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Mercifully Brief Personal Background: I had great parents who raised me the best they knew how, and who did not raise me as a Christian. In fact, I grew up for the most part hating Christianity — which was my own "touch," not my parents'. In fact, the older I got, the more I despised Christianity as a religion for weak, feeble-minded hypocritical simpletons. I was for a time an atheist, an agnostic, and finally a very involved member of a pre-New Age cult called Religious Science, or Science of Mind. (At that time we considered our sort of sect "New Thought," though it was nothing of the kind.)

However, as I began searching to know God, I learned that it was I who was worse than a simpleton. I was bad — not "bad" measured against certain other people, perhaps, but "bad" measured against the only true standard: God. I realized that I was no sure source for ultimate truth. So I pled with God to lead me to know Him truthfully, on His own terms.

At the same time, I had to reconsider Jesus. He loomed as one who had no personal flaws or defects, spiritually or morally. His life was a mosaic of miraculous events, from conception to resurrection. He held Himself forth as "the way, the truth, and the life," apart from whom no man could know God (John 14:6). I came to see this as a "true or false" proposition: either He was not what He believed and claimed Himself to be (in which case He was a dangerous nut-case), or He was indeed Lord and God, and the only Savior and Judge — in which case I was in deep trouble!

In time, I came to believe that Jesus in truth was and is who He claimed to be: the only savior from sin, the Lord, and God in human flesh. I implored Him to be my Lord and Savior on February 11, 1973, and have endeavored to walk with Him ever since.

Biblical Education. Shortly after conversion, I came to see that I was gifted and motivated by God to be a pastor-teacher. I began teaching myself New Testament Greek, unwilling to wait for classes (and, frankly, afraid I'd be so slow at it that I'd need the jump-start). That same year I began a four-year pastoral training school, in which I learned fundamentals of Biblical Greek and Hebrew, and an introduction to Biblical sciences and facts.

After that, I took additional Hebrew education under John Sailhamer, who has now begun what I am sure will be a long writing career by authoring commentaries on 1 and 2 Chronicles and Genesis, an introduction to Old Testament Theology, and other works.

Then I earned a Bachelor's in Biblical Studies through an assigned studies program, simply for the discipline of research and writing. But this only whetted my appetite for more, and my study of the text of the Bible in the original languages continued on a daily basis.

I began a Master of Divinity program at Talbot Theological Seminary, majoring in Old Testament. I completed it in 2 1/2 years. During that time, I edited the school journal and co-taught Hebrew class. After writing my thesis (a theological and exegetical study of the sovereignty of Yahweh in the book of Proverbs), I graduated and was immediately hired to teach. Over a year and a half, I taught courses at Talbot in beginning and advanced Hebrew, in Old Testament Theology, in New Testament Survey. I also taught elsewhere, and began a Master of Theology program.

Before completing that program, I entered full-time pastoral ministry in 1984. Since that time, I attempted to plant two churches, and have written for newspapers, hosted a radio talk show, co-chaired a Christian homeschooling support organization, and gotten involved in and around the Internet. I have also been engaged to teach in two local Christian educational institutions.

All that primarily provides a brief overview of my Biblical and Christian training, which I assume to be of most interest to those using these pages. On a more personal note, let me mention my family: my wife Valerie (19??); and our children Rachael (1983), Matthew (1986), Josiah (1995), Davidson, who went to be with the Lord before birth (1997), Noah, who followed him (1998), and our newest arrival and lord of the manor, Jonathan (1999).