When I first started up this blog, I had the goal of having many short posts, and a variety of topics. I just wanted to give Biblical opinions without having to write long articles, "proving" every detail. But so far I have just written articles. Ugh! The writer in me does not know how to just write a blog post! But I will try to make this short... but I can not promise anything.
Here we have a picture that you should be familiar with, if you were saved and entered into any kind of evangelistic church. It's a Chick Tract. What is a Chick Tract?, you might say. It is a gospel tract, but a comic book version of it. I used to use these things all the time. I used regular gospel tracts a lot too, when I was in the Fundamental, Independent, King James only, Bible-Bashing Baptist Church. These tracts get read a lot more often than other tracts, as they claim. They are pretty interesting. I used to think very highly of them when I was first saved 14 years or so ago. But, This Was Your Life, I have concluded in my Christian Maturity, is the only decent Chick Tract that Chick produces. All the others are horrendous because of a few different reasons (and I won't name them all here). All the of reasons I hate most Chick Tracts now, are the reasons that I probably loved them when I was an immature Christian. It is a major shift in worldview.
As a Fundamental Baptist, the only thing in life that matters is getting people saved. And because God was not sovereign to us, it was up to us. If you passed by anyone without giving them a gospel tract, their blood is on your hands for eternity!!
Anyhow, because the only thing that mattered was getting people saved, almost all of the Chick Tracts have a story of someone getting saved just before they die. So the moral of the story is... make sure you don't die before you get your Jesus insurance. You don't want to go to hell now, do you? Get saved so you can live happy in heaven and so you won't suffer in hell. That is the message of Chick Tracts.
Contrary to this view is Jesus' message to,
"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen." --Matthew 28:19,20
The difference is the weight of emphasis. Even though Chick teaches discipleship a little bit, his mind would be at ease if the whole world were "saved" and went to heaven, even if none of them actually lived to glorify God on the earth, and made an impact for his name. The difference is between a man centered gospel and a Christ-centered gospel. But I guess what do you expect from a Dispensationalist who thinks all of the world's problems come from the Roman Catholic Church, and who worships the Jews and Israel?
All that to say, that one Chick Tract that is actually decent; it's actually pretty good and effective; "This Was Your Life", is a simple gospel tract, but with the bonus that the main character in the story, when he gets saved, it's not on his death bed so he just escapes hell, but rather this tract actually shows the man living out the Christian life, bearing fruit, living for the glory of God and of Christ, before he dies.
I definitely do not recommend any of the other Chick Tracts (well, maybe the one called "Big Daddy"). But if you want to be entertained on just how wildly out there Jack Chick is on his ridiculous Baptist beliefs, you can visit chick.com and read all of the tracts online for free.
In the mean time, I am going to go celebrate that I actually wrote a short blog post... and will be in prayer that God uses these tracts as a way to bring people unto himself, and thereby Christ Jesus being glorified in this land.
Swiss Kinist
I'd just like to pass on another way to help spread the gospel and it's simply this:-
ReplyDeleteInclude a link to an online gospel tract (e.g. www.freecartoontract.com/animation) as part of your email signature.
An email signature is a piece of customizable HTML or text that most email applications will allow you to add to all your outgoing emails. For example, it commonly contains name and contact details - but it could also (of course) contain a link to a gospel tract.
For example, it might say something like, "p.s. you might like this gospel cartoon ..." or "p.s. have you seen this?".
Great idea! Thank you. That cartoon tract was pretty good.
ReplyDeleteThe era of the religious pocket tract is over (religious traditions die very slow). The conversion themed, bullet point, pray this prayer, 4 steps religion is suspected by most outsiders as simply “join our group”. Instead of starting a conversation about Jesus, these little booklets often shut people down and turn them away. God is calling people to follow Jesus for a lifetime and to share our lives with real faith alongside neighbors, friends and family. Let’s not settle for a Cliff’s Notes version of the Gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are the unabridged real deal and the original tracts. A 1998 PBS Frontline said many scholars agree that the Gospels are neither biographies nor objective historical accounts, but they resemble religious advertisements. What an amazing observation! These scholars, attempting to belittle the Bible, are right on. The Gospels were written so that you might believe that Jesus is the Messiah (John 20:31). These original four stories of Jesus were long tracts designed to bring people to faith. They were not just historical or biographical in nature but intended to persuade men and women to follow Jesus In faith!
ReplyDeleteYoung adults are curious about the 30something Middle Eastern peasant Jew called Jesus of Nazareth but are living in great ignorance. In the 35 and under age group, 95% have not read even one of the four Gospels. Christians are fervently preaching and witnessing in order to get them to trust Jesus, assuming they have a clear picture of Him- they don’t. They only have second-hand information that forms their patchwork idea of Jesus. 21st century evangelism demands reading the Gospel stories to build trust in the Biblical Jesus, not some character created from hear-say and personal fantasy. Our faith is based in the Jesus from Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The goal of the Primary Source Project is to get everyone to read or listen to the life and teaching of Jesus and begin an ongoing and lifelong conversation about Him. Out of the hundreds of people challenged to read at least one of the four Gospels, only 2 have absolutely no! Challenge your friends and family to start reading the 4 Gospels and let the Word of God do the heavy lifting. It works! Isaiah 55:11 #ReadJesusChallenge
Thank you for your comment Mr. Peacock. I think you have a good strategy there and think it is a good idea. At the same time, God still can use simple things such as a cartoon gospel tract to bring someone to Jesus. But thank you for giving me something to think about and consider.
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
Hans