JBaldwin
Puritan Board Post-Graduate
My oldest child is going through a terrible struggle with her faith and has openly rejected christianity (she says) because of some of the hurt caused her by "reformed" believers, and the hurt is very real. After openly giving her heart to the Lord, she has now openly rejected Christ.
We have been praying for her a lot, and many of you have prayed and still do pray for her, and I deepely appreciate that. We are seeing God work.
The reason for this post is not talk about my daughter but to use an example of what has been going on with her and to get your thoughts on how to accurately present Christ to the lost, as well as thoughts on how wrong theology (in regard to the Gospel) can drive people away from Christ.
To continue with my daughter, she recently has become friends with some Baptist Christians who really care about her relationship with the Lord, almost to a fault.
My daughter is very discerning, and last evening she pointed out to me that she was beginning to think that her friends were only her friends because they wanted her to convert to Christianity. My response was that perhaps they really liked her, and it was because they liked her that they wanted her to know Christ.
Why then, she asked me, do they always try to get me to convert? Why can't they just accept me for who I am?
On the other hand, most of the reformed christian teens she knows tend to alienate her, as do their parents, because of my daughter's struggles with her faith. The only people who have opened their arms to her with very little hesitation are the few teens and the adults in our church.
I told my daughter that the reason her Baptist friends are so pushy is because they believe that somehow they have the power to change her heart by changing her mind. That is why they feel they have to constantly pressure her to change her mind about Christ. She admitted that the presbyterian teens and parents she knows are probably afraid that she will "poison" their children.
So on the one hand, you have people pushing my daughter away (unwittingly) because they don't want her to go to hell, on the other, you have christians pushing her away because they are afraid of being "tainted". While fear is at the core of both groups, I am inclined to think that wrong theology has something to do with it. Any thoughts?
We have been praying for her a lot, and many of you have prayed and still do pray for her, and I deepely appreciate that. We are seeing God work.
The reason for this post is not talk about my daughter but to use an example of what has been going on with her and to get your thoughts on how to accurately present Christ to the lost, as well as thoughts on how wrong theology (in regard to the Gospel) can drive people away from Christ.
To continue with my daughter, she recently has become friends with some Baptist Christians who really care about her relationship with the Lord, almost to a fault.
My daughter is very discerning, and last evening she pointed out to me that she was beginning to think that her friends were only her friends because they wanted her to convert to Christianity. My response was that perhaps they really liked her, and it was because they liked her that they wanted her to know Christ.
Why then, she asked me, do they always try to get me to convert? Why can't they just accept me for who I am?
On the other hand, most of the reformed christian teens she knows tend to alienate her, as do their parents, because of my daughter's struggles with her faith. The only people who have opened their arms to her with very little hesitation are the few teens and the adults in our church.
I told my daughter that the reason her Baptist friends are so pushy is because they believe that somehow they have the power to change her heart by changing her mind. That is why they feel they have to constantly pressure her to change her mind about Christ. She admitted that the presbyterian teens and parents she knows are probably afraid that she will "poison" their children.
So on the one hand, you have people pushing my daughter away (unwittingly) because they don't want her to go to hell, on the other, you have christians pushing her away because they are afraid of being "tainted". While fear is at the core of both groups, I am inclined to think that wrong theology has something to do with it. Any thoughts?