Let’s Pray American ‘Christians’ Experience Radical Conversions to Christ by EDDIE HYATTÂ for Charisma News
Let’s Pray for Radical Conversion Among American ‘Christians’: I read with interest Dr. Michael Brown’s commentary on Brady “Phanatik” Goodwin’s announcement that he was renouncing his Christian faith. What caught my eye was the impersonal and sterile nature of the faith he was renouncing. In explaining his decision, Goodwin said,
“I sent a letter to my church withdrawing my membership and saying that I am denouncing the Christian faith that I have believed, professed, proclaimed and defended for the last 30 years of my life.”
My heart goes out to Goodwin, but it sounds as though his Christianity was rooted in externals such as church membership and a set of doctrinal beliefs that he has “defended” for much of his life. There is little indication of a warm and personal heart relationship with Christ.
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By contrast, when we read the words of the early martyrs of the church, it is obvious they were not laying down their lives for an institution or set of doctrines. Their testimonies are warm and passionate concerning their love and commitment to Christ.
For example, Polycarp (circa A.D. 69-155), pastor/bishop of Philippi, was martyred for his faith late in life. Brought before the pagan proconsul of the region and given the option of renouncing Christ or being burned alive, Polycarp passionately replied, “For eighty-six years I have been His servant, and He has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?”
Polycarp obviously did not see himself dying for a mere set of doctrines. It was a person he was representing, and this person meant everything to him. This is not to downplay the importance of doctrine but to remind us that it is a person who saves us, not a doctrine.
John Wesley discovered this in a very dramatic fashion. He was ordained as a minister in the Anglican Church and even went to Georgia as a missionary; but according to his own testimony, he was a Christian in name only for his faith was in the external forms of Christianity and not Christ Himself. This all changed when he visited a Moravian society where someone was reading Martin Luther’s Preface to Romans.
As Wesley listened to how Luther described the change that comes when a person puts their faith in Christ and Him alone, he had a life-changing experience that he considered to be the time of his conversion. He wrote, “I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt that I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for my salvation and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sin, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”
