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Archive - Spirit of the Word - Covenant Eschatology - Introductory Note - New Stuff
"Never Once!"Hi gang,
In all my years as a musical evangelist and believer in ET--never once-- did I win people to Christ with fear of "hell." Never once did I invite people to receive Him by even using the silly and unbiblical phrase, "Do you know where you will spend eternity?" Many people have surrendered their lives to Jesus Christ in response to the ministry of my wife and I, by the grace of God. But NOT ONE of them came to Him because we ourselves had sown or watered the toxic "seed" of His supposed hopeless abandonment to "hell."
Oh yes, I believed in ET--bigtime--for MYSELF. As many of you know, I spent many sleepless nights worrying about where Charlie might wind up on "Judgment day." But looking back at my ministry, all I can think is that having been subjected to such horrific fear and religious manipulation in my childhood, I JUST COULD NOT BRING MYSELF to keep perpetuating it toward other people.
Why?
Well, it seemed to me that if God's love couldn't woo and win hearts to Christ, then what was the point of producing a few more self-reliant Pharisees who were only going to "serve" Him in order to avoid "hell" and arrive at pie in the sky? These kind of people aren't REALLY serving HIM anyhow; they are serving themselves. For these are the very people who ask those of us who rejoice in UR, "Well, if everyone will be saved eventually, what is the point in my serving the Lord now?"--are they not?
Yep. So it is evident that such ones have no real love for the Lord. All they have is religious bondage. And the really weird thing is that if their doctrine is correct, they are damned to "hell forever" anyhow! For if they thought God wouldn't burn them alive for eternity, they would IMMEDIATELY bail out and go party with the world!
Which MEANS that such performance-based Christians have no real love for God; serving Him is a very heavy burden to them. Which brings me to the real point of this post...
I still have opportunites on occasion to minister in non-UR churches, believe it or not. There is one not far from here that calls on us to come minister periodically.
But here's my frustration:I yearn to win people to Christ, as I've never yearned to before. However, I DO NOT want to win them to Him only to see other Christians lead them immediately into religious bondage afterwards. I don't want new Christians to be "discipled" by THAT church later on to believe that THEY "chose Christ"--and to hell with everyone else who is not as wise and diligent and astute as THEY were! In other words, I don't want to introduce people to the True Jesus and have folks coming behind me introducing them to the antichrist, alias: "Jesus." I'm talking about the little religious jesus that will prove to be only as reliable as THEY are at the end of the day.
I do want to walk in love with my brothers and sisters in Christ who have yet to have revelation of His infinite grace, but on the other hand, I DO NOT WANT to help keep that abusive and self-centered belief system going!!!!
And I don't want to help "mid-wife" (so to speak) spiritual babies into God's Kingdom and then turn them over to the wolves! (By this, I'm not referring to PEOPLE as "wolves", but the LIES that act as wolves, devouring newly hope-filled hearts.)
How can we whole-gospel believers lead folks to Christ, say in a public meeting, and also provide follow-up and nurture that will keep them on the right foundation? I realize that winning INDIVIDUALS whom we meet in our daily lives does not present this kind of problem. But is leading folks to Christ in a public gathering always going to be "followed up" by folks who are steeped (albeit sincerely) in the partialist message?
Anyone have any insights or input?
By the way, our little house-church here CAN have Keith Thompson from England, for example, come hold a Christian concert (in a school hall we occasionally rent) and win people to Christ. And those who receive the Lord in such gatherings stand a good chance of good follow-up and nurturing afterwards. But ours is an *extremely rare* scenario, don't you think?
Or do some of you also have such scenarios functioning in your part of the world? It would be so encouraging to hear of it, if you do!
I think that many of us yearn to see a body of Christ emerge in this world that KNOWS its true "high calling" to be "Co-heirs/Co-world-deliverers" with Christ to set THE (and not merely some) captives free. But I don't see how that can happen as long as new Christians are consistently being "discipled" to imagine themselves as being "called out" to "go to heaven" to the everlasting exclusion of everyone else. Do you?
Just some thoughts that I hope will spur some discussion by way of perhaps helping me get better perspective and more hope as regards this issue... I'm happy to work among traditional Christians as the Lord CLEARLY leads and confirms that I should. I sincerely mean that. Yet, I'm just frustrated about this stifling LIMITATION where winning people to Jesus is concerned...
Gosh, I sure appreciate having this board to come to and all the wonderful friends to bounce off of here! :o)
Love to all!
CharlieSpirit of the Word - Covenant Eschatology - Introductory Note - New Stuff