Comments on: First Impressions

By: J.D. Harper

J.D. Harper — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 14:32:40 +0000

So, Jon, would you recommend lying to people to get them saved? How about threatening them with physical violence? After all, these people are dying and going to hell, right? Surely the end of getting them saved justifies any means necessary, right?

God never asked you to manipulate people. The bible tells you to go out preaching Jesus’ word. That just means tell them what Jesus had to say. “God giveth the increase,” not you.

I mean, look at Jonah! He didn’t even want these people to get saved, he gave a two line message, and the whole city repented. You don’t need to be manipulative, and you shouldn’t be.

By: Barbara H.

Barbara H. — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 13:34:42 +0000

I would agree, but….there is a balance between impressing on someone the urgency of making a decision and pressuring them into a false decision based on man-made and not Holy-Spirit induced pressure. I have known people in my own family who have made false professions due to the latter.

Study the way Christ dealt with people.

By: Jon

Jon — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 17:28:00 +0000

Yeh, im really glad i took my sweet time in making my decision to get saved. Its wonderful to waste precious years of your life that could be used in “reasonable service” for the Lord, and to just hold off and make sure that the decision to choose heaven over hell, the Love of God over eternal punishment, is rational. And we certainly shouldnt say things like “now is the accepted time, behold now is the day of salvation” during an invitation… wouldn’t want to use scripture to persuade non believers. In fact, why don’t we just stop evangelism all together. After all, the Lord is going to save them anyway sometime right? I guess the whole “go ye into all the world and preach the gospel” really is an outdated, unneccessary vice to manipulate people by their emotions.
The Bible says to call while God is near. To seek the Lord while he may be found. It is true that we are not promised another second on earth. Why would you ever discourage one from preaching in urgency? The need for Christ is urgent! Wouldn’t you agree?

By: WanderingBojo

WanderingBojo — Tue, 08 Feb 2005 23:01:41 +0000

you could say that…

By: Blog Jones

Blog Jones — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 05:58:44 +0000

:raised eyebrow: Weird. I guess it’s more incentive to proofread, eh?

By: WanderingBojo

WanderingBojo — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 05:04:12 +0000

You can post but not view

By: Blog Jones

Blog Jones — Wed, 19 Jan 2005 22:05:58 +0000

Whoa! You can get onto blogger.com on the BJU network? Wow! I’d have thought they’d ban that for being free web hosting.

By: WanderingBojo

WanderingBojo — Wed, 19 Jan 2005 18:06:49 +0000

The bell scares me in Dr. Jones’ class - time moves too quickly for it to be an hour.

By: Blog Jones

Blog Jones — Mon, 17 Jan 2005 03:44:07 +0000

Link fixed. Thanks.

I love Lileks. The man has a skill with words virtually unmatched in modern times. I think that someday, decades from now, when bored high-schoolers suffer through their English literature classes, they’ll find the name of James Lileks under the classic authors of the first internet generation.

And, of course, he makes a great point. Lying to get people to repeat a prayer is just evil. One of those guys “by whom the way of truth will be evil spoken of.”

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Mon, 17 Jan 2005 02:25:49 +0000

Interesting post. Dr. Olinger goes to my church. When I was in college, he taught my Sunday School
class (oddly enough, it was the college age class). Now he teaches an adult class that we (wife and I)
attend sporadically. Too bad you weren’t able to get in his class.
Re: your comments about Farrel - what you said sounds about right. I think a lot of him, but don’t
agree with all of his methods. Your comments about manipulation reminded me of a Lileks bleat from
a while back (as an aside, can I say that Google rocks? What did we do before google? I had no
idea when the bleat ran, but googled “lileks summer camp counselor” and it was the first result) where
he said a counselor came running up one night during a campfire and said the world was ending and
didn’t everyone want to be saved RIGHT THEN!? Here’s the url:
http://www.lileks.com/bleats/archive/03/0903/091103.html
Interesting guy, that Lileks.
By the way, I think your link for the national hoops isn’t right. You may want to check it (it
took me to http://www.blogjones.com/WordPress/www.nationalhoops.com instead of just
www.nationalhoops.com. And the reason for all of the hard returns (in this comment) is because the
screen is acting funny and the text isn’t wrapping around, but I can’t scroll over to see what I’ve
typed off the screen - oh well.
Although, when I previewed it, it doesn’t look that bad. Terrific!