ABOUT US:

           The following excerpt from our newsletter, Born Again – What Does it Mean, describes who we are:

A Choice

           Early in 1975 I considered myself an agnostic. I had little interest in things biblical. Certainly I considered Jesus little more than a man – a great teacher at best. Possibly, if God did exist, He was one of many great prophets – and as such, certainly not “the only way.” I could not discover that He was God in the flesh. This idea seemed preposterous. But in spite of the doubts, in the back of my mind a nagging possibility persisted. No matter what I did, I could not rid myself of the possibility that God did exist, that beyond the grave there was not just eternal blackness, but a choice.

           The scary thought was that the choice to be made was on this side of the grave, not the other. Certainly, I was not a murderer; I didn’t purposely hurt anyone. But, was that enough? The possibility persisted that if God existed, then Heaven and Hell were the choices to be made in this life – but by whose rules?

           I was not interested in making the choice. The only choice that I was interested in was to convince myself that God did not exist, and that Jesus Christ is not His Son. If only I could convince myself of this, then I had nothing to worry about, I could get on with my lifestyle just as I was living it. Party on!! Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die, then nothingness.

A Witness

           Sometime during 1973, while living in Kobe, Japan, a friend of mine witnessed to me about the necessity of being “born again.” I rolled my eyes as I listened to his message. I liked the man, so I wasn’t rude, but I was clearly uncomfortable. A while later I was riding a train with this man between Kobe and Osaka, Japan, and listened again as the man invited me to a regular prayer meeting that was held in the English speaking Christian community of Osaka/Kobe. I wanted no part of any commitment to prayer meetings, so I politely declined. My eyes were again rolling in their sockets just thinking about such a waste of time.

           The company I worked for moved us in January of 1974 to Singapore, where I did pick up a Bible and attempted to find out what it was all about, but I couldn’t understand a word. How could any human being live like Jesus indicated? The world wasn’t like that. The world was full of good people that didn’t go to church, didn’t pray to God, enjoyed themselves immensely, and didn’t worry about some God applying the spiritual and mental thumbscrews or sending lightening bolts out of the blue. Is God such a party-pooper that He wouldn’t allow His children to have fun? The very idea of God brought to mind images of a powerful judge sitting on high, keeping track of my wrongs, and ready to whack me the moment I get out of line. God seemed to be unfair. It seemed that all the good things in life were either fattening, cause clogging of the arteries, or forbidden by the God that created those very things. I soon quit reading that Bible. I was completely unaware that man in his natural state can only believe that spiritual things are nothing but foolishness.

           But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Corinthians 2:14

Three Events

           Three things happened in 1975 that was about to change all that. First, I attended a Catholic church in San Jose, California during summer home-leave. I was Catholic at that time, although I was just going through the motions, as my wife would later describe it – “dummy in, dummy out.” By this time I was going to church to humor my wife. However, she also didn’t understand why or what she believed. She felt that church was a good influence for the children. So we continued the weekly ritual of “dummy in, dummy out.” The priest giving the Sunday sermon that day was a dynamic speaker and was able to present a clear Gospel message relevant for today. This was the first sermon that I paid attention to in years. He made the Gospel seem as if it were written for twentieth-century people, rather than the old Christians of the first-century. I would later discover that the message is for all ages and people. I wasn’t there yet. But this priest was the first to make the message of Scripture relevant for me.

           Secondly, I was browsing through a secular bookstore looking for something to read on the return flight overseas. By this time my company had decided to send us to Korea. I found Hal Lindsey’s bestseller, The Late Great Planet Earth. We stopped in Honolulu on the way back, where I finished that book while sitting around the hotel pool. The interesting thing about that book was the realization that the Bible, including the cryptic prophetic books could be understood in a literal sense.

           Thirdly, after arriving in Korea, I read Catholic Bishop Fulton J. Sheen’s book, The Life Of Christ. Bishop Sheen presented an intellectual historical argument for Jesus Christ being who He claimed to be, the Son of God, in fact, God in the flesh. He then graphically portrayed the reality of the suffering of Christ for the sins of mankind. This affected me deeply.

Something Was Different

           I then began reading the same Bible, the same one that I had cast aside as unintelligible. This time something was different. Something had happened to me. I was different. The process may have occurred over several weeks, but the change was immediate. It was an instantaneous change. Reflecting on what happened, I realized that the day before, I was still my agnostic self, and was sure that the Bible was unintelligible, while the very next day was a different story. The previous day I may have been simply curious about these matters, still uncertain about God and Jesus, preferring instead to find an excuse to continue in the same lifestyle, and preferring to convince myself to become an atheist. The next day was different. I knew the truth without a shadow of a doubt. I embraced Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, and began reading a Bible that suddenly came alive, and couldn’t be put down. I knew for certain that Jesus is who he claimed to be; there was simply no question. I knew, that I knew, that I knew! Joy flooded my existence; I needed to tell my wife. I needed to convince my wife!

Another Experience

           Unknown to me, my wife had gone through the same metamorphous, at exactly the same time, but by an entirely different manner. When I asked her to come to the living room to hear my revelation, she surprised me by first telling me that we had to live our lives committed to the Lord Jesus Christ. I was speechless. We serve a marvelous God, who is able to make everything new every morning. What had happened to us was certainly more than a coincidence. How could two different people, through two different channels, each oblivious to what the other was going through, come to the same conclusion at exactly the same moment? Coincidence? I think not. I have discovered that God is always in control.

Mary’s Story

           Mary, my wife, was born in Korea. She came to Christ in 1975 with the help of a Korean-English dictionary while reading Genesis chapter 3 in English. At that time she could not read English. With the help of the Holy Spirit she came to the realization of what Christ had accomplished on the cross by reading the following:

           Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them. Genesis 3:21

           This verse represents the necessity for the Jewish temple sacrifices foreshadowing the sacrifice that was to be made on the cross by Christ to make atonement once-for-all for our sins. The Jewish sacrifices were temporary – the sacrifice of God’s spotless Lamb is eternal.

Our Ministry

           Mary has been a prophecy student for more than 30 years, and contributes significantly to the newsletter articles. She continuously reads many books and newsletters, she does Scripture research, she reads every word written, and makes me defend what is written before it is released. Mary uses her knowledge of Bible prophecy to witness to both Christians and non-Christians about the urgency of the end-time events.

           Bob is a 1959 graduate of the California Maritime Academy with a BS in Marine Engineering. Bob has spent most of his career in shipbuilding, ship repair and ship conversion. Bob is retired and does consulting work in the maritime industry. Bob has studied the Bible extensively since 1975, with particular emphasis on the subjects of creation and prophecy. Bob teaches regularly at Calvary Chapel Pearl Harbor, Bible Training Center, offering the following classes:

           · The Science of Creation and the Flood.

           · The Origin of Evil and the Spread of False Religion.

           · Understanding Prophecy in the End Times.

Both Bob and Mary live in Hawaii.