Y COLLEGE PROFESSORS HAD accomplished their mission. They had taught me to be skeptical of everything I heard and knew—including my Christian beliefs. I was on the verge of becoming an atheist.

Steeped in classes about Marxism, I had learned (and almost believed) that religion was a human institution designed to hoodwink people into subservience. Karl Marx had pointed out that religion, including Christianity, was designed to drug people so they wouldn’t know what was happening around them.

Christianity’s Checkered Past
In Africa Communists accuse both Christianity and Islam of “stealing” land and other resources. It seemed that Christianity, as promoted by missionaries, was used to prepare the way for European or Middle Eastern colonists. The Bible (and the Koran) preceded the gun, teaching people to humble themselves and accept authority because “every ruler was God-ordained.” Indigenous people gave up their traditions, means, minerals, and other resources in the name of humility; something akin to turning the other cheek (Matt. 5:39).

Our professors taught us that when Africans finally opened eyes that had been closed in prayer, they found they had no land. Africa’s wealth was taken, and its people languished and lagged behind in socioeconomic and political development. The overarching poverty of the continent, compared to the splendor of the Christian and Muslim cathedrals, mosques, temples, and churches, was too painful to contemplate.

Where was God in all of this? The only conclusion was that religion was simply a means by lazy but clever and powerful individuals to make others work for them in order to satisfy their extravagant lifestyles.

As a student of geography I also learned that God was absent from explanations about natural formations. Mountains, I was told, “made themselves” when continental plates collided with each other.

“But who made the continental plates?” I asked.

“You’re asking too many questions,” came the answer.

Darwin’s theory of natural selection started to make sense to me. Furthermore, some professors emphatically stated that there were no absolutes in life. Everything was relative.

I didn’t know what to believe. All I knew was that finally I had alternatives to Christianity. I had reached a crisis of belief—the valley of my indecision.

My Foundation
My parents had taught me to honor Christ with whatever level of schooling I received. They’ve never gone to school, I thought. Like many Christians, they have been outwitted by more highly educated people. What do they know? They too have been seduced by a foreign religion that has actually destroyed and usurped their former belief system.

Yet much as I tried to dispel the teachings of my parents, I failed to disprove the fact that I had not really given Christianity the same attention I had given to other teachings. “Whatever you do, praise God from whom all blessings flow,” my father used to say. “The Creator loves His children so much that He was willing to die for them. You don’t have to go to school to believe that.” That “wisdom” always shielded me from leaving the God who loved and died for me (John 3:16).

But truth had to stand on its own, I thought. The Bible had to speak for itself. The teachings of my church were obviously inadequate in explaining my heart’s probing questions and my desire to know the Saviour. I believed that in its desire to adapt to societal demands, my church had lost its meaning and reason for existing.

I read the Scriptures more intensively and extensively than I had ever done before. One day I came across one of Jesus’ questions that brought me up short: “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark 8:36, 37, NKJV). Of what value is a college degree if, in the process of acquiring it, I eternally separate myself from God? I thought. What would I give in exchange for my life?

I greatly admired a friend from secondary school, Maurice, once a staunch Roman Catholic, as a man of God. But I learned he had practically stopped going to church. I didn’t understand why.

One evening I asked him, “Why don’t you go to church anymore?”

His answer surprised me. “In four years you’ll end up where I am if you don’t join another church, such as the Seventh-day Adventists.”

Back to the Bible
Although my heart’s desire was to search for the church that taught the truth of the Bible, the Seventh-day Adventist Church was the last one I’d consider. I knew Adventists. My older brothers and sister were Adventists. As far as I knew, the main things that separated us were the Sabbath and baptism by immersion (I found out later about other contributions that Adventists have made to the understanding of Scripture).

My entire family dearly loved the Lord. We never smoked, ate pork, cursed, or did anything to dishonor God. The only difference between me and them was that they were hung up on a day. One of my older brothers tried for a long time to make me “switch” to his church, but to no avail. I always asked him, “Why can’t you be a seven-day Adventist?”

And he always answered, “When you come to know how sweet the Sabbath is, then you’ll understand.”

I assured him that such a time would never come.

During the university’s year-end vacation I had ample time to reflect and study my Bible. God became real to me again. I found the teachings of the Seventh-day Adventist Church to be biblically sound and uplifting. I read the book The Great Controversy, among others. My brother graciously and patiently answered my questions.

Even then I had more questions for and about God. For example, why had God never revealed Himself to Africans? Then I was led (by God, I believe) into a fascinating study. I discovered that God had used Africa (Egypt) to save His people, the Israelites, from starvation during the seven-year famine when Joseph was governor (Gen. 41:37-45:28). In Egypt God provided a leader, Moses, who led the children of Israel through the Red Sea on through their journey into Canaan (Ex. 14). When King Herod sought the life of the Saviour-child, God’s Son and His parents sought refuge in Africa (Matt. 2:13-23). When the Saviour, tired, thirsty, hungry, was being dragged toward Golgotha, an African named Simon helped Him carry the cross (Matt. 27:32; Mark 15:21; Luke 23:26). After Jesus returned to heaven, one of the first to be converted was an African (Acts 8:26-40). I became convinced that God has a special place in His heart for Africa and its people.

The Next Step
After I found Africa in the pages of Scripture, I was ready for the Bible to tell me more. I was now interested in the Sabbath. I didn’t think it was that important to go to church on Saturday. As long as one kept one day out of the seven, I reasoned, one was keeping the Sabbath. Didn’t Paul advise people that it did not make any difference which day people kept (Rom. 14:5, 6)? I particularly enjoyed reading objections some authors and preachers leveled against Sabbath observance.

I studied about the origins of Sunday worship, and how there’s no scriptural basis for the change from Saturday to Sunday. I learned that the Sabbath was instituted at the very beginning of human existence (Gen. 2:1-3); that it is the sign between God and humans so that they can know that He is the Lord their God (Eze. 20:20); that the Sabbath will be observed in heaven (Isa. 66:23); and that it is the cornerstone of the moral law that identifies whose we are and the extent of His dominion over us (Ex. 20:8-11).

Jesus informed His listeners that He is the Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:28). In this busy world the Sabbath is one of the God-given guarantees of His love for us. Once a week God invites us to spend with Him a day that He calls His “delight” (Isa. 58:13, 14). I found it ironic that the very day God wanted us to remember was the one humans are bent on forgetting.

God won. If I was going to get lost, it was not because God did not care or provide enough evidence. I realized that He loves us so much that unschooled people, like my parents, and schooled scientists, like Sir Isaac Newton, could believe in Him. I thanked God for giving me parents who taught me to choose well. They advised me that if I became too educated to value God as a spiritual reality in my life, my schooling would amount to nothing.

I decided to listen to Jesus. I heard Him declare that He is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).

From Student to Witness
I am now a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, God’s church. It has helped me to know my Saviour better. I have a long way to go, but I know that by beholding Him I will be changed into His likeness. What do I have to lose except my sins and heavy burdens?

The church would do well to pray for its young people, especially those in college. Many need our prayerful and moral support as they face valleys of indecision by professors who bombard them with things that tend to make them question their beliefs about their Creator, Lord, and Saviour.

I thank God for missionaries who dedicate their lives in spreading the good news of the Lord. Their mission is often misunderstood. They should understand that Christianity has been used to advance Western, not necessarily Christian, values (but that’s another issue).

The bottom line is that Jesus wants us to live with Him. When I faced my valley of indecision, when I had to choose between Jesus and everything else, I chose Christ.

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D. Chongo Mundende is director of the Policy Research and Analysis Center at Langston University in Langston, Oklahoma. He attends the Edmond Seventh-day Adventist Church, where he is the Pathfinder leader.