I have a teenager who likes to meet her friends at the mall and go shopping. She's a neat kid, quite outspoken and opinionated, kind of like how I wish I was when I was her age. She has adopted a style that's a cross between "emo" and "punk rock" and she wears her hair and makeup in a way to elicit a shocked response from older more conservative folks.
So she's at the mall the other day and comes home when she's supposed to, and wants to show me what someone gave her. I braced myself for some gawdy jewelry or rancid-smelling body spray. Then she produces a flyer with bold red all caps lettering across the front that says "WHERE WILL YOU SPEND ETERNITY?" Inside, it contains a Reader's Digest Condensed Version of why everyone is going to hell, and how important it is to "make peace with God" and how one can be 'born again' and have "biblical salvation". My teen was laughing hysterically as she reads the back page:
There is an unseen war going on for man's souls. God calls us, but Satan doesn't want to let us go. We have free will, and that is why every man holds his futuer in his hand. Through Christ's substitute death we can break away from Satan, and make peace with God. Our decision entails tremendous consequences: Heaven or hell.
Dear Reader, my prayer is, that you would respond to God's call, so that He could save you!
PLEASE NOTE:
-Salvation is not automatic, everybody has to make this deal with Christ personally.
-Christ will not be one's Saviour, unless He can also be the Lord and Leader in this life.
-Christ welcomes sinners, but never together with their sins: Sin must be left behind.
-Salvation is the free gift of God to a penitent person, but one has to desier it with all his heart in order that one may receive it.
When looking for a church one has to be very careful because many churches add to, and/or contradict the Bible's teachings. Only God's Plan of Salvation can bring us back to God; following man's traditions, ceremonies, formalities, or man made teachings cannot help us. A good church takes the Bible's teachings as its sole authority. (I am attending an Independent Fundamental Baptist Church).
If you have any questions concerning the issue of biblical salvation please don't hesitate to e-mail me, and I will reply in writing using the Bible as my only source of information. My e-mail address:[omitted]
Now, I don't usually engage these idiots at all. The JWs were enough for me. But this one is tempting. My teen thought it was funny that the person who gave her the tract judged her on appearances only as needing Jesus and salvation. Then she said "How can anyone believe this bull$h!t??" I am pleased: I have raised her to question everything. I have raised an atheist.
Any suggestions on how to handle this individual? I was thinking of informing her that I am going to make a complaint to the mall security people regarding soliciting without a permit. And then tell her where she can shove her pamphlet. I'm just very glad that my teen is not one of those vulnerable kids who will get sucked in to an evangelical baptist cult that is basically no different than the JWs.