Word of God and thus, the only true message. Many do not like to hear that.  

Acts 4:12 tells us that "neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved."

The message of Christianity is a mutually exclusive truth. If it is true, all else is false. If it is false, all else can be true. You see, the other major religions can easily tolerate one another for they are not that different in their works-oriented theories. But Christianity is monumentally different and claims absolute reign on spiritual truth. God addresses an appeal to every rational creature at every moment (including now): the appeal to face truth, to resist the temptation to ignore uncomfortable questions, to overcome the fear of being wrong, to change one’s mind and life for the sake of truth. Christ said "and ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free" and "I am the way, the TRUTH and the life..."

I now finally was able to accept the fact that salvation was by faith alone in Christ alone. I knew and understood the Gospel and also accepted the hard fact that the world is greatly deceived by false religions. Proverbs 14:12 sums it up by stating "there is a way which seemeth right unto a man but the end thereof are the ways of death." The book of Matthew tells us, "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and many there be in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."(7:13-14) The narrow road is not so due to its difficulty to tread, for how much more simple can God’s plan of salvation be? This road is narrow because many would rather devise their own plan on the basis of their own emotions and pride. I finally accepted God’s uncompromising truth. It was about 5:30 on a beautiful May morning in 1983 when I found new life. I could then truthfully sing the hymn: