Kevin Swanson of Generations and pastor at Reformation Church in Elizabeth Colorado describes his upbringing and crisis of faith. Kevin had a very unusual childhood and his parents did their best to prepare him for holiness.

Well, welcome to the Church and Family Life podcast. Thank you for joining us. We're always here to proclaim the sufficiency of Scripture, and of course the sweetest result of embracing the Word of God is the salvation of the soul. And so we're here to talk with Kevin Swanson about the story of his life and the salvation of his soul. And of course, Jason, here we are again, talking to one of our dear friends.

I've heard bits and pieces of this, but I'm looking forward to hearing sort of the coherent whole. Yeah, yeah. So Kevin Swanson, pastor at Reformation Church in Elizabeth, Colorado, and the voice of Generations, that wonderful, wonderful radio program, and the founder of The World View, a really great summary, five-minute summary every day of the news. So good work, Kevin. Thank you for your curriculum as well.

Really good curriculum. Please go out and buy the curriculum. It's based on the Word of God, and its intent is to praise God in everything. So, okay. So, Kevin, we want you to tell us the story of your life and how the Lord rescued your soul, how He snatched you out of the raging waters that were too strong for you.

So tell us about it. Yeah, yeah. Well, I'm 56 years old, Scott, so I'm almost as old as you. But I'm thankful that God gave me godly parents who are still praying for us and praying for the grandchildren, now the great grandchildren. My mother is I think 86 years old, my father about the same age, and they're missionaries in Japan.

I think a lot of what I'm doing in my life is an extenuation of some of the things that they began. My father was very committed to Christian education, committed to creationism, committed to a reformed doctrine effectively, which as I would say is just a recognition of the sovereignty of God and the centrality of God in all things. So very strong parents. Now my parents initially were I would say fairly broadly evangelical in the 1960s and I Was was discipled by my parents early on my mother led me in the the Sinners prayer I would say when I'm about four years old. She was leading my sister in the sinner's prayer and I was listening on and saying, hey, I want to be part of this too.

And so then she wrote my name, the date, the time in the inside cover of my Bible, which might have served a bit as my assurance for a short time. You know how that goes. But my parents were, you know, broadly evangelical, and they were thinking that you lead a child to an immediate profession of faith as soon as possible. And so I would say not so much recognizing the sovereignty of God, the inner working of the Holy Spirit. And so so then I was very much part of my parents, you know, the discipleship program.

My dad really took Bible reading very seriously and so we would do our Bible reading every day. I remember from 720 a.m. To 8 a.m. My dad was very scheduled about the whole thing. And so it was all very good.

We listened to sermons. We were on the mission field in Japan from the time I was five years old until I was 16 years old on the southern island of Kyushu, somewhat separated from the rest of society. We had Japanese friends, of course. We invited them to our Sunday schools and to our church services. But then my dad got a hold of Al Martin, familiar with Al Martin.

He was a reformed Baptist pastor from New Jersey, I believe. And we had the reel to reels, we had the cassettes, and we'd been listening to this brother in Christ who just had such a powerful ministry and such an important influence on our family early on. And I can remember being so convicted of my sins and realizing that I was a sinner, I needed Christ. And I began to understand the work of Christ on the cross for me that was accomplished and done on the cross. And to put my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as the prophet, the priest, the king, my prophet, my priest, and my king.

And so it was around that period of time where I began to understand what true faith was, to trust in Christ alone, to repent of my sins, yes, to turn away from my sins, to hate my sins, but to turn to Christ for salvation from my sins and to turn in faith to him. And that would have been when I was probably 11 or 12 years of age. There's an incident that stands out in my mind around that period of time. I did not like my brother. If I could say I hated my younger brother Eric.

I was very much in competition with him. I was a very proud young man and envious of how my parents seemed to pay more attention to him than to me. These sorts of things were playing strongly in my heart, my mind. I remember running, kind of racing my brother, you know, you're in competition with your brother and you're just racing. And he was gaining on me.

I could hear him gaining on me as we're running down from where we parked our car down to our home in Karatsu, Japan. And he's gaining on me. And so I most insidiously paused just for a second and, and just let my left leg hang out just a tiny little bit. So he tripped over my leg, went flying airborne into the sewer ditch that ran alongside our home. And that convicted me of my sin.

I'm hearing this preaching, I'm realizing what a sinner I am. I came face to face with the wretchedness of my condition. I hated the fact that I hated my brother. And I think more than anything else, It was that sin that convicted me and drew me into Christ. And I cried out for his salvation.

He saved me. He saved me from that sin. And I came to the point where I really loved my brother. He became my favorite brother. And the Lord just put his love into my heart for my brother.

And so I think that that was a period of time in which there was such a transformation in my life. Perhaps that was the moment at which I was truly converted. That would have been somewhere between 11 and 13 years of age. Now around that period of time, I also asked my father if I could do a little more study for family worship. And I asked my father if I could lead family worship on Mondays and my father said, sure.

So I began to exposit the book of Romans, the book of Titus. It took a few books and created what I called family Bible studies when I was about 11 or 12 or 13 years of age. As you know, I've continued that practice even to this day. Here I'm 56 years of age. I'm still working on family Bible studies guides.

So what is that? 43 years of working on Family Bible Study guides. And as you know, I've worked through the book of Proverbs, the book of Psalms, I've done all 150 Psalms, as well as Genesis and a few other books. Also, We use J.C. Ryle's family Bible study guides as well, through the Gospels.

But those were some of the early years. And then I eventually matriculate into junior college, and then off to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where I got my undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering. Around that time, I would say my college years are not years of growth for me. The years up to that where I'm in the home, my dad is seriously discipling us every day, we're listening to thousands of sermons, mostly from Al Martin. I'm growing, our family's growing, my siblings are growing, It's a beautiful time.

But come stateside, getting involved in the local church, not a very healthy church as I recall. And yet, I think a lot of it was my fault not leaning into the discipleship or whatever sermons and messages were being delivered at that time. It was a very small, little reforming Baptist church in San Luis Obispo, California. I ran for student body president and I began to be influenced somewhat by Francis Schaeffer and some of his work during those years and see somewhat of obligation for Christians to be salt and light in various aspects, begin to get involved in the pro-life thing. But sadly, I'm not really growing very much in the local church.

We talked about how important it is to be a part of the local church and growing into the local church. I'm just not seeing that happening in my college years. I think for that reason, I'm not seeing much of a spiritual growth through those years, those college years. It's not as if I'm going wayward, I'm still attending the church, I'm still involved in pro-life ministries, I'm student body president, I'm standing up for biblical principle, and yet not seeing a good measure of spiritual growth. That's really due to the fact that I'm not really plugged in with the local church as I should be, attending services, but not leaning into the discipleship and the shepherding of the church.

So, you know, looking back, I see some lack there. And then I graduate, began to get involved in the work world, still not growing very much, not mortifying my sinful lusts as I should. And I can remember times in which I'm watching too many R rated movies, this sort of thing. And I find this to be a real hindrance to my spiritual growth during those years. Nobody was talking to me about my media choices.

Nobody's holding me accountable in some of these areas. And I find it essential for us to maintain that shepherding, that discipling with our young people in our churches today. So one of my commitments today is to be sure that young people continue to have some kind of discipling shepherding opportunities in the local church. But I didn't have that. And I think was a real negative for me during those years.

And then I get married to Brenda and it seems to me that back into spiritual accountability, now we're exhorting each other, growing together, growing up in Christ together. We're all involved in the local church and increasingly involved in the local churches. So that helps me significantly. So Kevin, how did you meet Brenda? Well, it's interesting.

It was around that time that I met a brother by the name of Jeff Peters. And I was commenting to my wife about this the other day that was Jeff Peters that helped to sort of bring me back into the body life of the church but it was really a small group of young people that were getting together and and discipling each other and watching videos of preaching. And then we began to teach through the 10 commandments. Remember we did that. And then I suggested that we get through a confession of faith.

So I just grabbed the Westminster Confession of Faith, which my father had taught us on the mission field in Japan years earlier. And so I began to work through the Westminster Confession of Faith chapter by chapter. And Brenda Barnett was there. She was part of this small group of five or six people and she was there going, amen, amen, not a yes, amen, brother, I'm with you. And that's really exciting for a young man who's looking at getting married.

So, you know, By the time we hit chapter 17, I think we were married. So I don't know if we ever finished that study. But I think we were somewhere around the 17th chapter, the West visit confession of faith, we were married. And it was A beautiful thing. And praise God, I found a godly wife.

And here's one other thing, brothers. It wasn't as if godly wives were growing, you know, on trees all over the place in Southern California at the time. I mean, it was barren. It was barren. I look back at some of the relationships I had.

I mean, it was just temporary getting to know the young ladies, but I had never met somebody who was so committed to Jesus as my wife. And so it was a beautiful thing. I think that was the thing that was a turning point in my life and brought me out of this plateau era in my life. And so, you know, the rest is history, but there's also significant growth. There's mortification of sin.

And here's something very significant. Just eight, nine, 10 years ago, as you know, brothers, we began to see pastors, Christian leaders of ministries fall into sexual sin and these sorts of things. I began to realize that we need to up our, our disciplines, our spiritual disciplines and, and these, these sexual temptations, these sexual sins, not even a hint amongst the church of Christ and certainly among the pastors and the elders in the churches. And, you know, that was a wake-up call for me. That was significant just eight, nine, ten years ago.

A huge wake-up call. I remember gathering the brothers in our church together, saying, brothers, we need to get it all on the table, all of it. If there is any hint of sexual temptation falling into sexual temptation, pornography or what have you amongst us, let's confess it all, you know, and began to hold each other in a much tighter accountability amongst the elders in our church, the deacons. So that, the last 10 years has been a massive time of growth for myself, for my fellow elders, and for our local church. So again, that would be, I think, my spiritual journey in a nutshell.

Pete Ames Amen. Kevin, who, name some books, name some preachers that helped you the most. Kevin Deese Well, you know, looking back when I was a young boy, I'd say AWP sovereignty of God was very important to me. Lorraine Bettner's reform doctrine of predestination, just understanding more of the sovereignty of God that was so, so important, so strengthening for my faith in those early years. Also some of the Puritan books, Thomas Brooks, Mute Christian Under the Rod, Thomas Watson's Heaven Taken by Storm.

These are some of the books that stand out in my mind as very encouraging, very strengthening for me. Also one of the most powerful books, wow, that I read early on was Joseph Aligns, An Alarm to the Unconverted. I don't know if you've ever read that book, wow, that that make me sit up and pay attention. During some of those years, you know, 11, 12, 13, 14 years of age, as I, you know, the Lord is convicting me of my sin and drawing me to himself. He used those books for my benefit.

I think also all things work together for good. I think it was Watson's, all things work together for good. I think it was Watson's, all things work together for good. So some of those early Puritan books were very influential in my life as well. Favorite preachers?

Well early on it was Al Martin. I think eventually, As of 10 years ago, thanks be to God, Martin Lloyd-Jones sermons were released on mljtrust.org. And I can remember taking the three months sabbatical some eight years ago. And I called up a number of pastors said, you know, give me the pastor I need to be listening to. You know, there's John Piper, John McClough, there's all these different pastors, R.C.

Sproul, good pastors around, but give me the guy that I need to be listening to. And the pastor's pastor that is recommended by more pastors than anybody else, I think, is going to be Martin Lloyd-Jones. And so I listened to about a thousand sermons from Martin Lloyd-Jones. Yeah, our family did. In fact, one of our daughters, even to this day, I think she's been listening to a Martin Lloyd-Jones sermon every morning for about seven years.

So she'll be in the bathroom on a morning and you know, there's Martin Lloyd Jones preaching from the bathroom. We hear the tones of that Welsh preacher more than anybody else in our home. Very helpful, very helpful. I can remember back when I was in my MDiv training, I took a Master's in Divinity course 21 years ago, whatever it was, but Lloyd-Jones Preaching and Preachers, I wore the book out, had to buy another one, but you know, just fantastic, just wonderful, so helpful. I would see Martin Lloyd-Jones the greatest gift to the church in the 20th century.

So very thankful for that man of God. Amen. Well, Kevin, man, I really appreciate you telling us the story. You know, what sticks, a lot of things stick out of my mind, but particularly for, you know, any young men that are listening, you know, how do you identify a wife to marry? Look for the girl who's saying, amen.

How about that? Look for a holy woman. And I'm glad you married Brenda. She's a happy follower of Jesus, and what a blessing it is to know her. I'm glad she married you.

She really took on a hard case, but It turned out pretty good. That's for sure. She's also a prayer warrior. And that I think has been key in the ministry. People ask me who should I marry if I'm interested in getting into the ministry.

I'd say somebody who is dedicated to prayer, absolutely dead to rights, dedicated to prayer. And various aspects of her passwords usually include words like I like to pray or something like that. That identifies her. But yeah, she's a prayer warrior. And anytime we need to pray, anywhere, anytime, we pray together.

And we have made it through so many spiritual wars together. I would not have survived had it not been for a prayer warrior, a faithful and hopeful who came alongside me and would pray with me through the ministry challenges. Amen. Okay, Kevin, thank you. Thank you so much.

You're welcome. God bless you. Yeah, God bless you. And thank you for joining us on the Church and Family Life podcast. What a blessing it is to know a God who would rescue a boy whose heart was full of hatred and he would convict him and save his soul and teach him how to love for the rest of his life.

What a God, what a kind Savior. So thank you for joining us on this podcast. Also, we have a father-daughter retreat coming up. You might be interested. We're going to do it in Ridgecrest.

We're going to invite a whole bunch of people. We're calling it fearless, and we want to see fearless fathers and daughters. We're basing it on the statement of the apostle Paul, God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and sound mind. We're praying for fathers and daughters like that. So hope you can join us.

Go to our website to check it out, and we'll see you next time on the podcast. Thanks for listening to the Church and Family Life podcast. We have thousands of resources on our website, announcements of conferences coming up. Hope you can join us. Go to ChurchAndFamilyLife.com.

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