Yesterday I wrote an article/devotion about Nostra aetate and the notion that some hold that there are many paths to God, or that all religious paths lead to the same cross of Jesus. The impetus was the Pope's recent comments about his belief in what I believe is a heretical doctrine.
Today, I want to address what's really going on here for so many in the Catholic Church and in Christian universalism in general. It's really about evangelism, or the lack thereof. Maybe you could say, if you were Methodist, it's about prevenient grace. The desire is to open doors for evangelism. I get that. I also know it only ever really opens the window, but hardly ever the door.
Why?
Why doesn't it work to convert and disciple the worshippers of other "gods" to just meet in ecumenical mingled worship?
Simple answer:
They aren't making disciples, they're making excuses.
And unfortunately this Nostra aetate universalist notion has bled out into all the many Christian communities. And the result is, evangelism and disciple making has been nearly eliminated in most Christian communities. Too many people making too many excuses.
“It’s not my personality or passion.”
“I just don’t have time”
"preaching is enough to sustain the discipleship of my local church”
"That's the priesthood's job"
"It's scary"
Paul told Timothy, “Preach the word, be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching … be soberminded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry” (2 Timothy 4:2, 5).
Most pastors, and frankly most Christian's in general, read “preach the word” and stop right there. Invite someone to church so they can hear the pastor preach the gospel. That'll make them disciples.
Good to go.
If you can get them in the doors.
But Paul didn't stop there. He went on to say “reprove, rebuke, exhort” with all the patience the Spirit can give us. He is suggesting engaging the community. And the best place for reproving and rebuking is in the context of a disciple-making relationship when you have their heart and their trust. You have to get involved in evangelism if you're going to make disciples. And the whole church community is responsible for making that happen.
Paul closes with a charge to “fulfill your ministry.” And Jesus clearly told us our ministry objective in Matthew 28… to go (that means go outside the church) and make disciples of all nations. A failure to invest time in people and to train them to do that mission work would be a failure to fulfill the ministry given to us all by Christ. A failure to be the church.
We’re ALL called to make disciples, not simply converts, or make "friends" of a different father. Jesus did not say, “Go therefore and make converts of as many people as possible.” He did say, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." (Matthew 28:18-20)
You're not making them disciples if you're not baptizing them and teaching them to observe Jesus' word.
Making disciples means changing the Christian community's focus from internal church activities to external engagement and the multiplication of faith through making more personal relationships and fewer excuses. It would challenge the notion that only 'professionals' can make disciples, emphasizing that every believer has a role in the Great Commission as priests in the priesthood of all believers.
Discipleship should be accessible, less daunting, and part of everyday life. Christians need to turn the act of making excuses into a catalyst for making disciples instead. The church that is tuned into the Holy Spirit will be equipped by that Spirit with creative people capable of producing a series of real-life scenarios played out showing how one might turn an everyday situation into a disciple-making opportunity, humorously debunking excuses.
Here's how a disciple making evangelical movement could look, inspired by Matthew 28:16-20
"Make Disciples, Not Excuses"
Start with The "No Excuses" Pledge:
A commitment card or online pledge where individuals promise to prioritize discipleship in their daily lives.
The "No Excuses" app:
Maybe there's an app developer in the church community that can design an app that provides daily prompts for disciple-making actions, tracks progress, and offers excuse rebuttals based on scripture.
"No More Excuses" Outreach:
Imagine if there was someone with great people skills who would like to work on the outreach side of things and make a monthly or quarterly challenge event where participants are encouraged to engage in specific disciple-making activities, with stories shared at the end for encouragement.
"No Time For Excuses" Missionaries:
Short-term mission trips where the focus isn't just on service but on training locals to become disciples who make disciples, emphasizing sustainability in faith
How about the "Annual Excuse-Busting Conference"
A gathering where keynote speakers, who've excelled in disciple-making despite challenges, share their stories, strategies, and how they overcame their excuses.
The Excuse Jar:
Maybe on a more personal level, similar to a swear jar, every time someone catches themselves or others making an excuse not to engage in discipleship, they put money in, which later goes to support mission work.
Get creative about not creating excuses:
Creating and sharing content (books, videos, podcasts) that focuses on the importance of discipleship over excuses, perhaps with a humorous twist on common excuses people make. And building small groups where members encourage each other to step out of their comfort zones, report back on their disciple-making efforts, and pray for one another. Also sharing via social media, share testimonies, tips for discipleship, and challenge excuses with scriptural truths, using hashtags like #MakeDisciplesNotExcuses
With the whole church actively participating in these outreach efforts designed not just for service but for interaction, teaching the priesthood of all believers to live out the Gospel in practical ways, thereby making disciples through the no more excuses action oriented community of believers. There needs to be "Disciple-Making Workshops". Training sessions on how to share one's faith effectively, how to mentor new believers, and how to overcome common objections or excuses.
Motto: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, not excuses."
Mission
To encourage Christians to actively engage in discipleship, spreading the teachings of Jesus Christ without succumbing to the common excuses of fear, lack of time, feeling unqualified, and challenging indifference.
People always want a plan.
Well...☝️?
What's your excuse?
Feel free to share your excuses and experiences in the comments below.
#makedisciplesnotexcuses
Philippians 1:10b-11
"Live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return. May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation—the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ—for this will bring much glory and praise to God."
Since the fall of man, Adam and every human being that followed, lost the capability to exercise holy reign over the whole of creation. Adam violated the holy command and every generation that followed did likewise. David and the nation of Israel continued this sinful trend. They too were unable to fully manifest God’s kingdom here on earth because of their unrepentant sin. Zerubbabel’s lackluster performance after returning to Jerusalem following the exile into Babylon proved that there always remains a spiritual problem of faithlessness to the law of God, a problem so prevalent that even God's wrath cannot cure it.
And I suppose this is why many Israelites rejected Jesus as the Messiah. His earthly mission was to inaugurate the kingdom and restore ...
Isaiah 5:18-19
"What sorrow for those who drag their sins behind them with ropes made of lies, who drag wickedness behind them like a cart! They even mock God and say, 'Hurry up and do something! We want to see what you can do. Let the Holy One of Israel carry out his plan, for we want to know what it is.'”
The soul believes that God is. The hearts believes that Jesus is the truth and full of grace, the heart believes that he's telling us the truth. And the Spirit through the word of God reveals the truth about grace and brings that truth both into recognition and into remembrance, making that truth clearer and more relevant for the believer. Spirit, soul, and body. By the works of these supernatural forces, faith comes to the hearer. Christianity then becomes what that hearer does with that truth and grace.
Today, there's a dichotomy of worldly ideologies surrounding the Christian church. The polarization is split between progressivism and bigotry. Neither is a good thing. Neither is a Christian worldview. The progressives starting ...
Zechariah 14:4-5
In that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley...Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him."
The Mount of Olives is east of the city across the Kidron Valley and is higher than the temple mound. Jerusalem becomes the source of living water when The Lord splits the Mount in two and a valley opens up from East to west. And a vast underground river rises up and pours out over the land towards the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean. The Dead Sea is healed and becomes a fishing resort. And Jerusalem will be raised up, elevated above her geographical surroundings.
Zechariah 14:10
"The whole land shall be turned into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem."
And all the heavens will change. All we know about the universe will change. There will no longer be day or night. No darkness. Only the light of The Lord. One day, neither day nor night, as if ...
The interpretation in question:
Isaiah 7:14b (RSV, amplified)
"Behold, a young woman (Alma, virgin) shall conceive (future tense) and bear a son, and shall call his name Imman′u-el"
In the Old Testament prophecy, (Isaiah 7:13-14), we have the Lord promising a sign to Ahaz that “the virgin shall conceive and bear a son.” The Gospel of Matthew claims that Jesus’ conception by The Holy Spirit in the Virgin Mary is the fulfillment of that promise, citing, Isaiah’s prophecy explicitly (Matthew 1:23). And so, conversely, unbelieving scholars do not take it for granted that Matthew’s interpretation of Isaiah is valid as pretty much all first century Christians did. These scholars are men who do not believe in the divine, and supernatural miracles. They maintain that Jesus was born like anyone else, with a human mother and father, and that his virgin conception was a later legendary embellishment. And they also weren't convinced that Matthew, the gospel writing evangelist, was even the same Matthew of Jesus' apostle fame.
...
Matthew 1:16
"and Jacob fathered Joseph the husband of Mary, who gave birth to Jesus who is called the Messiah."
Joseph and Mary were engaged. In the Hebrew culture this was the first of three steps in the marriage process. This engagement is basically an arrangement to be married. This could have taken place very early in their lives, even as small children. Engagement was usually arranged by the parents. Espousal followed this arrangement period and lasted about a year in the case where the couple are of age. This espousal stage was considered to be marriage to a certain degree, but the couple were set apart to prepare themselves for full consummation and so they were kept apart sexually. In fact the father kept tokens of his daughter's virginity in case any questions arose later on. It was at this point that "it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant from the Holy Spirit." (Matthew 1:18b)
Joseph was a righteous man, a Nazarene, a descendent of David. And he didn't want to disgrace Mary and open her ...
Matthew chapter 1
"This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham..."
From Abraham to the Messiah, by his seed (Abraham's), some 42 generations later, the birth of Jesus Christ (the Messiah) came to pass. Jesus' earthly father Joseph, the descendant of king David by the line of David's son Solomon, bore the genealogy of a cursed royal line because of Jeconiah. And yet Luke looks to Jesus as the son of Mary who traces her lineage from Nathan the son of king David, though Nathan is not of the kingly line, but he's also not cursed by the sin of Jeconiah. It seems that Jeconiah birthed quite a bit of trouble, I'm thinking about his grandchild Zerubbabel who was particularly problematic. Looking back to the minor prophets we've recently studied, maybe we'll recall, that Zerubbabel tried to lead a messianic movement for himself. Whether or not he did indeed try to lay claim to Messiah status is a little unclear, but he was indeed involved in the coming of Christ. Both Matthew and Luke list ...
