Personal testimony of salvation and calling to ministry?

Too many question marks. I'd be driven to ask how well you know your nephew and how well does he know you? Has there been a relationship?

He may just not want you to know. Does he follow you on BB? If so, that would explain a lot. :laugh:

Has your life before him been lived in such a way that you have earned the right as a Man of GOD to ask him? Because if all he has seen is hypocrisy and meanness and nastiness and someone who doesn't seem to want to help anyone who doesn't share his POV...if he hasn't seen the love of Jesus for Jesus and others flowing from you, then he may feel as though you lack a platform from which to ask him anything.

And in so, he is possibly trying to be respectful and keep from going off on you.

Just some thoughts.

 

most folks I know are excited to share there testimony. I know I am, I have even shared it here before.

 

A lot of folks are. But if you're dealing with a family member who has been everything but Godly( not saying RD has been because I don't know his relationship with his nephew) and you know it, it makes it rather difficult to accept that person daring to ask you anything about your relationship with Christ as though he, in his unGodliness, is now gonna bond with you and disciple you.

It would come across as a schtick and an unbelievable one at that.

 

I don't know RD2, there could be several reasons for not sharing. The events leading up to his salvation could have involved someone or something that he feels obligated to keep to himself at their request perhaps? Just don't push too hard.

 

Just a possibility....
Maybe a disconnect in the verbiage?

For example, when I submitted request for membership at SBC church, I knew ahead of time that there would be a vote. But before that, the pastor would ask me a few questions. I had heard him ask these questions before.

So, I approached him and asked him (very gently) to not ask me unscriptural questions like when did I ask Jesus to come into my heart, etc.

So he was careful to ask me questions in the manner of "when did you first trust Jesus"

Is it possible that the nephew knows there would be a major disagreement if a dialogue ensues?

Hard to judge without more context

 

Baptists, at least since the revivalist era, tend to think of conversion as a singular event - a crisis point - instead of a process.

In other Christian traditions, persons who are raised in the church may take consistent and regular steps of obedience toward God and be reborn without a single "crisis" event that stands out much more than the rest.

Even with those who both expect and experience the "crisis" event we identify as coming to faith, there are often a long series of times when we consciously decided to choose Christ in other faith steps of a growing and vibrant life. My own conversion was a two-step process that was separated by about events a little over two weeks apart. I was confronted with the call to follow Jesus at a time where I had first understood the extreme basics of the call of God on my life and I said yes. At that time, I was under great pressure to be converted from human agencies and processes. Through the next two weeks, I wrestled with what it would mean to cast my fate with Jesus, and I reconfirmed my initial commitment before my local church.

About seven years later, I followed God's call to a much deeper level of commitment and life has been a series of steps toward God sense.

When was I saved? Before the foundations of the world? Maybe. When Jesus died on the cross and was raised? Maybe. When I first believed in God with my mind and my actions? Maybe. When I formally confirmed it before others? Maybe. When I made deeper commitments? Maybe. When my body shall cease to live? Absolutely. When my body is raised to live for all eternity in God's new world? Absolutely.

Nailing down the exact time is much less important than whether or not someone is a follower of Jesus. I know several tremendous people of faith who do not know when they passed from death to life. Billy Graham's wife, Ruth Graham, did not know even though Billy Graham preached a "crisis" type of conversion message.

Think about this: I am unaware of any place in the gospels where the closest 12 followers of Jesus are described as suddenly coming to faith. Some see Peter's confession as that moment for him. Jesus suggests that at least a few of the disciples "names were written in heaven" (Luke 10:20) at an early to mid-point in His ministry, but that's far from a definitive argument. Obviously, Paul had a "crisis" conversion on the road to Damascus, the Ethopian eunuch, and the Phillipian jailor and his family as well, but others did not.

Instead of trying to nail down the date of conversion, look for the fruit of the Spirit in that person's life.

 

It's a hypothetical man. There is nothing to accept. Yes, I would be a little suspicious too but people generally have reasons for keeping things to themselves. Not all of them are malicious.

 

You're making a good point. Why do think Baptists do not factor in long term salvation?

 

I think there are a couple of strong reasons why we tend to fall that way.

One is cultural. The revivalistic movements in the United States over the past 350 years or so have shaped the way we think about salvation. In many cases, conversions were dramatic and they tended to capture the imagination. Which testimony is better: a horrible and notorious sinner who comes to faith and is transformed in mid-life, or a man who has walked with God from the time he began thinking about the questions of faith? Obviously, the man who has always walked with God, but the miracle of conversion that is apparent when a person is dramatically converted is much more compelling to the imagination.

The other is the traditional Baptist insistence on believer's baptism and rejection of infant baptism. We want to know that a person has made an intentional decision of faith, not just appropriated the trappings of faith from the surrounding culture. That kind of theology (a theology I strongly agree with, FWIW), is more comfortable with the "crisis" conversion. The crisis moment is supposed to define the time of initial commitment. Unfortunately, it is rather easy for well-intentioned (and no so-well-intentioned) preachers/evangelists to manipulate people into an emotional crisis and get them to make the motions of a commitment without actually confronting people with the gospel and letting the Spirit do the convicting. That's how we get so many false converts and persons who say they have made a commitment to Jesus (at least, as far as they have been taught) but have not real interest in following Jesus. The New Testament teaching about those persons is that they are not true believers. Of course, the New Testament writers assumed that those who are evangelized were getting the full message of Jesus to follow Him, not a "pray-this-prayer-and-you-will-go-to-Heaven-when-you-die" kind of message. There may well be true believers who don't know any better and don't know why they are so spiritually-restless all the time since they've done everything they have been told to do, but cannot find any joy in their spiritual life.

In general, Baptists need better teachers, preachers, and evangelists who present the full message of Jesus with a call to die to self and follow Him. That's the essential element of the gospel message. Some will scream that what I have written is a "works" based message, but if you look at the gospels - and read Paul in light of what Jesus has already said - it becomes crystal clear.

 

No, I was coming up with a hypothetical reason for why the guy may not have wanted to share. Wasn't claiming that your anecdotal stories were hypothetical.

 

Since I'm not, and never was, and probably never will "be 'Called' to preach," my perspective on this may come off as slightly different from someone who has received "the Call."

I can trace back at least 2 or more years (1964 - 1966) before I received Christ as my Savior. I could name names and/or several "situations" that occurred before I was actually transferred from death to life in an IFB church in Tucson AZ in April, 1966.

I don't mind giving my testimony any more than the healed blind man in John 9.

No, I didn't spend "sleepless nights dreaming of my current fate" nor was I a biker or some sports hero, etc., but I still recall what happened on that Saturday evening.

FWIW, I usually tend to be somewhat detail oriented about a lot of things, especially when it comes to my salvation story. OTOH, some Christians I've encountered want me to just "cut to the chase" when it comes to this.

To each his/her own on this I suppose.

Anyway, this is just my $0.02 USD, and, "That's my story, and Ima stikkin' w/ it!!" :thumbsup: