Dad was a Bible scholar.  For more than twenty years, he taught Greek and the New Testament at one of the world’s largest seminaries.  During the last five years of his life, he was the seminary’s dean of the School of Theology.  His library was massive.  There seemed to be few subjects in the realms of theology and the Bible that he did not have a precise comment about.  To me, he was like an endless gold mine of Bible answers.  Yet for all his learning, I was always impressed at how Dad maintained a simple love for the gospel of Jesus Christ.  He never lost the wonder of how great it was to know God in a personal way.

Dad loved the simple story about how sinners could be made right with God through faith in Christ.  One time he preached at the church I was attending when I was a college student.  This great professor of the New Testament preached on James 2:19 ¹⁹ You believe that God is one; you do well. The demons also believe—and they shudder..  He gave a simple talk about the nature of saving faith and encouraged the lost to place their faith in Christ alone for salvation.  I remember people talking about that sermon for months afterward.  There is something powerful about the simplicity of the gospel. 

            I think Dad’s appreciation of the straightforward gospel message stemmed from his own experience of growing up as a child without ever truly hearing the gospel.  Dad was raised in a warm, churchgoing home in Columbus, Mississippi.  Though he was raised in church, the church in which he grew up did not emphasize a personal relationship with Christ.  At twelve years of age, he and his friends went through a confirmation class that taught them the major tenants of the church.  At the end of the class, the children were presented before the church.  They recited some things they learned in the class, declared the beliefs they were taught, and officially became members of the church. 

            One day Dad told me of this experience.  He confessed that though he and his friends could recite some doctrines of the church, they had no idea of what it meant to truly know Christ in their hearts.  They may have formally been inducted as members of their church, but they had no vital relationship with God through faith in Christ.