People Are More Interested in understanding their Bibles than we realize. We have all been surprised and impressed by the amount of genuine interest people have in knowing more about their Bibles. The responses to offers of information, study courses, Effective Bible Reading Seminars, Bible quizzes and the study manual, Bible Basics, have, in some cases, overwhelmed our ability to respond.
A personal experience
The outreach of Bible Basics written by Bro. Duncan Heaster has drawn many people from around the world to the glorious truth of God’s gospel. I had often read many such stories but never dreamed that such an event would literally drop on my doorstep one Sunday afternoon. We are so encouraged that God’s calling continues and He is actively at work to bring out of the Gentiles a people for His name.
It all began on Saturday, August 16, 2003, when Sherrie and I came home to a message on our answering machine. The woman simply said, “Hello, I’m Diana Cruzan. My number is 610-xxx-xxxx. Please give me a call.” We had no idea who this person was and it was a long distance number so we shrugged it off as a wrong number, and besides that, if it was important enough they would call back.
The next day we arrived back from meeting, preparing for lunch, when the phone rang and this time it was Fred Cruzan, the husband of the woman who had called the day before.
He started off the conversation, “Are you Tim Young?”
I said, “Yes.”
“Are you a Christadelphian?”, he inquired.
I hesitated slightly and replied, “Yes.”
“Well”, Fred said, “we’ve recently been converted and would like to meet some Christadelphians.”
“Okay,” I replied. I’m not sure how I sounded because it’s not every day you get somebody like this on the phone. Skeptical and cautious was my response. “Well, where are you?”
“We’re down on Grand Ave. (about five minutes away) and we came over from Tehachapi, about 2-1/2 hours from you.”
“How did you find out about me?”
“We saw your name on the internet and looked you up in Information.”
“Okay, well, why don’t you come over and we’ll talk.”
The Cruzans relate their story
I hung up the phone and had no idea what to expect. So as they drove up I was ready to meet them in the driveway. Fred and Diana got out of the car along with their two teenage children (Robert, 15, and Shirley, 14). Fred introduced everybody and he started into his story right there in the middle of my driveway.
Fred came from a family which had roots in the United Pentecostal church going back 100 years. At the tender age of eight, he was told that he had the Holy Spirit and “they trained him (Fred’s exact words) to speak in tongues.” It just never felt right to him, though. So when he grew up and became a teenager he rebelled and got into substance abuse, which would become a major challenge in his life. During this time, he met Diana and they were married. Through his family, she became a Pentecostal but Fred remained outside the church. Four years ago he decided to clean up his life, and get his family and personal life back into shape. Of course he went back to the Pentecostal church as it was the only thing he had known and Diana was involved in it too. But even then things still did not sit right with Fred. All the things the preacher said just didn’t fit in with what he was reading in the Bible. When the preacher said, “the Spirit is here,” all Fred could see were a bunch of excited people.
Bible Basics
Then one day Diana came back from the Tehachapi library with Bible Basics in hand. It had attracted her attention because it was “A Study Manual” and she and Fred had been wanting to study the Bible some more. Well, the book sat around and they had to renew it again. Finally, Diana went to help her eldest daughter who had just had a baby. Fred was alone at the house so he picked up Bible Basics. Once he started he couldn’t stop. Fred knew right away that he was on to something special. He read the book in three days and Fred admits, he doesn’t read too many books. He wasn’t eating regularly. He prayed. He read some more. By the end, he was thoroughly convinced he had found what he knew was missing. It was all there logically and with the scripture to back up all of it.
Once Diana got back home he handed her the book and said “This is it, but you’re going to have to read it on your own and come to your own conclusions.” So she read it and grasped much of the truth but still had some trouble with the new concept of Satan. Finally, one day, while she was on the back porch reading, she had an epiphany and jumped up and down, “I got it. I got it.” For her, reading the passage in Isaiah 45:7 finally turned the light on and now she understood that God was in total control. “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.” Suddenly it was obvious there was no fallen angel creating havoc in the world. Now for her, after reading the book, going back to the Pentecostal church was not the same either.
Looking for Christadelphians
So Fred and Diana wrote the English address in the book trying to get some more information from the Christadelphians. Meanwhile, they went back to their Pentecostal pastor and said, “Why aren’t you preaching this?” Needless to say, they had quite a discussion which ended with Fred saying, “Listen, I’m not going to argue with you anymore. You’re not preaching the truth.” And they never went back to the Pentecostal church.
Without any church to go to they were even more anxious to meet some Christadelphians. After waiting for 12 days for an answer from England, they could wait no longer. They had no Internet access at home so they went down to the library and started doing some research on their computers. Their search led them to the address listings on christadelphia.org and they found my name (with a defunct email address), and Jeff Gelineau’s name.
The Cruzans had been familiar with the area in which we live, and, in fact, had frequently camped only a mile away from us. My name was easily obtained from Information but I was not home so they left a message. They then called Jeff and he directed them to Al and Terry Carlson who lived only 30 minutes away from them. Fred did make contact with Al and arranged to meet with them on Wednesday nights for their Bible class.
The next day, however, with no place to go for service, they just decided to drive over to Arroyo Grande (2 1/2 hours) on the off chance they might be able to contact me. By God’s grace I happened to be home.
Our first conversation
After Fred ended their story, I quickly invited them to come in. They repeated the story for Sherrie. I started to probe the depth of their understanding. “Do you have any questions or things that don’t make sense,” I asked. “No, everything was just logical and all the verses were there to prove it,” they replied.
We talked about there being no trinity, no immortal soul, and no torments in hell forever.
It was just too hard to believe that they accepted everything. I took a different tack. “So what chapter affected you the most?”
“Oh, the one on Satan and demons,” Fred said without any hesitation. “That’s what I’ve always felt, so it was great to see it from the Bible. And, of course, the chapter on the Holy Spirit. I’ve known all along that speaking in tongues was not correct.”
Now I was convinced that these people were true believers. “So we’re the first Christadelphians you’ve ever met and you believe all our doctrine?” “Yep,” was the answer.
I said, “You’ve got to meet some other Christadelphians!” We got on the phone right away and called Chuck and Nancy Stivers, Shirley Barratt, and some others. In a matter of minutes we had eight more brothers and sisters over, and, of course, the Cruzans told their story all over again.
It became evident as we talked that there were some areas that would need clarifying. An obvious one was the importance of the Abrahamic promises and their relationship to the gospel. It just so happened that Bro. Brent Lynn had come over and he had just been on Truth Corps. He had his presentation with him which covered the promise of the seed. So he sat down in our living room and gave his presentation and a small impromptu Bible class was born. The Biblical discussion lasted until dinner time so the sisters broke out some frozen enchiladas, Shirley Barratt brought a salad and we all had a meal together before they went home.
Baptism
After everybody left, Sherrie and I just sat on the couch thinking, “Wow, that was amazing!”
Since then the Cruzans have attended Bible class at the Carlson’s and they’ve been coming to our meeting here in Arroyo Grande as much as possible. When here, I’ve been having personal classes with them on first principles. They’ve also stayed over at our house and I’ve been able to have some really good discussions with them. They’re just a remarkable couple with great insight into God’s Word.
On May 30, 2004, Fred and Diana were baptized into the saving name of Christ. They are now members of our San Luis Obispo ecclesia. We pray that God may continue His work with them so that they might increase more and more in grace and knowledge.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One