Declaring God's Faithfulness- April 2018

Walt’s Story - In the Spring of 1970, at the age of 20 years, I became a Christian after a long protracted spiritual struggle. About a year before my conversion to Christ, during the summer of 1969, preceding the beginning of my sophomore year at Rutgers University, I was introduced to the Watch Tower Society by a friend of my brother’s. Joe had been a Jehovah’s Witness for a couple of years and talked with me about God, gave me literature and introduced me to some other of his JW friends. This was all a part of a seven-step methodology which the Watch Tower Society uses to reel in converts, and it works. It’s good to have a plan. Over the next 6 - 8 months I went through six of these seven steps…the seventh and last being baptism which I never took (Praise the Lord). I didn’t take that seventh and final step because I had concerns about a few unanswered questions. I decided I needed time to study and research those questions before making a final commitment. I had been “studying” with the JW for several months. Typically, a week in the JW world consists of a Sunday morning ‘lecture’ at the Kingdom Hall, late morning or afternoon door to door work, a mid-week “book study” and in my case, a private lesson given by a qualified witness. But over the course of time unresolved questions really bothered me, so I decided to drop out of school and study the Bible independently. The big rub in 1969/70 was the Vietnam War. By dropping out of college I lost my ‘college deferment’ and was subject to the draft. JWs are conscientious objectors and another question that arose was how a Christian was to deal with war, but that’s another story...

So in late December of 1969, after completing the Fall semester, I dropped out of Rutgers and began studying the Bible. I read through the Bible three times in 3-4 months. I prayed...a lot, probably a few hours a day. The more I read, the more questions arose between what I believed the Bible said and what the JWs taught. At some point I broke with them but they regularly returned seeking to reclaim me. But although I broke with the JWs, many other churches, in my mind, seemed to be saying the same thing. That is, “We got it right, just follow our lead.” This was a REAL struggle for me. Of course true Christian churches don’t make claims like this at all, but that’s how I understood it. I think it’s a common misconception. True Christian churches can differ with one another about various doctrines. That’s why there are literally thousands of different denominations within the US alone. JWs have many of these differences as well, but most are secondary issues; things like mode of baptism, beliefs about the Millennial reign, frequency of communion, etc. However, the distinguishing mark of unbelief, that which makes the Watch Tower Society both non-Christian and polytheistic is their position on the Person of Christ. This is what makes the Watch Tower Society an enemy of the Gospel. After much study I concluded that Jesus Christ is actually God. By extension I accepted the deity of the Holy Spirit as well. But now what? I became deeply troubled about which religion/church I should align with. They actually all seemed to be the same. As mentioned before, they all seemed to be saying, “We have it, others don’t”.

One day I went out to pray. As was my custom, I walked to an area about a mile from home where I had seclusion and could pray without interruption and for as long as I needed. On this particular day I had become quite agitated about this question. I decided to ask God about my dilemma and not return home until I got an answer. (I guess I was a bit naïve, but God bears with us.) As I prayed it began to rain. Thinking this was our enemy’s way of thwarting prayer, I continued in prayer. Sometimes the rain came down harder but I continued in prayer. My prayer to God was for Him to show me the way. I rehearsed with him all of my concerns. After praying for about an hour or so, asking God to show me the way, and promising to follow it if He would, the words of Christ came to my mind where He said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me” (John 14:6). It was then that I realized that Christ was not simply part of the way to God, He was not simply involved in my passage to God, He, in fact, is the Way, the only Way to God. My question was answered. As I opened my eyes and looked up, the rain had stopped and above the tree line I saw an enormous rainbow. I remembered God’s promise to Noah and the sign of the rainbow He had provided…and saw this rainbow as God’s blessing to me. Coming to Christ as my only hope for salvation was the beginning of a wonderful journey. I eventually studied at Lancaster Bible College from which I graduated in 1976 and where I met my future wife, Lorry. We were married in the fall of 1976 a few months after graduation and she has been everything to me. The road we have walked together has not always been smooth. We live in a fallen world, but God has always provided what we needed, when we needed it. God is good!

Lorry’s Story - My salvation story is less dramatic than Walt’s but no less miraculous. I will always be thankful for my parents who took me to a mainline denomination where I learned the basic Bible stories, traditional hymns, and prayers. My family of four sisters were active in the church including the church youth group.

It was during a youth retreat weekend in the fall of my senior year of high school that I heard the gospel through a singing group and responded to the altar call. I am sure I heard the gospel at other times but this was the moment the Lord changed my heart to truly understand it. Indeed, my heart and life was changed that weekend. I abandoned my original plans to be a hairdresser and pursued entrance into a Bible College. Walt and I met there and were married after he graduated.

Looking back on our nearly 42 years of marriage, we see God’s hand in the many twists and turns of our journey. He continues to sustain us through the challenges of these later years. It is a comfort that, though we do not know what the future holds, we know who holds the future.