At about the age of five, his mother began to teach him the alphabet. He learned very quickly how to read and write, before he started to school. He was always willing and glad to go to Sunday School with his mother, took a great interest in the sermon, and what the Sunday School teacher had to say about the creation of the world, and about God's great plan. Little Robert went to church one day and the preacher took his text from 1 Thes. 4:16-18, "For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words." Robert was very much interested in this sermon, and asked his mother to explain how the Lord could descend from Heaven and what kind of vehicle we would ride in if we were caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. His mind puzzled over this for weeks and months, and he was anxious to understand more about it. He said, "Mother, I should like to meet the Lord in the air." His mother said, "You will be able to do so some day, Bobbie." When in Sunday School one day, the teacher read from 2 Thes. 1:7-8, "And to you who are troubled rest with us; when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." The preacher said that the Lord had placed the rainbow in the sky as a testimony that he would never again destroy the world by water, but explained that God would come again in a flame of fire and thus take vengeance on those who did not believe and destroy the world by fire. Robert wanted to know if the good Lord who loves us so much would destroy the world and all of those in it. His mother explained that God would destroy those that were sinners and rebelled against him and had not accepted his word.