I well remember growing up in a small Midwestern city. My family was average in most ways. Mom, Dad, Patty, Kathryn and I were the family—I was the oldest child. We attended one of the largest and most respected “mainstream” churches. My parents had both graduated from a small liberal arts college sponsored by our church. They were very devoted to the church, though not in a strident or fanatical way. Some of my earliest memories include celebrating Christmas. My sisters and I were told that Santa Claus would come “sneaking down” our fireplace chimney and bring us presents the night before Christmas. It was an exciting time—lots of presents, a big family meal and “time off” from school!
Then we learned that the “Easter Bunny” would lay eggs and we had to look for them all over the house on Easter Sunday mornings. Later, we were told that Christ rose from the dead on Easter, but that certainly was not the focus of our attention In Sunday School, we drew maps of the Holy Land, and we memorized the Lord’s Prayer and a few sentimental scriptures. But when we were drilled on the Lord’s Prayer, it was never explained to us what “Thy Kingdom come” actually meant, nor the vital phrase, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven Rather, we were taught that if we were generally “good” boys and girls we would just “go to heaven” when we died. Of course, Jesus Christ’s direct statement, “No one has ascended to heaven” (John 3:13), was never discussed. And certainly no discussion ever occurred regarding the dozens of scriptures clearly describing the Christian’s goal of assisting Christ in ruling this earth—such as 1 Corinthians 6:2–3: “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more things that pertain to this life”