by Dr. James Willingham » Thu May 26, 2011 10:07 pm
[/b] Hey, Gene: Evidently you never studied theology or missiology or tried to learn the facts about Messianic expectations among the nations. In A.H. Strong's Systematic Theology, he tells of the conversion of a Hindu or Buddhist, I forget which, that occurred before the missionaries ever came with the Gospel. He also tells of the conversion of a tribe of Africans who were converted a generation of two before the Gospel came. The acknowledgement of both the fellow from India and the tribe of Africans was this: That (Jesus) is who we believe in. We did not know His name." The same thing happened here in the United States, when the Great Spirit dealt with an Indian in Indiana before the preachers ever came. He felt the great burden of his sins under the work of the Great Spirit, and He cried for forgivnness and it came to him. When the ministers came preaching the Gospel, he said, "That's what and Jesus is who I believe." He became the pastor of the First Primitive Baptist Church of Wabash, Indiana and served it for 40 years. Cf. Stanley Phillips, The Primitive Baptists of Indiana (I think that is the title), Master's thesis. Ball State University. Dr. Stanley (Ed.D) was the only speaker at the celebration of the service of Dr. Gordon Clark, the noted philosopher and theologian of the Presbyterians at Butler University....back in the 60s. Gene...a poisonous snake is still a poisonous snake, regardless of how much you commisserate with it's condition, and it will bite you. Even little copperheads put a man in the hospital near my first church. He thought they were fishing worms. Your sympathy for lost souls is commendable, but they are still deadly vipers even as we were and still are - though we have a new nature to go along with the old poisonous nature which makes for interesting living. God grant you, dear brother, the grace to see the truth about man's sinfulness, original sin, total depravity and disability, which Jesus clearly taught. The approach to scripture of the so-called Enlightenment and rationalism is really old French Infidelity changed into criticism by the German theologues of the 1800s and sanctified by British and American Scholars as Higher Criticism. It is silly to let God's enemies set the standards by which you approach the Bible. Jesus thought so much of the Bible that He said, " Have you not read that which was spoken to you by God."(Mt.22:31) He was talking of the statement made perhaps 1500 years before to Moses as being the very words God was actually speaking to the Sadduccees of His day and the same words are spoken to you and me today.