The Bible gives us three ways to know that a person is a true follower of Jesus.
The first is Fruit, what have they created that is good in the world.
The second is Love, do they consistently selflessly serve others.
The third is Falsely Accused, Jesus said, in the Sermon on the Mount, that His true followers would be falsely accused.
For those who care about academic credentials, I skipped a year and a half of K-12 Catholic schools, graduating for Regis High School in Denver at the age of 16 in December of 1976. I dropped out of the University of Colorado in 1979 after three years of Engineering. I graduated summa cum laude in Economics and Finance from the University of Texas at Dallas in 1999. I took all the coursework necessary for teacher certification in 1999 but never got certfied.
My cv can be found on Linkedin. I have corresponded over the years with many top economists, including Tyler Cowen, Russ Roberts, and Don Boudreaux. Reading their blogs and the correspondence has been a big part of my ongoing education. Now I learn a lot from Youtube and have corresponded with many of the top religious and technology folks there.