Why Am I So Presumptuous?

So, why am I so presumptuous to believe that I should be taking the lead on a Bible study blog?

Well, after years of caring nothing about the Bible, in the late 1960s I began to develop an interest. This was about the same time as our first move to Waco. My wife and I had been longtime members of the Christian church, but we had become disappointed in the way they looked at scripture. Once this denomination had been strong Bible believers. One of the founders, Alexander Campbell, wrote, "Where the scriptures speak, we speak; where the scriptures are silent, we are silent." But by 1968 that was no longer the case and we stopped going.

A friend of mine, a very bright guy, a PHD student in physics at Baylor, was a lifelong Seventh Day Adventist. Because of some discussions I had with him, I began attending the Waco SDA congregation. I was a regular attendee throughout 1969 and really enjoyed the Biblical emphasis I found there. But a problem developed for me. One Ellen G. White. A lot of people considered her a true prophetess, her works inspired, but I never could. I left.

My wife and I, still searching, contacted the Worldwide Church of God sometime late in the following year, and after a congregation was started in Waco in 1971, we were invited to church by the pastor. (Yes, you had to be invited back then.) We remained members until July 18, 1993 when we dropped our letters of resignation into an Olathe, Kansas mail box. This was a freedom day we still refer to as July Teenth. Goodbye, cult.

It took me a long time to realize it but the WCG had had its own Ellen G. White all along, Herbert W. Armstrong. He had his Mystery of the Ages; she had her The Great Controversy. Following Armstrong's death in January, 1986, Joe Tkach became Pastor General (and apostle). Is "Pastor General" biblical? (Is "Pope" bibical?) In the WCG the Pastors General all expected to be treated like the Pope, little popes albeit, but as popes nonetheless. I realized that for twenty-two years I had been doing what I wanted to avoid, following a man.

No more gurus! This is what I took from the WCG experience. Unlike a lot of folks that realized how they had suffered years of abuse from Armstrong/WCG and gave up the whole religious thing, even becoming atheists, our faith in God never wavered. But we weren't about to seek out more doctrinal and ministerial abuse by attaching ourselves to one of the four or five hundred splinters that came out of a dying WCG. As my wife put it, "Herbert W. Armstrong was a charlatan who made fools of us all. As long as we accept that, we'll be okay." And we are.

So. the WCG wasn't bibical; the SDA wasn't biblcal; the Sunday churches aren't biblical. As far as that goes, Judaism, in its three main forms, isn't biblical. Other than maybe the Karaites anyway. Where was I to turn?

Since that point in time I've learned an awful lot from many varied sources. For instance, in Overland Park, Kansas there is a Jewish messanic synagogue, Adat Yeshua. When we were living there it was, and may still be, a satellite campus for Ron Moseley's American Institute of Holy Land Studies. As we lived nearby, I took quite a few courses there. Since retirement I've continued with AIHLS by correspondence. Right now I'm a little over halfway to a bachelors degree. Through these courses I've had access to believing scholars, real scholars, like Moseley, Roy Blizzard, Dwight Pryor, and Jim Fleming. Dr. Fleming speaks in the Houston area once or twice a year and when we were living there, heard him several times. These men have taught me much about the history, culture, language, and geography of the first century in particular, and of Bible times in general. These studies are commonly referred to as "Hebrew Roots."

Whenever Michael Rood would come to town I would try to go listen. Am I, then, a disciple of Michael Rood? No. Do I believe all the doctrines of Ron Moseley? No way. I'm true to my rule, "No more gurus!" I'll learn from anyone, but am a follower of no man. No currently living man, that is. I certainly have no problem with Peter, John and Paul.

I'm presumptuous enough to believe that I have knowledge a lot of people don't have and I would like to share. Hence this blog. As well, maybe others will read and share things I don't know. That's my hope.