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Three Encounters

Truth Encounter, Allegiance Encounter and Power Encounter

The three encounters—truth, allegiance and power—are not the same, but they are each intended to initiate a process crucial to the Christian experience aimed at a specific goal.

  • The concern of the truth encounter is understanding. The vehicle of that encounter is teaching.

  • The concern of the allegiance encounter is relationship. The vehicle of that encounter Is witness.

  • The concern of the power encounter is freedom. Its vehicle is spiritual warfare.

Truth and understanding have a lot to do with the mind; allegiance and relationship rest primarily in the will; and freedom is largely experienced emotionally. [see Choose Life]
Charles H. Kraft, “Three Encounters in Christian Witness” in Perspectives on the World Christian Movement : a Reader, edited by Ralph D. Winter, Steven C. Hawthorne (Pasadena, Calif. : William Carey Library, 2009), 447.

Truth Verses

... you shall know the truth and the truth will set you free (John 8:31-32 ESV)

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6 ESV)

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. (John 16:13 ESV)

We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. (1 John 4:6 ESV)

This is he who came by water and blood — Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. (1 John 5:6 ESV)

Allegiance [ Covenant ] Verses

Jesus Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. (Hebrews 9:15 ESV)

And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. (Joshua 24:15 ESV)

Power Verses

...I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. (Romans 1:16 ESV)

For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience — by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God... (Romans 15:18-19 ESV)

...the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. (1 Corinthians 4:20 ESV)

...God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. (2 Timothy 1:7 ESV)

We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. (1 John 5:19 ESV)

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12 ESV)

God disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in Christ. (Colossians 2:15 ESV)

Who Is Charles H. Kraft

Charles H. Kraft has been Professor of Anthropology and Intercultural Communication at the Fuller Seminary School of Intercultural Studies since 1969. With his wile. Marguerite, he served as a missionary in Nigeria. He teaches and writes in the areas of anthropology, worldview, contextualization, cross-cultural communication, inner healing and spiritual warfare.