From College to Reformed Theological Seminary: My Journey, part 1

So much has transpired in the last few months that I have barely reflected on graduating from Reformed Seminary. In these next brief posts, I would like to share some of my experiences that led me to RTS and to my journey at RTS over the last four years. I hope to edit these posts as I am remember more details.

My first year at Clearwater Christian College (CCC) was filled with a tremendous hunger for apologetics. The first time I read St. Peter’s call to defend the faith by giving an answer (I Peter 3:15) I was suddenly energized to defend the Christian faith against cults and false doctrines within the church. In my earlier years I had been influenced by the radio ministry of Hank Hanegraaff and the philosophical writings of evangelical author Norman Geisler. I devoured every literature produced by evidential apologists with the sure hope that unbelievers would be equally impressed with their arguments as I was impressed by them.

My interest for apologetics grew even more in the few times I met Norman Geisler in a local evangelical church where he would come regularly to speak on different topics. My desire was to pursue a Master’s degree in apologetics in the seminary headed by Dr. Geisler in North Carolina. Geisler’s commitment to classical apologetics and his staunch anti-calvinistic rhetoric made him my favorite resource.

In my sophomore year we had gained a new faculty member. He was the newly appointed Greek professor.  far from being a tedious and laborious semester slaving through parsing and participles, our class was exposed to covenantal thoughts that were foreign to the dispensational land we were living at the time. Suffice to say, two years later our esteemed professor was told not to return.

It was that semester of college that I began to embrace the Reformed faith. Laying on my shelf was Michael Horton’s book: Putting Amazing Back Into Grace. It was given to me by a staunch Calvinist, who graciously introduced me to others as his “dispensational friend.” In those days, I spent every winter break in Pennsylvania with an elderly saint. Out of sheer curiosity, I took the book to the unbearable temperature of the north east. That winter, we were unable to leave the house for three days due to snow storms. With little else to do, I began perusing through Horton’s book only to discover after a few days that my worldview was collapsing. Since that introduction to the Reformed faith, God has brought me deep into the richness of our Reformed forefathers.