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So do you feel that it was your epiphany about the Bible that really changed a lot of your core beliefs? Did you hang on to the basic doctrinal beliefs after you left the UPCI? Did you exit the UPCI with the same basic set of beliefs with which you entered? Was your change in beliefs gradual or did you immediately put down everything you weren't sure about or found disagreeable?
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I was a three stepper the whole time I was in the UPC and for quite a while after we left. I can't remember how many years it was before I became a one stepper but the initial change was only about standards. I understood them as scriptural applications rather than bible law. (Which was really my first step away from the Bible as a black and white rule book.) That was the only change for a long time. Then, I began to feel that people who were baptized in the titles were also baptized in Jesus name because they believed in Jesus and the preacher said I baptize you in the NAME of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost....which is the same thing.
I entered the UPCI with a very, very loose set of beliefs which mirror loosely what I believe now. I was so excited about my new relationship with God, completely non-judgmental, full of curiosity about God, soaking up things like a sponge. I would have done ANYTHING, (almost) that they told me to do. I had only good thoughts about the people, thinking they all loved God passionately, just like me. I was very young, very naive, ripe for anything.
My revelation about standards was sudden, immediate. However, I could not change outwardly for four more years, when we left. And I had a great deal of time to think about it.
Everything else has been very gradual over time. And I haven't landed. What's more, I feel no need to. I would like to be a little more landed than I am, but I never want to stop growing and learning or to the point that I feel I know everything and am therefore, your instructor.
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