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.
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