Unlimited: Indoctrinated or Gospelised?
Nov 22, 2021 1425
Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners (Matthew 9:13).
During approximately 100 days between April 7 and mid-July 1994, it is estimated that between 500,000 and 1,000,000 Rwandans were killed, up to 70% of the Tutsi and 20% of Rwanda’s total population. This was the genocidal mass slaughter of the Tutsi minority and moderate Hutu, by members of the Hutu majority—many of them Christians.
Yes, the horrific reality is that those who rose up to barbarously hack their neighbours to death were Christians of all persuasions. The churches in Rwanda before the genocide tended strongly towards fundamentalism and legalism, and they still do today. Has nothing been learnt? How can this be? Because Christians have too often spent their energies indoctrinating people, rather than “gospelising” them.
Have you been truly gospelised?
In terms of priorities, God does not call us to be rooted and grounded in knowledge and standards, or to understand all doctrine or prophecy. God calls us, as our first duty, to be rooted and grounded in love, through the indwelling of Christ in our hearts (Ephesians 3:17–19). Religion based on any other foundation incurs the words of Christ in Matthew 25: 45-46.
What about you? Have you been truly gospelised? Or have you merely been indoctrinated? – Eliezer Gonzalez
Reflection: Think carefully about the questions at the end of this devotional. Make it a point to study and understand what the Gospel is. How will you know if you have been “gospelised”? Because you will become kinder, gentler, forgiving, and more full of grace in all your dealings with others.
Sandi Hnilica
Nov 23, 2021
I was indoctrinated, from the age of 19, for 38 years. My "family" lied to me! Fell in with Dale Ratzlaff, but returned $200+ in books as I read that the Sabbath was no longer binding. I wandered in the desert for all that time. Attended Baptist mega-church, then Celebrate Recovery church. But was led to an infidel I was warned against in 1980, Des Ford. I'm now 74 & in poor shape, but am praying that God will use me to tell others of the Blessed Assurance! Thank God for him, & for you, Eli!