Saturday, July 14, 2007

Quote of the Day

"What Christ asks of His disciples is not so much exposition of doctrine about Him as witness to His power. Now witness to His power can be given by the most illiterate if he has had experience of it. It does not require long training for a man to say: 'Whereas I was blind now I see', even though he may be compelled when asked: 'What sayest thou of Him?' to answer: 'I know not.' Such a man was quite prepared to say: 'I believe' and to worship, when told that his Healer was the Son of God. Christ did not require any long training in doctrine when He said to the Demoniac of Gadara: 'Go and tell how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and how He had mercy on thee.'

I remember a missionary in India telling me that most of the converts in his district were brought in by extremely illiterate men. He said: 'The villagers look at them and say, "We know what you were, we can see what you are; what has made the difference?" These men cannot preach sermons,' he said, 'but they know enough to answer, "Christ", and the result is men are converted to Christ.' I do not remember that he told me that many evil results followed, or that doctrine suffered from such witness. The truth is that such witness is a preaching of the doctrine, and of the true doctrine. The doctrine is implied in the witness, though it may not be intellectually apprehended. It is far more true preaching of the doctrine than a long discourse on the Divinity of Christ."

From The Spontaneous Expansion of The Church by Roland Allen pp. 53-54