Why teach a message that so many do not want to hear? Because it is commanded of Christians (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:16). The message is to be taught to everyone. Christians understand that there is no other way to salvation (Acts 4:12). And it is a truth that cannot be suppressed (Acts 4:19-20).<\/p>\n
People fear this truth. They cannot disprove it, so the common response is to declare speaking of it to be wrong. Sometimes this ban is enforced by death. I pray that this country does not follow that trend, but regardless, the message will continue to be taught.<\/p>\n
“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. “Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven. Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it<\/em>” (Matthew 10:28-39).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton In February 2019 Barna Group released the results of a poll which they titled, \u201cAlmost Half of Practicing Christian Millennials Say Evangelism Is Wrong.\u201d They divided their survey group into Millennials, GenX, Boomers, and Elders. Almost all surveyed agreed with the statements: \u201cPart of my faith means being a witness about…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[572,451],"class_list":["post-2698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-persecution","tag-teaching"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":91628,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-we-have-to-always-submit-to-the-elders\/","url_meta":{"origin":2698,"position":0},"title":"Do we have to always submit to the elders?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 28, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi Brother Jeffrey, We have a preacher from a sister congregation teaching about God's leadership structure for the Church. He was discussing submission and that even if you don't agree with the Elders' decision-making, you should still follow through, giving the example of the Elders running a food bank\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":61797,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-author-of-our-faith\/","url_meta":{"origin":2698,"position":1},"title":"The Author of Our Faith","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 3, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Hebrews 12:1-3 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In translating from one language to another, some words just don\u2019t fit easily. Some words have multiple possible meanings in another language and figuring out which one of the various possible translations is hard. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Harder are the words which have multiple meanings\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":35264,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-paul-a-false-apostle\/","url_meta":{"origin":2698,"position":2},"title":"Was Paul a false apostle?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 14, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have recently stumbled onto some information. Apparently, some Christians think that the apostle Paul was a false apostle and false teacher. They say that he taught Jesus \"faith only\" while Jesus himself clearly taught faith + works. I am deeply troubled by this and feel my world has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":67826,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/evangelism-is-fundamental\/","url_meta":{"origin":2698,"position":3},"title":"Evangelism Is Fundamental","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 29, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Ken Weliever via The Preacher's Word In the comic strip \"Peanuts,\" Lucy tells her brother, Linus, that she has \"converted\" a school classmate to her way of thinking religiously. Linus is surprised, especially knowing how Lucy operates! \"How did you do it?\" Linus asked. \"I told him everything I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":55563,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-church-will-never-be-the-same\/","url_meta":{"origin":2698,"position":4},"title":"The Church Will Never Be the Same","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 7, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bob Plunket via The Sower, Vol. 54, No. 3, May\/June 2009. Several years ago, Time Magazine carried an article, with the caption, \"The Church Will Never Be The Same,\" because, they say, \"The baby boomers are coming back to church.\" The article said among other things, \"These returnees are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/11\/hippies-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":84508,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-many-facts-in-faith-only\/","url_meta":{"origin":2698,"position":5},"title":"How Many Facts in \u201cFaith Only\u201d?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 13, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Those brethren who now teach that salvation is at the moment of faith before repentance and baptism in the name of Jesus for the remission of sins (they say that is \"faith plus works\") never seem to get around to telling us what all is included\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2698\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}