Story of My Conversion

In keeping with the example of the apostle Paul, I endeavor to tell the story of how I became a disciple of Jesus Christ (Act 22:1-21; Act 26:1-23).

I grew up going to the Tionesta Christian and Missionary Alliance Church in Tionesta, PA.  It was a fairly conservative church by today’s standards.  I believed from a very young age in the free-will doctrine of salvation.  I repeated some version of the “sinner’s prayer” at about five years old, being led through it by a well-meaning twelve-year-old boy. Several years later―probably around age nine or ten―I was troubled in my mind that maybe I didn’t mean it when I prayed the prayer the first time, and therefore was not saved; so I went crying to my mother who helped me pray it again, which allayed my fears. I didn’t know at the time that salvation was by grace alone (2Ti 1:9), and that faith is the evidence, not the cause, of eternal life (Joh 5:24). As far as I remember, I sincerely believed that Jesus was my Savior as a child and teenager, but during my latter teen years I did not live like it.  When exactly I was regenerated, I know not (Joh 3:8); but I do know that my conversion to the true faith of Jesus Christ would come many years later.

I never understood the importance of being baptized until around 2003 when I was 21 years old.  I knew most of the Bible stories but never really started reading the Bible until after I graduated high school in 2000 and went to Basic Training.  I should clarify―I actually never started reading the real Bible until September, 2004.  Up to that point I read the NIV (Non-Inspired Version).  I started to get more interested in spiritual things about the beginning of 2002, and I set out to read my NIV from front to back.

It was about that time when I first met Ed Almasy at the Pennsylvania College of Technology where I was a student in the electronic engineering program and he was a professor.  I had him for a couple of classes, and when I found out that he was a Christian, I started stopping by his office and talking about Bible stuff (to this day I do not know how Ed put up with me reading that false perversion of the Bible for so long; he was much more patient than I would have been).  This started in the fall of 2003.  Ed and I never got very deep into doctrine at first.  I knew there was something a little different about him because he was a member of a church that was in Cincinnati, OH which was a nine-hour drive from Williamsport, PA where he lived.  When I asked him why he went to a church that was so far away, he said that truth was hard to find and that was the closest place he had found where it was taught.  I thought, “he obviously hasn’t looked very hard,” and I recommended that he try the church that I was attending in Williamsport.  It was around that time that I realized that I needed to be baptized, but I did not even know that baptism had to be by immersion and that it was the means to be added to a local church.  I had agreed to be my step-nephew’s “godfather” (because I was ignorant at the time and didn’t know any better) and that meant that I had to be at his “baptism” (sprinkling), so I decided that I would get “baptized” (sprinkled) at the same time at their Lutheran church in Rhode Island.

A few months later in the end of 2003, a bunch of us were sitting in an engineering lab and a kid asked something about how to get saved and go to heaven.  I was ready to give the usual response and tell him that if he would believe in Jesus and ask him to come into his heart, he would be “saved” and get eternal life.  Ed appeared to me to be “beating around the bush” by asking him some questions, and then he began to explain that it is God who does the choosing and saving, not us.  I had never heard something so preposterous in my whole life.  I had thought that Ed was a pretty normal guy until that point.  I immediately started arguing with him, citing the only verse in the Bible I knew, John 3:16.  When I couldn’t convince him with my vast knowledge of the Bible (one verse), I set out to disprove him.  I began to look into the matter of salvation very diligently and “searched the scriptures daily.” 

In January, 2004, Ed told me that his pastor, Tim Boffey, was coming out for a visit.  I had to meet him.  The fact that he was from Alabama and Ed was from PA and the church was in Cincinnati made me realize there must be something different about that church.  Tim came out in February, 2004, and I went to Ed’s house and talked with him until about midnight on a week night.  I also went and heard him preach at Sovereign Grace Baptist Church, which is a little independent, Calvinistic Baptist church in Williamsport.  I also had some friends get together at Penn College one evening and heard Tim preach again.  He gave me a lot to think about.  Tim asked me if I was the kind of person that would stand for something, no matter what the cost, if I truly believed it.  I affirmed his suspicion.  He told me that if I really wanted to know the truth that I should pray and ask God to show me the truth in the Bible, no matter what the cost.  He told me that if I did that I should be prepared to give up whatever was necessary to follow Christ in truth, but it would definitely be worth it. 

I prayed to God a lot in the next few months, that He would give me understanding of the truth.  I specifically remember standing in the shower one night and praying and begging God to show me the truth, no matter the cost.  I ended up getting a lot more than I bargained for.  I went through the entire New Testament of my NIV and made two columns of verses on notebook paper, one of freewill verses (or what appeared to be so at that time) and one of election verses (which would be much longer if I were to make another list today).  I ended up having a couple of pages of verses.  Through praying, reading, and debating with Ed and others, I began to see the truth of the doctrine of God’s electing grace.  I would debate the issue with Ed, taking the freewill position; and then I would debate the issue with my Uncle Carl, who is an Arminian Church of God pastor, taking the election position.  By doing that, I was able to much better understand the doctrine.

That semester Ed and I, along with Adam O’Neil (a close friend of mine) and a guy named Ryan, got together for a couple of Bible studies at my apartment.  Ed led the Bible studies and taught us about total depravity and salvation by grace.  I still remember reading Joh 3:36 and it clicking that the verse was not saying that he that believeth on the Son gets eternal life, but rather hath everlasting life.  Those Bible studies were so much fun.  I was becoming more and more zealous for the truth, but Lisa, my fiancé at the time, was not at all interested.

In May, 2004, I went out to Cincinnati with Ed and his family, and I loved it.  I was still not completely convinced of everything, but I knew I wanted to be part of that church; but, sadly, I remember thinking that I would probably never do it because of Lisa.  I never remembered names in those days, but I remembered every single name and face in the church just from visiting that one weekend.  I remember asking Ed on the trip back if a person could be a member of two churches, thinking that maybe I could walk straddling the fence. 

That summer I continued to study, and I got into plenty of heated discussions with my family.  At the end of the summer just before I went back to college and got married, I met with my pastor for about three hours one night to discuss the election/freewill issue.  It is sad that neither of us saw the writing on the wall and realized that Lisa and I were not even close to being equally yoked before we were married.  Around that same time I had learned more about baptism, and I realized that the sprinkling at the Lutheran church was certainly no baptism at all and that I needed to be re-baptized; so I was baptized again by my pastor at that time.  It was by immersion at Tionesta beach, but it did not add me to the church, as I was already a member of that church.  I didn’t realize at that time that that baptism was still not valid because I was not added to the church as a result of it and also because the pastor was not validly ordained, to the best of my knowledge. 

Ed and I and a couple of friends continued to meet in my apartment for Bible study in the fall of 2004 and the spring of 2005.  I finished reading that large chunk of toilet paper wrapped in leather (the NIV) from cover to cover around September, and then I began to read the KJV.  I bought a brand new Cambridge wide margin Bible that fall.  The Bible studies were great. By this time, I had finally come to a good understanding of the truth, and my church at home was not cutting it for me anymore.  I celebrated Baalmas that year, albeit begrudgingly.  Lisa and I were definitely not on the same page.  I wanted to join the Cincinnati Church, but she would not have it.  When I got called up in April, 2005 to go to Iraq, I knew what I had to do; and, despite much opposition, I did it.  I still remember the night that I told her that I was going to get baptized and join the church.  She laid on the bathroom floor and wept and begged me not to do it, saying that it was going to destroy our marriage.  I didn’t think that it would do that; I was sure that everything would be fine when the dust settled.  Tim came out to Ed’s place again, and I was baptized into the Cincinnati Church, the “Pearl of Great Price” on April 12, 2005.  Lisa came out to Ed’s with me and met Tim and watched me get baptized.  She thought Tim was a nice guy, and she said that she was okay with it at that time.

I soon went to Altoona, PA for a couple of months and then to Fort Bliss, Texas for a couple of more months to train for Iraq.  Lisa and I made a trip out to Cincinnati to worship with the brethren over Memorial Day weekend just before I left for Texas.  I left for Iraq in August, 2005.  Things with Lisa and I went rather well while I was there. I spent a ton of time reading and studying my Bible, listening to sermons, making Bible study outlines, writing essays, and writing commentaries on the chapters of Luke, John, and half of Acts.  My understanding increased exponentially during that year.  I was also able to witness and defend the doctrine with a lot of people with whom I was stationed. 

Things were going fine until July, 2006 about a month and a half before I was scheduled to come home.  At that time Lisa basically gave me an ultimatum: either I get out of the church, or she was going to divorce me.  I was crushed and at my wits’ end.  I knew that I believed the truth of the Bible and that our church was a true church that believed and practiced the truth, and I could not forsake the faith that I so dearly loved.  I told her that I would not get out of the church, but that we would work through it and go to counseling or whatever it took. She would have none of it.  When I got home in mid-August, she didn’t even come to pick me up at the airport.  I went to her house to try to talk to her and reason with her, but she had already filed for divorce the day before.  This kind of a thing should not be a huge surprise to a Christian though, considering what Jesus said about the divisive nature of Himself, His doctrine, and His church (Luk 12:51-53; Luk 18:29-30). 

When I got home from Iraq, I moved back to Red Brush, PA where I had grown up and lived my whole life except for the college years, and I lived there for the next year and a half.  I started a weekly Bible study with my friends Adam and Hillary.  It was a great time.  I started making trips to Cincinnati about once a month (350 miles, about 6.5 hours).  After a couple months, I began making trips every two to three weeks, and continued to do so for the remainder of the time I lived in PA.  I would stay with a different family in the church each weekend that I went down.  I ended up staying with each family many times and establishing very close friendships.  In the end of 2007, I realized that I really needed to be a resident member of the church, so I began to look for a job in the Cincinnati area.  In February, 2008, I found a job and moved within a couple of weeks.  

Moving to Cincinnati was probably the hardest decision I have ever made in my life because it meant leaving my entire family (father, mother, brother, sister-in-law, niece, grandmothers, uncles, aunts, and cousins), the farm which had been in the family for five generations, a free house, and close friends. I cried like a baby as I drove away in the U-Haul and watched the farm disappear in the rearview mirror, knowing that I would most likely never return to live there again. As hard as it was (and still is), I don’t regret my decision, for as our Lord Jesus Christ said:

“. . . Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s, 30 But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.” (Mar 10:29-30)

I lived in Cincinnati for five years where I was trained and ordained for the ministry, but that story will have to be told in another blog post.