A Biographical Sketch of my Conversion to Christ and the Beginning of my Theological Studies.

Theodore “Doros” Zachariades

INTRODUCTION

          Today, I am a Reformed Evangelical Christian. A such I am committed to the 66 Books of the Canon as God’s Only Written Revelation to humanity. My convictions are best summarised in the classic Creeds of Historic Christianity.  These include The Apostle’s Creed [200s]; The Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed [325, 381]; The Chalcedonian Definition [451]; The Athanasian Creed [450-530s]; and the Constantinopolitan Decrees [680-81]. And from the Reformation Era, I affirm The Canons of Dordrecht [1618-19]; The Westminster Confession [1646-47]; and The Second London Baptist Confession [1677/1689]. But it was not always so.

BACKGROUND

         I grew up in a nominal Greek Orthodox Christian home in north London, England, the city of my birth. My Parents arrived in England from their native Cyprus in 1959 and 1960, respectively. They met and married in England, in what would be considered a civil union sanctioned by a government official. Because of their background, my mother and father bought with them the few values they had, and a religious identity, namely, Greek [Eastern] Orthodoxy. The religious tag was bound up with their ethnic origin and little more. In all their days neither had encountered evangelical Christianity.

TURNING POINT

          I had little interest in spiritual matters throughout my time in England. Our family moved to Cyprus from England in 1985. Soon after our arrival, I enlisted in the Cypriot National Guard as a full-time soldier. This would be inevitable, as conscription laws require all men to serve. I signed up for the normal twenty-six-month duration of service, which, was the standard at the time. I decided that it would be better than enduring a longer period of twenty-nine months becoming a cadet officer. During my military days, my parents were saved. This came about through a set of unusual circumstances that led to a pastoral visit from a minister on staff with the Greek Evangelical Church of Nicosia. My parents were confronted with the claims of Christ and the gospel. Under a burden for their sins, they both trusted the Lord to save them as the pastor shared the plan of salvation.

          Subsequently to their trusting Christ, my parents bought me a Bible, and began to pray for my salvation. They started attending the church meetings, and there enlisted many others to pray for their, still lost, son. Not surprisingly, at first, I was very skeptical about the new “religious thing” that was happening. However, it did not take long before I realized that their “new” faith was no mere religious label for my parents. It was serious. It was real. It was affecting their lives. They had moved from a faithless religion to a religionless faith. There was no more traditionalism. There was true knowledge of God to be soaked up. No mere formalisms at Christmas and Easter. This Christianity had something for every day of the year.

          After much pleading, I attended the church with my parents. The building didn’t even look like a church. There were no incense, candles, or icons to be kissed, and no religious leader wearing a long black robe with a long beard to match. In fact, the people at this gathering really seemed to enjoy being there. This was so different from my experiences in the Greek Orthodox Church. Whatever this new faith was, it was light years from what I thought Christianity was all about.

TRANSITION

          Many months went by and during that time I had read several chapters from my new Bible. I also had some good discussions with the pastor that had led my parents to Christ. He kept trying to do the same with me. He was always kind and considerate, and never judgmental. He showed patience yet was firm and insistent that the Bible had a message that would make all the difference in the presence of God’s judgment, if only I would embrace it. My church attendance became regular. I looked forward to the gatherings, and I became a part of the young people’s group that met every Friday night in the pastor’s home annexed to the church building. During this period, the minister was wise in giving me certain Christian literature to read in English. Certain books helped to explain the essence of the evangelical understanding of the gospel and God’s plan of salvation. I learned about sin and the death of Jesus Christ as a substitutionary atonement. Still, I had not been converted. 

SAVED AT LAST

          I was frequently challenged to accept Christ in order to receive forgiveness for my sins. Most of the time, whenever I was confronted with a challenge, I side-stepped it with some excuse or other. On one Friday evening, I secured my pass a little earlier than usual from my Commanding Officer, and I was able to get to the pastor’s home well before the scheduled meeting. I was, once again, challenged to receive Jesus Christ as my personal savior for forgiveness of my sins. One of the things that started to make me feel a little uneasy about my condition before God was the teaching concerning Christ’s return. I had learned enough, at least intellectually, that Jesus would return to take away His own. I was aware that despite my church attendance and enjoyment of this fellowship, I was still not His. I would be excluded in the event of Jesus’s return. My pastor in an insightful moment prodded me, asking, “How are you?” to which I quickly responded, “I am fine, how are you?”  He wasn’t about to let this moment slide. With a sense of solemnity, the minister fired back, with an urgency that was a little unnerving, and asked again, “No, no, I mean how is it really?  Have you made your peace with God?”  At this moment, I believe it was the one time in my life that I was speechless. I didn’t have an answer for him. I could not talk my way out of this spiritual corner. The real shocker was that as I raced in my mind to conjure up some witty reply, I was stunned into the reality that not only did I have no answer for the pastor, I did not even have one for myself. I was confronted with my sins and with no way of escape – except Christ. It was then that he urged me to call upon Christ by faith.  I knelt with the pastor and asked, “what must I do to get right with God?”  He encouraged me to trust Christ and pray for forgiveness. That Friday night began a new trajectory for me. At least, it was a decisive marker along a journey that God had predestined from before the foundation of the world.  

THEOLOGIAN IN THE MAKING

          Through the ministry of the Greek Evangelical Church Nicosia, Cyprus, I was led to believe in Jesus Christ as my personal savior. It was December 19, 1986 when I was made conscious of being born again into Christ’s spiritual kingdom. In October of the following year, I surrendered to to the Lord’s clear call to ministry. Henceforth, I would go anywhere and do anything to be of service to Him. Though I was convinced of God saving me, and that I did not really contributing anything but my sins which needed forgiving, my immediate discipleship came from the pastor that was a firm believer in free will. He was what some call a “Calminian.” He affirmed tenets from both Arminianism and Calvinism.  At the time during my early Christian walk, I knew nothing of the terms and very little of the historical debates and various views. I began reading my Bible more earnestly, and I had an intense desire to share the gospel. In the summer 1988 I was baptized as a believer by immersion in the Mediterranean Sea. I left home to attend the Greek Bible College of Pikermi, Greece. My intent was to study the Word of God so I could better minister in service of the God who saved me. At the Bible School, as it was known, I had tremendously pious and caring teachers. The theology that I was exposed to was a mix of dispensationalism, eternal security and free will. I rejected the elements of security as I was a natural Arminian. The concept of grace was defined as a form of “easy believism” ala Charles Ryrie. I was really interested in theology. I had some good debates with my teachers. There was an element of soft Calvinism from one or two profs, but the main theology professor was most influential in my development by deeply challenging me to think along biblical lines. Though, I am of a different persuasion now, I believe the Lord used that time to solidify issues in my heart.

          After my first year of Bible College, I returned to Cyprus. The main Pastor was an elderly man that stood strongly and firmly in the Reformed tradition. Again, at the time I did not know enough about it. But that was to be remedied on my return. In Cyprus during that summer I had opportunity to talk with the senior Pastor more intimately. He showed great interest in my studies and had recommendations for eschatology. He promoted Lorraine Boettner’s The Millennium, which is a Postmillennial book. At the time, I was soaking up “pre trib-pre mill” eschatology so I did not take the senior pastor’s advice about eschatology. His sermons, however, were rich and rewarding. I enjoyed my summer break. I was still being somewhat discipled by the “Calminian minister.” The summer sped by very quickly.

          On my return to Greece for year two, God began to open my eyes to a Greek beauty, Chrisa. She eventually became my wife. In my second year of study, I was beginning to have some misgivings about the way “Calvinist theology” was being presented. My main theology prof was very hard on the traditional Calvinist scheme of salvation. I checked the library for some writings by Charles Hodge and John Murray. I found them to be biblically faithful, but I struggled with ideas about free will, and the so-called desire of God to save everyone without exception. I was determined to see what God said about election, as this became a sticking point. I was finally convinced by Ephesians and Paul’s preaching in Acts that divine election was unconditional, and hence the only way sinners could be saved by grace. By the end of my second year, I was a confirmed four-point Calvinist, I could not yet adopt Limited Atonement.

          In my third year, I served as President of the Student Body. I led an evangelistic team for outreach every fortnight that rotated with a Bible study. I affiliated with the Greek Evangelical Church of Greece, and I began ministering within its domain. I preached at various congregations, I led a weekly Bible study for local church members, and I was being groomed for seminary. The fact that I was a Baptist or baptistic, near the time of my graduation, caused some consternation among some of the members of the theological council that oversaw the guidance of potential young ministers like myself. We finally parted ways.

SEMINARY

          Through God’s providence my wife and I were led to apply for a position with a primarily Greek speaking Baptist church in Toronto, Canada. At the same time, I applied to start seminary at Ontario Theological Seminary. We arrived in North America in late August of 1991. Fresh out of school, young, and idealistic, I was ready to embark on greater things. Though my tenure at the church lasted only 18 months, I was blessed to have a year and a half of seminary credits. Chrisa and I had to return to Greece to await a visa. We waited much longer than we expected. Nine months later we transitioned to Boston and I worked with a Greek speaking church and continued through the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary at a Satellite Campus in New England. From 1993-1996 we continued to do God’s work.

          At the beginning of 1997, we moved to Louisville, Kentucky so I could finish my Master of Divinity degree. By this point I was a convinced five-point Calvinist, and I no longer believed in “Free Will” as I had previously. But I was still a dispensationalist. In fact, my great pleasure was to meet and sit under Craig A. Blaising, who was a pioneer in Progressive Dispensationalism. Together with Darrell L. Bock, Blaising authored what was to become a manifesto for a new revised understanding of Dispensational theology that was in much agreement with Biblical theologians of a non-dispensational approach. I even had the honor of writing the article on dispensationalism in the revised edition of the Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (2003).

          I was grateful to graduate from Southern in December of 1997, and from October of that year, I was Pastor at Beech Grove Baptist Church Owenton, KY. This was my first pastorate in a solely English-speaking ministry. In August of 1998, I began Ph.D. studies. The demanding program was a joy. At times, it was extremely challenging as I served as a pastor throughout my doctoral work. It was during this time of research and deeper study that I gained the tools to do independent work in theological disciplines. I worked with Bruce A. Ware as my main supervisor during my seminars and colloquia.

At the dissertation stage, Stephen J. Wellum became my supervisor.  All in all, I benefitted from serious work in varying departments: New Testament with Mark A. Seifrid; Reformation History with Marvin W. Anderson and David L. Puckett; and in Theology, Craig A. Blaising, Stephen J. Wellum, and Bruce A. Ware. In 2000, I moved to Somerset, KY to pastor at Woodstock Baptist Church, Somerset, KY. I decided on Christology for my dissertation. My proposal was accepted, and I finished writing “The Omnipresence of Jesus Christ: A Neglected Aspect of Evangelical Christology.” In May of 2004, I was awarded my diploma as a Ph.D. in Systematic Theology. And like Martin Luther, I consider it a great privilege to be a preacher and teacher in God’s vineyard.

COMING HOME (TO MY REFORMED ROOTS)

          Shortly after graduation, my family of six were blessed to go back to Cyprus and Greece for an extended stay of about seven weeks.  I had not seen my Parents or my younger sister, Julie for ten years. This was a great time for family catch up, and prayer for days ahead. We stayed a little longer in Athens as we had more people to visit.

          Both Beech Grove and Woodstock had been “Seminary Pastorates.” I craved a more substantial ministry. We looked forward to more fruitful work for the Kingdom. On return to the USA, I had a heart attack the very next day. Thankfully, I was cared for and with the marvels of modern medicine and technology, I avoided major surgery. Instead, I was treated with stents. Over the past ten years or so my health has been challenged with another major incident. I had cancer in my right kidney, which, was removed with a nephrectomy. This was followed by another surgery to take out my right ureter. This happened, about nine or ten years ago. It was as I transitioned to Tennessee in 2005, to Pastor First Baptist Church Winchester, that my theology became increasingly more theologically Reformed. First, I realized that I could no longer defend dispensational eschatology, try as I might. Then, the consistency of the gospel in both testaments required a re-evaluation of the “One Plan of God.” My thinking changed on the relationship of the Testaments and I embraced a Covenantal structure, which meant that the Old Testament was a Christian book and not Jewish. My Covenant understanding has only grown since then and now I am certain that this is “the truth as it is in Jesus.” In 2007, I was not progressing well in my church ministry as there was agitation over my “Calvinism.” Though I had not planned it, I resigned in March of 2007.

MORE RECENTLY

          When in months to come, there emerged a congregation from the humble beginnings of our living room, it was agreed that we would follow a distinctly Reformed outlook. Sovereign Grace Baptist Church has been a Reformed Baptist congregation since March of 2007. From the beginning of my pilgrimage from my Reformed Pastor in Cyprus, my wayward trek into Arminianism, my embrace of Calvinistic Soteriology, and finally my championing of the Covenantal Structure of the Testaments, I have finally come Home!

          After ministering in a bi-vocational manner with Sovereign Grace, through God’s providence we took one of our boys, Nathan, the youngest and moved to Helena, Montana. I was received as the interim pastor of Wolf Creek Baptist Church Montana, where I have ministered since October, 2019. My last Sunday was October 11, 2020.

          Since April, 2021, when my family moved to the Texas Panhandle area, I have been Pastor at Southside Baptist Church Perryton, TX.