KASPARS OZOLINS
My first post for Proclamation! blog post (back in January, 2019) was my own testimony of coming to faith in Jesus and eventually leaving Seventh-day Adventism and joining the body of Christ. But the story of God’s grace in every believer never ends there. Every one of our days was measured by our Creator from eternity, and just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1), so also he continues to lavish us in Christ with “every spiritual blessing.” In fact, the story of the born-again Christian is one of never-ending grace. It flows from the mercy and love extended to us in the death and resurrection of the Son of God. It pours out day to day as unmerited favor in our Christian walk with God on this fallen earth. It will not even cease at our death since not even death can separate us from the love of God in Christ—indeed death for the believer is the vehicle which brings him to the very presence of Christ. Ultimately, God’s grace will echo throughout all time and be for us a never-ceasing fountain. This even leads Paul to proclaim in Ephesians 2:7 that God’s intention in the coming ages is to show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Yes, the grace of God is a constant and permanent reality in the life of every believer, and my life is a testament to that fact.
My original testimony concluded briefly with a description of my leaving Adventism around the time that I began to attend The Master’s Seminary (TMS) in Los Angeles. I did not fully give the reason, as it is not every day that a PhD graduate decides to subsequently study for a master’s degree! But almost immediately after my conversion, I realized that I was no longer interested in studying linguistics merely as an end to itself. Granted, my fascination with ancient languages was the same both prior to and after my conversion, but I now regarded everything in relation to Christ, even my love of languages. I now had a hunger to deeply study the Word of God among believers. In fact, I realized that I only wanted to do academics in the context of ministry. I wanted to use linguistics in service of the gospel of Jesus Christ and as a way of unlocking God’s Word in its original languages to believers (both pastors and ordinary students of the Bible).
The Master’s Seminary
My time at The Master’s Seminary was truly formative. It was, in many ways, a mix of dark valleys and bright mountaintops for me and my family. Diving into Scripture and theology, I realized how much I had to learn (even though I had prided myself in my Adventist days as a Bible nerd)! The Master’s Seminary instilled in me a wonderful ministry model that valued Scripture as being truly sufficient for life and godliness. Professors were warm and pastoral, encouraging me personally and demonstrating true Christlike character and a sincere love for the gospel. On the other hand, it was also a very difficult time for us, especially financially. To make ends meet, I ended up driving for Uber and often spending late nights away from my family at work on the sprawling streets and freeways of Los Angeles. It was hard for my wife especially, knowing that a PhD graduate was stuck in such a situation with a young family. Yet in God’s providence, Uber offered me a wonderful opportunity to share my faith with strangers, and I had many wonderful encounters that I will always cherish.
As my time at The Master’s Seminary was drawing to a close, I wondered (and worried) about how I was to proceed next. Though I felt called to ministry in a seminary or Bible college context, I was faced with a dilemma. How would I ever compete in such a challenging job market with nothing more than an MDiv and a PhD in a field that was totally unrelated to biblical studies? I can testify now (looking back) that the Lord was leading our family in truly amazing ways.
At Tyndale House
In 2017, my second year of seminary studies at TMS, I happened upon a Facebook advertisement for a summer scholars’ mentorship program at Tyndale House, in Cambridge (the UK). Not to be confused with Tyndale House the US publisher, this institution is a small, yet world-renowned research library which contains one of the world’s best collections of biblical studies books and journals. It is a residential library, meaning that scholars live in community, since no books are allowed to leave the site. Families live on campus and do life together, worshiping in community, having Friday evening barbecues, allowing their children to play carefree. Much important work for the evangelical church has been done at Tyndale House over the decades. The ESV translation was created there two decades ago. Numerous dissertations, scholarly monographs, and multi-year research projects have taken shape at this institution. I believe it is D. A. Carson who once described Tyndale House as his vision of what heaven might look like. So, obviously, I was very interested in such an opportunity to be mentored in a community of faith by more seasoned scholars than me.
After a series of rigorous virtual interviews, in God’s kindness I was able to spend that summer at Tyndale House, a place which I grew to love dearly already then, not even knowing that God would one day allow me and my family to call it our own home. The projects that we were involved in that summer happened to be funded by the Green family, who also designed and funded The Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. Because of this fact, the very next summer (2018), proved to be a fateful one for me. This time, an opportunity for another summer program came up, only it was in Oxford, not Cambridge. Candidates to the program had to have participated in scholarly initiatives that were funded by the Green family, and so it was that I was on my way to Oxford. Actually, it was a very eventful summer, as I actually had spent three weeks in Israel on a study trip along with other TMS students, instructed by a wonderful professor who has since grown to be a dear mentor to me.
Summer in Oxford
The Oxford experience turned out to be part of God’s plan for the next stage in my life. Our group was planning to do a day trip to Cambridge to visit Tyndale House (Oxford and Cambridge have a fairly intense rivalry!). The night before that trip, Peter Williams, the principal of Tyndale House, suddenly emailed me and informed me that there was a job position for which I might be interested in applying. I could barely contain my excitement at this opportunity, and my head was filled with thoughts related to this as we took a bus the next day to Cambridge, and I revisited the place that I had spent the previous summer. I distinctly remember being introduced to two people who would turn out to be my future colleagues and dear friends. Although the usual pleasantries were being exchanged, looking back now it felt a bit strange because some of things they were asking me almost sounded like job interview questions! As the day drew to a close and we were about to head back to Oxford, I remember feeling a little disappointed that I had been unable to meet and talk with Peter Williams about the job position, since he had been so busy hosting us and showing everyone around the library. But I will never forget him saying goodbye to me by the bus and laconically remarking, “We’ll talk soon, Kaspars.”
Back in the States, later that summer I did end up going through the Tyndale House interview process again––only this time it was for a job! I remember locking myself up in my brother’s home to prepare for these two virtual interviews, since our youngest son had just been born and there was chaos at the home. Each interview was a testament to what Tyndale House is. The first was a rigorous examination of what kind of knowledge I really had of ancient languages, especially the biblical languages. Days later, the second interview was of a completely different nature––what were my views of God, of Scripture, of the gospel? Tyndale House truly is that rare combination of world-class biblical scholarship, yet with a strong adherence to the historic Christian faith.
Life in the UK
So it was that in God’s providence, He had called our family to cross the “pond” and start a new life in Cambridge. I will always remember Peter Williams graciously picking us up from the airport. Our suitcases and four-member family made it so that his tiny car felt like it might suddenly burst apart at the seams! The first time we opened that famous red door and stepped inside to our new “flat” (UK lingo for an apartment), I could scarcely believe it. We were going to actually be living here and working on important biblical research, in such an idyllic location, and among such wonderful believers! Over the next three-and-a-half years, many unforgettable memories were made there. In God’s kindness, we weathered COVID-19 there, and looking back, I can’t imagine any other place being a better location for such a strange time. Though it was challenging (as indeed it was for everyone everywhere), our little peaceful campus made the experience much easier than it might easily have otherwise been.
As the years passed, I knew inside that this position was not a permanent one, yet I still cherished a hope that it might one day be made permanent. COVID had made things rather difficult (at least initially), and the number of staff had been reduced somewhat. On one walk we took, Peter made it clear to me that he viewed my time at Tyndale House as an important step along the way to a more permanent position. The old question that was nagging me at TMS suddenly began to resurface: How could I ever hope to find any academic position at a seminary without the relevant PhD? Along with this, my wife and I debated whether we ought to return to Latvia, or go back to the States. Both solutions seemed to be difficult, and no real option was waiting for me in either location.
Yet our sovereign God knew. He had perfectly designed my time at Tyndale House in order to train me as an Old Testament scholar (the project I was working on was related to the Old Testament and its Ancient Near East background). He had also placed me in exactly the right location because over those years as I attended biblical studies conferences and other events (both in the UK and in the States) along with my Tyndale House colleagues, I was building a new network of contacts and scholarly friendships.
An opening at SBTS
In the late summer of 2021, I found out, almost by chance, that Peter Gentry was retiring from his position as professor of Old Testament at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS). Peter Gentry is a world-renowned scholar of the Old Testament, with a focus on the Greek Septuagint, the earliest ancient translation of the Hebrew Bible. One of my colleagues at Tyndale House, who had been at Southern (no, not the Adventist Southern!), informed me as much and encouraged me to look into it. At that point I was not really looking actively for positions, as my post at Tyndale House had recently been extended for a year or two. Around this time, I also had written to a New Testament professor at SBTS, and he had given me the opportunity to do a guest video for his Daily Dose of Greek, a free ministry that gives a teaching video featuring a verse a day from the Greek New Testament. This new contact meant that I could send my CV through him directly to the administration at Southern.
Some time passed, however, and as the annual fall biblical studies conferences (ETS and SBL) came around, I began to wonder whether anything would come from this. Although I had heard from my colleague that there might be some impromptu interviews at The Evangelical Theological Society conference, when it finally came around, there was no news or information about such an interview. Then, while at the conference, my colleague suddenly bumped into me in the hall and excitedly informed me that the dean of SBTS, Dr. York, wanted to meet with me for a talk. I could scarcely contain my excitement and tried to contact him and arrange a meeting. Eventually, it did take place (though there were one or two snags along the way). I remember it being a pleasant experience, but of course, I was also anxious, as is normal for the process.
The campus of Southern is really quite beautiful.
A few months passed without notice, and I was again wondering whether perhaps anything would come from this process. I had really admired SBTS as an institution and was so excited at this opportunity, but I also wanted to be realistic and temper my hopes. Academic positions, especially at seminaries, are very rare these days, and fiercely competitive. Nevertheless, doors began to open for me again in God’s kindness. To make a long story short, I had a few more virtual interviews that eventually led to an in-person interview with the president of SBTS, Albert Mohler. They flew our whole family in April last year and I remember distinctly how nervous and excited I was walking across the beautiful campus of Southern, anticipating such an important interview with the president.
I joke now with my wife about the hunch I told her at the beginning of last year. I had a sneaking suspicion that 2022 would be a very momentous year for our family. I had no proof, only a deep sense in my heart that things were about to change again for our family. After we returned to Tyndale House in April for the last time, I remember sitting with my wife in the garden and praying that God’s will be done as we were about to embark on this new adventure.
God is faithful
It has been almost a year now that I have been a professor at Southern seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and what a year it has been! Teaching is a very demanding profession, especially at the outset, when multiple new courses have to be designed and planned. Our family had a bit of a culture shock settling in the middle of the country, in a state that none of us had ever been to. But the warmth with which we have been received has been humbling. I have wonderful colleagues with whom I feel a profound kinship and collegiality, as we are united on the gospel of Jesus Christ and on the necessity of training men and women to be faithful ministers of that same gospel.
This week Dr. Mohler interviewed me in chapel (testimony starts at 23:00), and I was able to share my testimony of trusting in Christ almost exactly one decade ago, leaving Adventism, and eventually ending up at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Wonder of wonders, God has not only saved me from my wretchedness and darkness, but he has also given me a ministry and provided for my family! I am reminded of the words of Paul, who wrote to his protegé:
I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus (1 Tim. 1:12–14).
Thanks be to God for the immeasurable riches he has lavished upon such a one as me through his beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ!
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