Dear WBC,
I’ve been doing alot of research into your church and your protests. I am aware that some children have been brought up within your fellowship and have fallen away or walked away. I feel this does not line up with scripture as in Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it.” This clearly states that if a child is brought up in God’s ways they will not depart from it.
I am 17 and from Belfast Northern Ireland. I do not wish to offend anyone. I just wish to retrieve an answer to a question that I have put to other believers. I myself am a follower of Jesus Christ and have been born again by the spirit of God.
Thank you for taking the time to read my message I hope you find the time to reply preferably by email.
Regards,
Nora. God Bless.
Dear Nora from Northern Ireland:
In my youth, I considered that very question. But I have lived enough years and my God has given me wisdom and I am thankful to tell you the answer to that thing that seems to be confusing for you.
That verse is a promise from our God! Truly. A good promise at that.
Even as I read it in my youth, I KNEW that we do NOT own salvation, and we have NO POWER to give it. Further, John the Baptist said this:
Matthew 3:1 ¶ In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea,
2 And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
3 For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
4 And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.
5 Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan,
6 And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.
7 ¶ But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
8 Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:
9 And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
10 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
Further, we have these excellent words that speak to that day when every human comes to years and they make a plain decision – are they going to serve God and suffer with his people (for certainly it is a great blessing and a token of our Father’s love to us if he lets us see this day: Php 1:29 For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake..) OR, are they going to serve themselves and their lusts? Check out these good words toward that end:
Heb 11:24 By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter;
25 Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;
26 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.
Of course, if God had mercy upon you, there is ONLY one choice – you will of a certainty choose to suffer affliction with the people of God. Likewise also, if God did NOT have mercy upon you, there is ONLY one choice – you will of a certainty choose to serve yourself and your idols! You are in fact a vessel of wrath that has been FITTED to destruction! Read Romans 9 on that – whereby you learn that BEFORE the twins were born, God loved one and hated the other. THAT is how God rolls. So with that fact, you must concede in our minds that we do not get to make the ultimate call on salvation. You MUST READ Romans 9.
There is much more scripture on this issue, but you must get to that.
So that leads us back to this: WHAT does that mean in Proverbs 22:6 about the training of the child.
PICK ME! I know. J
It means that if you teach that child what God requires of him, that child will NEVER be free from those standards/commandments. That plays out on the ground like this: The rebel grows and when they reach the age of majority, they will cut out of here!
I had two brothers that did that. However, you can remove yourself from the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, but you cannot remove the commandments of God and HIS WORD from your heart and mind. That law of God will NEVER depart from the child. So to the one it will cause this kind of sorrow and to the other, it will cause that kind of sorrow, but to them all, it will be a huge albatross around their neck! Look at these amazing words of scripture that give the face of that:
Hebrews 6:4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucifyto themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
They will blab their heads off about how bad they were treated and they will sit in the shrink’s office in stupid Doomed america and they will redefine their whole existence around their rage against God and the commandments that have been bound to them with chains of iron, but their gripe is truly with their God! They will give the world their “story” (say that with a lot of sarcasm and make the word drag out) of how their daddy spanked them when he actually caught them misbehaving (which trust me, was running at about 20 percent of the time OR LESS for those two rebels that Satan sewed into this little flock) and he this and that, blah, blah, BARF! But every now and again, a little truth is forced out of their rotting hot-dog chutes. It sounds like this: I want to wake up just one day and NOT HAVE my conscience testify to me that I am heading STRAIGHT to hell!! So I will call myself an atheist or some other fluff term to try and make it go away!
Trust me Nora – those boys were trained up in the way they SHOULD go, and now, they cannot shake loose of those standards of God! How amazing is that?! And for the little soul that would serve their God, the little lambs that remain with us, they also do not depart from the way they should go!!
I love that!! It is another amazing and perfect work of our God! We do not make the call about who God will have mercy upon and who he will harden – see Romans 9 for that good language that quotes from this verse right here:
Exodus 33:19 And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.
Now we talked long enough, I must just give you Paul’s treaty upon this excellent verse and much more that he pulled together to explain the doctrines of election and the flip side of it called reprobation! You MUST read all the words.
Romans 9:10 And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac;
11 (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth; )
12 It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.
13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
14 ¶ What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
15 For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
17 For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
And add this final excellent question posed by Christ to make this very point!
Mt 20:15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?
God is sovereign and he does exactly what he pleases and all things were created for his will for his pleasure and he has his way in the storm and the whirlwind and the clouds are the dust under his feet and he does as he wills in the armies of heaven and with the inhabitants of the earth and NONE can stay his hand NOR say unto him – WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING!! YAY!
We are left with this comfort – all things work together for our good and our God has it all under control. We then say – PRAISE YE THE LORD!!
Psalm 148:7 ¶ Praise the LORD from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps:
8 Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling his word:
9 Mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars:
10 Beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl:
11 Kings of the earth, and all people; princes, and all judges of the earth:
12 Both young men, and maidens; old men, and children:
13 Let them praise the name of the LORD: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven.
Thanks for writing.