Recently I came across an old email I had sent several years ago to a Christian college in Ontario. We had been invited to go to a youth event in Southern Ontario to set up a display, so we decided to take a couple students with us. The goal of the event was to share the Gospel with the youth in the town through a special drama presentation being performed by students and staff of that Bible college. We were pretty excited when we got there as there were over 300 teens in attendance and this looked like a great opportunity.
Unfortunately, the presentation of the Gospel in the drama was so muddled and messed up that anyone who was not already a believer must have been really confused. What was more disappointing was that the drama was written by the school’s president! This raised some serious concerns about the school.
On the way home I asked the students what they thought of it. I figured this would be a good opportunity for discussion. They also had noted the confused message that was presented in the drama and were upset over the lost opportunity to share the simple Gospel truth. I was so angry with the whole event that the next day I decided to send an email to the person at the school in charge of evangelism.
From me:
“I have a question.. What do you think is necessary for salvation?”
Response from the person in charge of evangelism at the school:
Interesting question to find in my email.
I think someone needs to be very human? and somewhat broken and humble because these are the things that God finds so attractive and the… one needs to pray and give up, that is, verbally in prayer, surrender to Jesus Christ, knowing that He died for all of our sins and that by surrendering our control of our life into His hands, we become changed, new and we become fully integrated into the family of God, that is, we become His children. This is what he wants, for us, to surrender to Him and be His children. This is salvation… This is what I believe and what my Bible tells me and I believe this with all my heart.
Huh? I can’t quite follow what he is trying to say.. What I had hoped for was something like how the Apostle Paul answered the same question in Acts 16:
Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved“
What a contrast… Believe on the Lord (God) Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Promised Deliverer) and you will be saved, vs. the strange, vague response about submission and humility. That has to be one of the most confusing attempts to explain the simple truths of the Gospel.
Needless to say.. I’m not real impressed with that Bible school. When the answer to the most important question in the world is so messed up and confused, I can’t imagine what the rest of their teachings would be like.