ABOUT

Gods and Men

I was raised in a house of books, literally.

My father was a university librarian and my mother was a elementary school teacher, so there were books aplenty. In all the homes I lived in growing up, there was always a wall or room with floor-to-ceiling shelves of books, books, books.

Books were a central part of our lives. And we were always encouraged to read, to find things out for ourselves. So when I finally became serious about finding God, where would I look first? In books, of course.

I started reading the Bible. But, as it happens with many people who try and read the Bible, this is how it goes.

You start in the New Testament, in Matthew's Gospel. Okay, Sermon on the Mount, I believe that, and there is “Blessed are the peacemakers.” Sure enough, I'm on the right track. And you follow the teachings and healings and parables until the crucifixion and, what was that? Oh yeah, almost missed it: the resurrection, we believe that I think, on Easter, I remember. Then you read Mark's Gospel with the same progression. And, if you feel like you need more, you read Luke's Gospel with the same progression. And then, maybe, if you haven't given up, you might read some of John's Gospel. You might read “Ye must be born again” and “For God so loved the world” early in John. You are much less likely to make it to “No man cometh unto the Father but by me” later on in John. And the Book of Acts? Having gotten through almost half the New Testament by that point, you are very unlikely to continue through the strange world of salvation and conversion experiences of the First Century church. And, like most Friends, I would never, ever make it to Paul's letters. What are the wages of sin? I have no idea. What must I do to be saved? You got me. I would probably skip ahead to the familiar first letter of John, where I would read that “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” And there I would leave it, never reaching the bizarre world of Revelation.

Plowing through the Bible this way wasn't helping. It was like reading Khalil Gibran's The Prophet, only longer and harder. Little did I know that there were some verses, in the Old Testament tied to the New, that would click for me.

So I needed to jump start the whole process. I did it by reading the book The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey (“with C.C. Carlson”) in the summer of 1971. This was a book that was certainly not in my father's library, but it was easy to find and buy, being published by Zondervan right there in Grand Rapids.

It was pulpy, and there was that Beast again, but most of it was very new and interesting to me. And although the title played on destruction-of-the-planet fears that I now know to be untrue (it is the end of the “age,” not the end of the “world”) and the writing style itself could be a bit too breezy and light sometimes (“Sheik to Sheik”?), it gave me a new way of looking at the Bible. The book covered plenty of future events (sometimes confusingly), and it had an altar call in there somewhere (easily skipped over). But it was the highlighted verses in the Old Testament that pointed to the New Testament and Christ's first coming that caught my attention. They are what stayed with me.

There were other books that I read, some even in my father's library (like The Way of Zen by Alan Watts).

But ultimately reaching and finding God is much more than finding out about him in a book, more than simple intellectual knowledge. What I began to do was to talk to God again. I would specifically ask him to help me find him. And the strangest thing was that he would answer me.

Often, when I was at home from school, late at night when everyone else had gone to bed, I would go down to my father's library and look for books about God and religion. Many times I would find a likely book, open it up at random, and just start reading.

During one of my searching sessions, I came down and found a book titled Gods and Men. Before I opened the book, I stopped and asked God to help me find him in the passages I was about to read. As I often did during my book quests, I then opened up the book to a random location.

Momentary confusion. The pages I opened up to were upside down.

Was I holding the book upside down? Was the cover on backwards? I looked more closely. I discovered a section of the book, just a few pages, bound upside down. And these were the pages I opened up to.

Just a chance happening? Or was God answering me by saying “you won't find me in this book”? I knew what it was. I knew what I had prayed. And it thrilled and awed me. Needless to say, I didn't read any of the book. I just put it back and praised God.

If it was just one upside-down book, I would be skeptical. But such things began to happen to me all the time. I would pray to God, and he would answer me in a very personal way.

In the interest of full disclosure, it was more than reading and praying that led me to God, that influenced me in finding the God of the Bible. There was a believer friend from college who took me to some “Word of God” meetings in Ann Arbor. And there was my cousin who got saved and became actively involved with a Christian group in 1971.

Next up — Being Born Again — Finally accepting Jesus.