Growing up in Holland, Albert listened to Bible stories in church, but when he became a teenager, he stopped believing that they were true. Attempting to read the Bible on his own brought only more confusion, but he had deep questions and was searching for logical answers. An intriguing coincidence would set him on the path of discovery and growing faith.

<p>Growing up in Holland, Albert listened to Bible stories in church, but when he became a teenager, he stopped believing that they were true. Attempting to read the Bible on his own brought only more confusion, but he had deep questions and was searching for logical answers. An intriguing coincidence would set him on the path of discovery and growing faith.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Adverum Productions

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Journeys Season 1

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Learning to Trust the Bible: Albert’s Journey

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Existential U-turn: Chris’s Journey

I was convinced that I was a divine power, but who or what was it? For years, I tried very hard to read the Bible, but much of it made no sense to me. I had more questions than answers, but one day all that changed. My name is Albert Hans. I'm from Holland from a Dutch reformed family and I was baptized as a child and we went to church regularly, but my parents were not religious. My father was not really a believer. He went to church I think because of my mother. Her side of the family was very religious. I remember visiting my grandmother and I would play in the garden, and then I heard her sing and that made a deep impression on me. When I was five years old, my parents took me to Sunday school. We sang songs that were Bible stories, but when I got older about 12, those stories seemed to me as fairy tales. You know, I have an inquisitive mind and I wondered is there any truth in the Bible? In school, we had weekly one hour religious classes. I asked the teacher the questions that troubled me. How do we make sense of the Old Testament and why is the Bible so complicated? But I never got any useful answers and that pushed me further into doubt. My parents stopped going to church except for Christmas. They lost touch with church. I don't know exactly why I think they didn't feel that they were fed spiritually. The sermons were very general, not touching biblical teams such as where are we going, or life after death and the resurrection. The teams were about love and acceptance of each other, which was all very good, but it was not enough. When I was a teenager of about 14 years old, I got fascinated by science, astronomy, fundamental physics, biology. I was amazed by the complexity everywhere, the physical loss, working at the micro and micro level. I was looking at the sky. It's all around and I was astounded by the elegance and the beauty and symmetry of nature, the wonder of life, the plants and the animals there and there were humans and human consciousness. Where does it come from? I started to have deep questions about how, How do all these amazing things come into being? The universe had to be designed and I wanted to find out more about a creator. Is he a person or is he a force permeating nature, like Eastern religious teach. I started to learn about Hinduism, about Buddhism and so on, and I was thinking that maybe Hinduism was on the right track, but when I closer went into it, I thought, this has too much complexity. There's not enough room for love. I had a good friend at school, he was a Christian. We had discussions and he was convinced and told me that the Bible was very special. I had no Bible of my own. So I took my parents' Bible and it was an older translation in archaic Dutch. I started reading regularly my parents' old Bible, and I did my best to try to understand it, but there were terrible stories in the Old Testament, all the laws and the sacrifice, and I got bogged down. I stopped understanding. I compared the justice in the Old Testament with the love and mercy of the New Testament, like you find the gospels and I wondered, is there any red threat throughout the Bible? Is there any logic of thought? I got frustrated with what I thought was the inconsistency of the Bible. I started studies at the University of Interest and I majored in physical chemistry when I was about 22 or 23 years old. I remember I just finished and passed my exams for the autumn semester. I was relieved and looked forward for the Christmas break and I thought, now I have time for to do some reading for myself. And I started looking for books I could read. I started browsing in secondhand bookshops and I found a book. It was called The Bible He Tok in English. So the Bible is true after all, written by Ner Keller. It's a book about Bible and archeology. It showed how many facts from the Bible have been confirmed by historical research in archeology. Just after I finished this book, my father said to me, Look, here's a flyer. It came up post, It's an invitation about a lecture on biblical archeology. The lecture series was called Doman Fatal French Parus, That Man Don't Tell Fairy Tales. Well, I thought that's an interesting coincidence. I was just reading a book on the Bible in archeology, which triggered my interest, and now there's a lecture series on the same subject. It was a very bad winder that time. It was freezing cold and extremely slippery. It was a kind of weather that no one would go out of the house if it wasn't necessary. And later I figured out that these church members had gone out to distribute those flyers, and today I think of them as heroes going out in that type of weather. My dad said, Let's go together to this Bible lecture series. We started attending and the material presented in the lectures was complimenting exactly what I had been reading and the speaker ended the series focusing on the gospel and Jesus Christ, and I like the connections he made. I find them very interesting. So did my father. The series ended and we were invited to attend Bible seminars and my father and I continued to attend. Later, my mother wanted to know where we just kept going together, so she joined us. I was amazed that my dad was so keen because he, he was the least religious in the family possibly He saw the effect that the Bible had on me. He starting picking up the Bible and we discussed about it. My father was not a person that would easily open up After 1946, he was a corporal in the war in Indonesia. It was a terrible ordeal for him. 1950 came back, traumatized so many other soldiers. A particular Bible lecture in the book of Hebrews had a deep effect on me. It's about sacrifices and ceremonies in the Old Testament temple, which for shadow future events in the Bible history, I found the key that opened my eyes in Hebrews. Then first one I read it to you and it says, For the law is a shadow of the good things to come. So the animal sacrifices were pointing to Jesus who would die on the cross for the sins of the world. The high priest in the temple was pointing to Jesus Christ who would serve as a high priest in the heavenly temple. I was stunned. Suddenly it made all sense to me. Now I understood how the Bible fitted together. I came to the point when I could accept the whole Bible as being a gift from God. I'd been looking for the God who had created everything and now I've seen that the Bible was true and if God revealed himself through the Bible, then I wanted to get to know this God and have a relationship with him. So the focus of my Bible study shifted from just understanding it in a rational way to also growing in the relationship I was starting to have with God. So I was baptized, but I was not baptized alone. My father also was baptized and my mother and my sister as well, and she's 12 years younger than me. We were all baptized as a family. That day still stays in my memory. As a very special day, I started to serve God in any way that I could. I was asked to teach Bible studies in church and do sermons. I remember my first sermon. I was so nervous. I still preach sermons and served as elder in the local church in Hoda. When I look back, I see the things that God asked me to do were using the talents that he gave me. After finishing my studies, I worked as a physical chemist first for Unilever and later in the Institute for Applied Physical Research for foods. Most of my work was focused on helping the industry to produce healthier foods and reducing fats and sugars. I met a young lady in church. Her name was Anita, and when I was baptized, one of the pastors asked us to become youth leaders. Now you should know that Anita's far more emotional than I am, cuz I'm very rational. In the beginning, we had a hard time working together, but soon we realized that we were complimenting each other very well, exceptionally well. Anita taught me how to use my emotions in working with people, and she learned from me how to think through the Bible and draw lessons from me. Made a very good team, and you probably guessed it, we are still a good team. We married in 1985. We have three children which are all grown up now. We have a good life and I can see how marvelously God has worked to bring Anita and meet together. My story is not sensational. I'm not that kind of person. Anyway. What happened to me could have happened to anyone looking at the marvelous universe and nature. I sensed that there must be a God who created it all, but in the beginning, I could not trust the Bible. God, however, guided me like only he could to the missing links. In my understanding, He helped me to fill in all the puzzle pieces so that I could be satisfied to have found the truth. I decided to follow God and I have never regretted my decision. My journey could be summarized with the words from Jeremiah 29 first 13, which say, You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.

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Journeys Season 1

Learning to Trust the Bible: Albert’s Journey

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Other Teachings in Series

Should Christians Have Ecstatic Experiences?: Christopher’s Journey

Searching for the Meaning of Life: Dan’s Journey

Searching for True Love: Cacyne’s Journey

Can Faith Be Rational?: Maj’s Journey

I Would Never Become a Christian: Miikael’s Journey

Finding Hope for the Environment: Jan’s Journey

Beyond Rituals and Crucifixes: Conrad’s Journey

Escape From New Age and the Paranormal: Samuel’s Journey

Finding Peace at Last: A Miraculous Journey

Hungry for More: Jonas’ Journey

Learning to Trust the Bible: Albert’s Journey

Existential U-turn: Chris’s Journey

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