Andy Young, PPT contributing editor

Born and raised in a Christian home, I was Born Again at the age of 7 when I believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. With the exception of a short stint during my college years, I have gone to “church” all my life. I was always taught the “do’s and don’ts” of Christian living, but no one could ever satisfactorily explain to me the “why’s”. It wasn’t until I began attending a “Bible” church here in Columbus, Ohio, that I finally began to understand. The pastor of this church was an excellent “teacher” of God’s Word. For the first time I actually felt like I was growing as a Christian as the Holy Spirit guided my understanding of the deep things of God. I invested 17 years of my life in this “church”. The pastor retired, and the new, younger “leadership” was determined to take this assembly in a different direction. Really, looking back on it now, that had been the trend for at least 5 years prior. They brought in their hand-picked pastoral candidate and presented him to the congregation. From day one I knew there was something wrong with him, but I could not put my finger on it. Little did I know that this was my first exposure to New Calvinism. I began to hear sermons on “Good Leadership Demands Good Followship”. Suddenly everything was “gospel this” and “gospel that”. We became more exposed to the likes of John Piper, CJ Mahaney and SGM, Mark Dever, and others. Thus began my journey of truth-seeking. I was trying to figure out what was up with this strange trend in Christianity and what was driving it. Why were so many people falling for this? To me this was so radically different from “Fundamentalism” and what I had been taught all my life, and it just didn’t seem right. It was during this time that I came across Paul’s Passing Thoughts from a link in a comment on another blog. After downloading and reading “Another Gospel – the New Antinomians”, I finally had answers! Everything I read in that book described exactly what I was seeing, not only in my old “church” specifically but in Fundamentalism in general. It was at this point that I was motivated to contact the book’s author. It was a warm night in August of 2012, sitting around a table in a Tim Horton’s, when I first met Paul and Susan Dohse. It was humbling to learn later that I was able to be a blessing to them just as much as they were to me. But it was also such an encouragement to know that I was not alone in this journey. I now knew that I was not the only one! Paul’s research helped me to put all of the pieces together. Everything fit into place. Today, I am no longer a “church-goer”. My wife and I and our 5 children have fellowship in our home. It’s hard to find other believers who are in the same “place” as we are. So many find it hard to give up the comfort and “security” of the institutional church. But that’s ok. I’m going to keep teaching my family. My children never cease to amaze me with how much they are able to discern from God’s word. It is such a blessing to see the look that comes over their faces when it “clicks” in their heads and they get it. I’m going to make sure that my family is equipped to do the work of the ministry, to be the ambassadors to this lost world and do the work that Christ left us here to do. We seek to take the Gospel of the Kingdom to our neighbors and our friends. When we do that, when they hear, and in hearing they believe, they become part of the Body of Christ, and the fellowship will grow. It is an exciting prospect!