virus world, featuring, various extended definitions (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Wow! We should implement these questions in the church of the good ole U.S.A.
I hear the charge of “legalism” or worse, by those who continue advocating an un-biblical “non-lordship easy believism” in the form of telling respondents to “pray this simple prayer and ask Jesus to come into your heart”.
David Fitch recently made this statement in Christianity Today,” statistics continue to show that only a small percentage of our recorded “decisions” are made by people who will still be following Jesus a year later…and yet, we keep doing this.”
Maybe it’s time we transition to the Gospel Jesus preached that is now being implemented by the Asian church. Just a thought.
rgh
Asian Access (or A2), a Christian missions agency in South Asia, listed a series of questions that church planters must ask new believers who are considering baptism. (Due to safety concerns, Asian Access does not mention the country’s name.) The country is predominantly Hindu, but over the past few decades Christianity has grown in popularity—especially among poor and tribal peoples. These are the seven questions asked to help determine a new convert’s readiness to follow Christ:
- Are you willing to leave home and lose the blessing of your father?
- Are you willing to lose your job?
- Are you willing to go to the village and those who persecute you, forgive them, and share the love of Christ with them?
- Are you willing to give an offering to the Lord?
- Are you willing to be beaten rather than deny your faith?
- Are you willing to go to prison?
- Are you willing to die for Jesus?
If the new convert answers yes to all of these questions, then A2 leaders invite that person to sign on the bottom of the paper that of their own free will they have decided to follow Jesus. But here is the risk. If a new convert signs the paper and is caught by the government,he or she will spend three years behind bars. The one who did the evangelizing faces six years in prison.
Christianity Today Magazine spring 2012 pg 60
Antagoniz 