Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Sept-73

Contributor - Will Kroon

Title - Spiritual Infants or Mature Followers

Topic - The Church in the World

Let me begin by sharing a personal concern! Several weeks ago a reader of Pioneer questioned me about the direction I was going in some of my articles that have appeared in Pioneer.

He mentioned that I was confusing him by stressing one point of view while others stressed another. To be specific, he felt that I was knocking today's emphasis on the Holy Spirit.

Since this person was. very much concerned about this and since he mentioned that others shared his feelings, I would like to share with you where I put the emphasis today and why I do so.

At the outset of this article I would like to make it clear that I have no desire to downgrade today's emphasis on the Holy Spirit. I am not against a balanced emphasis on rebirth, conversion, speaking in tongues and accepting the Lord either. When a person becomes a Christian he has to go through these experiences. They all play a part in the process of becoming a mature Christian. They belong to the stages a person has to go through on his road to discipleship.

However, while I am not against a balanced emphasis on the "birth" experiences of a Christian (rebirth, baptism, accepting the Lord - to name only a few), I am afraid that we often give the impression that "this is it" and there is no more. Or to state it in another way I feel that we spend all our time in preaching on the "childhood stages" of becoming a Christian and that we never get to the biblical emphasis on obeying the Lord and following Him. By doing so we are rearing spiritual infants rather than mature Christians.'

Speaking about frustration, don't we realize how frustrating it must be for a person who is well on his way to spiritual maturity and who is bombarded with messages that in order to be a real Christian he has to go back to the childhood stages of the faith. And this is what is happening today.

A person who has accepted the Lord and who has served him so far, needs encouragement and guidance to move on. We don't help a sincere seeker by endlessly repeating to him the need to be reborn, to receive the Lord, to receive the Spirit. These terms all deal with the "childhood" stages of a Christian life. What he needs and should get is some solid food about how to obey Christ, and how to follow Him, and serve Him today in the home, in Church and on the job. He needs to hear what it means to take up his cross and follow the Master.

I am quite aware that it is much more pleasant to speak about the miracles of conversion and the joys of having become a child of God than about the struggles one encounters on the road of discipleship. But when I read the examples of Moses, David, Elijah, Peter, Paul and others I notice that these men display a kind of spiritual maturity which I miss in Christian literature today. These men speak about the cost of discipleship, about what it means to obey their Master. They share their triumphs over the evil one and how they continued after they were knocked down by the enemy. They tell us how they progressed from point to point and how they rejoiced when they reached another peak.

In conclusion I would like to repeat again that if I have confused you by drawing your attention away from the beginning stages of becoming a Christian, I have only done so in order to encourage you to proceed on the road of discipleship.

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