The Ultimate Adventure

My professional career has been uniquely blessed and has led me through almost every conceivable adventure imaginable. When my childhood friends were off to college, I received a congressional appointment to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. The Academy experience unveiled an appetite for adventure which I have never lost.

After graduation, when my classmates were receiving their ship assignments, I was able to receive my commission in the Air Force, a coveted option at the time. During the "missile crisis" of the late 1950's, I found myself as a branch chief in the Department of Guided Missiles. As the reconnaissance satellites were creating their turmoil within the global intelligence community, I was in the middle of that program. (I was in the Pentagon, briefing a joint meeting with both the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Department of Defense and the State Department on computer simulations supporting the arms control negotiations in Geneva, when I was whisked back to the West Coast to witness my son being born.) Somehow I always seemed be in the "center of the action," whatever was the major issue at the time.

Having completed my graduate degrees in business and engineering, I was recruited into the senior levels of the Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan. This was in the mid-60's, the glamorous "hey-day" of the automobile industry. These were the days of the Mustang and Twin-I-Beam trucks. As a private salary roll executive, I had a blast. I had an opportunity to participate in the management of a Fortune-500 company, one of the great globe-girdling corporate empires of all time.

In the late 60's, I had the opportunity to pioneer the development of the first international computer network — a forerunner of the Internet — over 30 years ago. It was fun.

They say it's better to be lucky than smart. Through the fortuitous conspiracy of circumstance, I found myself in the boardrooms of some of the most glamourous corporations, participating in some of the most exciting mergers, acquisitions, and projects one can imagine. Yes, it was all great fun.

Over the years I have served as a director of numerous public companies — and was Chairman and Chief Executive of six of them. Four of these were publicly traded defense contractors, serving the most highly classified agencies of our government. Mysterious, challenging, and also great fun.

It seemed that the Lord allowed me to be in the centroid of whatever was the wild adventures of the time. But I was yet to discover the greatest adventure of them all.

The Greatest Adventure

In life driven by a lust for adventure, it may come as a surprise to discover that my greatest — most exciting — adventure of all came from my hobby! In a career characterized by truly unique opportunities, clearly my most exciting involvement emerged from the most unlikely corner imaginable.

Early in my childhood, I became fascinated by the Bible as the Word of God. Despite my pursuit of a math-science major in a leading high school, I still found time for serious study of the Scripture, and I began acquiring a personal library of commentaries and other resources. Even in my Academy days, I participated in pre-reveille Bible studies.

It was during my graduate work in the information sciences that I realized two profound discoveries that were to change my entire perspective about everything:

1) That the Bible, although composed of 66 books, penned by 40 different authors, over thousands of years, is an integrated pre-designed message system; and

2) That the origin of this message system is from outside our time domain. It is truly extraterrestrial in its origin.

The degree of integration of design among the 66 books is astonishing. I don't simply mean that there is a theme in the Old Testament which is fulfilled in the New Testament. It goes far deeper than that. I believe that every number, every place name, even the hidden structures behind the text itself, bear evidence of precise, skillful engineering.¹

Furthermore, it becomes empirically demonstrable that the origin of this message transcends the dimension of time itself. The record unabashedly records history in advance! The message is thus authenticated by manifesting its extraterrestrial origin.

The implications of these two insights are absolutely staggering. They tower over every other discovery conceivable on the Planet Earth. The reality of this book — as a precisely designed message from the Creator Himself — totally eclipses any other priorities we might undertake.

The challenge for each of us is to blindfold our prejudices and discard our preconceptions, and then discover what the Bible really says, and begin to apprehend its implications for each of us — from the miracle of our origin to the mystery of our destiny.

We discover that there is a cosmic warfare going on and we are the objects of this invisible conflict. And our own eternal destiny will result from our relationship with the protagonist who emerges victorious! This is wild! What could be more exciting?

This is far more fantastic than the wildest fantasy in literature — and far more intimately urgent than any other priorities on our personal horizons.

You have the opportunity, not only to discover more about all of this yourself, but to share it with those who are also anxious to learn all they can!

Each Bible study session is, in effect, an empirical experiment in the supernatural! Our real teacher is the Holy Spirit, and there is no event that is more staggering in its implications than to experience the moving of the Spirit in revealing some new truth hidden in His Word. And it will happen. It may be some unforseen insight that emerges as you prepare in private. Often, it will emerge in a discussion within the intimacy of the group. But just watch: it will prove to be among the most exciting experiences possible — the palpable touch of God Himself, right there in the living room!

1. My book, Cosmic Codes, explores the diverse design aspects evident in the Biblical text.