John Whitcomb

I distinctly remember the phone call. It was the spring of 1999, and I had worked up the nerve to telephone my esteemed professor, Dr. John C. Whitcomb—the man whose reputation caused me to choose my theological seminary five years previously.

To my surprise, he picked up the phone, stirring within me a mixture of relief and horror. It just seemed like it wasn’t the right instant to talk with him, however. I learned he was actually on his way to what would be his final international speaking trip, to London.

The first time I met Dr. John C. Whitcomb,¹ he made me feel like I was greeting an old friend.

You see, Dr. Whitcomb loved people. He had a heart for—a genuine interest in—everyone that he met, including every student in his classroom.

The classroom where we connected on that warm September day was commonly used for seminary classes and chapel at Faith Baptist Theological Seminary in Ankeny, Iowa. The course was called “Biblical Fundamentalism.”