“Do you believe God wants many people saved now?”

That was the question that confronted Tim Scheuer (pronounced ‘shire’) before he began his mission of evangelism in Airds – a commitment that eventually saw him resign his position as the National Director of The Church Army Australia as of February 2010.

At the Church Army 75th Anniversary Conference in 2009, Tim announced:

In late March this year I took the opportunity to spend three days with a Kiwi missionary that we’ll call Barney. Barney has spent the past 12 years serving in China in “Church Planting Movements”; seeing hundreds of small simple churches planted and thousands of people coming to Christ in relatively short periods of time.

The first thing Barney did when he stood up in front of the small group of leaders I was part of was to ask a question; “Do you believe God wants many people saved now?” And then he paused…

I sat there thinking, “If I say, ‘no’, it will be very hard to justify that ‘no’ from scripture. But, if I say ‘yes’… I sensed there would be more questions coming, confronting questions. At the same time I knew that what God was saying to me could not be brushed off by explaining to him that I was the National Director of Church Army Australia and that we were planting LMB’s, training local missionaries and running a good residential restoration programme. “Hey God, I’m a busy religious guy doing good things – off my back” was not going to wash…

http://www.churcharmy.com.au/downloads/Tims_Conf_Address.pdf

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When Tim Scheuer^[1] decided to go into one of the worst socioeconomic communities in Western Sydney to reach the Least, the Last and the Lost,^[2] he did so in part to prove that the church planting movement – the likes of which saw Christianity go viral in China over the last 50 years – would not work in Australia. However, “In order to give it a fair shot,” thought Tim, “I will endeavour to train 1000 people,” and plant no less than 400 churches. Some litmus test! With that commitment made, and having met with his small outreach team at the local Anglican church for some pep-talks and prayer, Tim went out into the streets of Airds and began prayer walking.

Don’t worry if you’re not familiar with that term. Neither was I, until Tim began describing his first experiences in Airds. It works something like this; Tim goes out into the streets of Airds, door-knocking and walking around the community looking to make connections with people. While he is doing this he is praying, “Oh God, pour out your Spirit, take me to persons of peace^[3], show yourself to these people. I’m looking for leaders to raise up here, I know they’re here, you’ve got them, you’ve been working in their hearts. Help me to find them and encourage them and win them and train them.” Praying. Walking. Ergo, prayer walking.

So on his first day in Airds Tim met a young man named Bobby. Within ten minutes Tim discovers that Bobby has been on the run from the police. He’s also been on methadone for the last eight years and has been using speed and drinking heavily with his brother, who he’d been staying with. Two nights prior, Bobby had tried to hang himself, but his brother found him and cut him down. “So you figured he was a person of peace?” jokes Steve Addison, in a June 2009 interview. “I thought he could be a good worker,” Tim replies.

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This is a letter that I wrote a few days ago, being addressed to my former English high school teacher (who is not a Christian). We had good discussions on matters of religion and philosophy, so I decided to send him this letter so that we may be able to continue corresponding with each other. Aside from a few minor edits (taking out typographical and stylistic errors), I have left the text in its original form. All scripture quotations are from the King James Version.

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Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. Pilate saith unto him, What is truth?
(John 18:37-38)

The previous year was quite the encounter. I enjoyed our discussions, and it is a shame that we are no longer able to converse quite as often as we used to. But, since time never stands still, we must all move forward, and I do hope to be able to dialogue every so often when my busy schedule allows for it. Perhaps by means of these discussions we will be able to learn from each other and would have something to ponder over.

As you would know, now that I am no longer in high school, I am now able to pursue the service to which I am called. It might seem strange that I phrase things this way to most people in this day and age, given that our careers and vocations are often thought of as decisions that are made either by ourselves or by our parents. However, I do not see this as the case for myself. I am, at this moment, writing from Toronto Baptist Seminary, where I am spending one year for theological instruction before I go off to a secular university to study history. The ironic thing is that before, I had no intention of going to study history, and my heart was set towards the natural sciences rather than the humanities. However, as time passed by, I gained a clearer view of what I am to do with my life, and my old aspirations gradually faded away. I do not think, however, that any of this has to do with sheer chance. Throughout the events that pushed me in this direction and all the people I talked to for guidance, I can see the Sovereign Architect’s hand at work, as it is written, “A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps” (Proverbs 16:9). And I am glad that He has set the way for me.

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(Continued from part two)

In the first part of this series, we discussed and debunked Balgrim Ragoonanan’s tirades against Christian exclusivism and evangelistic efforts as a form of Religious Bigotry and Exclusivity. In the second part, we refuted his misuse and misrepresentation of Jesus’ teachings in order to promote Hindu pluralism over against what he deems to be The Insidiousness of an Only Pathway to God. In this third part in the series, we will be looking at the third of Mr. Ragoonanan’s articles, entitled, The Whole Truth About Those who Debase and Derogate Other Religions.[1] In his opening paragraph, he writes,

Anyone who thinks that he/she has some kind of corner on religious and spiritual beliefs and practices, and believes he/she can take another person to task for exposing the falsehood of an only pathway to God are welcome to do so. I am prepared to defend the legitimacy of all religions as I research and understand them better, especially when God and religion are purely for the transformation of the human heart to the higher state of the divine. I have been doing studies ever since I joined the membership of the Trinidad & Tobago Online Community, when it was once fashionable to deride, derogate, defame and characterize Hinduism as being outside the frame of legitimate religions.

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(Continued from part one)

This article is a continuation of a rebuttal to Balgrim Ragoonanan, a writer for the anti-Missionary website Crusade Watch which argues vehemently against Christian evangelistic efforts. In another one of his articles, entitled, The Insidiousness Of an Only Pathway to God,[1] he attempts to twist Jesus’ teachings in order to promote Hindu Pluralism. It would seem that the author believes that he can reconstruct Jesus in order to get around His clear teachings regarding salvation through Christ alone by reading into His statements things that He never taught:

Can it be true, according to the Bible, that God can only have one human form? The answer is obviously no, because Jesus said he will come again as a thief in the night, meaning that he will not be recognized in his new form, but only by his works they shall know him.

It is very clear that Jesus credits God with more than one human form and was fully aware of the principle of other forms of God. He was speaking about another one of his coming as God, consistent with the Hindu principle of the manifestation of God at other points in time for a special purpose at the time.

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For those who are unfamiliar with Crusade Watch, it is a website with multiple contributors who all write with the express purpose of denouncing evangelism and missions as an evil act that must be banned and legislated against. Of course, the vast majority of the articles published on this website have no real intellectual merit; being comprised primarily of shoddy logic, unwarranted assumptions and undocumented assertion after undocumented assertion. One of the recurring themes among the writers, though, is the idea of pluralism; the ideology that all paths to God are equally valid, and that none of them can assert itself to be correct over and against any other path. In particular, it will be well worth documenting the claims of one Balgrim Ragoonanan, an author from Trinidad and Tobago who strongly favours Hindu ideas of plurality over and against religious exclusivity. The rest of this will be dealing with his article entitled, Religious Bigotry and Exclusivity.[1] We will begin by examining the author’s thesis, which appears in the first few paragraphs of his article:

This presentation may also reflect an aspect of the narrow and restrictive pathway offered for salvation by the Christians versus the broad and expansive pathway of the Hindus, although it is not the gist of the paper.

This paper is to be taken only as a working framework for further discussion against religious proselytizing and the Christian one way doctrine to salvation.

Those who do not support religious proselytizing can find the appropriate lawyers to develop a case against religious proselytizing as an abuse of human rights versus the freedom of speech and the freedom to practice a religion in peace without intrusions.

The freedom of speech argument is a false one when it comes to religious proselytizing and must be debunked at the onset. We know that although freedom of speech is sacred to many, it is still over-ruled under certain conditions that incite violence and family and community disturbances.

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