Originally Posted by John of Japan View Post
"The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he that winneth souls is wise." The Hebrew parallelism shows that winning souls and producing life in others is the same. So yes, I win souls to Christ, who then saves them.
Don't build your entire theology off one verse translated in the KJV.
Because I view the use of "souls" here to speak of men in their total state, rather than an immaterial aspect to man's make-up, I see this verse reiterated in the New Testament here:
Jude 22-23
King James Version (KJV)
22 And of some have compassion, making a difference:
23 And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
"Winning souls" is just a long used term which does not imply salvific effort on our part, we know that it is Christ Who saves, so I don't have a problem with it.
I have talked to people who made statements such as "I witnessed to them and saved them in five minutes," and gave the impression they thought their role was in some sense salvific.
In view is perhaps a "taking hold of," and that is something we seek to do. We know it is the power of the Holy Ghost that speaks to their hearts, but again...we are the instruments in the hands of the Savior, so I don't think we should downplay that aspect either.
God bless.