Part 2 of Viewpoint Brief Bible Study #072. |
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JESUS calls US to be |
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The Christian religion is the worship and service of Jesus Christ. It’s not Mary we worship, but her Son. We worship neither saints, angels, a law code, nor even God’s Spirit. It’s JESUS who is to be honored. The Bible is our guide. |
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Chris DeWelt's
Some thoughts on
Promise Keepers
and Evangelicalism
Most discussions of PK start out by highlighting the positive contribution of the program in the area of family, racial reconciliation, prayer, men's accountability, and general seriousness about the call to be a Christian. With these I most heartily agree.I have attended two events and I would like to attend more. Given the size and impact of Promise Keepers, it is important to consider it fairly.
Without question the area that causes the greatest concern with PK is the same issue that has always concerned our people when interdenominational efforts are involved and salvation is the subject matter. This generally takes place during the opening night's activities of Promise Keepers and the response is very large.
Whether it be a Billy Graham campaign, a Greg Laurie Harvest event, or a Promise Keeper weekend, when people are asked to come forward and pray the sinner's prayer in order to become a Christian, there is a problem.
This is especially true if you have come to the event with a bus load of men, some of whom are either new Christians or perhaps have not yet made a commitment to the Lord.
Yes, it is hard to deny the impact of seeing hundreds of men streaming down the aisles, many of them with faces streaming with tears. At such moments, it is not necessarily popular to question the exegetical ability of the people who are leading such events.
When I went to the Dallas event in 95, I heard Coach Mac tell the men who came forward to go to their home church and to see about being baptized. I believe that he was telling them to do so in the sense of being obedient to Jesus, since they had just become Christians by asking Jesus into their hearts.
I disagree with this approach to becoming a Christian. I believe that you make Jesus Lord by trusting Him for your salvation and by doing whatever He has asked you to do. This includes obeying Him in Christian baptism.
How do you become a Christian? By following His instructions which includes "putting on" Christ as your robe of righteousness (or your wedding garment) and doing it in the way that he prescribed (Gal 3:27).
I have had some interesting conversations with some of our men after the first evening's service when the call for commitment to Jesus for salvation was made.
What is taking place in these situations is not just specific to these special events. It represents the view of evangelicalism on the issue of salvation. I cannot imagine someone at a Billy Graham event, or a Promise Keeper stadium standing up and telling people that they need to hear, believe, repent, make the good confession and be baptized in order to become a Christian.
Until there is a fundamental change in evangelicalism as a whole, this is not going to happen.
The real question is not: "Should I participate in Promise Keepers, Billy Graham Crusade, etc. etc. or not?" The question is: "How will a fundamental change in evangelicalism concerning salvation ever come about?"
Some would deny that it needs to come about. I cannot agree with them. I keep running into what the Bible says so very plainly.
What is happening then? Yes, what is happening, when big strong men wearing plaid flannel shirts stagger down the aisle with their hearts broken, having heard a message about sin and the grace of God? They have heard about Jesus, they have been touched in their hearts, just as people were on the day of Pentecost.
They are apparently manifesting a sincere desire to believe, to have faith. And they are obviously repentant. In fact, more than anything else, repentance is what is taking place when the tears flow in godly sorrow.
But the one hugely significant thing that is lacking is the culmination of the whole process, the new birth, the answer of the conscience, the putting on of Christ, and I could go on and on. But it is missing. Peter said more than what they are being told.
The reason that it is missing is that evangelicals are stuck 475 years in the past. Luther brought about the cataclysmic event of the Reformation and heaved the pendulum of faith off of its sacramentalist hook where the Roman Catholic church had so thoroughly fastened it. But he and the other reformers (especially the other reformers) rode the pendulum past equilibrium, putting words into the mouth of Hosea and Paul (sola fide) concerning the meaning of faith.
In totally justifiable revulsion of the excess of the papacy, an effort was made to remove man from having anything to do, whatsoever, with his salvation. The effects of all of this has a huge hold on current evangelical thinking.
So what do we do? There will never be a fundamental change in evangelicalism concerning this subject if we withdraw and tell people that when they agree with us, we'll talk to them. My father once quoted the legalist's plan for fellowship as being, "Agree with me, or go to Hell." By refusing to talk we are withdrawing from the opportunities that we will never know. That approach is neither effective nor Christ-like. It is non-confrontive and largely ignored. In fact we have been ignored by evangelicalism for over 100 years. I wonder why?
But neither does it mean that you acquiesce. It simply means that you know what the Bible says about the most basic issues of Christianity. It means that you are willing to articulate these things with others in a clear and logical manner. It means you are willing to be criticized for holding your views. But it also means that some will listen, not because you came to show them what fools they were, but because, like Aquila and Priscilla, you desired that they understand the Word more perfectly. You shared because you cared. This requires a humble spirit which is a commodity in very short supply. But a humble spirit will break down more walls than a thousand battering rams borne in pride.
To go to Viewpoint first page, click here. Or here to go back to Viewpoint Study 72. Brief Bible Study #72-A from Ray Downen
For Ray's concluding remarks, click HERE.
