I made a profession of faith at 14, but I really didn't understand what salvation was. I just knew that there was something really "right" about the whole church thing (my family had been out of church for a few years, and I didn't remember church). When I was 18 I was at college at HylesAndersonCollege.
My dad had become Associate Pastor at a church in Milwaukee, and was learning a lot under the Pastor there. Thats were he really learned that salvation was more than just believe, and receive, you also had to repent. Well, he started talking to me about it every time I called home, and being under the "pray a prayer" system, I was REALLY confused. Well, it got to the point that I didn't even want to call home anymore because he had totally blown apart everything I had come to accept as truth (that you just had to call on the name of the Lord to be saved...).
Well, my home church was having an activity and a church anniversary picnic and a friend of mine and I were going to go to my home for the weekend for it. Well, every problem that could come up, did... we almost didn't make it. We went on the activity Saturday morning, and Sat. evening my dad started talking to my friend about salvation. I sat by and listened while my dad witnessed to her with the true gospel. That was the first time I had heard it clearly explained. She ended up getting saved that night, and while I was happy for her, I wasn't totally, because I was confused about my own salvation then.
We went back to college Sunday night, and there my dad started talking to a bunch of our friends, one in particular, about the repentance issue. Come to find out, he was against repentance being needed for salvation, he held that it was believe, and receive. Another friend was listening to the conversation though, and wanted to talk to my friend and I the next morning. The 3 of us talked and she ended up getting saved also.
Well the friend who talked to my dad was upset over this issue and convinced another friend of ours to go with him to the dean of womens office about us girls. The 2 guys did, and she took them to the head of discipline. The next morning (Tuesday, maybe Wednesday morning, I can't remember) the dean of women called our dorm floor and had us woken up and sent to her office right away. When we got there, she took us to the head of discipline's office and he explained to us that a couple of students felt we were teaching heresy and that he didn't want to know what it was, or anything, but just wanted to let us know we needed to stop talking about it, and if we brought up the subject amongst anyone, including ourselves, we would be in trouble.
Well, I went back to the dorm, and we showered and changed (we never even had a chance to do that) and called my dad and told him what had happened. He told me to go back in a bit, by myself, and try to explain what the conversation was about, because being that it was a Bible college, they should understand. I went back and explained the issue to him, and explained to him what I believed (actually what my dad believed, as I still wasn't really saved yet) and he told me it sounded ok to him, but he still didn't want us discussing the topic with anyone, and if any students came to me and asked how to get saved, I was not allowed to answer them, I was to send them to a staff member. If I was caught talking about it with anyone, I would be expelled! I went back and called my dad, and he said since I was already planning on coming home that weekend, I still would, and I probably wouldn't be coming back.
Well, I finished packing my things and moved my room (we were transitioning from summer, to the school year and were moving rooms), and unpacked most of them (I thought I would be staying) and went home Friday night. We talked about me transferring to another college, that my dad had wanted me to go to in the first place, and decided that their semester was only a week in, and if they would allow me to I would switch over there (which is where all the students from my home church were at for their freshman year).
That decision was made Saturday night. Sunday afternoon, after church is when my dad talked to me, and asked me what I thought about the whole repentance issue and if I was really saved based on the verses he showed me. I wouldn't really talk to him much, but was really struggling with how could everyone have been wrong?? How could I have been wrong all these years? Yet, I knew I was... I knew I was just trusting the fact that I was emotional and prayed a prayer back when I was 14... I really didn't know what I was doing then. My dad left and told me to pray and sort it out with God.
I told the Lord, I was so wrong. I had come to understand that I was lost, and that I was a wicked sinner. I understood that I needed God, and I couldn't do anything. It wasn't my praying a prayer, I had to believe that Christ did it all for me. Its His faithfulness and promise that keeps me, not anything I could do. By then it was time to get ready for the evening church service. I was baptized that night, totally surprising everyone. We left early the next morning, drove to the new college, PBC, visited with the dean, he said yes, they would accept me, drove to HAC, packed my things (again) and loaded up the car, drove back to the new college, where I started to unpack, and a bunch of students that I didn't know helped me unload my things, and get them to my room.
My mom and dad couldn't stay around and help me unpack because they were both teachers at them time, and had parent teacher conferences that night, so they left right away. I worked on unpacking my things a bit, and had to wait around until almost 11 that night when all the church friends got back from work, and I got to tell them what all happened, and they helped me get settled. I was in class and work right away, and had an interesting semester. Thats a story for next time though.
