Since childhood, I’ve always been fascinated by dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures. The small library at the church I attended as a child had a children’s encyclopedia set with many pages of artists’ interpretations of prehistoric life. I loved looking at all the strange and wonderful creatures. Other books, TV programs, and museums also contributed to this interest.
My brother and I at Bedrock City, South Dakota
You can believe a man is committed to a cause when he is willing to lay down his life — literally, willing to die — for the cause’s sake. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran theologian who was martyred during World War II in Germany for the sake of Christianity and the German people. His story is movingly told in the video Hanged on a Twisted Cross. (There is also a dramatized version, Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace, which I have not seen yet.)
Discipleship Journal named C. S. Lewis one of the most important Christian authors of the 1900s. Some credit him as being the single most popular Christian author of that century.
The Bible is full of calls to choose our destiny or loyalty. These verses tell us we have a choice, and thus support the doctrine of free will. For example:
[This is an expansion on an article I wrote in 1998. I shared it with some friends at that time, but since then I've added a little more to it.]
I grew up in the church, and over the years I saw many pictures of the tabernacle of Moses, Solomon’s temple, and Herod’s temple. However, the first time I saw a scale diagram of the tabernacle and its courtyard, I was amazed. Here is a scale model: