BELIEVING

BELIEVING

Acts 13:12

My wife, Peggy, and I have been serving in Brazil for 20 years now. Each of our 3 children and their spouses and kids are all here with us, serving our Lord together! We currently have 3 organized works and one Christian School. Our son, Justin is missionary/pastor of one and I am at the other and the first church is pastored by a Brazilian pastor. We both now are training faithful men to be sent out as missionaries to other locations in our city of 110 thousand.

Brazil is such a huge and unique country, to say how
people act and react to the Gospel in general is impossible; like in the U.S., every region has its own identity. From huge modern cities to tribes in the Amazon, Brazil has many cultures. We live and minister in a coastal
town with beautiful beaches and hot, humid weather. There is a lot of tourism, and, like most beach towns, life is a little more casual and slower paced. Brazil has a huge Gospel influence; the Evangelical movement is one of the fastest growing religious influences here. The growth is dominated by the Pentecostal movement and for the past several years by the neo-Pentecostal movement. There are also several Baptist churches, ranging from very traditional to charismatic.

What we find in our ministry is that the majority who come from other
church backgrounds are very much believers in Christ. In fact, the word most commonly used here to describe the Christians is “believers” ... (crentes). When we ask about their salvation, the common response is to for them tell us when they were baptized. Their baptism experience is usually more life-changing than their actual conversion because most of the churches emphasize baptism as a sacrament. We, therefore, make a huge effort to separate each part of the Great Commission. The goal is to make disciples and the plan is threefold: first, they must trust in Jesus and confess Him as their Lord and Savior; then, they are baptized to publicly declare their faith and symbolically show their new birth; and, finally, they are fellowshipped into our church body where they begin to be taught to observe all the things that Jesus taught. By doing this we are able to identify just where their “belief” is. Or, better yet, what they are believing in. In many cases, their “belief” in Christ is dependent upon promises of temporal prosperity. The “Prosperity Gospel” is huge here and growing. We know that God has and can bless His children with wealth, but this is never a promise of salvation and must not be the sole reason for choosing to believe in Him.
In order to be saved, we must “believe” with all our hearts and with all our minds; therefore, Satan will do his best to distort this simple, yet vital, condition. We spend a lot of time and energy making sure each one understands exactly what the Bible teaches, and we are very aware of how a false hope of salvation can be more dangerous than no hope at all! A person with no hope will seek for hope when faced with difficult situations, but a false hope based on false promises or fleeting emotions will lure a person into a false identity and that person will hear the words of Jesus on judgment day,
“depart from me, I never knew you” (Matthew 7:23).

As we reach into the lost world of Brazil we find the majority of people have Catholic roots. This, too, has its challenges as to just who they actually believe in.

Many come to us from a spiritism religion, believing that all spirits are to be worshiped and/or feared and each one has a specific realm, weather good or evil. Jesus Christ is but one of the many spirits they believe in and follow many of His teachings.

Therefore, in conclusion, when someone here tells us that they believe in Jesus, we must investigate that belief system. We do not want to be guilty of declaring someone saved or promising eternal life to someone who James said, “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble” (James 2:19).

Missionary Jay Ross

For more information about our missions or to make a donation please click the link below.
https://www.abaptist.org/missions