A Melburnian is someone from Melbourne.
Last week ministry candidates and some faculty from the Presbyterian Theological College (PTC) spent a week door-knocking and a speaking with people in the community about Jesus Christ. Jared Hood, a lecturer from the PTC, blogged what he found were the most common beliefs held.
- they are going to heaven – even the athiests;
- they get to heaven by being good;
- they have done bad, but the good outweighs the bad;
- that God agrees with their view of things.
These erroneous beliefs are nothing knew and won’t be surprising to many of you. However, it’s important that we’re reminded so we don’t neglect to clearly explain “the doctrines of the atonement, justification and assurance” as they “are still as vital and relevant as ever!”
Update: For those interested, Jared Hood has posted two other updates on the Mission Week he was involved in (here & here).
Most instructive that so many were “particularly Muslims and Italian Roman Catholics.”
So many formerly sound churches and colleges have embraced the humanist worldview that it’s no surprise so many folk are deceived about the state of their own souls.
One of my elders, in preaching from Romans recently, observed that the doctrine of Christ’s penal substitutionary atonement was the centerpiece of the Christian faith. If we don’t get that, we end up thinking like these folks in the survey.
Manfred:
Most people in Melbourne are not practising Muslims and Italian Roman Catholics. However, certain suburbs around Melbourne are less culturally diverse than others.