Did They Decide with Understanding?

TO THE crowds that gathered in Madison Square Garden in New York city last summer Billy Graham pleaded that they make a decision for Christ. Fifty-five thousand responded. But can it be said that they understood what a decision for Christ really is? Can it be said that the evangelist’s plea at a carefully planned moment when the crowd’s emotion was high is the proper way to evoke such decisions? And can it be said that a decision for Christ is nothing more than acknowledging belief in him as one’s savior?

A great deal more is involved than those people realized. A decision for Christ is primarily a decision for his Father, Jehovah God. It is a decision to do God’s will, putting his interests first, just as Christ did. Jesus said: “I seek not my own will but the will of him that sent me.” (John 5:30) Those who follow him must do the same. He also magnified his Father’s name, but how many of those fifty-five thousand at Madison Square Garden even knew what that name is, or what God’s will is?

It is written that “Christ suffered for you, leaving you a model for you to follow his steps closely.” (1 Pet. 2:21) Were those people told that a decision for Christ means to follow his example by making a dedication to do his Father’s will? That it means to endure persecution for keeping integrity to God? That it means to preach by making public proclamation of God’s purposes and kingdom?

Christ set the example of no friendship with the world. A decision for Christ means to follow that example. James said: “Whoever, therefore, wants to be a friend of the world is constituting himself an enemy of God.” (Jas. 4:4) How many of those fifty-five thousand at Madison Square Garden have ignored this Scriptural requirement and continued to be friends of the world? How many are party to its unscriptural schemes, its blood-spilling differences and unloving actions?

Those who decided to follow Christ in the first century made their decision after careful instruction in the Scriptures. Their allegiance to God’s anointed King was with understanding. It can be no different today. A person must decide to follow Christ, not because of emotional pleading from an evangelist, but because of understanding that comes from an accurate knowledge of the Scriptures.