Editorial

Isaac Makashinyi

My first acquaintance with John Calvin and Calvinism came over two decades ago, when I was still in high school. I had just become a Christian, and with no one to disciple me, I was personally determined to increase my knowledge and broaden my understanding of the Christian faith. So I did not allow any Christian book to lie idle. With nobody to guide my reading, I laid my hands on anything which I believed to be Christian literature. The few books I read at that time were devotionally helpful, but did not seem to challenge my thinking very much.

Then one Wednesday evening, I happened upon a Christian radio programme on one of Zambia’s local stations. It was a weekly preaching/teaching programme called “Meditative Moments,” and the host was the pastor who is now the editor of this magazine. The style of his preaching, the theological depth of its contents, and his stirring applications made me an instant and avid listener to this programme. With time, I noticed that the Christian messages he taught on this programme sounded different from the spiritual diet I had been brought up on in my own denomination, and that put my inquisitive and curious mind into top gear. When I inquired from a number of people concerning this programme, the preacher and the kind of church he hailed from, I was told he was a Calvinist and his church was Calvinistic

(1:3).