by Oscar M. Baker

Really, I have been giving you a bit of autobiography, of how I discovered riches untold, and some of the traps by the way. Having been brought up in a denominational atmosphere and even a grad of a church college, I had acquired a lot of traditions and superstitions. I had been taught that good boys and girls went to heaven, and the bad ones somewhere else, you-know-where! I had heard it said that God loved only good little girls and boys, and I believed it. I had not really read and realized that God loved sinners and that Christ died for the ungodly.

Most folks seemed to think that if you believed that there was a God (or god) in heaven and went to church once in a while, all was fine. They would get to heaven some day, and that was supposed to be when they died. When you have on the traditional specs, you just never see what God has really said. I had not noticed that Abraham believed God and it (his faith) was counted (imputed) unto him for righteousness.

So I was pretty much taken up with my own works, what I could do that would please and placate God, so He would not be too severe on me in the day of judgment. My denomination had not yet discovered the great thing Martin Luther found when in Rome, that one is justified by faith. So I had my fears, as do so many.

Can well remember how that in the Humanities section of the school they taught that man had a soul, a separate entity that could live, think and even suffer pain or have joy outside the body. But in the same school in the Science department we were taught otherwise. And then in Applied Psychology we learned that thought was a combination chemical and electrical reaction in the brain, and that when the brain died all this action ceased. Bewildering? I didn't know which way was UP part of the time!

I am sure that I am not the only one who had to go through some of these things. I determined to find the answers some way, but had no way to go about it. At one time had the idea of going to a seminary and getting much Bible study. Was making plans for it, but the Lord shut the door, and am I glad! I would have had a lot more to unlearn, and it was pretty bad as it was. Hope that I am not boring you with all this, and especially all the I's I put in, but just hope that it will help somebody with problems similar to what I had.

I found the way to find answers. It was to dig them out for myself, to read and study the Word and believe it. Pretty hard to believe the Word after one has been fed traditions for a long time. I had heard, Hath God said, all too many times. Many passages of Scripture had been taught to mean the opposite of what God intended. This made God a liar.

And then one day I heard of 2 Tim. 2:15. I think that was the real turning point. That was the key I was looking for. Then real work began.