We are living in an informational age and viewpoints can be discussed to no end. Which leads me to the two articles I have read on this website in the column called “A Heretic in Babylon” and the essence of the two articles is how he has “wised” up and left behind both the Bible and Christianity for the enlightened planes of eastern mysticism. God bless him because in the end the God in the Bible as I read it still loves him and will engage him in conversation until the day of his death. (I know some would say even beyond his death, that’s another conversation for another day). What intrigued me about his articles is twofold.

Both the author of “A Heretic in Babylon,” and myself hold a Master of Divinity degree by accredited schools and yet both of us hold two very different views on the authority of the Bible and of Christianity. Whereas I believe in the God of the Bible, the God who watches over this planet with a love that we cannot fully comprehend, Richard does not, at least not in the classical sense. He is entitled to his opinion and I am not going to question his sincerity. Yet I wonder how different would his life have been had he attended a seminary that instead of tearing down his belief in the Bible actually uplifted it.

I am aware of all the scholarly theories about the so called sources of the Pentateuch and the “doing away” with the myth of the gospel miracles and yet in my studies these so called scholarly interpretations do not add up. Furthermore with all the evidence modern scholarship can come up with to declare the Bible an ancient myth there are still enough scholars who can make just a convincing argument for the Bible as Gods’ word. After weighing the evidence for myself I still stand with those who recognize Gods word as His will.

Hence you have two Masters of Divinity graduates who both went in with a faith in God’s word only one came out still believing in the Judeo-Christian world view. Only time will tell whose view is correct. Only time will tell if I have wasted my time following the God of the Bible but to be perfectly honest I know that Gods word as it reads is true and my life and my experience is evidence that cannot be refuted, to me.

The other aspect of his articles that intrigued me is that it sounded as if he wanted to believe again as he once did. That somehow, someway he wished he could go back again to a time when the Bible, as it reads, was truth to him. Maybe I am wrong but I know that God, through the Holy Spirit is always calling people back to Himself because He is not going to give up on any of us. I can imagine Richard probably would say I am at peace now, “totally at one with who I am in God.” Yet I personally do not buy it. You can’t have tasted of the inspiration of God’s word and not feel its tug upon your heart after abandoning it. God is waiting with open arms Richard and as I read it the prodigal son is always welcomed home by the father. Come home.

Robert Frost wrote a poem called “the Road Not Taken” I am pretty sure you know it, well I have “taken the road less traveled” and it has made all the difference because Jesus has said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

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Gio Marin is the pastor of the College Station and Waller Seventh-day Adventist Church in the state of Texas. He graduated in December 2007 with a master of divinity degree from Andrews Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, with a dual emphasis on systematic theology and church growth & evangelism. Send him an email at GioMarinColumn@aol.com © Copyright 2008 by Gio Marin.