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By: David Cloud
Way of Life Literature
Among the multiplied thousands of conversions which are reported annually by churches, evangelists, missionaries, and parachurch organizations, only a small number result in biblical fruit. There are many ways this is manifested. There is, first of all, the problem of unchanged converts. Large numbers of those who "profess Christ" or "pray to be saved," show no evidence that they were truly born again by the Spirit of God. Their lives are not changed. There is also the problem of worldly converts. Vast numbers of those who are said to be converted to Christ remain worldly. They love the same music and fashions, run with the same crowd, retain the same humanistic philosophies, and have the same carnal mindset as before they were "converted." The "Christian rock" music crowd illustrates this category. Further, there is the problem of ecumenical converts. They have no zeal for the truth and no distaste for error. They accept anyone as a brother or sister in Christ as long as he or she "loves Jesus." They do not carefully test spirits and doctrines. In fact, they despise and mock those who measure everything by the Word of God and who practice biblical separation. The Promise Keepers crowd illustrates this category.
At this point we should plainly state what we mean by the Gospel. According to 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, the Gospel is that Christ died for our sins, that he was buried, and that he rose from the dead the third day. Salvation is received freely by believing in this Gospel.
The same Bible that defines the Gospel also shows us how to present the Gospel. It is possible to present the true Gospel in such a way that it produces perverted results. This is being done on every hand today in the following four ways. While I do not doubt that there are many reasons for the aforementioned probems in evangelism, I am convinced the unscriptural presentation of the Gospel is high on the list.
1. AN EASY-PRAYERISM PRESENTATION -- FAILING TO DEAL PLAINLY WITH REPENTANCE
"Easy prayerism" emphasizes faith and prayer. "Just believe. Don't worry about giving up things; that will come in time. Just pray this prayer." Bible evangelism, rather, emphasizes repentance.
"And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent" (Acts 17:30). That is what Paul required of his listeners, and that is exactly what we must require. Repentance was not just something preached by John the Baptist. Repentance was preached by Christ (Matt. 3:1,2; Lk 5:32; 13:1-5). He said, "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Christ's goal in dealing with men was to bring them to repentance. Repentance was also preached by the Apostles (Acts 2:38; 5:31; 17:30; 20:21; 26:20). The Bible says that God is "longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Pet. 3:9). Repentance is God's goal in dealing with sinners.
Repentance means a change of mind which results in a change of life. It means to turn to God from sin. It means to bow before Jesus Christ as the God of one's life. Bible examples of repentance show a clear change in people's behavior. The change does not save us from sin, but IT IS the clear fruit of Bible salvation.
Consider Zacchaeus. He repented, and the evidence of this is that he gave half his goods to the poor and restored five-fold that which he had stolen through his tax collecting business (Lk. 19:1-10). Consider the idolaters at Thessalonica. They repented, and the evidence of this was that they "turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God" (1 Thess.1:9-10). Consider the Jews who heard the sermon Peter preached at Pentecost. They repented, and the evidence of this is that they gladly received his word, were baptized, and joined themselves with the hated Christians. We could go on and on. There is no Bible example of people being saved who did not evidence a drastic change in their lives. Repentance is a change of mind which results in a change of life.
The Bible approach to the sinner is to demand that he repent and turn to God. The Apostle Paul, in reviewing his ministry before King Agrippa, noted that he went about preaching to Jews and Gentiles both "that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance" (Acts 26:20). This is exactly the message which we are to preach today.
To preach repentance means to deal plainly with sin. There is a sense in which we can say that the word "repentance" encompasses all of the Gospel's requirements for salvation. It is a change of mind and a faith in God which results in a change of life, and that is what God requires of the sinner.Bible translator William Tyndale, the father of our faithful old English Bible, gave the following definition:
"Concerning this word REPENTANCE ... the very sense and signification both of the Hebrew and also of the Greek word is, 'to be converted and to turn to God with all the heart, to know his will, and to live according to his laws; and to be cured of our corrupt nature with the oil of his Spirit, and wine of obedience to his doctrine.' Which conversion or turning, if it be unfeigned, these four do accompany it and are included therein: CONFESSION, not in the priest's ear, for that is but man's invention, but to God in the heart, and before all the congregation of God; how that we be sinners and sinful, and that our whole nature is corrupt, and inclined to sin and all unrighteousness, and therefore evil, wicked, and damnable; and his Law holy and just, by which our sinful nature is rebuked: and also to our neighbours, if we have offended any person particularly. Then CONTRITION, sorrowfulness that we be such damnable sinners, and not only have sinned, but are wholly inclined to sin still. Thirdly, FAITH (of which our old doctors have made no mention at all in the description of their penance), that God for Christ's sake doth forgive us, and receive us to mercy, and is at one with us, and will heal our corrupt nature. And fourthly, SATISFACTION, or amends-making, not to God with holy works, but to my neighbour whom I have hurt, and to the congregation of God, whom I have offended, (if any open crime be found in me); and submitting of a man's self unto the congregation or church of Christ, and to the officers of the same, to have his life corrected and governed henceforth of them" (William Tyndale, "To The Reader," 1534).
Note that this man of God wrapped confession, contrition, faith, and satisfaction into the term repentance. There is no easy prayerism here. The sinner who would be saved must repent, which repentance will always result in a changed life.
This means that we cannot have the attitude that we will deal with specific sin only after the person receives Christ. That is the philosophy of many. If the sinner brings up his love for liquor or his love for immoral relationships or his love for gambling, some think it best to delay dealing with such things until after that one has come to Christ. Sometimes this is the best policy, but only if the sinner is clearly under the conviction of the Holy Spirit in regard to his sin and is clearly ready to turn to Christ. On the other hand, if the sinner is obviously still wanting to hold onto his sin, the personal worker must deal with the fact that he must turn from it.
When my wife and I first began our work in the land of Nepal in 1979, our landlord began coming to our house to have Bible studies. He was a wealthy middle-aged Hindu and had a concubine that he spent most of his time with, though he was married and had grown children. After we went through the gospel a few times, he told me he was interested in receiving Christ, but he needed to know what he would have to do about two specific things in his life--his shady business practices, and his illicit relationship with his concubine. I could have said, "Don't worry about those things. Just pray to receive Christ and those things will work out later." But I don't believe that is biblical council. I don't believe he could receive Christ and be saved unless he was willing to repent of his immorality and his dishonesty. I told him God would require that he be an honest, moral man. He never returned for more Bible studies and never again showed an interest in the Gospel.
During our work in South Asia, we could have gotten half the people in Nepal to pray a prayer if we had wanted to do that. If we would have approached them by asking them if they wanted to go to heaven when they died, and if so, would they pray a sinner's prayer, large numbers of them would have muttered a prayer. They were accustomed to mantras and chants and would have seen the sinner's prayer in the same light. If we would have urged them only to believe without dealing with them about repentance, we would have had a multitude of unrepentant, "believing" Hindus on our hands--but believing in what? They eagerly believed that Jesus was A god, that he was good, that he loved them. But they commonly wanted to add him to their other gods, not receive Him exclusively as God.
During our gospel meetings there, if we would have asked for a show of hands of those who wanted to be saved, most of the hands would have gone up. But we knew that most of these Hindus were not ready to turn to Christ FROM THEIR IDOLS and to bear the heavy reproach and persecution of their government and neighbors. In other words, they were not ready to be saved. Without repentance there is no salvation. "I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish" (Lk. 13:5). It is imperative to deal with people about their sin and about repentance. Someone might say, "Yes, but that is in Nepal where people have never heard the gospel. Things are different here." Sure, things are different here,but the fact is that the average person in North America today is almost as gospel ignorant as someone in India. The average person we meet in many parts of North America has no knowledge of the Bible's teaching, not even of its stories and basic content. His mind is filled with the myths of evolution and humanism and psychology and modernism. Someone who has been educated in the North American public school system and who has had no sound Bible training is actually more prejudiced against believing that the Bible is the Word of God than a Hindu in darkest Asia. The same is true for England, Australi, and Europe.
The Bible principles of dealing with people are the same no matter where those people are found. The Bible requires repentance.
When the Lord Jesus dealt with the rich young ruler who inquired about salvation, He did not tell him just to pray a prayer, just to believe. He ealt with him plainly about his love for riches, his coveto usness and pride. The young man had to repent of that deep sin of his live before he could be saved. He went away sad, the Bible says, because of his great riches. Consider Christ's dealings with the woman at the well. He faced her squarely with the immorality which had controlled her life. This is the way God always deals with people, and it is the way we must deal with them, too, if we want to follow the Bible in our gospel work. To preach repentance means to deal with specific sins which people are holding onto, and to tell them in no uncertain terms that they must repent of those sins before they can be saved. This is not "Lordship salvation." This is not some kind of Puritan methodology. It is simple Bible evangelism.
2. AN INSUFFICIENT PRESENTATION -- FAILING TO DEFINE THE TERMS OF THE GOSPEL SO THE HEARERS FULLY UNDERSTAND, AND FAILING TO CONTRAST THE TRUE GOSPEL WITH FALSE GOSPELS.
Another reason much of the evangelistic work today produces unscriptural fruit is its failure to define the terms of the Gospel and its failure to contrast the true gospel with false gospels known to the hearers. In our ministry in a county jail we are continually reminded that it is crucial to define Gospels terms carefully. Many who come to our Bible studies tell us that they have trusted Christ as their Savior, but when we dig a little deeper into their faith, we find that they do not believe the Bible. One woman recently told us that she was a Methodist and she knew Christ as her Savior. I asked if she believed she is a sinner, and she said that she did. I then read Jeremiah 17:9, that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, and I read Psalm 58:3, that we go astray from the womb, speaking lies. She replied that she was not a sinner in that sense, that she was basically a good person and that she did not believe God would send her to Hell for her small "sins." If I had not taken the time to define sin biblically, her false profession would not have been exposed and I would have accepted her as a genuine Christian. Most of the Gospel tracts commit this error. The writers of the tracts assume that their readers will understand Gospel terms such as sin and grace and atonement and faith and repentance, but this is not true. Unless a person has been under the influence of sound Bible teaching, he will not understand any of these terms properly when he first hears them or sees them in a Bible verse. Most unsaved people think of sin merely as a few gross acts such as adultery and murder. Or they think it is a psychological problem or need. Or they think it is lack of tolerance or unkindness to animals or lack of care for the environment. We must be very careful to define Gospel terms plainly from the Scriptures so people understand, and when they acknowledge their sin and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, they are not doing so with false concepts in their minds. The Bible says we are saved by obeying from the heart "that form of doctrine which was delivered you" (Rom. 6:17). If a person believes a false concept of the gospel, he is not saved.
A similar error occurs when the Gospel is preached but it is not contrasted plainly with false gospels. Ecumenical evangelistic crusades habitually commit this error. The ecumenical evangelist preaching to a mixed crowd ofProtestants and Roman Catholics will not make the Gospel plain because he does not want to offend those who hold a false gospel. In such a context, for example, it is not enough to say that salvation is by grace. The Catholic Church teaches that salvation is by grace; sometimes the Catholic Church even claims that salvation is by grace alone, but by this it does not mean what the Bible means by grace alone. The Catholic Church claimsthat no man can be saved by the grace of Christ alone without works or sacraments. It redefines grace to include works, thus perverting the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Council of Trent, which has been affirmed by many modern Catholic councils, including Vatican II in the mid-1960s, stated: "If anyone shall say that justifying faith is nothing else than confidence in the divine mercy pardoning sins for Christ's sake, or that it is that confidence alone by which we are justified ...let him be accursed" (Canon 12). These declarations of the Council of Trent have never been rescinded. This is what the Roman Catholic Church believes today. Consider two statements from the New Catholic Catechism: "The Lord himself affirms that Baptism is necessary for salvation" (New Catholic Catechism, 1257). "The Church affirms that for believers the sacraments of the New Covenant are necessary for salvation" (New Catholic Catechism, 1129).
When Rome speaks of salvation by grace, it does not mean the free grace of the Apostolic Gospel. It has perverted the meaning of grace to intermingle therein sacraments and works. Contrast Romans 11:6. "And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work."
If an evangelist preaches the Gospel to those who have been taught a false gospel, he must contrast the true Gospel plainly with the false gospel. If he does not, he is guilty of leaving people with false impressions of what he meant by salvation.
CONFUSION IN NEW ORLEANS
In 1987 I witnessed firsthand the confusion which can result from failure to contrast the true Gospel with false Gospels. I received press credentials to attend the massive North American Congress on the Holy Spirit & World Evangelization, New Orleans, July 1987. There were roughly 40 denominations represented. More than 200 speakers presented messages during the Congress. Fifty percent of those in attendance were Roman Catholic. A Catholic mass was held every morning. Catholic priest Tom Forrest, headquartered in Rome and head of Rome's Evangelization 2000 program, brought the closing message. One night a Charismatic evangelist concluded his message with an evangelistic invitation. He told the crowd that if any were not certain of their salvation, they should stand and pray the sinner's prayer with him. An estimated fifty percent of the crowd of 40-50,000 stood. The next day at a press conference, one of the reporters noted what had occurred the prior evening and asked the leaders of the Congress why they did not plainly deal with the Gospel so that those present could understand what it is. They replied that they did not have time to do that! It was not on their agenda. I believe the real reason is that to preach the Gospel plainly in such a way that it is contrasted with false gospels would destroy their ecumenical harmony. Ecumenical unity cannot be maintained when doctrine is defined precisely and contrasted with error. A faithful preacher must lift the voice and proclaim that baptism does not save us and sacraments to do save us and churches do not save us. Salvation is strictly and solely through faith in the finished atonement of Jesus Christ. Anyone who intermingles works or church sacraments with salvation has perverted the Gospel and is cursed of God. Failure to be this plain will leave one's hearers in a confused state, vainly trusting false gospels to take them to heaven.
"FALL IN LOVE WITH JESUS"
In April 1995 Luis Palau preached to an estimated 26,000 in four meetings in Kathmandu, Nepal. The report in Charisma magazine noted that since proselytization of Hindus is illegal in Nepal, "Palau encouraged Nepalis to 'fall in love with Jesus' instead of urging them to renounce Hinduism."
For a Hindu to "fall in love with Jesus" is not the same as repenting of his idolatry and sin and receiving Jesus Christ as the SOLE Lord and Saviour. We lived with and preached to Hindus for 10 years, and in my estimation it is criminal for an evangelist to urge Hindus merely "to fall in love with Jesus." Let me ask two questions which illustrate the wickedness of such inadequate preaching.
First, Palau told the Hindus to "fall in love with Jesus," BUT WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER GODS THOSE HINDUS WORSHIP? The first inclination of many Hindus when they hear the Gospel is to add Jesus to their other gods. They make him the favorite god, but not the ONLY God. They continue in their idolatry; they are still on their way to Hell; but now they have "Jesus" as their preferred god.
Second, Palau told the Hindus to "fall in love with Jesus," BUT WHAT JESUS? Hindus in Kathmandu see all sorts of Catholic pictures of Jesus which are for sell on the streets alongside of the pictures of Hindu gods. Is that the "Jesus" they are to fall in love with? The Jesuit priests have been in Nepal longer than any other foreigners. They have schools and churches, and every Hindu in Kathmandu knows that the Catholics claim to be "Christians" and that they preach "Jesus." How will they know that the Catholic Jesus is a false Jesus unless the evangelist tells them plainly that this is so? Ecumenical evangelists, though, refuse to preach the Gospel this plainly.
MASS EVANGELISM IN ASIA
One of our close friends is a missionary to the Philippines. He has told me that he despises the use of mass evangelism among the Filipino people because of the common misuse of such methods. When evangelists and missionaries conduct mass evangelistic meetings and invite their hearers to "raise your hand if you want to receive Jesus," without explaining clearly what it means to receive the Lord Jesus Christ, they are creating great confusion. The Roman Catholic Filipino people are accustomed to "receiving Jesus" repeatedly. They "receive Jesus" in baptism, in confirmation, in the mass, in the confessional, in daily prayers, etc., but they don't understand the biblical Gospel that complete and eternal salvation is provided through confidence in Christ's once-for-all Atonement.
BORN AGAIN CATHOLICS
A missionary friend who has labored for many decades in Quebec has described to me the changes which have occurred in the Roman Catholic Church in that land. Prior to the 1970s he almost never met a Catholic in Quebec who had a Bible or who understood biblical terminology about salvation. These days he does meet such Catholics. When he asks French Canadians if they have been born again or if they have been saved through Christ's blood or if they have received Christ as their personal Savior, some today reply in the affirmative. Many of these are charismatic Catholics, and they will claim that they received Christ as their Savior in a certain charismatic meeting some months or years prior. A less astute missionary would be deceived by this reply. Instead, he pursues the matter, asking, "You mean that before you received Christ in that meeting you werelost and hell-bound?" The person will quickly reply, "No, it is not like that; I received Christ in my confirmation." The missionary again asks, "You mean before that, then, you were a lost, hell-bound sinner?" The individual, somewhat frustrated, will reply, "No, not like that; I also received Christ in my baptism when I was an infant." It becomes evident that though the individual is using biblical terminology, he is still using the Catholic dictionary and is still cleaving to the false sacramental Catholic gospel.
EXPERIENCES IN NEPAL
Years ago, when we first arrived in Nepal to begin our missionary work, I was asked to teach a series of Bible studies in one of the churches. They wanted me to teach about cults. I decided to begin with Roman Catholicism. I knew that the Jesuits had a strong influence in the land, but I did not know at the time just how closely associated with Romanism many of the foreign teachers and social workers and Nepali Christians were. I found out very quickly! That first Bible study turned out to be my last under the auspices of that particular church, which at the time was the largest church in Nepal. When I completed my Bible study, a lady "missionary" teacher with United Mission to Nepal stood up and shook her finger at me and in a very loud, brash manner proclaimed: "Nobody is going to tell me I cannot fellowship with my Catholic friends. I go to mass with them sometimes and I enjoy it." She was very angry. The Nepali pastor who had invited me, meekly said nothing, but he quietly canceled the rest of my scheduled Bible studies. That was in 1979, I believe.
If a preacher avoids controversial doctrines, does not preach repentance and separation, does not sufficiently define Gospel terms, and does not plainly contrast the true Gospel with false gospels, he can be popular with the rebellious ecumenical crowd. On the other hand, he is a traitor to the truth and to those to whom he is responsible to preach the whole counsel of God.
3. A POSITIVE PRESENTATION -- FAILING TO LAY A PROPER FOUNDATION OF THE HOLINESS OF GOD AND THE SINFULNESS OF MAN.
The book of Romans was written to present the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ systematically. The love of God is not mentioned until chapter five. The first three chapters lay the foundation for the Gospel, presenting the absolute holiness of God and His hatred of sin, and the utter moral
corruption of the human race. Only when this crucial foundation is laid does the Holy Spirit explain the gift of God's salvation in Christ Jesus. We see this presentation in the layout of the Bible as a whole. It begins with the law of God and ends with the Gospel of God. The law was given to show man His sin and need for salvation. "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith" (Galatians 3:24). To preach the Gospel in such a way that the holiness of God and His hatred of sin is downplayed or ignored and His love is exalted and misdefined is to pervert the Gospel.
FOUR SPIRITUAL LAWS
An example of this is the Four Spiritual Laws written by Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ. These "four laws" are supposed to present the Gospel. Law number one is "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life." While it is true that God loves the sinner and Christ died to make it possible for him to be saved, it is not true that God has a wonderful plan for every lost sinner. His plan for lost sinners who reject Jesus Christ is to put them into eternal Hell. That is not very wonderful! Why did the Apostle Paul not start with a Campus Crusade-type approach when presenting the Gospel in the book of Romans? Why did he not approach the
people at Athens in such a manner (Acts 17)? Instead he explained God's holiness and judgment to come and commanded them to repent of their idolatry and sin.
Bill Bright admits that he wrestled with his conscience when he changed the approach to a positive one, and even one of his own daughters at that time told him she felt he was on the wrong track. When Bright first wrote his gospel pamphlet in 1958, it began with man's sin and separation from God. But when the pamphlet was revised a few of years later, in the early 1960s, he changed this so it would be more positive. In his book Come Help Changethe World, he relates this account:
"Originally our first law emphasized man's sin, but the Lord impressed me to emphasize God's love. This change was made just before we went to press. I had done my final editing and had left Vonette and the girls to finish the typing. As I had been traveling a great deal and it was quite late, I had gone upstairs to bed. In fact, I was in bed just at the point of going to sleep, when suddenly there came clear as a bell to my conscious mind the fact that there was something wrong about starting the Four Laws on the negative note of man's sinfulness. ... I felt that few people would say 'No' to Christ if they truly understood how much He loves them and how great is His concern for them.
"So I got out of bed, went to the head of the stairs and called down to Vonette and the girls to revise the presentation so that the first lawwould be, "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life," instead of "You are a sinner and separated from God." ... Thus the Four Spiritual Laws started with the positive note of God's love and plan.
"Some time later, one of the girls said to me, бе I was so distressed over your change in the presentation that I wept that night. I was afraid that you were beginning to dilute the gospel and that you were no longer faithful to the Lord, because you placed such a strong emphasis on the love of God rather than on man's sin. Now in retrospect, I realize of course that this is one of the greatest things that has ever happened to the Campus Crusade ministry'" (Bill Bright, Come Help Change the World, Here's Life Publishers, 1985, pp. 28,29).
We believe Bill Bright's daughter was right when she wept and feared that her father had diluted the gospel. He has adapted the gospel to the philosophy of the world. He has removed much of the reproach of the cross. He has created an evangelistic tool that can be used successfully by the entire world of apostate ecumenism. His type of gospel presentation is used by modernistic World Council of Churches denominations. It is so generic that it is used even by Catholics. The voice which spoke "clear as a bell" to Bright about changing the approach of the Gospel was not the Lord.
Three decades later, this positive, psychological, man-centered approach has swept through most Christian circles. It is the approach used, for the most part, by the Evangelicals, by the Charismatics, by the Ecumenists, even by most Fundamentalists. While biblical Fundamentalists eschew Campus Crusade's worldly, New Evangelical approach to Christianity, all too often the soul winning plan used in Fundamentalist circles is very similar to the Four Spiritual Laws.
We don't mean to belittle the fact of God's love for sinners and we don't mean to say it is wrong to tell the unsaved of that love. God does love sinners, and that is what the Gospel is all about. We praise Him for it. But when approaching the unsaved, the Apostles emphasized God's holiness and His just demands upon a sinful mankind. They emphasized man's lost condition and the necessity of repentance. This is the right way to approach the unsaved. It is not very positive and does not fit in with the popular philosophy of the hour, and might not result in as many "decisions," but it is Bible; it is the pattern that God has given us. The Bible does not start with God's love. It starts with God's character and with man's fall. In fact, the entire first two thirds of the Bible deals with this before we even get to the New Testament presentation of Christ. Why is this? Who would deny that the Old Testament is largely negative? And why is this? Are we to ignore the fact that God lays a foundation of law for the presentation of the Gospel? Evangelists and revivalists of old certainly followed the Bible's pattern in this. The Apostles certainly did. Who are we to change this?
Why the negative approach? Why not just focus on God's love and on Heaven, and let sin take care of itself. Because unsaved man does not understand nor appreciate the love of God until he understands the holiness and justice of God. When Paul preached the Gospel in the book of Romans, he did not even mention the love of God until chapter 5. He began with God, with God's claims on man, with the law, with man's wretched condition. God uses the law to create in man the understanding he needs of God and sin in order to get saved. The law is the schoolmaster to bring sinners to Christ (Gal. 3:24).
Many years ago, as a young missionary newly arrived in the country of Nepal, I was invited to preach at an underground evangelistic meeting (Gospel preaching was illegal in Nepal at that time) arranged by the national branch of the Campus Crusade for Christ. (Though we were independent missiona ries and did not work with Campus Crusade, they invited me to speak at that particular meeting.) Standing before a group of idolatrous Hindus and Buddhists, I used Romans as my text and went point by point through the Gospel. (1) God is holy and righteous and hates sin. (2) All men have sinned and are therefore and under God's righteous judgment. (3) God has provided for man's salvation through the atonement of His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. (4) This redemption is received as a free gift by faith in the finished work of Christ and by calling upon Him for salvation. The national leaders of Campus Crusade for Christ took me aside after the meeting and told me that my preaching was "too negative." They instructed me to be positive in my approach and not to make the hearers feel guilty and depressed. I rejected their counsel, because the Holy Spirit's presentation of the Gospel in the Bible is different from that of Campus Crusade. I reject every presentation of the Gospel which is positive in its approach and which ignores or slights over law and holiness and repentance.
4. A NEED-ORIENTED PRESENTATION -- FAILING TO MAKE A DISTINCTION BETWEEN GENUINE SALVATION AND MERE REFORMATION AND RITUAL.
A fourth way to pervert the presentation of the Gospel is to present it merely as a means of solving human needs. The "Christian psychology" movement is often guilty of promoting this because of its need-oriented approach to biblical matters. Individuals approach the counselor with various personal needs--marriage problems, drug or alcohol addictions, loneliness, etc.--expecting help in resolving these issues. The counselor presents a simple Gospel plan, not emphasizing repentance, and encouragesthe individual to "receive Christ." Too often, I fear, individuals in such a context merely pray a prayer and go through a religious ritual with the goal of receiving God's help for their day-to-day problems. This is not repentance and faith in a biblical and saving sense. The idolaters at Thessalonica demonstrated true salvation when they "turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God" (1 Thessalonians 1:9). This was the genuine article. These people did not merely want God's help in a temporal, earthly sense. They were ready to turn from their wicked doings and to make the God of the Bible the Lord of their lives.
There is always the danger of a person showing interest in the Gospel merely to resolve some personal conflict in his life. We see this many times in our jail ministry. The men and women have deep problems. They have experienced serious failures in life. They come to our Bible studies and appear interested in the Gospel, but all too often, what they are seeking is not a right relationship with the Almighty God but a "fix" for their earthly problems. They want a 12-step program or a "lucky charm" of some sort which will give them success in life, but they do not want to repent of their wickedness before God and yield their lives to His authority and trust Christ exclusively for salvation.
It is impossible for a diligent soul winner to avoid getting some false conversions and empty professions. The human heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). There will always be those who fain a desire to know Christ, those who want to reform but not to repent. We must carefully avoid, though, unscriptural presentations of the Gospel which can multiply this sad problem.
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