TEACH BIBLE AT A STATE UNIVERSITY, TWO packed classes each semester. One class is always an introduction to Bible stories; the other is either Old Testament or New Testament. Nearly all my students claim to be Christians, although few attend church. About half are Catholics; about a quarter are mainline Protestants, such as Lutherans, Methodists, or Presbyterians; and the rest are Evangelicals or Fundamentalists of some sort. It's a challenging mix-what pleases one group may offend another.

One thing I've learned is to be careful about judging students by their outward appearance. If I want "to seek and to save the lost," I can't be too squeamish about their appearing lost when they come to class. I've also discovered that some of the most dedicated young Christians do not look like Young Republicans.

I'd like to introduce you to some of my wonderful students, children of God, seekers after righteousness, and tell you about some of their struggles and victories.

No Two Are Alike
Mike* generally covers his shaved head with a knit cap. Every time I see him my first thought is that he's been in an accident and has a suture sticking out of his eyebrow. It's just a ring, but it looks painful. Mike rarely talks, but he listens carefully and spends a couple hours studying the Bible for each hour he spends in class.

Amanda has a large silver stud piercing her tongue. She waves her tongue around as if it were hot with infection-very distracting. But she's in class and she takes notes, even though she has a hard time talking clearly.

Duane has six rings in each ear, but he's bright and he asks good questions. He seems to be intent on knowing God.

Deepak's parents came from India and are Hindus. Deepak was led to Christ through the novels of Dostoyevsky. When he started out in New Testament class last spring he had a gold earring in each ear. A couple months later they disappeared. I never asked him why.

Deepak and I have become good friends. I gave him a copy of Ellen White's book about Christ, The Desire of Ages, and he has found it very moving. I invited him to church and to Sabbath lunch, and he spent a delightful day with my family. In class and in my office he eagerly accepted what the Bible teaches about what happens when a person dies and about the heavenly sanctuary and the Sabbath.

Recently, though, Deepak was baptized into the Antiochian Orthodox Church -by immersion, three times. I love to watch the Holy Spirit working on his heart as he seeks God's will, even if I don't always agree with his decisions.

Liz's parents are also from India, but they trace their Christian ancestry back to the disciple Thomas. She wears glitter on her cheeks, and she's had blond stripes bleached into the roots of her black hair. A couple weeks ago she came to me after class with a question. "I have a friend who's a Seventh-day Ad-something," Liz began. "And she says the seventh day is still the Sabbath. Is she right?"

"Oh yes," I answered. "That's what the Bible says."

"I'm glad you said that," Liz responded, "because I've started keeping Sabbath."

It seems that she attends a community church that meets in a school every Sabbath morning, teaches Sunday school in a Mennonite church two Sundays a month, and, on the other Sundays, attends her parents' Indian church. Before I could tell her that I too am a Seventh-day Ad-something, our paths divided. But I look forward to continuing that discussion.

Tom talks only in slang: "Yo, like, I mean, chill, dude." But Tom's on fire for God, active in Christian groups on campus, witnessing to anyone who will listen, and he loves his Bible classes because they're so unapologetically biblical-and they build faith. Lately Tom's been wondering about transferring to a Bible college and maybe becoming a youth pastor.

Glen plays Marilyn Manson rock CDs very loudly in his car. He told me, "I'm a Fundamentalist: if the Bible says it, I believe it." I didn't argue with him; I just taught him and prayed for him. He's been as good as his word: whenever I've presented from the Bible something that clearly disagrees with his church's teaching, he's searched the Scriptures and accepted it. He's taken over the youth Sunday school class in his church, where he teaches the historicist interpretation of Daniel and Revelation.

Rich's dad is a conservative Baptist preacher. Like Mike, Rich shaves his head, and his eyebrow is pierced (as well as his ears). He has a goatee four inches long, braided. When he began taking New Testament last year he often slept through class because he was in a rock band that played in bars until 2:00 a.m. He was living with his girlfriend. He claimed to be an agnostic.

Rich and Glen and I began having weekly Bible studies in my office. Now Rich looks the same, but he's married his girlfriend, quit the band, and reconciled with his father. Oh yes, and he's also accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior.

Herman took my Old Testament class last semester. In the student survey he filled out, he identified his religious affiliation as neopagan and claimed to be a devotee of Wicca, a supposedly benign form of witchcraft. Around his neck hung two pendants: a silver cross with a nude woman on it; and a pentagram in a circle, a symbol of satanism. I wondered if the Holy Spirit had somehow moved him to attend my class, or if he came to cause trouble. Oddly enough, though he seemed interested in the Bible, he slept through most of the classes. I wasn't sure if that was the work of God or the other side, but I didn't mind; he continued to read my study guides and look up hundreds of texts.

When Halloween approached, Herman asked for the day off for a religious holiday. "Which holiday is that?" I asked.

"The day of the dead," he answered. Well, at a state university, if I refuse to work on the Sabbath for religious reasons, I'd better be tolerant of the religious beliefs of others, so I gave him the day off without complaint.

Adam was in my New Testament class last spring. I offended him bitterly during the last week of class when we were studying the fall of Babylon in Revelation 18.

The night before, he had driven for hours to see the Dalai Lama, and he came to class enthusiastic about the message of peace, love, and brotherhood he had heard (which sounded to him like what Jesus had taught). I showed how this message is exactly what we can expect from the last-day counterfeiting of Christ, and talked about the difference between what the Dalai Lama says to Western audiences and the demon-drenched Tibetan Buddhism I had witnessed firsthand in China.

Adam understood me to be calling the Dalai Lama the antichrist, and in his final paper he denounced and rejected a Christianity that could be so judgmental and refuse the hand of brotherhood to Eastern religions.

When I read Adam's paper I was heartsick, but after praying about it, I wrote him a long apology, explanation, and a plea to find his answer in Christ.

Six months later Adam appeared at my office door to thank me for that letter. Now he is in a new course I'm teaching about apocalyptic fiction (which includes the reading of The Orion Conspiracy, by Ken Wade, andThe Appearing, by Penny Estes Wheeler). In his first paper for the class, Adam identified himself as "a new believer in Christ."

Who Is Able?
When I teach the Bible's themes and ideas-even though the straight biblical testimony may be at odds with some students' religious traditions-they listen carefully and weigh the evidence because they have learned to trust me. They know I "do it by the Book"; I'm not speculating, but presenting the soundest biblical teaching I know, cut where it may. Pretending to take a neutral stance toward the Bible's inspiration wouldn't work.

Students in my classes are not graded according to what they believe-my "witch" earned an A, and so did Adam. I find, though, that they are hungry for a reason to believe. And part of my job as a teacher is to give them that reason, not to lead them into doubt.

I assume that none of my students are in class simply because of a personal interest. I believe, rather, that they are all there at the Holy Spirit's urging. My job, as God's ambassador, is to present God's Word to them faithfully and lead them into full surrender to Christ, even as I teach the Bible as a work of literature.

*All names have been changed.

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Ed Christian is an assistant professor of English and Bible. He teaches at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania.