“A world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world—and might even be more difficult to save.”
-C. S. Lewis
Friday, February 3, 2012
Thursday, February 2, 2012
How Do You Discern the Conversion of a Child?
From Brian Croft at Practical Shepherding:
There are commonly 2 extremes as we all wrestle with this question. The first is the careless lack of discernment of many churches who have an alter call for 4-5 year olds, ask them to raise their hand if they love Jesus, then baptize them as converted followers of Jesus. The other extreme often results from the carelessness of the first.
This extreme prevents both parents and pastors to be willing to affirm whether or not a child is truly converted until they are adults and are completely independent of their parent’s authority and care. I believe a middle ground must be approached if we truly desire to discern clear biblical evidence that a child, teenager, or young adult has become a new creature in Christ.
Knowing we are not God and cannot see the heart, I believe there are still evidences we can see and know to help us discern a child or teenager’s conversion in a similar way we try to do the same with adults. In the spirit of Jonathan Edward’s 5 signs of true conversion, here are 5 evidences that I try to use as a template as both a parent and pastor in wrestling with this issue.
1) A growing affection and need for Jesus and the gospel.
2) A heightened understanding of the truths of Scripture.
3) An increased kindness and selflessness towards siblings.
4) A greater awareness and distaste for sin.
5) A noticeable desire to obey parents.
In my experience as both a parent and a pastor, I have found that age is not the most important gauge to determine true conversion, but to genuinely look for these evidences in an age appropriate manner. For example, we need to know that a child has a clear understanding of the gospel. However, that will be articulated by a 10 year old differently than it should a 16 year old. A desire to obey parents and a selfless spirit towards siblings will also show up differently in a 10 year old than they will in a 16 year old.
Nevertheless, they must be present in some way and I would strongly discourage any pastor or parent to affirm a child’s conversion without some kind of tangible evidence apart from their verbal profession. On the flip side, I would also caution you from falling into the trap I have in the past in regard to demanding more from a child than can be observed.
This is tricky ground I realize. So much as a pastor must be approached on a case by case basis. Many of us will be all around the spectrum, but the one takeaway from this post is be mindful to avoid the extremes that do exist on both sides. Find I nice seat in the shade somewhere in the middle as a starting point. Then, be wise, assess honestly, and pray that the merciful God who does regenerate adults, teenagers, and even children give you much discernment.
Scare Tactics
In the late 1980s, TV commercials in the U.S. asked, “What goes through the mind of a driver who is not wearing a seat belt in a head-on collision?” Then they showed a crash dummy having its head crushed by a steering wheel in a collision, and said, “The steering wheel!” Those were scare tactics, but no one complained because they were legitimate scare tactics. We should fear what happens in a head-on collision if we are foolish enough to not put on a seat belt.
Fear itself is not a bad thing. Fear stops us from stepping off a 500-foot cliff. It keeps us away from fire. It holds us back from sticking a fork into a live power outlet. These types of fear are self-preserving, but the ultimate self-preserving fear is the fear of the Lord. That fear is called “the beginning of wisdom,” and because of it, the Bible says men “depart from sin.”
To warn of hell is fearful, but it is absolutely legitimate, because the Bible says that it is a fearful thing for a sinner to fall into the hands of the living God.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Why is Doctrine so Important?
The first epistle of John is written “to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life” (5:13). In order “that you may know,” the apostle presents three tests: the doctrinal test, the moral test, and the love test. On the place and importance of doctrine, Mark Dever writes,
I do not think that the church needs to worry about atheism today. That superstition has never seriously threatened the church of Jesus Christ. As a friend of mine once said, “The real danger is not unbelief, but wrong belief; not irreligion, but heresy; not the doubter, but the deceiver.” Wrong belief, heresy, and deceivers are what concern John.
. . .
When you share the gospel with others, you do not merely share your experience (though we certainly can share something about our own experience). Most fundamentally, you share objective truth. You share particular doctrines that are rooted in history about who Jesus is and what he did. You might decide this is not important, but then you would have to take 1 John out of the Bible.
—Mark Dever, The Message of the New Testament: Promises Kept
Quote of the Day
How can any of us who have tasted the extravagant love of Christ be stingy with our resources? Doesn’t His compassion toward us make us naturally disposed to help those in need? If we see someone who has a need that we can meet, how can our heart not want to help them? Won’t we love the fatherless, and the widow, and the shut-in, and the homeless, since we know that we once were fatherless, estranged from the Father, disabled, and headed for eternal separation from God?”
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