It has also been brought to my attention that I am discourteous in bunching Catholics along with Mormons and JWs. I "recant" this action of mine.
I suspect that the content of this post will be very controversial. I am bordering the fringes of our comfortable conservative theology. My intent is to simply write down some thoughts I have had recently. I am mostly drawing from an experience where I conversed with a Mormon about my faith.
Obviously, my intent was to communicate to him the message of the gospel. I was asking him about himself and found that he was pretty devout in his Mormonism. He had done the two year missionary outreach thing that the Mormons encourage and had a fiance that was also a Mormon. He was a very personable fellow and he had a background in farming, an area of common ground between us. As I proceeded (clumsily) with the gospel message, he nodded his head the entire time and communicated that he believed everything I was saying. Now, some might think I presented a watered down gospel, but I was sure to emphasize the sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice and the futility of our offering good works for our salvation, which I knew was one of the errors of Mormonism.
After seeing him agreeing with me I couldn't put it together in my head. I was reeling for something that would enable him to see that he did not agree with me so that he would see that he had to make a choice. So, I went over it again. Jesus' sacrifice is the only thing that can put us in a right standing with God. Works do nothing for our eternal salvation. He agreed again! I was sure to spell out what I meant by "repentance", "faith", etc. because I know they like to use different definitions. I preceded to present this concept yet a third time. He assured me that he understood and agreed. I was floored. What could I say to help him understand that he did not have an accurate view of the gospel even though he insisted that he did? What does this mean for my perception of Mormons or at least this fellow?
Now, just to be completely clear, I am not trying to say that Mormons are part of the family of faith. Nor am I trying to imply that the young man I talked with was truly a believer. At the same time, I do not think that saving faith is only found in our evangelical circles. I believe that there are JWs, Mormons and Catholics who have a real saving knowledge of the gospel. I am aware of small factions of Catholics that have a real gospel preached to them. I am just trying to find the most persuasive way to present the gospel to someone who claims to be a Christian because I do not know his state before God.
These are my thoughts at the moment. Looking back on that experience, I feel like I might have had a more solid message, a more persuasive approach, if I approached him from the perspective of being brothers in Christ. And instead of telling him what he supposedly already knows, as if it was something he had not attained, if I exhorted him to simply trust in Christ and live in repentance daily.
This would have turned his mind in the same direction as the former method without alienating him from myself as a messenger of the gospel.
Perhaps I am wrong in thinking this would be a better method, I know I am given to men-pleasing tendencies and this idea might flow out of a desire to not offend anyone and to stay on their good side.
Now for a very controversial quote from our favorite author, C.S. Lewis,
"There are people in other religions who are being
led by God’s secret influence to concentrate on those parts of their
religion which are in agreement with Christianity, and who thus
belong to Christ without knowing it. For example, a Buddhist
of good will may be led to concentrate more and more on the Buddhist
teaching about mercy and to leave in the background (though he
might still say he believed) the Buddhist teaching on certain other
points.
Many of the good Pagans long before Christ’s birth may have been
in this position. And always, of course, there are a great many
people who are just confused in mind and have a lot of inconsistent
beliefs all jumbled up together. Consequently, it is not much use
trying to make judgments about Christians and non-Christians in the
mass."
- Mere Christianity [Ch. 10,
209]
C.S. Lewis has been scorned a lot for this statement and I don't know that I agree 100%. It just seems to me that in a religion where the Bible is used (among other literature), that some people will inevitably be saved through the reading of the Word.
Think about Abraham. He was an idolater (Joshua 24:2) who God called to himself out of his idolatry. In his story, we do not see a human means by which God told Abraham (then Abram) the way of true worship. He simple revealed his plan to him. It reminds me of my time in Chad, where I heard of Muslims having dreams that led them to Jesus.
Why do we think people have to be on our side of every issue before they are saved? If we had to embrace even just one facet of the gospel in the fullest sense using our human strength, we could not.
I would really like to hear some input from others about this. I know it is controversial and honestly I don't care to get into a debate about what cults believe and whether they can be saved while still practicing their cultish rites. I mostly want to hear other methods and ideas you might have for cases like these and an opinion on my idea.
Thank you for reading.
Elliott
This is just a side note, but I feel such a freedom to write these "strange" thoughts now that I have dealt with my idolatry of pursuit of marriage. Before, I would be far too worried about other people's opinions of me, always trying to look like I am "normal" so that crazy things like this wouldn't get in the way of relationships.
