The Plancks
“Let the redeemed of the LORD say so” – Psalm 107:2
Stetson’s Testimony
“I am thankful that I was raised in a Christian home. Some of my earliest memories are of my parents taking my two older brothers and me to church. We prayed before meals and knelt as a family to pray before bed. At the age of 8 years old, I knelt with my mom in prayer in the living room of our home and received Jesus Christ as my Saviour.
If I was to give a brief testimony of salvation that is where I would end it. However, in order to be open and provide a detailed account I must continue. I spent my childhood attending a Church of God church. I was raised to believe that I could “lose my salvation.” There were many times in my childhood that I prayed “the sinner’s prayer.” I would read a Christian comic book like The Cross and the Switchblade and say the prayer at the end of the comic book in fear that I was not truly saved or that I needed to be resaved. Although I was taught the gospel of the grace of God, I was never given assurance of my salvation based upon the word of God. My memory is not complete, but I do not recall my mom showing me from the scriptures the plan of salvation on that night when I was 8 years old. Without the clear memory of the word of God to rest upon that night along with the false teaching of conditional security from the Church of God, I cannot say conclusively that I was saved that night.
As is the case with many who are raised believing they can “lose it” I can not point back to a definitive moment and say, “On that date, at that time, I know I was saved.” Looking back I can see that because I did not understand the security of the believer in Christ I was constantly worried that I would die and go to hell because of some wicked thought I entertained or some wrong that I did. I do recall vividly that around the age of 13 years old I was especially sensitive to sin and witnessed often to my friends at school. When I was in ninth grade I went forward at a revival meeting at a Brethren church we began attending a year earlier. The evangelist preached on hell that night and I wanted to make sure I was saved. Again, I do not recall anyone taking an open Bible to deal with me.
Reflecting back, the proof of my salvation at either 8 years old, or later in my teen years, is evident by my understanding that salvation is by grace through faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ, my desire to read the word of God (I first read the Bible through completely when I was 15 years old), the witness of the Holy Spirit, my desire to pray and be among God’s people, the chastening of the Lord when I sin, and witnessing to others about their need of salvation in Christ.
I began attending Grace Baptist Church in Middletown when I was 17 years old when my uncle, Roger Green, became pastor there. When I was 18 years old I desired to follow the Lord in believer’s baptism. Uncle Roger emphasized that one must be saved prior to being baptized and that baptism was an act of obedience. He baptized me at Grace Baptist in the summer of 1991 when I was 18 years old.
One evening when I was 22 years old, I went to Uncle Roger’s house to discuss eternal security. I knew I was saved but wanted to understand this biblical doctrine better. We sat around his dinner table with an open Bible and he explained to me from the scriptures the doctrine of the eternal security of the believer.”
Stetson’s Education
“I received my formal education in engineering at the University of Dayton. I hold a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering and a master’s degree in Materials Engineering. I have been trained for the work of the ministry through the local church. I have served at Cornerstone Baptist Temple as youth pastor and adult Sunday School teacher, as well as participated in door-to-door visitation, street preaching, nursing home ministry, and children’s ministries.”
Sandy’s Testimony
“I was not raised in a Christian home. I was brought up in the Church of Christ and through my teenage years I was subjected to the false doctrine of baptismal regeneration, i.e. the false belief that you must be baptized to be saved. At eleven years old I was baptized thinking that it was part of salvation. As a teenager, I saw all the circular reasoning in the Church of Christ and had many unanswered questions. I had a nagging feeling that what I was being taught was not the truth. All of this plus the hypocrisy I saw among some of the leaders caused me to fall away from that church and not want anything to do with any religion.
Through college I was very career minded and goal oriented. I wasn’t interested in faith at all but there was always a nagging feeling I had. After college I had come to a point where I decided I wanted to know if any religion had the truth. I wanted to go visit different religions, e.g. Buddhism, Catholicism, you name it; I was willing to visit them to see if they had the truth. I wanted to have this issue settled. I mentioned this to a friend that I was interested in visiting different churches, I didn’t care what church it was. She didn’t attend any church so I felt like she was in the same boat as me.
Looking back, it was through the providence of God that a week later she told me she had been invited to Grace Baptist Church and she wanted to know if I wanted to go with her. I said sure. Pastor Green said things from the pulpit I never heard before. I was very interested in what he had to say about the Bible and wanted to hear more. It was at Grace that I met Stetson. Over the next several months, Stetson could tell I had questions and took me through a Bible study and forced me to question all my earlier beliefs and whether I really was going to heaven. I took notes from our study and read the scripture references many nights after that. I told Stetson the day of our Bible study that I did not want to be swayed because of any feelings I had for him. After seven months of hearing sound doctrine preached at Grace Baptist Church, I knelt in my bedroom at my grandma’s house on my birthday in 1999 and told the Lord that I realized baptism had nothing to do with salvation and knew that it was only through what Christ had done for me. I received Jesus Christ as my Saviour on my birthday that year.”
Sandy’s Education
“I received a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Defiance College. I also worked towards a master’s degree in Clinical Psychology at Eastern Kentucky University before leaving school to become a homemaker. The Lord has allowed me to serve in various children’s ministries at Cornerstone like King’s Kids and VBS as well as door-to-door visitation and street ministry. My primary call is to be a wife and mother. I gladly serve along side my husband, wherever the Lord directs him, and I am excited about serving with him in Italy.”
Isaiah’s Testimony
At lunchtime on July 24, 2007, Isaiah was eating chicken noodle soup and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich when he began to talk to his mommy about little boys and girls that do not have beds to sleep on or mommy’s and daddy’s to love them. He was thinking about the Bible study he and his daddy had the night before and the prayer his daddy prayed that mentioned these things. Isaiah’s mommy stopped doing dishes and told him he should pray for little kids like that and pray that they might get saved. He said it would be sad if a good boy didn’t get saved and died and went to hell. Isaiah said he wanted to be saved.
His mommy went to the table with her Bible and sat down. She asked him what sin was and Isaiah responded that it was all the bad things we do. She asked him for examples. He said taking things that don’t belong to you. She asked if he ever stole anything and he said no. She asked for another example and he said to laugh at Jesus was a sin. She asked if he had ever done that and he said no. She asked for another example of sin and he said to tell a lie. His mommy asked if he had ever told a lie and he solemnly said yes. She asked what that made him and he said a liar. She then added that when little boys don’t obey their mommy’s and daddy’s that it is sin too. She asked if he had ever done that. He said yes. She asked him what that made him and he replied a sinner. She asked him where he would go if he died and he replied Hell. She asked if he knew why Jesus died. He said Jesus died to take the punishment for our sins. She asked him if Jesus was dead and he said, “No, He’s in heaven.” She opened the Bible and read him some scripture and explained it. He said he wanted to be saved and go to heaven when he died.
His mommy told him he needed to tell Jesus he was sorry for his sins and ask Jesus to save him. Without further instruction, Isaiah got out of his chair and laid prostrate on the floor. Mommy prayed first and asked the Lord to be with Isaiah then he prayed something like this – “Dear Father, I’ve done bad things like tell lies and I don’t want to go to hell, I want to go to heaven and be with you. I’m sorry for all the bad things I do. I want Jesus to be my friend. I want to be with Him in heaven. I want to be saved.”
Isaiah’s mommy and daddy had dealt with him before about salvation but he always seemed to be parroting back information. This time was different. He had been thinking about various things from Bible lessons and he even mentioned things from a VBS lesson on salvation that was taught a month earlier. This time he genuinely seemed remorseful for “doing bad things” and he called out to God in all sincerity to save him. He called his daddy at work at 1:00 pm to tell him the good news. He also called Grandma and Grandpa Planck to tell them the good news. Praise the Lord for God’s simple plan of salvation.