My past is open to examination. I lived it. I am responsible for the choices I made and the harm I caused.
My testimony tells how God brought me back after years of wandering. This page addresses a fair question: what does that history mean for the work I publish now?
Readers have every right to ask about my honesty, judgment, and conduct. Forgiveness does not put those questions out of bounds.
My public words belong in that examination too.
During years of arguing about religion and politics on Facebook, I sometimes answered hostility with hostility. I used insulting, aggressive, and profane language that I should not have used. Sometimes I wanted my words to hurt the person across from me, with little concern for leaving that person’s dignity intact; other times, I spoke before thinking or exercising restraint, then immediately regretted it and resolved to do better. I think God has been teaching me to rely on Him rather than my own best efforts and pep talks. I do know this—whatever the behavior during any disagreement or any other exchange, responsibility for my actions belongs to me.
Some of those exchanges happened before I began writing What God Says Through the Ages, some while writing it, and some even after reaching the editing stages. Being secure in Christ does not mean that, while still living in this body, I have already been perfected as I will be in His presence in the last days. God was working on me before I began writing, throughout those nearly thirteen years, and He is still working on me today.
As my relationship with Him has deepened, I have noticed changes. Words I once might have defended now trouble my conscience almost immediately. I have had to acknowledge what I said, apologize, and correct my conduct. I still slip, but I find myself increasingly wanting to be kinder, more respectful, and less abrasive—even when the disagreement remains.
Sometimes I notice the change afterward: an old response has become less frequent, or a desire no longer has the hold it once did. I thank God for that work within me. I am still receiving the correction found in the Scriptures I spend my days writing about.
If an authentic comment resurfaces, I will not pretend someone else wrote it.
I have removed much of that material because it does not represent how I intend to speak or conduct this work. Removing it does not mean it never happened.
I was responsible for those words. I remain responsible for the words I publish today.
Scripture does not airbrush the people God showed mercy.
Moses killed a man and hid his body in the sand. David committed adultery and arranged the death of an innocent man. Paul persecuted believers and approved when they were put to death.
Their failures remain on the page.
Those accounts show the weight of sin and the reach of God’s mercy. They leave His servants very little room to strut.
The cracks belong to us. The light belongs to God.
My history does not prove that everything I write is true. A dramatic testimony cannot make a mistaken reading of Scripture correct. If I misunderstand a passage, the story of my changed life will not fix the explanation.
The same care belongs on the other side. An old failure can raise a fair question about me. Whether I have explained a biblical passage correctly still requires reading that passage.
Examine both. Neither gives us a reason to dodge the other.
Readers may question my history, challenge what I have written, and point out errors. If I misquote a verse, misrepresent an account, or claim something the passage does not establish, I need correction.
God’s mercy gives me no excuse to duck it.
I ask no one to believe something merely because Jeff Wager wrote it. Open the Bible. Read the passage in context. Check whether my words agree with what is there.
I leave my past unhidden because concealing the need for mercy would conceal the heart of my testimony.
The sin was mine. The mercy was God’s. The glory belongs entirely to Him.
“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” —1 Timothy 1:15
—Jeff Wager
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