PERSUASION

I was in an interesting conversation a few weeks ago. An individual who claimed to be an agnostic mentioned that he believed that my job as a missionary is to persuade people about God.

There is a part of Christian witness that involves persuasion (“Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God; and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences” II Corinthians 5:11). But my ultimate responsibility is not to persuade anyone of anything.

My response was that if I could persuade him of God’s existence, of the truth of the Bible, the claims of Christ, etc., someone else who is smarter or a better persuader could come along & convince him to the contrary.

One of the wonderful things about biblical Christianity is that people are not converted by means of human persuasion.

Coercion of any kind, being born into a culture where a particular religion is an embedded part of the culture, accepting the faith of your family, etc. do not lead to Christian conversion.

Becoming a Christian is a dynamic result of the Holy Spirit working in the heart of a person. That’s the difference between biblical Christianity & every other religion or philosophy. I’m a believer today because the Holy Spirit made Christ real to me many decades ago. There are rational reasons for what I believe as a disciple of Christ.

But it all goes back to the reality that I was persuaded by the Holy Spirit.

MAKING THE SIMPLE COMPLICATED

It’s axiomatic that a teacher’s job is to make complicated things easier for people to understand.

When someone comes along & does the opposite, it’s right to question them. Maybe it’s their motives (trying to sound smarter than everyone else); maybe it’s a lack of understanding (thinking it’s not worth knowing unless it’s difficult to understand).

Most things in life are not really that complicated. Sure, we live in a complicated world in many ways, but that doesn’t change ultimate things. God is God, humans are humans, & so on.

I’ve found that people who are motivated to make the simple complicated tend to have ulterior motives. They want to be seen as an authority who knows more than everyone else. They want to get people to follow their agenda (which, by the way, if stated plainly wouldn’t probably be embraced by most people).

Beware the sophisticate who tries to confuse you about what seems pretty simple to understand. 

WHEN EVIL WINS

Sometimes believers struggle with “Why do evil people win?” kinds of questions. Maybe one reason is for that is that our focus is in the wrong place.

We assume that God, being good, will not allow bad things to happen to those who love Him, or those with evil agendas to succeed. We assume that our happiness or success at this time is a measure of how well we have believed or been faithful to Him.

Our focus shouldn’t be on our situation or condition. That makes it easy to miss an important part of the big picture.

It’s hard in our day to conceive of God as allowing the wicked to prevail, unless we recognize that there is some kind of judicial purpose in it. That means that in a sense, God is “giving them enough rope to hang themselves.” Many Scriptures reflect this truth.

Psalm 9:17-20 “The wicked will return to Sheol, even all the nations who forget God. For the needy will not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the afflicted perish forever. Arise, O Lord, do not let man prevail; let the nations be judged before You. Put them in fear, O Lord; let the nations know that they are but men.”

I Thessalonians 2:14-16 “For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out. They are not pleasing to God, but hostile to all men, hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved; with the result that they always fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them to the utmost.”

Someone observed once that “the wheels of God’s justice turn very slowly.” But they still turn.

Don’t concern yourself too much with why things are the way they are in a rebellious, sinful world. 

Just be faithful to Christ. Be obedient to Scripture. Trust God to bring about His justice in His way & in His time.