Saturday in Dulao

We drove south about one hour to our venue for today which was in Dulao, a part of Bago City, at the Good Shepherd Baptist Church. The preacher at this Baptist Church was a man named Leo who seemed very open to hearing and considering the truth. These are the kind of opportunities we get repeatedly in the Philippines, but are rarely available in the U.S. There were about 60 present to hear the lessons for the day.

The first lesson was on “God’s Inspiration of His Word.” I use that lesson both to establish common ground with people who believe in the verbal inspiration of the Scripture and to emphasize that we cannot change the teaching of God’s word on any matter. At the very end, we made application to the fact that we have no more right to change (by addition or subtraction) the teaching on the plan of salvation, the one true church or the authorized worship of the church than we do to change God’s teaching on morality. Jack Jaco then summarized the lesson into the Ilongo dialect and we broke for lunch until 12:30pm.

The afternoon session started with a lesson on “Salvation and Saul” – a sermon designed to deal directly with the Baptist doctrine of salvation by faith only. We noted that Saul believed in Christ while on the road to Damascus, but was still in his sins three days later according to Acts 22:16. The reactions of the audience to the lesson was both revealing and encouraging. At first, there was a skeptical look on almost every face. As the lesson went on, many began to give a slight nod of agreement. By the time we reached the end of the study, many were clearly showing agreement as the focus centered on the purpose and necessity of baptism. The preacher and his co-worker were among the ones showing signs of agreement.

We had only been given until 3pm, so our time was running short by the time that lesson was completed and Jack summarized into the dialect. So, we had no time to get into another subject like the church and give it sufficient consideration. The reaction of the audience also told me that we had made a major step forward and it was best to leave the focus on baptism and the plan of salvation. In order to emphasize the importance of obeying the Lord, no matter the cost, we closed with a short lesson on “Counting the Cost” and Jack gave a final summary.

After the lessons, Leo got back in the pulpit and stated his appreciation for the time of study and urged us to come again and continue further study. There was no attempt to ignore the fact that I had taught different from their traditional Baptist doctrine, but neither was there the slightest hint of anger or resentment about the open examination of the issue. From my perspective, it seems that a number of the group is not far from the kingdom. Please keep them in your prayers!