Upon further reflection of the belief that one has the power and authority to simply “claim someone to faith in Christ”, I grew more deeply concerned.
Imagine someone who believes they have the power to simply claim someone to be saved, and they tell this person that they will be saved because they have the authority to claim them to Christ. What harm may result from that?
But my greater concern, at present, is for parents.
Consider the parent who has been taught that they can claim their children to Christ. Instead of going to God in prayer, with faith that trusts God, they go to prayer binding Satan, commanding the enemy to flee from their child, speaking words of blessing over them so that those words will manifest in their lives, and claiming their child to the Lord.
Where is their faith? It is not in the Lord. It is in their words. They must continue to speak those words, claiming it, until it manifests. Their faith is in their words—not God.
What are they neglecting? If they believe that they have the power and authority to speak the words over their children that they want to see in them so that it will manifest, they are neglecting to trust in the sufficient Word of God and the true work of the Holy Spirit. Their faith is, again, in their words—not God’s Word. They are neglecting the faithful exposition of God’s Word taught to their children and the work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration and sanctification.
When their children begin to behave like sinners, they rebuke the enemy or see it as an external attack. They do not recognize that their children are not victims but they are sinners, just like we all are. Rather than this being an incredible opportunity to share the Gospel with their children, they see their children as under attack and they go to war with Satan. They adopt false spiritual warfare practices that Jude and Peter actually warn us against. Rather than sharing the Gospel with their children and going to God in prayer for their children, they scream at Satan and make their children the victim. This couldn’t be more harmful to their understanding of their sinful nature and of God’s amazing grace if they tried.
No parent gets it completely right. We all fall short. But how much better it would be if we’d heed the warnings of the false beliefs and practices we’ve bought into that are actually destroying the faith of others rather than encouraging true faith in God.
I don’t write this to condemn you. I made many of these mistakes. I believed so many lies. But you don’t have to. You can begin now to test your beliefs against God’s Word, and you can repent of all your false doctrines and learn how to truly pray for your children, instruct them in sound doctrine, and trust God with the results. If that terrifies you because you want to be able to manipulate or control the outcome, you truly need to examine yourself. Do you trust God or do you want a god that you can control?
Grace and Peace, y’all
Soli Deo Gloria
April J. Buchanan
Leaving Beyond - Grounded In Scripture 
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