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Featured How does your Church deal with Child professions of Faith?

Discussion in 'General Baptist Discussions' started by Berean, Apr 8, 2013.

  1. Yeshua1

    Yeshua1 Well-Known Member
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    well. we know God is no respector of persons, and called samual young age, and jeremiah/John the baptist called from the womb!

    so the Lord determines when and how one of His get saved, so would say treat it as they were saved, but also as they will need to reconfirm and stay in the lord to show it while grow older!

    For hell full of persons who walked theAlter and professed faith in jesus as a one time act, but NEVER confirmed it/proved it as actually being real!
     
  2. Earth Wind and Fire

    Earth Wind and Fire Well-Known Member
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    Nailed it! :thumbsup:
     
  3. annsni

    annsni Well-Known Member
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    As a parent, you just kinda know. I know my kids pretty well and know when they are feeding me a line, being a llama drama or truly sincere in their heart. Of course we could be wrong - but I watch them and have seen the fruit of the Spirit in their lives. Like I said, I have two adult daughters now and I can say without a doubt, their faith is their own. We've gone through periods of testing with both of them (testing from the outside - not from them) and I've watched them respond in a way that could not come from themselves but from the Spirit within.
     
  4. salzer mtn

    salzer mtn Well-Known Member

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    All i got to say is lucky for me i was not raised up by parents who pushed me into something i didn't understand. I was talked down to a altar when i was fifteen years old by well meaning but easy believism church members at their revival. This is the way their plan of salvation works, first everyone comes to the altar and tries to pray you into heaven (figuratively) next, they sing songs while you pray and countless people come by with words of incouragement to either tell you to hold on or to turn loose. Next, a more convincing person will come tell you that you have met all the requirements so get up and claim the victory. After all of this madness took place my mother came to where i was at and simply told me, if i didn't understand to come back to my seat. I did, and when i was twenty four years old i truly was born again and no one had to tell me anything, i told them. The bottom line is people will promote what they, themselves have.
     
  5. webdog

    webdog Active Member
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  6. webdog

    webdog Active Member
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    So your personal bad experience needs to be the litmus test for everyone. Got it. :BangHead:
     
  7. Yeshua1

    Yeshua1 Well-Known Member
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  8. salzer mtn

    salzer mtn Well-Known Member

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    I've visited churches that count personal contacts from each individual in each Sunday school class before church service so they can put the total on the board. My sister went to a church summer camp when she was a youngster and when she got home she told how the camp young peoples guides wouldn't let her go eat breakfast unless she made a profession of faith and be baptized. There are preachers that count converts like indians of the past counted coup on their enemies and especially prey on little children just for larger numbers. Salvation is a serious matter and is not to be taken lightly by anyone.
     
    #48 salzer mtn, Apr 9, 2013
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 9, 2013
  9. Yeshua1

    Yeshua1 Well-Known Member
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    as calvinists, we know the lord can and does save children at young age, for salvation is of the lord, but also know they they will confirm that happened by staying with him when getting older!
     
  10. Scarlett O.

    Scarlett O. Moderator
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    I've lived enough to have seen many a times when someone - be they 5 or 50 - who "came forward" and engaged in a religious ritual/tradition without any real understanding.

    It isn't an age. It a level of understanding and a sense of urgency brought about by the Holy Spirit.



    Does one understand:
    • sin (in general) and personal sin?
    • conviction of sin?
    • atonement by Jesus Christ and His death/resurrection?
    • living under the Lordship of Christ?
    It's not rocket science, you know, - despite all the complications we mix in with our "educated" religious selves.

    I've worked with pre-schoolers and kindergarteners at church for 35 years. Are most of them ready for a profession of faith in Jesus Christ? No. But some 5-6-7 year olds I work with are and have been.

    I have a particular boy now, in children's choir, named Jamie. He's 6. He has a severe speech impediment that's been improving, he loves Ironman, loves his little baseball team (he won the game ball last week), and he has a phenomenal understanding of spiritual things.

    I talk to my little children's choir about spiritual matters. I asked them one day not to long ago why it was important to be good and behave and mind their teachers and parents.

    Jamie said this, "Well, if you be bad and then say you love God, then people won't believe you. And if you be bad, then people can't see God inside you. We have to be good so God will show to other people who don't know Him."

    Not bad. And there isn't a bible story that I can tell them that he doesn't already know and can draw applications to real life from it before I can finish telling it.

    God is working in this little boy's life in a HUGE way. I see it.
     
    #50 Scarlett O., Apr 9, 2013
    Last edited: Apr 9, 2013
  11. salzer mtn

    salzer mtn Well-Known Member

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    This proves my point. By the many times Jamie is referring to being good, could it be he thinks that being good is what makes him a Christian. Could it be Jamie is replacing Christ with being good.
     
    #51 salzer mtn, Apr 9, 2013
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 9, 2013
  12. HisWitness

    HisWitness New Member

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    how can a young child(say 5,6 years old)even understand about the knowledge of good and evil--they are still learning to read and write?
    Understanding about the proper things is a MUST before one is saved by God.
    Im not saying that the Holy Spirit cant work in them,but im saying that they need proper understanding and need to HEAR--and them just starting to learn to read and write--I ask HOW can they understand properly--think about these things :godisgood::godisgood:
     
  13. HisWitness

    HisWitness New Member

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    the thief had understanding on some things--he addressed Jesus as when Jesus came in his kingdom--Thief knew Jesus not only had a kingdom but was coming to set it up--well in order for that to happen the thief also believed in the Resurrection --how could he set up his kingdom and be dead ?

    The thief understood many things if you dive into what was being said--so he knew more than people give him credit for:godisgood::godisgood:
     
  14. HisWitness

    HisWitness New Member

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  15. webdog

    webdog Active Member
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  16. HisWitness

    HisWitness New Member

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  17. salzer mtn

    salzer mtn Well-Known Member

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    For one to realize they are a sinner is to realize you have offended God in words thoughts and deeds. It is to realize they have sinned against God and Him alone. David said, i have sinned against thee and thee only. For one to realize they are a sinner is to be convicted of sin's pollution, of sin's defilement to the very fiber of ones self. It is to loath ones self in their own eyes. There are many stony ground conversions because the ground (heart) was never worked up (plowed) by the Holy Ghost.
     
  18. Scarlett O.

    Scarlett O. Moderator
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    I didn't say Jamie was saved. He doesn't think nor call himself a Christian. He hasn't expressed that desire. I said he understood spiritual matters that others his age don't.

    He understood completely that our actions (those of us who "say we love God", as he says) had better match our confession, or we people will know we are lying hypocrites.

    There are those here who are saying that children don't understand and can't understand.

    They are wrong.
     
  19. webdog

    webdog Active Member
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    Once one understands what sin is and the penalty for it, they are accountable. Of course just knowing we have sinned is not enough for salvation. My daughter clearly understood that when Jesus was being beaten and nailed it was serious business, and that our sin was being placed on him. The fear of punishment should never be discounted in dealing with children. They undertand action / consequence. We should be working with that, not brushing it under the rug.
     
  20. annsni

    annsni Well-Known Member
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    I don't see that at all. I see him understanding why we should be good after we are saved - not that it saves us but because we are a testimony to the world and it hurts God when we are not doing what we should.
     
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