Last week two young ladies knocked on my door with bibles and tracts in their hands. I thought to myself that they were very oddly dressed for Jehova's Witnesses! It turned out they were from a local church and were going door to door in my neighborhood. I was intrigued because I had done this very thing when I was younger, so I was sort of waiting to see what they said and how they handled my responses. One of the girls seemed to be the main spokeswoman and she started right off. "If you died tonight, why would God let you into His heaven?" I told her that I had hope in the righteousness of Christ being imputed to my account, that my own righteousness was like filthy rags before God and could never measure up to Christ's life. I said I was trusting that God would look at me and see the righteousness of Christ and that would be why He lets me into heaven.
This girl looked at me with a confused look on her face and said, "Yes, that's good... but you need to accept Christ!" Such is the lingo of Christendom today. I used it all the time several years ago. But even though I was caught up in it, I can still today wonder how an expression that isn't even in the Bible came to be superior (in soul winning) to the fundamental doctrines of how we can become just in the eyes of God.
These girls were sincere, but misguided I think. Suppose I had not been a real christian but instead was a seeker. And further more, suppose I had been contemplating my own wickedness and realizing, through reading of the perfection demanded by God, that I had no chance of meriting His approval. Now just as all this was happening, if these girls had knocked on my door and I had told them what I had been thinking, they would have told me not to worry about all that other stuff....just accept Jesus! Such a line of thinking is very dangerous because it interupts God's natural way of working new life in someone and gives them a false assurance of salvation.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
i agree, that our christian culture(myself included!) are lacking in bibilical knowledge and keeps getting worse. i think a lot of it is due to the way the church is leaning, more towards "cultural relevance"(which isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's just very difficult to do and maintain the depth of the gospel.
However, i'm not sure how old those girls were or where they were at spiritually but at least they were getting out there, attempting to witness to others, which is more than we can say for most christians. They may not have understood exactly what you were saying(shoot, i even got lost at some points:) )or may have been prepped as to what to say and were caught off guard. I remember that when i first became a christian, being told we need to witness to others but being scared to death. I also think that witnessing "methods" mature as you mature, not only spiritually but in age as well. I definitely think there's an issue with just "accepting Christ" and nothing else follows but it's our job as the church to rectify that. I think it's great that those girls were getting out there and actually doing something. I also think that God will honor that, if they truly had pure intentions, and can work through even those girls, as unknowedgeable as they seemed to maybe be. I just remember what it was like wanting so badly to share the gospel, to share what God is doing in your life but being scared and uncertain as to what to say! i mean, crap! you're talkin about salvation here! I even memorized a ittle thing off something to help me! A-B-C! ha it seems silly now but it helped me and helped me lead others to Christ. We were also stressed the importance of discipleship after making a decision to follow Christ. ok, i'm babbaling here. i'm spent:)
Let me modify my remards. I agree, it was courageous of those girls to go door-to-door attempting to share the gospel. I can admire them for that. However, I would not necessarily say that it is good that they were out there. It is also courageous for JWs to go knock on doors. It is not good that they do go though. If someone's view of the gospel is so twisted, that they are effectively either preaching a different gospel to people, or assuring people of salvation when there should be no assurance, then what is happening couldn't really be called good in the true sense of the word. I don't think I mentioned with in my post, but these girls actually told me that once a person accepts Jesus, even if he/she didn't go to church or have good works for the rest of his/her life, they are saved. A casual reading of the first three chapters of James and some of the things Jesus said would show that comment to be wrong. One other thing I should say is that it seemed to me that they hadn't really thought through everything they were saying. Rather it seemed that they had memorized a script and were relying on what older people had told them. So, much of the blame could be laid to those other people and not with those girls. Finally, I do want to say that I have done what they were doing, and I have been guilty of spreading half-truths and outright untruths concerning what God has said or revealed. And I would have to say that I did it in ignorance, perhaps like these girls .
i completely agree with you about it not being good to just "Get out there" as the Mormons do a much better job of that than most Christians. and it definitely helps that you clarified some more of the conversation. I thinlk i was just wanting to be careful not to jump to conclusions about those girls and think they were out ruining the Gospel(exaggeration here) because they were not using the "right words" or what we might perceive to be the right words(or wrong words for that matter). i agree that it's a huge problem that those girls think that you can basically have no fruit in your life and still claim Christ.I don't think it's necesariy wrong for them to have a script or have been prompted as to what to say becuase they may need that at that age HOWEVER clearly they are lacking in some of the very essential parts or whatever of being a Christian. I'm glad you clarified cuz it makes more sense now rather than it just being a matter of difference in words or even in the whole irresitable grace idea(ok i had to throw that in there. predestination has been on the brain today due to a convo with a girl at work. ask your wife about it, she got to hear all the details:))anyways, basically, i concur:)
Post a Comment