Who Are We?
"We" are actually just one person, Rev. Thomas M. Parsons, a retired pastor and Christian school teacher who maintains this website at his own expense in order to have a strong presence for Biblical Christianity on the Internet. He, or rather, I studied journalism early in my education, and learned about the editorial "we" and tend to use it.
I received Christ as my Savior in October of 1958, the year before I graduated from high school and began persuing an undergraduate degree at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. I received a B.A. in Communications from WSU in 1965.
I then went to seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and received an MDiv degree in Pastoral Studies from Grand Rapids Baptist Seminary, now part of Cornerstone University in that city.
While attending school in Grand Rapids, I met a young lady named Linda and married her on December 28, 1968 in her home church, First Baptist Church of Beech Grove, Indiana.
In 1970, we moved to Flint, Michigan, where I became the assistant pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church there for four years.
From Flint we went to Oglesby, Illinois, where I pastored the First Baptist Church for 21 years, from 1974-1995. It was a small church, and in order to meet our family financial obligations, I began teaching part-time at LaSalle-Peru Christian School in LaSalle, Illinois, and later at Illinois Valley Community College in Oglesby. I taught Bible at LPCS, and speech and English classes at IVCC.
In 1995, we moved to Columbus, Ohio, where I taught Bible and English classes in junior high and high school at Maranatha Christian School. When the school closed in 2004, I decided to retire and persue my life-long interest in writing. That led to this website, and to the publication of my book Windsor's Child in the spring of 2007.
I also currently serve as a deacon, adult Bible school teacher, and small group leader at Maranatha Baptist Church in Columbus. I also am employed by the church one day a week to do the bookkeeping. My wife, Linda, is the church secretary there.
What Do We Believe?
Our statement of faith is identical to that of Maranatha Baptist Church. In summary, it includes the following items:
1. I believe the Bible is the inspired, infallible Word of God, sufficient for all faith and practices.
2. I believe that God exists in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, but that He is one God.
3. I believe that every human being, including myself, but excluding Jesus Christ, is a sinner.
4. I believe the eternal penalty for sin is confinement to the Lake of Fire, or Hell, prepared for the Devil and his angels.
5. I believe that Jesus Christ suffered my eternal punishment on the cross, paying my sin debt in full.
6. I believe that the Holy Spirit convicted me of sin and of my need for the Savior and led me to accept Jesus Christ as personal Savior by faith, apart from any so-called good works that may have been in my life.
7. I believe that God saved me to serve Him, and that the two main reasons He left me on earth after saving me was so that I might glorify Him and share His message of salvation with lost human beings.
8. I believe the Devil, Satan, Lucifer is a real angel created by God to serve Him, but who rebelled because of pride and was lost. I believe the goal of Satan is to prevent people from accepting Christ and to entice believers away from the Lord.
9. I believe that God has provided believers with angels to protect us and to help us in our battle with Satan and with our old sin nature.
10. I believe I will spend eternity in Heaven, a place prepared by Jesus Christ for those who love Him and trust Him while here on earth.
11. I believe that God created marriage for the benefit of human beings, and that marriage is the life-long union of one man and one woman, and that children are the normal result of such a union and that they are "the heritage of the Lord."
12. I believe that life begins at conception and ends at death, and that no one has the right to end another's life except in self-defense, war, or capital punishment.
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