Learning to dig and not just rake.

Wanda Short

Hi everyone! My name is Wanda and I live in South Florida... I have a 19 year old son and three grown step children and five step grandchildren! Hahaha and I am only 43!

I grew up in a Christian (Lutheran) home but was never immersed in scripture or taught in the Word...our family was very active in the church but it was mostly social activities and community service type events. My parents have a deep and strong faith and are believers in the Gospel yet we never discussed anything outside of our Sunday school lesson. We were not encouraged to ponder, explore, dig, research or question anything....just believe what is being told. In youth group we never prayed (except at dinner), we never talked about anything to do with our foundation of faith...we just went bowling and on trips and things that were fun but that didn’t feed us spiritually. So, I grew up very lazy in regards to what I believed and therefore did not experience joy or the desire to even know more of God.

About eight years ago I became a member of a Presbyterian church in our town and became involved as a youth group leader. I had been active as a youth group leader for the last 20 years and was suddenly tired of being the leader that my own youth leaders had been (big on fun, short on discipleship). My heart was so heavy all the time because the teens wanted to know more of God and they wanted to know more about faith and I couldn’t even tell them what I believed. Every interaction with them became a cycle of missed opportunities to encourage them in the truth of God’s word. Finally I couldn’t bear the thought of continuing in that fake superficial capacity - so I went to Alan and asked him if he would disciple me so that I could then in turn disciple the teens.

Thankfully he agreed and that decision was the catalyst to a life and completely heart changing experience for me. The more I understood and experienced the Sovereignty of God and His free gift of Grace the more I desired to know Him! Through these discipleship meetings Alan was able to continually encourage me and point me back to Christ and I was able to put off many of the damaging experiences I had gone through as a child! It has been (and continues to be) a long, bumpy, at times terrifying road but I feel for the first time in my life that I don't have to fight for control...or independence...and that I don't have to DO anything for my salvation!

A few years ago, Alan asked me to read a paper he had written "Reading the Bible Through New Covenant Eyes"…this was the start of his much larger work that ended up being the book by the same title. This short paper was enough to start my journey into learning how to read scripture in context and to remember that it is written to a specific people in a specific time. Ha! No longer could I take one verse out and throw it around and make it mean whatever I wanted it to at that moment! Wow. So once I understood that - it really was a very easy jump for me to then realize that Jesus is very specifically speaking of His second coming to the disciples (not me!) and that there is scriptural proof that the Parousia occurred at the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD. This then naturally led to my embracing of Full Preterism. What this did for me was to bring everything I had hoped for – into a completed state! God has fulfilled ALL His promises…I don’t have to worry about when He will do it (which always led to my fear of Him changing His mind!) because He has been true to His Word (scripture) and it is done! This was like the corner piece of the puzzle for me – I am eternally ALIVE! The bible is from start to finish the entire story. Well, that “small” paper has since evolved into the full length book featured on this website and I have had the pleasure and joy of reading the many drafts that it has gone through to its completion!

Will Alan’s book and the logical conclusions that you must make from it change your life as drastically as it has mine? I pray it does! I pray that your heart bursts with joy as the implications of Full Preterism become clear to you! I thank God every day for the passion and fire He placed on Alan’s heart which makes him willing to stand for truth and to shepherd those in his flock. Well-done Alan! Now when will the next one (Living Our Lives With New Covenant Eyes) be ready for proofing? :-}