Comments on: Decisions: “We had [insert number] receive Jesus today”

By: scott morgan

scott morgan — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 03:11:47 +0000

Nathan,

What is your email because I’m selling my Puritan hardback sets for half off to buy new commenatries and other books. Email me at scottmorgan33@yahoo.com . I will blow your mind with these prices. You can advertise these on your blog if you want. Email me !

Scott Morgan

By: fred

fred — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 02:26:42 +0000

You know Nathan, I volunteer for a nationally known children’s ministry. I get annoyed when the local director calls me and wants to know how many salvations I had from the children. Just last week one teacher decided she was going to do the Bible story and invitation first because if she waits till the end, then the children are in too much of a hurry to leave and get their candy that is passed out at the end. The first time she did this she had 8 salvations! Is it just me or is something wrong with this picture? Personally I think they went back for counsel time because they thought it would get them out of the other parts of the lesson hr.

American evangelism has really hit a low point when we even help cause false conversions in children, who will grow up believing they made the choice because the teacher told them they did.

By: Nathan White

Nathan White — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 04:17:06 +0000

Fred,

I’ve seen and read of that and more. When the children are preyed upon, that’s when my heart hurts the most. Children are so easily manipulated, and adults are so quick to do so in order to boast of a statistic, or even approve themselves to God.

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 19:26:04 +0000

Nathan,

My personal observation as a new pastor of two years is that conversion is extremely hard (well, not for God of course!). One of the biggest shockers I’ve experienced is my wife and me coming to a place of often wondering among ourselves if certain leaders are even saved. In my two years here, I can honestly point to one person (and it is so refreshing when it does happen), whom it seems God has truly done a work of grace in. The pressure I get from parents to baptize kids is constant, yet when I sit down with kids, it’s usually so obvious there is no real understanding of their sin, it’s eternal condemnation, the substitutionary atonement of Christ - it’s just clear that God really hasn’t done anything in their hearts yet. I love the privilege of preaching God’s Word, but it’s extremely baffling at times, to watch and see the things people say and believe (and don’t believe).

Ben

By: Nathan White

Nathan White — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 02:14:29 +0000

Ben,

I know of at least one situation where a pastor sat down with a child (10yrs or so) and asked him very simple questions about faith and repentance, got no clear answers, so he set another appointment for several months later, and again got no clear answers from the child, and the parents were outraged and left the church b/c he wouldn’t baptize them. Amazing, huh? Decisionism has taken such a deep root…

By: fred

fred — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 11:49:30 +0000

The teacher I spoke about in my first post did the same thing yesterday. Three children that “gave their lives to Christ” last week, came back to do it again. This time she reassured them that since they did it once that they did not need to do it again. I am not judging her motives at all, but I know these children too, and I do not believe they have grasped what all this means. They couldn’t even tell their parents what they did this evening.

I am so glad that salvation does not depend on he who wills or runs. Hopefully these children will truly come to understand and the Holy Spirit will convert them.

I have no problem believing children can come to know Christ. I did at 7 yrs of age. But I do not think that this is always the norm. It depends on the child. But I truly believe that this is the age where we need impress the stories of the Bible, the name of Christ, the morals and ethics, the reverence for God. We need to express the love of God , but also the wrath of God. Then we need to let the Spirit do His work, not force decisions for statictical proof and validation of a ministry. The validation of a ministry is the faithfulness to the Word, not decisions.

I am sick of this Jesus is for you, devil is against, and you must vote for which one you want to win. What child in his/her right mind will choose satan? They only desire to please the “teacher”. They understand what answer you want.

By: JP

JP — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 23:55:16 +0000

I fear that the condition of the those forced into such “conversions” is akin to the man in the Lord’s parable,

Luke 11:26 “26 “Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first.””