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This Thanksgiving, You are Not Going to Persuade Your Friends and Family of the Truth of the Gospel

This Thanksgiving, YOU are not going to convince your relatives and friends of the truth of the gospel. You can present evidence or argue with them till you are blue in the face, and they are not going to budge. At least you cannot win them over by argument alone. Remember, the reason people do not change their minds about what they believe is because their affections control their reasoning, their motivations, their presuppositions and their intuitions (John 3:19-20; Rom 1:18-21). Affections shape and bias the way we all process information and so people tend to rationalize on behalf of outcomes they want to see. People are skeptical of, and hardened toward, information they don't want to believe and have deep motivations to protect information they do want to believe. So evidence, by itself, is a really bad way to try to convince someone of the gospel. But join your evidence and the gospel with your persistent heartfelt prayers for your friends and family and God may show up and surprise you. The seeds you plant and water may be germinated by the Spirit. So do not stop reasoning and persuading, but remember that understanding the gospel is a supernatural event where God changes hearts of stone to flesh (Ezek 36:26; ! Cor 3:7; 12:3; 1 Thess 1:4, 5) so continue to look up in prayer for God's help as you lovingly communicate the only truth which can deliver them from their captivity, of which we all once were a part.

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Biblical Regeneration and Affectional Theology by John Hendryx

Thu, 11/26/2015 - 12:39 -- john_hendryx

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