I thought I’d share a few personal stories in the days ahead of my Reformational journey as we near the 499th anniversary of Luther’s 95 theses.
Having grown up in independent Baptist churches and spent about 15 months in a Brethren Church, one could say that my theology had a distinctly non-Reformational flavor. I had always been around people that shared similar theology. One could say it was an incurious faith. Unfortunately, my theological heritage did not expose me to much beyond some basic Christian doctrines and an untiring fascination for the end of the world.
Back in 1999–when computers took longer to load a page than Guttenberg’s press to print a page–I was looking for information on Genesis 1 & 2. I was attending a college founded by Bible Presbyterians and was urged to write a paper on Creation. After searching on Google or Web Crawler (yes, the latter was a search engine) I came across an article on the meaning of the word “day” by a writer named Gary North. The man had impressive credentials, but I also noticed he had an impressive list of detractors. North was the first writer in my adult life that offered a coherent view of theology that was not embarrassed by the Biblical account of creation nor the biblical paradigm. In the article, he quoted Calvin and Luther and a vast number of Reformed scholars. The essay opened the doors to the Reformed world to me. While it did not convince me to embrace any particular school of biblical interpretation at the time, it left a profound impression. Those memorable 20 minutes of reading affirmed to that college freshman that theology can be rigorous and intelligent while at the same time conservative and unashamedly rooted in the text of Holy Scriptures.
