Christianity Needs to Return to Being a Good Example

And you go on to a story about a missionary who was killed by the tribe he supposedly intended to convert.But where does this idea come from of "forcing" anybody to convert? Missionaries have often gone to foreign countries or remote tribes and stayed quite a while before anyone showed any interest in Christianity. They learn the language, translate the Bible into it, and talk to people about Christ. It is so far from any notion of forcing anything the idea is absurd. In some cases they have no success at all, occasionally the missionaries have been killed, (five young missionaries were killed by the Auca tribe of South America in the fifties just as they landed on their beach. A while later the wives of two of them went to the Auca and lived with them and took the place of their missionary husbands.) Sometimes missionaries were made into soup for a cannibal tribe. But when they do succeed it's by WINNING the people to Christ by persuasion, through preaching and so on.Of course you would like the idea of leaving everybody to believe as they please but that completely ignores the fact that Christianity is the only way anyone can ever be saved to eternal life and that is the reason for the "great commission" Christ gave us, to take this good news to everyone in the world so that they would have the same opportunity we have had, to be saved from this fallen world into a happy eternity. This idea that we should just be nicey nice and never preach the gospel to anyone is actually a sentence to eternal misery for those we encounter. If we really love people we want the best for them.abe: Read some bios of missionaries. Hudson Taylor was the main missionary to China, Adoniram Judson was the only one from America in those days. Just before the American revolution there was David Brainerd, a young missionary to a Native American tribe who befriended them, and lived in a tent through the winter praying for them, a short time before he died of tuberculosis.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

Many of the books I read presented the gospel so that they acted as the evangelists in my case. My first attraction to Christianity though, was through the Catholic "mystics" Theresa of Avila and John of the Cross, whose passionate love of God -- not His love of me or anybody's love of me -- was the winning influence. Being a Christian example is described in scripture as loving one another as Christians are commanded to, rather than loving nonChristians, though of course that is also required, otherwise as a woman loving her husband no matter how he treats her. And dying happily for your faith is another Christian example that won many converts in the days of persecution. Of course we are to love our neighbors and that may make some converts, but you can love and befriend people and never get around to telling them about salvation too.Sure, how we behave matters, but nobody is saved without being told about salvation:

I don't know but probably both.

Incomprehensible Evangelicals and the Death of John Allen Chau EvC Forum: Christianity Needs to Return to Being a Good ExampleEdited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.