Day Ten

I am not sure where to start with this blog. There has been so much happen on this trip that I have tried to at least give you an overview each day. Today has been a day that for the Lord’s church in the Freetown area that simply will go down in history as a day of shall we say “reckoning”.

First of all, Victor who John Smith wrote earlier, wanted to be baptized and was. He is very knowledgeable in many parts of the Scriptures but obviously was not willing to obey the gospel of Jesus until today. The cost of his obedience – leaving his position as “pastor” of a Pentecostal church where he received funds.

Secondly, the building at Priscilla Street where we were to teach today filled up rather rapidly with about 80 people (this is close to capacity of the building) – 8 different congregations calling themselves “church of Christ” were represented as well as about 6 different denominational folks. Of the 8 different congregations calling themselves “church of Christ” three were started as a result of the teaching last year when we were here – these were made up of newborn babes (the ones we were very concerned about). The other five congregations were started by those of the institutional persuasion several years ago.

We knew we would have a mixed group of people – I am not sure we knew just how many would actually show up to study with us – we saw very quickly that many were coming prepared to study and ready to ask questions. I started the session with “A Good Bible Student.” I explained ten things a good Bible student must do, and then I closed that one cannot teach properly if they are not a good Bible student. Dan Barker followed with a great lesson on teachers. He really challenged all of us about the discipline we need to have to teach among other things. He introduced some things that he will continue to address in our future studies. Dan Byers taught about prophecy and the proper way to use the Old Testament. He walked us through different prophecies and how that God spoke to man once by prophets but now by Christ – and we have the written word where we no longer need prophets. Jimmy then spoke about the history of worship. He started in the Garden of Eden and worked his way through the Old Testament and then in the New Testament and how there was perverted and vain worship in both Testaments given to us an example so we would not worship that way (such as instrumental music, etc).

After the lessons came Q & A time. We had a couple of questions that we answered before in a short break between Dan Byers and Jimmy’s lessons. Now we were going to dedicate the rest of the time to questions they had for us about what had been taught. Please remember that on this trip we were going to evangelize at Ebenezer Hall and we did. Secondly, we wanted to be able to teach about the perverted teaching of institutionalism and sponsoring churches. One of the first questions that came was about sponsoring churches and human institutions – these thoughts had been picked up from our teaching at Ebenezer Hall – the lessons at Priscilla Street on Sunday and some planting of the seed in our lessons before the Q & A today.

I took the question and used the chalk board to start teaching on what these doctrines taught and the fallacy of them – Jimmy picked up and then drove home some points on this subject as did both Dan’s. The Lord provided us a great opportunity. I made sure after each point that I ask them the same question that Paul asked “Do you count me your enemy because I tell you the truth?” Each time they said “No”! We have just started – this was our first day – sitting in the audience was the National Director of the World Bible School (an institution that is just a missionary society). He no doubt heard things he had never heard before. Also, I mentioned the name of the sponsoring church that was responsible in starting many of these congregations – yes called them out by name – held the Bible up and said where is there authority to do this? Many other things were said by all four of us.

We finished around 3 P.M. after five hard hours of teaching and answering questions BUT our audience was the right audience – members of congregations who had been started by those of the institutional belief – newborn babes needing milk –what more could we ask for?

Tonight has been a very busy and trying night – we have discussed today’s events and have all changed our lessons for tomorrow – we have met with Joseph on some major issues of concern. We have discussed the best use of Jimmy’s and my time after Dan and Dan go home. All four of us in our experience are seeing something that needs attention NOW! We are seeing open hearts that are eager to know if what they have been doing is wrong (those of the institutional belief) – newborn babes begging for milk (remember some of these men who have been baptized this past week were allowed to teach in two congregations even though they were not Christians ). Some were saying they had been baptized-- that in essence they had been “immersed” but into some denomination and are now being confronted with the teaching that they are not in the body of Christ. The four of us believe it would be tragic to abandon the Freetown area to teach at Makeni now. We think it is better to strengthen the work here in Freetown so that some of these brethren will be equipped to go to the Makeni area and teach. We know that we were really looking forward to teaching in Makeni and that funds were given to assist in that. However, we believe it is so important to re-direct those funds so Jimmy and I can stay in Freetown and teach the ones here so they can teach other including those in Makeni. We have talked about this among the four of us the last couple of days and tonight we have made that decision because of what we have experienced on this trip and the events of today. Just one example – Victor – needs to be grounded more deeply as he is a real key to turning many souls away from the Pentecostal belief. Another example – Christian and Theopolis are such good men who know their Bible well – yet are hearing for the second time (John and Mike taught back in the spring on issues of institutionalism also) the teaching about Bible schools – missionary societies, etc. Mohammed and Augustine who were two of the teachers in congregations but they were not Christians are sponges wanting to know more so they will not be swayed by a man or men away from the truth. Need I neglect the good heart of a one year old Christian by the name of John Kabul who today said “I have learned so much but I have so much more to learn”? I could go on and on about examples such as these that have led us to the decision of re-directing our focus to the work here in Freetown.

We ask that you pray for us and please know that we pray that you understand our decision. There is only so much that can be said in a blog and most of the blogs have been long – it will take many times in person to explain this trip and what God has allowed us to learn and the doors that He has opened. More doors are opening each day.

It has been a day unlike any other in the pages of history of the Lord’s work in the Freetown, Sierra Leone. We have no idea of what the page that is written tomorrow will look like – could it even be a better day that today? Only God knows!