Can you believe in Christ without being a genuine disciple? I can testify that you can believe but not really follow Christ. It was so in my case, after I was saved and born again at a Christian high school. Jews for Jesus has this to say on the issue: "'And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age'--Matthew 28:18-20. [David Brickner, Executive Director of Jews for Jesus, goes on to comment] Don't miss the main emphasis of this command: to make disciples. A disciple is one who hears, understands and obeys the master's teaching. A disciple of Jesus is not just a believer in Him, but also a follower.
In his book, MATTHEW AND MISSION, Martin Goldsmith wrote, 'In some cultures it is relatively easy to bring people to an initial confession of faith in Jesus as Savior, but often such spontaneous and hasty professions of conversion are not followed by any deep discipleship and committed involvement in the life of the Church.'"--Page 1, "Messianic Marching Orders, Part III, Jews for Jesus Newsletter, May 2007.
"Who should run the schools? The same point is evident in the preacher's attitude to educational policy, a central political issue for much of the nineteenth century [in Britain and its colonies]. Like most Baptists in the 1850s, Spurgeon believed at first that the state should not meddle with education. The provision of schools should be left to private initiative--to individuals, societies, and churches. The young needed to be taught the Christian faith, and the state had no more business to take up the religious instruction of children than it had to undertake the religious instruction of adults through an established [officially recognized as the only state church of the country, while being state financed from public tax monies] church.
By the late 1860s, however, population growth was hopelessly outstripping the ability of private initiative to provide for education. Baptists reluctantly accepted that the state must set up the necessary schools. To avoid state interference in religious instruction, however, most Baptists decided that schools must be secular. Christian education should be left to the home and the church.
Spurgeon could not stomach this conclusion. In 1870 he presided at a London rally calling for the retention of Bible teaching in state schools. A total severance of church and state in the schools, he argued, was nonsense. 'How can religion be eliminated from education,' he asked, 'unless it be eliminated from the teacher himself?' Spurgeon judged the welfare of the Christian faith to be at stake, and so he was willing to diverge from the prevailing view in his denomination. And in the end, Spurgeon's policy was put into practice. The government permitted local school boards to include the Bible in the curriculum." [we would do well to return to our Christian-founded public schools before we lose another generation to secularism, the meaninglessness and atheism of Evolution, and depravity!--Ed.]--page 39, Issue 29, CHRISTIAN HISTORY.
1. "How Then Should We Then Live?" by Francis Schaeffer, with Study Guide. Read the book and complete the study guide. This will equal six electives in total.
2. Read six Stuart Maxwell Hawkins messages and complete the appended questions (this will equal six electives). This is 1-6 electives in total.
3. "Walk in the Light," A True Account of Faith in Progress and Faith Triumphant, with Study Questions, by Ronald Ginther (questions are to be on-line, but the book is already available on this site). This comprises six electives in total.
4. Christian Activism. Select out the major issues for the Christian faith from our Current and Previous Pages, write your own responses to them, and follow up by action that is appropriate: prayer, writing to Congressmen, supporting a candidate that is godly on that issue, etc. Describe in writing what happened when you followed up.
5. Pick any one or more than one, or all six Great Christian Leaders, which are: Lilias Trotter, George Whitefield, John Wesley, Dwight Moody, Charles Spurgeon, and Billy Graham, read a book or biography or autobiography of the person, then write an essay telling what the person contributed to the Body of Christ and evangelisation. This is 1-6 electives in total.