Who Is Daniel Knight?

Who is this Daniel Knight, and what qualifies him to write this blog?

Like Hank Hanegraaff, my parents were Dutch immigrants. They first emigrated to Canada (Hanks family came to the US). They were from the Reformed tradition and helped transplant their faith to their new homeland, part of a wave of Dutch immigrants responsible for establishing dozens and dozens of Christian Reformed congregations across Canada. (For an overview of that period, see The Dutch Reformed Presence in Canada.)

My parents brought their three sons to Grand Rapids, Michigan, in early 1963 so my father could do youth work for the denomination. We had all been baptized as infants, brought up in the church, attended Christian schools, and had devotions with breakfast and dinner every day. I took to Reformed theology like a duck to water and made profession of faith (our version of confirmation, believer's baptism, etc.) at 16. Unlike Hank, I never turned my back on the faith.

The following summer my family went back to Canada, and a year later I left for Trinity Christian College in suburban Chicago. There I made friends with believers from different traditions - Baptists, Lutherans, Adventists, Presbyterians, Catholics, and Reformed. And I struggled with issues like infant baptism vs. believer's baptism - and how to reconcile the faith of my friends who were Christians but share the theology I grew up believing was the best and most true theological system.*

After two years at Trinity, I switched to Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI, just a few blocks from my parents' new home after immigrating once again. Here I once again gravitated to those from different traditions, and I eventually graduated with a group major in English, history, and philosophy. I had originally wanted to become a pastor, but my inability to learn foreign languages ended that plan. Journalism would have been a great path, but there was no journalism program in that era. I did take every writing course offered.

I worked a lot of retail jobs over the years, and my writing and analysis skills always helped. When the fledgling World-Wide Web came into public consciousness, I began my own websites in 1997 - LowEndMac.com for Mac users who want to get the most out of existing gear, and Reformed.net (since defunct and now being replaced by the Dutch Reformed Wiki) to share my research while attending seminary.

Over the years, I have become convinced that God is more interested in our having a relationship with Him than in our having perfect theology. I believe that you can have some less-than-perfect beliefs (after all, we are imperfect beings living in a broken world) and still be welcomed into God's family. Truth matters, but so do love, acceptance, and encouragement. As Hank often says, there are secondary issues that need not divide us as God's redeemed. Not that good theology isn't important, but without faith, it doesn't transform our lives.

I have belonged to Christian Reformed, Reformed, Episcopalian, and Evangelical Covenant churches and currently attend an undenominational one. I worship alongside people from many different traditions, and it is Christ who unites us.

I have been listening to The Bible Answer Man since October 2012 and am a big fan of Hank Hanegraaff, even if we don't share the same view on every issue. But that's part of God creating each of us different - not even identical twins are exactly the same. We need to become the unique people God planned for us to be, accepting that others are just as unique and loving them as God's creation.

* The Christian Reformed Church has a long history of being theologically rigorous. It has sometimes spent years and even decades debating issues such as the role of women in church office, the charismatic movement, and the issues associated with homosexuality, as well as whether it was permissible to dance (handled back when I was in college). I have great appreciation for the theological rigor, but less appreciation for the name calling and polarization that has so often taken place over these issues, sometimes to the point of entire groups leaving the denomination to form their own group over what many consider to be secondary issues.