|
In Reply to: Family members and saving souls posted by Ancaru on October 25, 2005 at 16:38:30:
Your observations are right on, imo.
The interesting thing about the business of "saving souls" is that unlike other forms of endeavor--teaching schoolchildren how to read, for example--the Family soul winner can only APPEAR to accomplish something. Teachers get test results and know whether they are successfully teaching their students to read.
Assuming souls actually exist, and these souls are in need of saving, TF's soul-winners have no way of knowing whether someone's prayer or confession of faith actually results in eternal joy. When someone makes a donation to TF's soul-winning ministry, they're basically paying Family members for a basket of pretty promises.
Unlike TFI, there are evangelical ministries that can demonstrate the fruit of their labor. These ministries don't talk about numbers saved--they talk about the number of people who study the Bible with them, or come to their weekly fellowship, or whose lives are a testimony to Christian discipleship. People at this site will disagree as to whether this is a worthwhile endeavor, but at least it's a conrete measure of something accomplished.
