How should a biblical understanding of conversion affect us personally as Christians?
Should you have a biblical understanding of conversion?
Will a church with a biblical understanding of conversion disappear?
1. Be careful who you admit as a member.
2. Ask all who want to become members to explain the gospel.
3. Ask if there are areas of sin without repentance
4. Carefully administer the Lord’s baptism and food. Members will not pressure their pastors to baptize people in a hurry and without scrutiny. The Lord’s table will be properly surrounded (i. e. , whoever administers will explain who dinner is, as well as who it is). not dinner).
5. Pay attention to forms of evangelization that may encourage false professions, either by manipulating emotions or by presenting an aqueous gospel.
6. Refuse to take sin lightly. Members will seek responsibility, encouragement, and exhortation from each other. Will they go too?
7. Practice formal ecclesiastical discipline
8. Look for formal ways to maintain a clear line between the Church and the world, such as reserving public acts of worship only for members.
Can a church with a non-biblical understanding of conversion easily?
Full of people who have made sincere statements about Jesus, but who have not experienced the radical change that the Bible presents as a conversion.
2. Se calls them Christians when they really aren’t. Can the disbelievers see them? And say, “Are you a Christian?But you live like me, why should I believe what you’re doing if our lives really don’t matter?
Will a church go that does not properly understand the conversion?
1. Offer false security to non-Christians by calling them Christians when in fact they are not.
2. Confuse Christians with what it means to be a Christian.
3. False representation of God to all! Instead of reflecting its holy character and life-changing grace, this church will portray God as unsoccupied with sin and unable to transform lives.
God established His church to reveal its glory (Ephesians 3. 10) through the holy life of its members (2 Corinthians 6. 14-7. 1; Matthew 5. 13-16). A church that misunderstands conversion will be filled with false and weak believers, then spread lies about God, rather than spreading the truth.
On the other hand, a church with a biblical understanding of conversion will be filled with imperfect but growing Christians, demonstrating that God is holy and that his merciful gospel is powerful and transformative (Romans 1:16; 2 Corinthians 3:18). .
A biblical understanding of conversion should lead us to
1. Calls and decision cards. Appeals and decision cards are the result of an overemphasis on the human role in conversion, as if conversion were the result of a person being persuaded to walk down a hallway (Forget the work of the Holy Spirit! ) Also, signing a card is not the same as repenting and believing. The Bible calls us to repent and believe.
2. “Say this prayer”. Conversion certainly implies a prayer to God, but saying a pre-formulated prayer is no guarantee that a person has truly repented and believed. Ask non-Christians to pray for a prayer of the sinner?It also makes them tempted to find safety in prayer itself, not in Jesus Christ.
3. Theatrical preaching and music that forgives emotionally. Today’s Christians know we can’t have faith. But we try to “force them emotionally” either through music, humor or anything else. These tactics lead people to confuse an emotional response with repentance and faith. Forcing through physical and emotional strength indicates that we use meat to convert people. For this to happen, conversion is not in the evangelist’s power. Only the Spirit of God gives birth (John 1:13). Like Paul, should we simply preach, clearly outlining the truth?(2 Corinthians 4. 2, NVI).
Present the good news without calling for repentance and faith. Telling people what Christ has done in their lives and deaths without pressure to repent implies that people only need information, as if our fundamental problem as fallen human beings is a “problem of knowledge. “There is a problem of knowledge, but there is also a problem of will or ‘worship problem’. Therefore, a faithful evangelist will tell people how to respond to the good news of the gospel. You have to tell them to repent and believe.
5. Present a story without calling for repentance and faith. Neither sharing a personal testimony nor telling the story of the Bible (creation, fall, redemption, glorification) necessarily challenges the listener to the challenge of his own life. As in point 4 above, we must explain to people that Jesus personally addresses them in their sins and calls them to repentance and follow Him in faith.
6. Ve go to church. Going to church does not make someone a Christian; conversely, conversion involves moving completely from sin to Christ, from self-government to God’s government, in all areas of life, which will include a genuine desire to meet God’s people regularly.
By: Various authors. © 9Marks. Website: 9marks. org. Translated with permission. Source: How should a biblical understanding of conversion affect us personally as Christians?/ What is the practical difference with a biblical understanding of conversion in the life of a church?/ Why is a good understanding of conversion so important to the collective testimony of a church?/ How should a biblical understanding of conversion have an impact on our evangelization?/ Can you give several examples of poor evangelical practices as a result of a poor understanding of conversion?
Original: The importance of a correct understanding of conversion. © Faithful Ministry. Website: MinisterioFiel. com. br. All rights reserved. Translation: Felipe Prestes. Review: André Alosio Oliveira da Silva.