I am posting this letter because I want to briefly discuss people who do this. What you are about to read is not uncommon for me to receive, but this time, I decided I wanted to follow up to get more information about the person who asked me the question. I'll comment more at the end.
SUSAN FROM USA:
My mother and I were baptized at a 501c3 church within the past 6 months. Should we repent? Is the baptism valid? We do not belong to the church and we do not attend services.
Thank you for clarifying this confusing matter.
Why do you believe that 501c3 is the source of the problem? Did you not read the whole book or listen to the entire teaching?
NINE DAYS LATER...
It's been over a week. Either you don't check your email very often, or you didn't want to have a conversation with me in the first place. I hope there is nothing wrong, like a medical emergency. Assuming nothing bad has happened to you, I guess I just don't understand why people so often write me on this subject when they do not really want to have a conversation to gain understanding about it. Nonetheless, I hope you have a great day.
Christopher, I'm going to be honest with you. This email feels a little attacking as the last one did too. It may just be my perception, but I'm not inclined to have a conversation at this point.
I asked you a question about what you believed and if you listened to the entire teaching, and you felt uncomfortable with that? Okay. I'm sorry, but there is not much I can do about that. I appreciate the explanation though, and it's good to know there was no emergency of any kind. Have a great day.
END OF DISCUSSION
As I stated at the beginning of this post, I have received questions like this many times over the years, and often, when I respond with a question about whether or not they listened to the entire teaching, I never hear back from them again. Also, if I respond with the question of why they believe that 501c3 is the source of the problem, I almost never hear back from them again.
If a person believes that their baptism is invalid because of 501c3, then they do not understand that leaven (i.e. corruption) is the problem, not 501c3, which leads me to believe that either they didn't listen to the entire teaching, or they didn't understand it. To say that a baptism was not valid because the building that someone got baptized in was 501c3, is like saying that baptism was not valid because it was done in a swimming pool.
Frankly, it sounds like Susan does not understand baptism (i.e. God looks at the heart) or 501c3 (i.e. the core problem is leaven), and therefore, it is very difficult to answer such a question when it is asked from someone who does not understand the basics of either topic. In hindsight, what I probably should have done is just left her a link to both teachings, and then if she wanted to respond with more details, she could.
However, I wanted to know what her reasoning was because this has happened so many times, I was really curious. Susan's response was actually quite surprising to me at first because it was a somewhat emotional response that did not make any sense.
Notice, in her final letter, she said that she felt like I was attacking her in my first letter. (i.e. "This email feels a little attacking as the last one did too.") I asked her two questions that I wanted the answer to, and specifically, I wanted to know what she believed/thought about 501c3, so I could know whether or not she understood the core problem of leaven, and if she did, I would answer one way, and if she did not, I would answer another.
Furthermore, if she had not listened to the entirety of the series, there was a lot she was going to miss, and that understanding might have automatically helped her to understand the answer to her question. Therefore, I wanted to know the answers. Instead, she took those questions as a "personal attack."
I have no idea who this woman is, and I have no idea what she believes. What reason do I have to attack her? If you give someone a sandwich, and ask them, "Did you eat the whole sandwich?" -- that is not attack; that is simply asking someone a question to retrieve information.
Okay, so why is this so strange? Why did she react this way? Why do many people run away the second I ask them a question? Part of the reason I wanted to post this letter is because I have made some deductions about why I believe people react in these nonsensical ways.
For example, if any of you have ever been part of a book club, and you did not read the assigned portion of the book you were supposed to discuss that week, but you show up to the book club meeting anyway, you probably did not come out and tell everyone you didn't read it as soon as the meeting starts. Why not? Why hide that fact? Because it is an embarrassment that others did the work and have the understanding, but you don't, because you were irresponsible and did not do the work, but want to be part of the club anyway.
Therefore, what those types of people tend to do is shy away from participating in the conversation because they did not put in the work, read the material, and gain understanding from it. So, let me paint a picture of what I think is going on here:
1. Susan is not a regular listener to this ministry.
2. Susan likely was already doing research into 501c3 on her own.
3. Susan happened by my website, glanced at the material very briefly (if at all), but did not read or study the material.
4. Susan immediately emailed me to ask a question without knowledge of what I teach on it because the entire purpose her writing me was to mine information on baptism vs 501c3, not to learn about or understand either of those two topics.
So, in short, I believe Susan has no idea who I am, she has no idea what I teach, but was willing to trust whatever I told her without doing any of her own investigation. (Part of the reason you can tell she has no idea who I am is because she posed a general question at first, but then, after I responded to her, she addressed me "Christopher" because that is the name that comes up in my email.) However, when I asked her questions about her knowledge, she immediately tucked tail and ran away because she does not want to make the effort to learn about the subject matter, but does not want me to know that, nor does she want me to know that she dide not bother to find out what I teach on the subject (i.e. she probably only saw the title of my article and assumed the rest), which is why she would not answer my questions.
This also explains why she felt "attacked," and that is more telling of her guilt than anything else. She knows she didn't bother reading or listening to anything, and so my very simple questions about her understanding was offensive to her because she does not have any understanding in the first place, even though I was trying to charitably assume that she had at least looked over some of what I teach.
So, that's why I wanted to post this letter, for the sake of other Christians reading these things. I want you all to understand that when someone reacts in an emotional manner that does not make sense, typically, there is something sinful behind that nonsensical response, and in Susan's case, I believe it was her pride and laziness that caused her to react in that way, and furthermore, it reveals to us that she has done almost no evangelist works because if she did not have enough patience to answer a couple of simple questions, she obviously does not have any patience built up in her through experience of persecution from unbelievers.
And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
-Rom 5:3-5
