I'm reading through unchristian. It's a Barna report about the perceptions 16-to-29-year-olds have about "Christians" and "Christianity."
Here's a quote from Charles Colson on "getting saved" and "accepting Christ."
"The gospel cannot be merely a private transaction. God didn't break through history, through time and space, to come as a babe, be incarnated, and suffer on the cross just so you can come to him and say, "Oh, I accept Jesus and now I can live happily ever after." That's not why he came... Jesus came as a radical to turn the world upside down. When we believe it is just about Jesus and yourself, we miss the whole point. I even dislike using the words "accept Christ" anymore - because it is so much more than that. Christianity is a way of seeing all of life and reality through God's eyes. That's what Christianity is: a worldview, a system, and a way of life... It is the most exciting, radical, revolutionary story ever told." (unchristian, 87-88)
Indeed. "Sozo" ("salvation") is a huge, deep, wide, and long concept. "Making a decision for Christ" is, if it even fits at all, only a tiny part of being sozo-ed. And without living a kingdom life "accepting Christ" is irrelevant and fundamentally misleading.
