September, '96

SOME OF OUR BEST FRIENDS ARE HERETICS

A member of The Family (formerly known as the Children of God) in Sydney commented that he found it difficult to understand how we could consider them heretics and our best friends at the same time. Heretic is not a word that we would choose, because it has so much emotional judgment attached to it. But it is true that we have differences with The Family at the same time that we have much in common; and we too have spent a lot of time trying to analyse this paradox. We have already written on the teaching which they call " The law of love". We would like to consider a number of other teachings in a series of articles.

The aim of this series of articles is not to put up fences, so much as it is to recognise where the fences exist and to see if there might be a few gates between them. If we're really lucky, we might even find that a fence or two could be dismantled. We trust that this series will be of interest to other readers as well.

SIMPLE SALVATION

Family teaching is that if people say a little prayer and ask Jesus into their hearts, they are saved or "born again", regardless of what they do with their lives from that point onwards.

The practice of saying a little prayer to "ask Jesus into your heart" was made popular by Billy Graham, and has proven to be extremely effective in recruiting converts to Protestant Churches of all denominations throughout the Twentieth Century. The Family have (at least in their earlier days) done on a massive one-to-one basis what Billy Graham has done in a crusade/rally setting. And it would be hard to say which has had the greatest success. The Family have numbered their 'conversions' in the millions.

We have often ridiculed this approach. However, we have recently given serious consideration to the possibility that we have not fairly considered its positive aspects. We did a survey amongst our own members and discovered that a high percentage of us said a little prayer asking Jesus into our hearts at some time in our spiritual development, and that most of us found the experience helpful. We are not against people praying prayers to accept Christ as their Saviour, or to ask Christ to "come into" (or better still, "to take over") their lives. Simplifying salvation into such a formula makes it easier to train others to "lead" people in making such a decision or commitment. It also gives the new Christian a way to turn good intentions into an objective action , which can serve as a starting point to a whole new life.

In addition, other Christians are more inclined to be patient with someone whom they regard as a new Christian (because the person has shown a willingness to make such a commitment); and such patience from others is vitally important in the spiritual development of new Christians.

And here is where The Family shines in a way that truly humbles us. Despite the heavy persecution that they have received from established churches around the world, they continue to bend over backwards to get along with people within these churches... all based on their assumption that the churches are full of fellow Christians, toward whom they need only show enough love and patience to eventually bring about the unity that Christ prayed for in his church. This is truly amazing grace!

Despite our admiration for The Family's patience with the churches, however, we still see their efforts as largely futile apart from the character that it is building in themselves. We continue to believe that the vast majority of those who claim to be "Christian" are Christian in name only, and thus are not Christian at all...whether or not they ever said a "sinner's prayer". But is our approach the right one? The final words of John 1:12 say that a person has the power to become a child of God simply by believing on the name of Christ. If that was all we had to go by, then perhaps we should accept the Family/traditional evangelical approach. Is evangelism just a matter of getting everyone to vote for Christianity (whether or not they understand what it stands for) in preference to all the other religions of the world? Was Constantine right? Can we further the cause of Christ by making Christianity the official religion of a country, outlawing all the other religions, and pressuring everyone to say a prayer asking Jesus into their hearts? Somehow we feel that Christ was pushing for something which is much more spiritual and which requires much deeper commitment than this.

Christ said (Luke 6:46 & 49) that just calling him "Lord" without obeying him would result in the collapse of our "house". We have tried to understand John 1:12 in the context of all that Christ taught, and our conclusion (based on all the teachings of Christ) is that Christ does not have a category for disciples who are not willing to be disciplined by him. We would like to suggest a different approach to John 1:12. As we said earlier, many of us said a little prayer calling on the name of Christ, and we saw it as a significant step in our spiritual growth. John 1:12 says that those who received Christ were given the power TO BECOME children of God, and this even included those who believed on His NAME. Putting a seed in the ground gives it a CHANCE to sprout and BECOME a plant. But in itself, it does not guarantee anything. If certain other conditions are not met, the 'power to become' fades away and turns to nothing. Considering that there is so little in the life and teachings of Christ or that of the apostles to suggest that we need only say a prayer and we will be eternally saved, isn't it wise to at least consider the possibility that saying a prayer means nothing unless backed up by some other deeper commitment or faith? The danger of our approach (if we are wrong) is that we will fail to welcome as brothers and sisters in Christ people who do not take the teachings of Christ as seriously as we do. To counteract that danger a little, we try to treat professing Christians as spiritual brothers and sisters UNTIL they show signs of clear rebellion AGAINST the teachings of Christ. But we cannot reconcile faith in the "name" of Christ with rebellion against what he taught. Either people are for him or against him, and it is their response to his teachings that counts the most.

If they take his name in vain (i.e. without also accepting his teachings) then it is hypocrisy, and as such is a sin. We feel that this is consistent with what Christ himself felt about such professions of faith.

The danger in the more liberal approach (if it is wrong) is that people may be tempted to sidestep any unpleasant demands made on them by Christ, simply by saying, " I said the sinner's prayer, and that is all it takes." Christ's story of God's judgment at the end of the world (Matthew 25:31-46) talks of people assuming that they were saved when they were not. Such people were obviously Christian in name (though not in action) and consequently, "these shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal." (v. 46)

See our next article in this series entitled "Eternal Salvation", for more on this topic.

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fold@idl.net.au

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Godstuff Comix

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Australia 1235