It does not take a powerful imagination to appreciate the sense of satisfaction and accomplishment with which Carnell undertook his teaching duties at Fuller Seminary in September 1948. Still a year short of his thirtieth birthday, he had not veered one degree off course since that time ten years earlier when he had caught the vision of how the life of the mind could serve the cause of Christ. With a doctorate from Harvard, the prospect of a second doctorate from Boston University, a prizewinning book on apologetics, a prestigious teaching position, a wife and a baby daughter, and (no small acquisition for the man whose primary interest in high school was a cherished Model T Ford) a brand new Buick Road-master, he was moving ahead with a sense of inner authority. For the first time, the future did not present a formidable array of higher and tougher obstacles. Rather it seemed to level out on a high plain of anticipated accomplishment where he could continue to fulfill even more successfully what he had already demonstrated was his sacred calling.

And for a while, that is exactly how it was.

The pre-presidential years: 1948–1954

The westward move and the new job were exhilarating but not without problems. Finding a place to live topped the list.