192
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
May, 1933
:ce pt a C h ild Be Born Ag a i n . . Z 7
The Necessity fo r the Conversion o f Children
By R. A. TORREY
Photo by Harold M. Lambert
O NE of the greatest mistakes that our churches and Sunday - schools are making today is in their failure to see the importance of the definite conversion of children, and in their lack of determined and energetic attempts to bring the children to a clear acceptance of Jesus Christ. We are teaching our children Bible geography, Bible history, and Bible ethics, but we are not untiring in our efforts to lead them to an acceptance of Jesus Christ. There are five points that need to be emphasized upon this subject. I. Children Need to be Converted and Born Again. There are many in our day who do not believe that. They talk about the children’s “growing up into the kingdom” ; but unless the children accept Jesus Christ and actually are converted and born again, they are nbt in the kingdom and cannot grow up into it. Jesus said: “ Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be' born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). The word translated “ man” literally means “ any one,” and the passage should [As evangelist, Bible teacher, and author, as ’well as in his capacity as Dean of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles from 1912 to 1924-, the late Dr. Torrey was used great ly in advancing the cause of child evan gelism. The message appearing on these pages was delivered in Chicago, III., several years ago and was published in the Moody Church Herald.— E ditor .]
read: “ Except any one [that is, man, woman, or child] be born again, he can not see the kingdom of God.” W e read again in verses 5 and 6: “ Except a man [here again it should be “ any one” ; that is, man, woman, or child] be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh [it does not matter how cultured, refined, or religious the flesh may be] is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Many children are naturally religious; they love to read the Bible and listen to Bible stories; they love to sing hymns and pray and talk about Jesus. They are natu rally religious, and many are deceived by that fact. Natural religion is not enough. Every child needs to be led to see unmis takably that he is a sinner, and that he needs an atoning Saviour, and that the Lord Jesus is just the Saviour that he needs. He needs to be led to definitely accept Jesus Christ as his own Saviour, to surrender to Him as Lord and to confess Him as Lord before the world. I f he does this, he will be born again and be saved and safe. But natural religion will not stand the stress to which every one’s religion is to be sub ject sooner or later. There are thousands of men and women today utterly godless, and oftentimes utter infidels, who were very religious in their childhood, but they had only natural religion and not the super natural religion that comes from being born again, and thus when the stress came (as it always does come sooner or later),
they fell away from interest in religion. My oldest brother, I am told, was a very religious little boy. He would go to church and Sunday-school when no one else in the family went, and he would walk a long distance through a storm to go to church or Sunday-school, but he had only natural religion. He was not led to an acceptance of Jesus Christ and a surrender to H im ; so even before he reached manhood, he fell through worldly surroundings into utter un godliness. He led a life of dissipation until he was forty-two years or more old. Then I had the privilege of leading him to a definite acceptance of Christ, and he became a preacher of the gospel. But he lived to be only forty-nine, and thus he had only a few years of service for the Master. If he had been led to Christ as a boy, he would have had many years of service. His abili ties were unusual and remarkable, but they were lost to the church because his boy hood friends rested in the fact that he was naturally religious and because they did not see the necessity that he be born again and get supernatural religion. Thus the best years of his life were lost to Christ and the church, though God in Hi? great mercy saved him at last. There are many boys and girls in our churches today who are very religious, and we take great comfort in that fact, but there is no ground for comfort in it. Unless they are truly con verted and born again in the days o f their youth, in their mature manhood or woman hood they will wander entirely away from Christ and the church.
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