Thank you, I believe I understand.
Best regards.
Tant,
as a personal aside...
I grew up in a home that generally went to church
twice a year - Easter and Christmas.
When I was 11 or 12, I told my Dad I didn’t want
to go to church anymore because I didn’t know
anyone for whom it made a difference in their life.
Amazingly, he said I didn’t have to go.
I had the idea that God had a giant scale in heaven
on which He would weigh my bad deeds versus my good
deeds. Hopefully, I’d squeak through and get into
heaven.
So I grew up hearing about Christ, but never about
salvation. Never about knowing Him personally.
It wasn’t until college, my roommate shared with
me how I could have eternal life.
How great it was - what a relief - to hear
how I could know I would have eternal life through
what Christ did on my behalf. I stewed over it for
a while and one night I decided I wanted to know
God and I wanted to have eternal life. I talked to
God, telling Him exactly that, confessing my own
sin and thanking Him for His gift of forgiveness
and eternal life.
Later, I served as a missionary for a number of
years. After that, I went to seminary - partially
because I had talked to mormons who made certain
claims about John 1. I decided I wanted to absolutely
know what the Bible said.
When I left for seminary, I decided I was starting
from scratch. I would enter believing the Bible
was the Word of God and Jesus Christ was my Savior.
Everything else was “up for grabs” and would have
to come from scripture, regardless of what I’d been
taught up until that point. It was a good way to go,
unencumbered by any other idea to restrict what
was true.
I picked the seminary largely because it was
the only seminary that required its students to
study every single book of the Bible, verse by
verse - not just survey overview courses. Imagine,
investing time in a seminary that didn’t allow you
to study through every single book in the Bible???
And those were rich and rewarding years. I got that
John 1 passage handled too, in Greek class. And I
found my bride there in the Alumni office :-)
Have a good night,
ampu