[3] According to Rowe, he became an evangelical Christian during his teenage years and planned to become a minister, eventually enrolling at the Detroit Bible Institute for his collegiate education.

While at Wayne State he reported that one particular professor, whose father was a minister but himself an atheist, had remarkable influence on Rowe.

After his graduation from Wayne State, Rowe began his post-graduate education at the Chicago Theological Seminary (CTS).

He reported that it was at this time he began to take a more critical look at the Bible, learn about its origins and meet theologians who, unlike himself, did not have a fundamentalist perspective.

He said that his examination of the origins of the Bible caused him to doubt its being divine in nature, and that he then began to look and pray for signs of the existence of God.