"How can you beat someone and expect them to come to your
God through that beating?"
My friend Johnny asked last night the same question Baptists
have asked from the beginning. One of the defining distinctives of Baptist
ecclesiology is universal religious liberty, which extends to everyone the
opportunity to freely worship, preach, to dialogue and debate, to try and test
beliefs, systems, religions, sacred texts, philosophies, and ideas without
threat of coercion or violence so that ultimately the one who seeks the truth
finds and is set free by it.
Johnny (whose testimony you can read here:
http://ryanburtonking.blogspot.com/2018/03/i-used-to-be-man-of-world.html), has
something of a ministry to young people from Irish Travelling communities across
the U.K. and Ireland, particularly sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with them
and calling them to lives of repentance and faith using voice messaging (to
bypass problems with illiteracy) on WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. Yesterday,
he called me in between morning and evening services and asked to see me. We
met in the church hall and he told me he was disturbed. He played a voice note
from a nun, sent using the account of another woman he has been sharing the
gospel with in Ireland. The nun claimed the young woman was suicidal, and that
if she were to kill herself her blood would be on Johnny’s hands, whose
humanity and Christianity she called into question. Understandably, the brother
was burdened by this. He could prove by showing me his history that he had done
no wrong, and had in fact been warmly received and encouraged by the reportedly
suicidal woman, but nonetheless the strong nature of the accusations, even
though demonstrably false and deflective, was troubling.
As the evening progressed the other side of the story came
out. The woman with whom Johnny had been speaking may well have been suicidal,
but only after being punched breathless, beaten black and blue by her family
for questioning the legitimacy of the Roman Catholic Church as the true
representation of the way of Jesus. Such was her family’s fury, they had gone
to a priest to request an exorcism. She was left with no further recourse than
to leave the Christian discussion group she had joined and to block everyone
she was talking with about the gospel, but last I heard, was determined to stay
strong, if somewhat more quiet and isolated.
Would you pray for this young woman, that her pursuit of
Christ and his righteousness by grace through faith would continue, and that
she would find, know, and rest in the truth that she seeks? Pray for her
healing, her safety, and her protection. Pray that God would raise up faithful
servants to minister to and comfort her through what must be a very painful and
distressing time. Pray for justice, that those who have abused her would be
brought down, but that in his wrath God might remember mercy and bring them
under deep conviction of sin that they might repent and find redemption and
reconciliation in Jesus.
Would you pray for Johnny, as he continues to speak the love
of Christ into the unique and challenging context of the Irish Travelling
community? Would you pray for me as I try to pastorally advise, counsel,
encourage, and equip him?
Would you pray for opportunities closer to home - in March,
Grace Baptist Church Wood Green will partner with Barry King from Dunstable Baptist Church to
lead a series of weekly studies at the South Mimms Caravan Park. Also, though
they have previously not been warm to the idea of a visit from me (a
Protestant!), I hope to join Johnny on the Wood Green site soon.
Although the early Baptists were pioneers at working out a
robust approach religious liberty, they were not the first to ask questions or
make helpful comments on the subject. When Charlemagne was terrorising Saxons
in the eight century, offering them the choice of baptism or death, Alcuin of
York wisely noted “We must appeal to the conscience, not compel it by violence.
You can force people to be baptised, but you cannot force them to believe.”
Roman Catholicism may need coercive force to win converts,
but Christ, whose kingdom is not of this world nor won by the weapons of this
world, does not. Him we proclaim!
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