He is quite an academic, able to read English, French, German, Latin, Greek, Hebrew. He is the son of a Greek professor–who is now with the Lord. And, yet, he chose to be a pastor for several years before becoming an academician because he believed that a theologian who has never lived the Church can teach the Church.

Sometimes, as he prepared to teach us, he would be so almost entranced with the Lord that he would begin the class with a hymn rather than just a prayer, and he would stand there with his eyes closed as he sang it. We all knew that when he taught us of the Trinity and the Ecumenical Councils that led to the formulation of that doctrine, he was not just speaking about doctrine, but speaking of someone he knew intimately, the Triune God.

He called himself a closet Anglican because, though he is Brethren, his studies in early Church history had shown him that the early Anabaptist claims about the Church could not fully stand up to the light of history. He was Anabaptist, don’t let me imply otherwise. And, yet, his studies had changed his appreciation for the Early Church. He was broad minded not because he had no opinions but because history had taught him how we need to hold our personal opinions with an openness to being corrected by the Spirit of God.

I suspect that you can already tell how he influenced me by reading what I wrote about him.

C.J.H.