New converts
A member of our family has recently come to Christ after many, many years of struggle with a variety of things. There has been an amazing transformation in this person. It has caused my husband and me to reflect on being a new Christian.
This person calls us frequently with Bible questions, some hard, some fairly easy. Today this person asked, based on something heard on the radio, if Abraham was a bad guy. My husband tried to help.
Back in the day (sorry, I really don't like that cliche) it was the responsibility of the local church to disciple a new convert. That was my experience in the '70s as a teenager. There were other organizations that could help--the Campus Crusade, the Young Life, etc.--but it was the church that did it. There was less media intrusion, and fewer crazed voices with prosperity gospel or other misinterpretation of conservative traditional Christian theology. The pastor was the primary discipler, for better or worse, and they used to preach at least twice, if not three times per week, even in big churches.
Now, well, there's cable TV with hundreds of preachers and teachers, some good, some off-kilter, some heretical. There's radio. And heaven knows, there's the Internet (this person does not use the Internet). And of course millions of books.
It would be easy for a young convert to be snatched away if they are not in the "nursery" of a good church.
Now, back to Abraham. My husband and I got into the subject of circumcision. He mentioned that the military hospitals of his time circumcised male babies. I joke that I keep getting the lesson on circumcision when it's my rotation for the life group teaching. I grew up with brothers, have a husband and male child, so it's less a problem for me than some women, I suppose. Abraham was the first circumcised person in the Bible.
I bring this up because to me Abraham symbolizes the convert. The family member asked if he was a bad person. No, he did bad things, but that is the point of grace; he was no longer a "bad person" but something else, someone else. He was called out of Ur of the Chaldees, which means he was called from a wicked civilization of child sacrifice, religious prostitution, despotism, and idolatry. He was asked to do everything differently. To wait for a legitimate heir rather than have a bunch of concubines (and to take care of his son of the surrogate). To not be a coward about his wife. To make a mark on his bodies and all of his descendants. To sacrifice his son and then be told that no, we won't be doing that. (Notice he really doesn't have a problem with the concept of sacrificing Isaac, just with the fact that it's the son he waited so long for. He came from a culture of infanticide.) To wait for the promise. And so much more.
This person calls us frequently with Bible questions, some hard, some fairly easy. Today this person asked, based on something heard on the radio, if Abraham was a bad guy. My husband tried to help.
Back in the day (sorry, I really don't like that cliche) it was the responsibility of the local church to disciple a new convert. That was my experience in the '70s as a teenager. There were other organizations that could help--the Campus Crusade, the Young Life, etc.--but it was the church that did it. There was less media intrusion, and fewer crazed voices with prosperity gospel or other misinterpretation of conservative traditional Christian theology. The pastor was the primary discipler, for better or worse, and they used to preach at least twice, if not three times per week, even in big churches.
Now, well, there's cable TV with hundreds of preachers and teachers, some good, some off-kilter, some heretical. There's radio. And heaven knows, there's the Internet (this person does not use the Internet). And of course millions of books.
It would be easy for a young convert to be snatched away if they are not in the "nursery" of a good church.
Now, back to Abraham. My husband and I got into the subject of circumcision. He mentioned that the military hospitals of his time circumcised male babies. I joke that I keep getting the lesson on circumcision when it's my rotation for the life group teaching. I grew up with brothers, have a husband and male child, so it's less a problem for me than some women, I suppose. Abraham was the first circumcised person in the Bible.
I bring this up because to me Abraham symbolizes the convert. The family member asked if he was a bad person. No, he did bad things, but that is the point of grace; he was no longer a "bad person" but something else, someone else. He was called out of Ur of the Chaldees, which means he was called from a wicked civilization of child sacrifice, religious prostitution, despotism, and idolatry. He was asked to do everything differently. To wait for a legitimate heir rather than have a bunch of concubines (and to take care of his son of the surrogate). To not be a coward about his wife. To make a mark on his bodies and all of his descendants. To sacrifice his son and then be told that no, we won't be doing that. (Notice he really doesn't have a problem with the concept of sacrificing Isaac, just with the fact that it's the son he waited so long for. He came from a culture of infanticide.) To wait for the promise. And so much more.
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