THE EVENT
On one occasion, I went to a phone store to see
different internet packages, and in the company of my mother, two attractive female
young attendants came to serve us. They were in their early 20’s; one was
blonde from Macedonia; and the other one had an exquisite southern Indian type,
brunette, from Telugu nationality.
After we have finished our business, I asked them if
they were Christians. The blonde Macedonian told me that she was Muslim, and
the pretty Indian said she was Hindu. To this, my mother as usual, spoke to
them briefly about Lord Jesus, and in a friendly manner told them that Jesus
was a good friend, and that always will be there to help them if they called
Him in faith, and invited to them to pronounce the Name : “Jesus”. To my surprise
they stepped back, the brunette refused with the head, and the blonde girl
openly said “NO”. It seemed like they were afraid to pronounce the Holy Name of
Jesus in that manner, with the devotion and reverence my mother was speaking to
them.
WE did not insist and left afterwards, but I am planning
to go back to preach to them, specially to the Hindu girl. I thought how sad it
would be for these two beautiful girls to condemn themselves.
WHY THIS HAPPENED
WHY THESE GIRLS refused in such a rotund manner to
pronounce the Name of our Lord Jesus of Nazareth?
Islam is a very radical religion, almost as hard as
true Christianity; and Hinduism is one of the oldest religions in the world. Both
knew this, and were very proud of their heritage, and having been born and educated
within these faiths, the two girls were stubborn and obviously assumed that to
pronounce the Name of Jesus in such a manner, with the evident devotion my
mother was doing it, it would imply to give Him divine honour and therefore, to
sin against their own faiths, which gives our Lord Jesus, the Son of God, the
role of simple human prophet or guru.
In his second letter to Timothy, Apostle Paul says
to his younger receiver:
“From infancy you have known the Holy
Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in
Christ Jesus.”
2Timothy 3:15
These words are part of a larger encouragement Paul wrote
to Timothy, reminding him to remain faithful to the things he had seen in Paul’s
conduct and teachings, and what he had learned since early years from the
Scriptures (Old Testament, and probably some of the newly apostolic writings),
by telling him that in Scripture you can find everything to make you ‘wise for
salvation, good to reproof, correct, teach in righteousness, and to be fully
equipped for every good work’ (2Timothy 3:15-17)
Paul elected Timothy, among others, due to his
strong faith, and the recommendation of the churches of Lystra and Iconium, which
had known him since childhood, having Timothy been educated in Judaism and then
converted to Christianity since early age together with his Jewish mother and
grandmother (Acts 1:5;16:1-3), to the
point to entrust Timothy the implementation of the whole church of Ephesus (1Timothy
1:3).
OUR DUTY TO GOD
Even though Christianity is a religion of personal
faith and conviction, and we await a personal decision before baptizing anyone;
this does not impede that a child of a believing couple may be educated in the
faith with the same conviction we adults have.
Timothy had such a strong faith in our Lord Jesus,
because he was educated diligently within the Jewish and then Christian faith
by his mother and grandmother since he could remember. Even though he was not
baptized until he could ask for it personally, he had a salvific faith since he
unconsciously surrendered to God and Jesus, even imperfectly, most probably
since he could understand who God and Jesus was, at about 5 or 6 years old.
Sometimes we modern Christians commit the mistake of
being so ‘matured’ in the faith, that we avoid indoctrinating our kids into the
Christian faith, thinking that older they will make a clean decision. Or if we
do, we postpone baptism to much later age, about puberty, or until they can
recite the Church’s confession of faith and have basic theological knowledge. But
all this is wrong.
When Jesus spoke of little children that came to Him,
probably all pre-puberty and small kids, He said the words ‘little ones who
believe in Me’ (Matthew 18:6), referring to their young age. If these little
children ‘believed’ in Jesus, and their faith was accepted by our Lord as salvific
according to the context, then it is assumed that like the Ethiopian eunuch of
Acts 8 (Acts 8:35-39), not theological knowledge was demanded from any of them
to be consider believers, and therefore to be accounted as worthy of baptism,
apart from accepting that Jesus was who said He was and the Saviour of their souls.
Any further knowledge was part of continuing discipleship.
But another thing equally important, is the quality
of conviction infused in these young believers. Since they knew God from early
age, when the soul is unintoxicated by doubt and disbelief, they grew stronger
than many adult converts, who were tempted sometimes by the memories of old
pleasures and the doubts of older philosophies. These young Christians grew
strong and valiant, and an example to many, like the old Polycarp who said to
his Roman judge:
“For eighty-six years have I served him
(Jesus), and he has never done me injury. How can I blaspheme my King and
Saviour”?
Polycarp, Martyrdom of Polycarp – 2nd
Century (Ecclesiastical History- Eusebius of Caesarea – 4th
century).
Like these two girls of the shop who fear Jesus
(1Corinthians 12:3), our children should be educated in the faith from birth,
and treated as any other Christian. They should be dedicated to the Holy Trinity
from birth by their parents and be baptized as soon as they can express faith
in Jesus as God and Saviour, even if they don’t know any thing else. All further
religious education will come as they grow in the faith and mature.
Our children are the reflection of ourselves, and
the continuing Church, the new wave of witnesses of Jesus Christ to the world,
and we are under the sacred obligation to educate them into the Christian faith
with word and example. We owe it to GOD, and it will be demanded from us one
day, and that also includes the need to procreate. For this reason Paul said
that ‘women will save themselves by having children’, speaking of the sacred
duty of motherhood; the door through which living souls enter the world, and
God’s servants are born (1Timothy 2:15). God did not give us the power to procreate
in order to interrupt the dissemination process, but to do what we were
supposed to do, and that is to procreate if we get married. It is a duty, not
an option.
Disciples are made in different ways, and all by the
power of the Holy Spirit. But from these, the ones who are blessed to be born
into a Christian family, have the possibility to be the strongest of all, if
educated properly in the faith of Jesus.
Omar Flores.
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