I did not grow up in a religious household. Up until the age of about 11, my parents and I attended a Dutch Reformed Church on Sunday morning. Other than that, there was no reading of the Bible or discussing God or theology. I don’t recall any religious discussions at all. I remember hating Sunday school and the cold new church addition where this Sunday school was held. I remember my father not liking a new minister that had taken charge because, although he was probably more “Christian”, he was less intellectual than the previous minister. At the age of 11, as I recall, I pretended to be sleeping and my mother suggested that we let him sleep in and not go to church. Soon they stopped going altogether and never attended any church for the rest of their lives.
Then was radically born again at the age of 15 while I was a sophomore in high school. That was way back in 1977 near the end of the last true revival in America and probably in the world. I purchased my first and only New American Standard Bible that I still read today. I was very fortunate that this version was popular when I got saved because I still believe it is the most accurate.
As my faith grew along with my knowledge of the Scriptures and awareness of the truth, I used to reason with my parents and convince them of the truth of the gospel. As far as I know, they never made a decision for Christ. Though they were extremely nice people, generous and tolerant, moral and conservative. It was my father who turned me on to Rush Limbaugh in 1989. That and the railroading of Judge Robert Bork was my entrance into world politics. I am so grateful for my nonreligious, secular upbringing as it cleared my mind of religious mumbo-jumbo, rituals and doctrine and allowed me to learn from the Bible with a clear head.
My mother was concerned about my radical Pentecostal salvation and suggested that I go through confirmation at the former Dutch Reformed Church. I did this most willingly because I wanted to preach the truth to these lifeless religious types. We used to call them “the chosen frozen”. Even at less than one year knowing the Lord and reading my Bible, I was able to school the minister as to what the Bible actually was saying.
I have a long history of being a troublemaker for the religious. It is simply because I want to know the truth and I’ve never wanted to become religious. I think it was at the Dutch Reformed confirmation party that I met one fellow Christian, obviously so, and I remember it so distinctly, when I could tell by his speech that he knew the Lord and he winked at me and said, “we know what’s going on, don’t we?” He knew that I had been born again. – Or as the religious rulers, elders and scribes noticed, “they observed the confidence of Peter and John, …, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus. -Acts 4:13.
It is for guys like this, the lone born again believer in a sea of religious churchgoers, that The Tangent College is for. It is sad that there are so few nonreligious born-again Christians that are hungry to know the Lord.
Jesus said in John 3:5-7, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ It is not enough to attend church and be religious. You must be born again.
When one is born again, God no longer is a ritual or a religion that you attend to, but he is understood as the Truth and your day to day reality. Being born again makes one want to know God. The Bible becomes your window. Not to know religion, but to know God.The entire world is understood through your relationship with God and what He reveals to you in revelation and through His word.
As I say in The Tangent College purpose statement above,
To know the One and True God revealed in the Bible from Genesis through The Revelation of Jesus Christ;
I am desperate to find more people who wish to break away from religiosity and staleness, repetition and rituals, sacraments and smoke, doctrines and dogmas, tradition and culture, and yes, as Jesus suggested, even family.
Jesus said: “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. “For I came to SET A MAN AGAINST HIS FATHER, AND A DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER-IN-LAW; and A MAN’S ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD. “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. “He who has found his life shall lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake shall find it.
Matt. 10:34-39
– So much for “diversity” and “inclusiveness” and “Ecumenicalism” and “He Gets Us”. Being born again is a lonely road. It is a narrow road and few are those who find it. You will lose many things but gain eternal life and a pearl of great price.