People Won't Respond to Irrelevant News

A few decades ago there was a British sitcom called The Office. In one of the episodes, the office manager, David Brent, gathers all his employees and announces that he has good news and bad news. They ask for the bad news first and he tells them that some of them will be losing their jobs. Then, they hopefully ask for the good news and he tells them that he is being promoted. The classic response from one of the by now very annoyed employees is “that’s not good news, that’s bad news and irrelevant news!”

I’ve been thinking about whether we are doing the same thing in evangelism when we start with the Good News of the Gospel or tell people that God loves them and has a wonderful plan for their lives.

Christians often comment that “people just don’t seem to see their need.”

Does our Good News become irrelevant news in the minds of the people because we haven’t started with the sin problem and shown them they need rescuing?

I’ve noticed a trend in Gospel preaching both in the open air and in churches, to major on Jesus and the cross (a good thing) but not to give much context. Sometimes, preachers miss out essential truths like what we need saving from (sin, death, judgement, Hell) and even what we are being saved to (Heaven).

The Message is often, “Come to Jesus, come as you are, especially if you are weary and heavy laden, He will give you peace and rest.” or “Make Jesus king of your life, you won’t regret it.” Many of these preachers make Jesus Himself the end goal rather than Heaven. Does this make any sense to a non-believer, or even a believer?

These messages are often focused on the here and now rather than the eternity that awaits. Listening to some Christians, it’s not clear that there is anything to look forward to in Heaven as they are so invested in the things of the world. But the world is passing away and we are only here for a short time, then we will be in Heaven or Hell, forever.

Ray Comfort (an evangelist) has written a lot about this subject and how we share the Gospel. He favours the Good Person Test where God’s moral law (the 10 commandments) are used to show people their sinfulness. He asks them if they’ve ever told a lie, stolen anything or looked at someone with lust etc….

When they have admitted guilt, he asks them if they were to die would they go to Heaven or Hell. Only when they are well and truly humbled and aware of their dangerous position does he offer the Good News of God’s rescue plan for sinners in Jesus.

I was reading in Nehemiah 8 last week about what happened when Ezra read from the book of the Law. It says he was “making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people understood what was being read.” Their response was to weep in repentance as they listened to the words.

Jesus and John the Baptist began their ministries by declaring “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

In Acts 2, Peter confronts the Pentecost crowd with their sin of crucifying Jesus. They were cut to the heart and asked, “What shall we do?”

When Stephen speaks about the prophets having been killed and the law not being kept in Acts 7, the religious leaders are cut to the heart but they gnash their teeth and stone him to death.

Later in Acts, Paul explains the historical context and his own story to the governor, Felix, resulting in him becoming afraid when Paul deals with righteousness, self-control and the judgement to come.

It’s clear from these passages that confronting sin produces a reaction one way or the other. Some people will be afraid and respond in repentance and faith. Others may get angry and reject the message or simply just stop their ears and walk away. There is a division between those who are being saved and those who are perishing.  

Last week in Cambridge in the sweltering heat we met an extremely proud man who was unfortunately acting as a hospital chaplain for the area. He told us that he would never talk to people who were dying about sin or judgement because it was cruel and that instead he would seek to offer them peace and comfort in their final moments. There was no reasoning with him as he thought he knew better than Jesus. What a tragedy that this man, who is in a position to help people find eternal security, is more concerned with earthly provision and being culturally appropriate.

When I share the Gospel, I usually start with Heaven and ask people how they think God decides who gets in. This leads on to something similar to the Good Person Test. Having established that the person isn’t good in God’s eyes. I usually go back to Creation and the Fall of man. Only then does God’s redemption plan for humanity (Jesus on the cross) really make sense. Towards the end of the discussion, I urge the person not to stand before God on Judgement Day with all their unforgiven sin because God will send them to Hell. Then I return to the Good News of Jesus.

In Cambridge last week, after I’d shared the Gospel, three different people in three separate conversations, told me they would go away and read books that I had given them that very night! This doesn’t always happen and it’s not a reflection of my skill as an evangelist. But these individuals had obviously sensed the urgency of their situation and realised that this was something they needed to look into immediately.

We can’t convert people, only God can change a person’s heart, but we can certainly ensure they understand their situation and try to convey the importance of these matters. It’s almost impossible to do this without talking about sin, judgement, death and Hell.

In the parables of the pearl of great price and the hidden treasure, when the characters find what they are seeking, they sell all they have to buy it. In John 6, when Jesus asks his disciples whether they are going to leave as everyone else has done, Peter responds, “Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

I asked Ray Comfort recently through a Zoom Q and A if we should be including counting the cost in our Gospel presentations. His answer was no for an interesting reason. He said that if we are sharing the Gospel properly and biblically, we shouldn’t need to.

He was right. None of the people in the Bible stories above needed to be advised to count the cost. They understood what was on offer and they were all in.

If people are made aware of their perilous situation, then we can offer true hope in the Gospel as a remedy for their alarm. Instead, we are often putting the cart before the horse, offering comfort and peace or other life enhancements when the person is teetering on a cliff edge. We must warn people of the judgement that is coming and urge them to repent before it’s too late.

We need to remember that Jesus came into the world on a rescue mission. He came to die on a cross for the sins of the world. He bridged the gap between God and man making a way for us to be saved from the wrath to come, and enter Heaven.

Let’s make sure our news isn’t irrelevant by starting with the bad news which ensures people understand their situation and can joyfully respond to the Good News!

Why Packaging the Gospel in Cultural Trends is Usually a Bad Idea

I’ve been concerned for a while about the rising popularity of courses like 3-2-1 by Glen Scrivener. The course book seems to be everywhere and many churches are seeing it as a viable alternative to more traditional introductions to the Christian faith like Christianity Explored. There are positive reviews on Amazon and Christians are recommending this course and with it the theology that it represents.

I recently attended an evangelistic seminar on connecting with people using cultural trends. This was based on a survey of non-believers where they had been asked to identity what was missing in their lives. The top answers were not God or truth but purpose, freedom, security, love etc. The thinking is that because the Gospel does offer these things, we should major on them in an effort to attract people to Christ.

Why is this a problem, you might ask. Surely it’s a good thing that Christians are seeking to be culturally relevant as they evangelise. Isn’t it good if people are drawn to Christianity?

Yes it is but only if we are presenting the true Gospel message and therefore drawing them to Jesus and real salvation.

Here are some of the issues I have observed with these approaches:

1. It’s soft on sin

This is definitely the biggest problem with the 3-2-1 course as observed by the only critical Amazon reviewer who with a headline, “Had to look hard to find out that there is sin and that it’s the main problem” notes, “Direction of book tends to weave around, seeming to try to fight shy of explaining that man is in rebellion against God. If you look hard, you can eventually find something of a problem that man has, on page 70…this book seems to me to seek to soft-pedal the real problem and to make the message ‘soft’ and agreeable.”

 In case it seems I’m speaking in ignorance, a few years ago, I did volunteer to help lead a 3-2-1 course. After the first three weeks, I approached the elder running the course and asked if we were ever going to get to the core elements of the Gospel as in sin, judgement or repentance. He responded that he thought it was “eluded to” later in the course. To that point, the way it was presented was more that Jesus came into the world to identify with us in our weakness and help us with our mistakes. I informed him that I couldn’t be part of it and stopped attending.

Similarly, in the seminar, I asked the question about sin and was advised that we shouldn’t seek to skirt around or sugar-coat sin. However, I would go a step further and say that we should seek to convey the seriousness of sin from the outset.

It’s back to the obvious point which is constantly being made by the likes of Ray Comfort and Roger Carswell: we must start by getting people to understand that they have a problem and not just that this is a problem in the world but that they are contributors and personally responsible. People will not be ready or willing to hear a solution if they don’t believe they personally have a problem. You can read books like Hell’s Best Kept Secret or come to the FEW conference in January to learn more.

2. It confuses people

When I took part in the 3-2-1 course, I was surprised that some of the faithful Christians at the church weren’t involved so I asked them about it.  They said that the previous course had been a disaster as the participants ended up arguing about the course content as they couldn’t understand it and didn’t recognise themselves within it. They spent so long trying to unpick this that there wasn’t really a clear Gospel presentation. They had resolved not to be involved in future courses.

What a tragedy for the church involved, for the Christians that have been put off evangelism and for the participants who didn’t have their questions answered.

I was having a conversation with a couple in Bournemouth once and had been there for some time when a young man from a different group also doing evangelism joined the discussion and asked if he could say something. I gave him permission and he launched into this long winded analogy which I thought I’d heard somewhere before. He was relaying the various aspects of this tactic, obviously learned in training, with great enthusiasm as if it would answer all their questions, if they would wait until the end. Eventually, they basically said that they’d had enough, that they’d enjoyed talking to me but didn’t have a clue what the young guy was talking about and walked off. The guy looked devastated and sat down on the wall with a great sigh. I tried to reassure him that the couple would probably have walked off anyway as they had been talking for a while when he arrived. He just couldn’t understand why his analogy hadn’t worked as he had put so much confidence in it. It had just led to confusion.

Not only can some of these approaches confuse non-believers, but they can also confuse Christians. There are some interesting books on evangelism but reading some of them just makes me feel tired. Tactics by Gregory Koukl is one such example. It just felt like there was a script or method for every situation. I can imagine myself getting tongue tied or forgetting my lines if there’s too much of that in our conversations with people. Learning some answers to common objections and something about different beliefs is useful but we must be ourselves. Answering “I don’t know” can be a good thing as it makes us more relatable and stops us coming across as know-it-alls. We are trying to win the person not the debate. If we end up confusing ourselves, we will definitely confuse other people.

3. It’s complicated

This point overlaps with the previous one but is worth considering. In a world where society is growing increasingly biblically ignorant should we be making our Gospel presentations less accessible in an attempt to make them culturally relevant?

We already know that we shouldn’t use Christian jargon or that when we do we need to explain it in everyday language but surely that extends to the content itself. If a little child can understand and respond to the Gospel message, why are we making adults jump through hoops to get to the core principles?

Surely clearer and more concise is better. In the past we used things like sin-judgement-Jesus, the Romans road and A: Accept you are a sinner, B: Believe Jesus died for you, C: Commit your life to Him.

More recently, we were reminded at an Open-Air Mission training weekend in relation to talks being placed on a board that “less is more”. The Gospel message is clear, straight-forward and simple: Through the cross of Jesus Christ,

God

Offers

Sinful

People

Eternal

Life

4. It’s the wrong way round

We may agree that we should ensure the Bible dictates how we engage with culture rather than allowing culture to shape our interactions with non-believers but the enemy is always seeking to undermine this principle. The problem is when we allow culture not only to dictate how we relate to and interact with non-believers, which can be a good thing, but when culture determines what we say. We mustn’t allow the Gospel message to be changed to fit or adapt to our culture.

An example would be the various ways well-meaning Christians have attempted to fit scientific theories into the Bible; theistic evolution, the gap theory, Genesis as poetic language etc etc. Someone recently said to me, “the problem is that when you’re talking to an intelligent scientist or an atheist, you can’t just say that God created everything in 6 days because it’s not credible.” This person had therefore come up with a theory that there were two creations and after the devil interfered with the first, God froze everything (the ice age) before creating things a second time?!

The problem with all of these ideas, other than that they don’t deal faithfully with Scripture, is death before the fall. The Bible is clear that sin leads to death and it can’t be any other way without undermining the Gospel message of salvation. God operates in the supernatural. Much of what He does is miraculous and He isn’t constrained by natural laws or our perceptions of scientific advances.

We must have confidence in the reliability of God’s Word.

5. It can be deceptive

I’m thinking here of the seminar I went to where we were encouraged to show people that the Gospel meets the needs that they perceive they have in their lives. It’s worth considering whether people who said they were missing purpose, security, freedom and love were even thinking of a spiritual purpose, spiritual/eternal security, freedom from sin and God’s love. It sounds silly when stated like this because of course they weren’t.

Likewise, Jesus didn’t die to give us purpose, security, freedom or love. He died to deal with our sin to open the way for us to be forgiven and reconciled to God. The things people are seeking may be a by-product of His sacrifice but they are not the main purpose. Shouldn’t we instead focus on getting people to see that they have a sin problem so they will then be ready for the solution?

In the seminar, someone asked whether this wasn’t just another version of the prosperity gospel. I was thinking that it sounded a bit like “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life” or “Easy Believism/Decisionism” where hands are raised in a meeting but not a lot is said about repentance and the need for a changed life.

I don’t think it’s quite as dangerous as the prosperity gospel with promises of health, wealth and happiness. But it can lead to the same place and it’s much more subtle. It’s similar to John Piper’s Christian hedonism, that we must seek satisfaction for ourselves and it’s okay because it’s in God. I just don’t think God wants us to be seeking satisfaction for ourselves, He wants us to serve Him, to take up our cross daily and live lives of self sacrifice to help others see their need of Him. If a by-product of this life of self sacrifice is satisfaction then that’s great but it shouldn’t be our main goal.

What happens to the person who is promised purpose but still can’t get a job, or the person promised freedom who continues to struggle with addiction, or the one who is riddled with anxiety and continues feeling insecure, or someone promised love who is rejected by their church. 

If people are drawn to Christianity for the wrong reasons they won’t stick around when the things they are promised don’t work out as they had hoped. They are then inoculated against it because they think they’ve tried it and it doesn’t work. This is a serious issue.

A preacher that I sometimes work with was having a chat with someone who wanted to join us in the open air. He asked what they thought was a person’s greatest need. She said, “peace” and then added “love”. He said, “What about forgiveness?” Our greatest need is forgiveness of sin and peace with God. We need to keep this at the heart of our evangelism.

6. It majors on things that God does not

When thinking of evangelism, I can’t think of a stranger place to begin than with the Trinity. It’s a difficult theological truth to understand and many Christians only get a real grasp of it as they are discipled and read the Bible. When speaking with a Muslim is might be helpful to try to explain, but even then it’s difficult as all of our analogies fall short.

However, the 3-2-1 course has around 60 pages on the Trinity at the start of the course book and the 3 is obviously the Trinity. The idea is that The Father, Son and Holy Spirit have been showing love towards each other in the Trinity in eternity past and that God therefore had somewhere for His love to be directed. Some writers continue this by suggesting that this is necessary as otherwise God would have no experience of love and wouldn’t be able to love us. Clearly this is wrong as God is love and doesn’t need us to limit Him in this way.

Whilst the Trinity is a theological truth found throughout the Bible, the love shown within the Trinity isn’t a major theme and isn’t used by Christians in the Bible when evangelising. Probably, because it wouldn’t make a lot of sense to a non-believer.

I believe this over-emphasis on the love within the Trinity is another attempt to bring God down to our level and to appeal to non-believers with an over-emphasis on God’s love to the exclusion of His justice and holiness.

Mature Christians will often say that some aspects of the Trinity are a mystery and explain that the Trinity is one God in three Persons and leave it at that.

7. It focuses on man’s ideas

The Bible is all about God. From Creation, to the Fall of man, to God’s redemption plan through the Cross, the Resurrection and the Return of Christ. 

We have many examples in the Bible of how to evangelise in different settings. The early Christians may have used things that were around them to connect with different groups e.g. Paul using the statue to an unknown God or Jesus referring to living water with the Samaritan woman. However, the message is consistent. The core of the Gospel- salvation through faith in Jesus- remains the same across all audiences.

The reason sometimes given for seeking a new approach to connect to our culture is that people are not interested in hearing the truth anymore. Indeed, they may say “what’s true for you, isn’t true for me” and believe that truth is relative or that there is no truth.

This is a challenge and I do think we need to avoid answering questions that people aren’t asking. People aren’t as interested in evidence based apologetics; proving the resurrection, creation or the origins of the Bible.  

But, I don’t think we can avoid dealing with the fact that our Message is true, that’s why we believe it! It also stops people thinking there are many ways to God or that all religions are equally valid.

People are more invested in discovering the truth than they realise. We rely on truth being absolute in almost every area of life and it’s easy to prove that truth cannot be relative e.g. if someone believes they can fly and launches themselves off a cliff….

God will still judge people and send them to Hell whether they claim to believe in Him or not. We also know from Romans 1 that people suppress the truth and are without excuse because God has made His existence plain through Creation.

There’s an interesting passage in John 18 where Jesus is talking to Pilate. Pilate asks Him whether He is the King of the Jews and Jesus replies, “Is that your own idea or did others talk to you about me?” Later Jesus says “…the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” The dismissive retort from Pilate, “What is truth?”

People may sneer or dismiss us as Pilate did but our Message of Truth can still convict and convert them in the power of the Holy Spirit. The disciples didn’t change their Message when people were dismissive of truth, they continued as they had before telling people to “repent and believe”.

8. It’s not necessary

The intentions behind all of the Christians using these cultural trends are good; they want to see people come to faith in Jesus. Sometimes, though, they seem to be forgetting that the power is in the Message and that the cross preached is "foolishness to those who are perishing but to those who are being saved it is the power of God" (1 Corinthians 1 vs 18) and that God chooses to use the "foolishness of what is preached to save those who believe" (1 Corinthians 1 vs 21).

We can have confidence in the simple Gospel Message knowing that God’s Word doesn’t return empty and that people will be saved through hearing it. We shouldn’t be ashamed of our Message on any level or try to obscure or hide uncomfortable truths. People are different, one person might be drawn to Christ because they are attracted to the Message of forgiveness whilst others might come because they are afraid of ending up in Hell. Both are valid responses to the Gospel Message and believing the promises and warnings in God’s Word.

What should we do instead?

Behind some of these ideas is a valid concern that we aren’t connecting with people and meeting them where they are at.  We can address some of these things by:

-using modern analogies and by keeping abreast of current affairs. One Open-Air Missioner said recently that wherever he is, flicking through a magazine, overhearing a conversation, on the bus, he’s always on the look out for new material for open-air talks. 

There is a talk which simply asks the question, “Where are they now?” and has the faces of famous dead people. It’s culturally relevant and always draws a crowd but the question cuts right to the heart of the Gospel Message as the preacher can apply it directly to those who stop and ask them, “What about you, where will you be in eternity?”

-learning from each other by attending training and discussing experiences. If we get difficult questions, others may have an answer.

-using modern language and avoiding Christian jargon. We can explain words that people may not be familiar with.

-talking about the big picture to help people see that they are part of it. Rather than it being something abstract or something only relevant to “religious” people.

-asking questions to learn where people are at

-talking to people rather than at them and by making eye contact

-sharing our own story if it’s relevant but not as a replacement for the Gospel Message

-having confidence in the Gospel Message and God’s power to use it to save people

Finally, we need to pray for a love for lost people as we reach out to them knowing that we have what they need in Jesus!

 

The Way of the Master?

I stumbled upon a book this week, The Way of the Master by Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron. They run an organisation by the same name, and another called Living Waters. They have produced a number of almost feature length films covering controversial topics, these can be watched on their website or on Youtube at no cost. The most recent is called The Atheist Delusion. Both organisations are committed to biblical evangelism.

They state that the modern Western church has lost its way. That due to an over-emphasis on grace and the love of God our churches are full of false converts. These people have been told that God has a wonderful plan for their lives and that all they need to do is to pray a prayer, sign a card or make a decision to accept Jesus and be restored to God. The majority then continue their lives exactly as before but now with the “saved by Jesus” or "born again" label. There was no repentance and therefore there is no visible change in their behaviour. 

When trials and suffering come to these people, they lose interest in their faith or become angry and disillusioned with God for their plight. They question the “wonderful plan” they were offered and blame God for their circumstances. They then either gradually fall into sin believing that God will forgive them later as life is just too hard, and God is not delivering what He has promised. Or they harden their hearts and walk away from the faith, they are thus in a worse position than they were in in the first place. They have now rejected God completely and are resentful and bitter towards Him if they still acknowledge His existence.

You may be thinking that these observations are not new, and that other well-known preachers and authors (John MacArthur) have been highlighting “easy believism” and other mass conversion methods for years. 

Comfort, however, offers a solution. He suggests that the only way for someone to be soundly converted is to first confront them with the law and then outline God’s plan of salvation through Jesus. He believes that the only way to do this is by using the Ten Commandments to make a person realise that they are a wretched sinner before a holy God.  A person needs to admit that they are a liar, thief and adulterer at heart amongst other things. Then they will understand that God’s wrath is upon them and will therefore desire to escape from the penalty of their sin which is ultimately eternity in hell.

It is only once they have acknowledged their sin that Jesus’ death is offered as the solution. The point is that unless someone realises the danger, they are in they are not going to take action to ensure their personal safety. Comfort uses the analogy of a blind man walking towards the edge of a cliff. Someone comes up to him and tweaks the MP3 player he is carrying to enhance the sound so he can enjoy his journey. He is thrilled and merrily continues towards the cliff edge, presumably falling to his death. This is what we are doing when we focus on people’s immediate physical needs, comfort and wellbeing rather than their eternal destination.

At first, I thought, wow what a great resource and method for evangelism. I watched all the movies on the website and looked at ordering tracts. But I was curious and decided to research what others were saying about Comfort’s ministry—that was an eye opener! It seems Comfort is like Marmite, you either love him or you hate him. 

I expected that, to some degree, due to the controversial issues he tackles. I would’ve been more concerned if he didn’t have his critics. But some of the comments were coming from Christian sources that I respected. 

The main two concerns were that the Ten Commandments were not designed to be used in this way for evangelism as we are now living under the New Covenant. Also, that a “one size fits all” or method approach for evangelism doesn’t allow sufficient room for the Spirit to lead and guide a believer when witnessing. That each person is an individual and should be ministered to as such. 

In relation to the first issue, I can see the concern. In Comfort’s book, he goes to great lengths to explain the significance of the Ten Commandments themselves overlooking the fact that they were originally given to the Israelite nation and not to the gentiles. However, for those who think I am suggesting that the commandments don’t apply to us today--ALL, except one, of the Ten Commandments is actually repeated and confirmed in the New Testament and therefore does apply to NT believers. (The Sabbath Day command is the exception and has little relevance to this discussion about biblical evangelism.)

The question that naturally arises is, why place so much emphasis on the Ten Commandments as given to Moses when we can use the NT with its wider scope and more relevant application for today? That would avoid the common argument that we are not living under the Old Covenant and that therefore the rules don’t apply.   

Critics of Comfort’s approach argue that the use of the Ten Commandments is too narrow and excludes other effective methods. Also, that he is telling people that they will be judged according to their adherence to the Ten Commandments alone. They point out that the bigger offence is the rejection of God and of Jesus as their Saviour from their sin. The greatest commandment given by Jesus Himself is after all, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.” (Matthew 22 vs 37)

Honestly, this is a tough one for me. There are people arguing that scaring or terrifying people about hell is not effective or loving. But personally, it was sufficient to convert me and cause me to give up my worldly life. I'm not sure whether the goodness of God alone would've had the same effect. Convincing people that hell is a real place and that their sins will take them there forever is important. I can see Comfort’s rationale in this respect. I can also see that he has a genuine love for the lost and desire for them to be truly saved.

If there is a choice between the shallow and false conversions we are seeing everywhere today and Comfort’s approach, I would definitely side with Comfort. Actually, the videos that had the biggest impact on me were those of the large numbers of people who claimed they were born again/evangelical Christians cheerfully admitting lying, stealing, pre-marital sex, pornography, drunkenness, drug taking etc. The shocking thing was that these “Christians” felt no shame or guilt about their lifestyles and didn’t even acknowledge that these things were wrong. The main reason given was that everyone else was doing it. They weren’t giving into temptation and repenting and trying again. They were completely unconcerned and apathetic. They were false converts filling the churches on Sundays.

Having said that, I don’t agree with a standardised or method approach that must always be used in evangelism. I have used lots of methods over the years and I think it’s important to really hear the heart of the other person. Sin must be confronted in every Gospel conversation and the Good News about Jesus offered. It is necessary for a person to understand what they are being saved from and how serious their sin is in God’s eyes. I like the way Comfort talks about a change of perspective reminding us that it is our own sin that takes us to hell. He speaks about how ridiculous it is for millions of tiny people (in comparison to God) walking around on the earth shaking their fists at their Creator as if that will change reality.

I would highly recommend the resources on Comfort’s website, Way of the Master, as I believe they will make people think. I admire him for tackling controversial issues that others have avoided. There is no doubt that his work has done a lot of good in the American church. But personally, I would use New Testament texts where possible in evangelism and ensure that the biggest sin of all—rejection of God—is highlighted in any presentation.

2026 Update

I'm editing this in 2026 as the issue of false converts is bigger than ever and the church has definitely lost its way. The focus on God's wonderful plan and life enhancements rather than ensuring people are convicted of sin and repenting of it is widespread in most churches. There is an over emphasis on making Jesus king of your life in order to get the rest He offers for weary souls forgetting the context of persecution of believers when the statement was made. 

Having learnt more about Ray Comfort's approach, it's clear he is using the New Testament where Jesus expands and applies the Old Testament law (10 commandments). I've also read his books Hell's Best Kept Secret and God Has A Wonderful Plan For Your Life (The Myth of the Modern Message) recently and found them both challenging and convicting. Additionally, I went on the Living Waters Academy Training week and found it helpful. 

I definitely think all Christians and especially church leaders need to be seriously considering the things that are raised by Ray Comfort and asking the question, is he right? If he is, we must urgently change our approach to evangelism if we want to see sinners truly born again, avoiding the wrath to come and entering Heaven!

Easy Believism--The Broad Road?

I have been going through my journals and reflecting on the things that took place whilst I was on Logos Hope and later in the Philippines. This was when my eyes were opened to the dangers of ‘Easy Believism’ or ‘Decisionism.’ These titles are attributed to methods of conversion which encourage an instant, on the spot decision in order to become a Christian. They usually use forms of commitment like an ‘Altar call’ and ‘The Sinner’s Prayer’ in order to lead someone to ‘accept Christ.’ They are not always a bad thing but we need to be aware of the dangers. 

Thinking back, I realise that these methods were around when I was a teenager. I would often re-commit my life to God during an emotional moment at a worship service or large Christian event. I did this every time I fell into sin, promising God that this time I would really change my life and make a new start. But this only lasted until the next sin and recommitment at the next event. What was this? It was a failure to understand that Jesus’ death had already paid the price for my sin; past, present and future. It was a belief that somehow if I had had a ‘good’ day and my good behaviour outweighed my bad, God was more pleased with me and that therefore I was more acceptable to Him. The root of this is a subtle belief in salvation by works or good deeds. If I live a good enough life, I will be saved. But if I don't I need to keep starting the Christian life again in order to reset the balance to zero. I had no assurance of salvation.

There is a tendency for us all to think like this. It's human nature to want to do something to earn our place with God. But the reality is that we can never do enough good things to get right with God. All of the things that we consider righteous God sees as filthy rags. That’s why Jesus had to die. He was the perfect sacrifice for our sin and His gift is free. My frequent re-commitments were the result of a lack of depth in my Christian understanding and a lack of understanding of God. The right response would have been to confess my sin every time I messed up and seek not to repeat the sin (repentance.)  This, not for fear of losing my faith and being condemned to hell, but out of thankfulness to God for sending Jesus, knowing that I could not measure up without Him.

Responding to ‘Altar calls’ and frequent recitations of the ‘Sinner’s prayer’ acted as a method of getting right with God for me but they didn’t change my behaviour or my heart. I hear many stories of teens, and even older people, that go through this process, especially those who have been brought up in the church. They are sometimes responding to an awareness of God ingrained in them from a young age. It can be hard for them to separate their own beliefs from those of their parents or other adults in the church. They may not yet be truly born again. 

Maybe you are thinking, so far so good; that it will take time for a person to mature in the faith and to find their feet spiritually. Maybe you're thinking that ‘Altar calls’ and the ‘Sinner’s prayer’ can be part of this process, reminding people and convicting them of their sin and the need to get right with God. Certainly this can be the case, which is why I hesitate to dismiss them completely. I know people that are clearly saved that trace their moment of new birth back to a decision made at a rally or church where these methods are frequently used. There is no doubt that an ‘Altar call’ can be used to prompt someone to make a decision that they have been hesitant to make, that it can cause them to take their commitment more seriously as they are making it public by walking to the front. The ‘Sinner’s prayer’ could be offered to someone as a guide for how they could pray to become a Christian. But why do that when we already have Jesus’ example in the Lord’s Prayer? Surely that is more significant. Why give someone words at all when God is examining the heart?

Now let’s look at the dangers. Statistics in the West show that 83% of Americans and 53% of Brits still describe themselves as Christians (despite only 10% of Brits attending church.) We can explain those statistics in terms of culture; I was born in England/America therefore I’m a Christian. But an incredible 27% of Americans actually identify as Evangelical. The numbers are lower in Britain but it’s still larger than you might think. But how many of these are actually following Christ? How many counted the cost and gave up everything to follow Him, having turned their back on their past life? How many are really trusting in Jesus’ death and resurrection for their salvation?

The Bible tells us that the way to hell is broad and many are on that road. But the way to heaven is narrow and there are few who will find it. It tells us that the Christian life is hard and that when we decide to follow Jesus we will face trials, persecution and struggle as we fight spiritual battles and encounter the results of the curse of original sin. How many are really experiencing this in their day to day lives? Are we telling people to expect this when we lead them to Jesus so that they are properly prepared for the Christian life? Maybe you think that’s too gloomy, but is it really fair to give a one-sided picture of what following Jesus is all about? We should obviously highlight the hope, joy and peace that are found in Jesus but what about the other things that the Bible says?

‘Easy Believism’ and ‘Decisionism’ are likely responsible for those earlier statistics. There are millions of people who believe they are Christians and are heading for heaven because they signed a card, put their hand up in a meeting, said the ‘Sinner’s prayer’ with someone, or answered an ‘Altar call.’ They were probably prayed for and sent on their way in most cases never to be heard from again and with no resultant change in their life or behaviour. Some people have done all of these things and yet are still not saved. What is going wrong?

The main problem I have witnessed is the lack of follow up by churches and those that are using these methods. They proudly announce that 17 people ‘accepted Christ’ in a meeting and then move on to preparing for the next meeting with little concern about those people that they have apparently just helped to the start of the Christian journey. There is no checking a person’s understanding and little discipleship. We don’t want to embarrass someone or make them uncomfortable by asking clarification questions so we settle for a superficial understanding. We even tell them what to say to God or sometimes say it for them by using the ‘Sinner’s prayer.’ Not all churches and ministries are like this and many have good follow up programmes but there are a lot that don’t. The emphasis has become so much on soul counting and in some tragic cases competing with other churches for numbers or an over-emphasis on church growth that the individual is lost in the confusion. They have become part of another statistic of people who have been given a false assurance that they are going to heaven. That is the greatest danger.

How do we know that this is happening? I have witnessed it particularly in Asia where in some places a foreigner is seen almost as royalty. Asian culture dictates that you must agree with everything that is said to you to avoid conflict due to the potential shame. No wonder there are overstated and inaccurate conversion rates. But ask some of these people even basic questions about the Christian faith; What do they believe about Jesus? What did Jesus do for them? Who is Jesus? And they don’t know! The person who has just walked away happily adding that ‘new covert’s’ soul to their piece of paper has done serious damage to this person by telling them they are now a Christian. They have no idea what it means to be a Christian or where they can go to find out. They have been led astray. Sadly, I saw this happen far too many times in Asia and mostly it was done by Pastors and church leaders who had obviously been taught this themselves. When I asked what they had been talking to the person about I would receive a casual ‘Oh they just accepted Christ.’ This was even in reference to multiple persons, as if this was an everyday event. There was no joy or excitement or interest in the person as an individual. It was a duty well performed and then they turned their attention back to their Smartphone. This is happening everywhere.

So what should we do? We all know it’s easy to criticise. But how can we make sure that we don’t give people false assurance and that those who profess Christianity are truly following Jesus? Of course we need to examine the Bible. We need to look at God’s methods and not our own. What happened when God had already prepared someone’s heart in the Bible? They cried out ‘What must I do to be saved?’ These people were ready; they knew that they were sinners before a Holy God and that they couldn’t rest until they found peace with Him. What was the answer to their question? It was simply “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved” (Acts 16 vs 31). And again in Romans 10 vs 9 the clear answer is, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

They were not told to recite a special prayer or sign a card or anything else. They were told to confess and believe. It was primarily a matter of the heart. If someone is ready, we can tell them that they need to get right with God by themselves through prayer. We can help them understand how to talk to God if they have never prayed before and we can explain what a Christian is and what we believe. But we really shouldn’t be putting words in their mouth or asking them to ‘repeat after me’ parrot fashion. We can also give them this free booklet ‘Ultimate Questions’ which explains the basics of Christianity, and of course we must regularly pray for them. 

http://ygod.info/ultimate-questions.pdf

We need to be involved in this person’s life ensuring that they understand the commitment they are making and that they have counted the cost. This is not about making salvation complicated. We know that the Bible teaches that children can understand. It is about being clear, both about our message and about the demands that being a Christian makes on a heart and life. Jesus Himself was clear whilst He was on earth that those who wished to follow Him must be willing to give up everything. Some who understood this rejected Him because they were unwilling. He didn’t soften His message, He let them go. They had heard the truth; the seed had been planted. God would give the increase in those He had chosen.

The Gospel is urgent and it is true that we do not know how long a person has left but God knows. Demanding or putting pressure on someone to make an instant decision without them really understanding that it will change their life will not help them persevere when trials come. They may even blame you if you didn’t explain the Gospel message properly. But most likely they will not do that. They will just quietly slip away never to be seen in church again. Another lost soul, what a waste.

Let’s be sincere and genuine telling people that the Christian life is difficult but that Jesus is the Way the Truth and the Life. They must find Him in order to be free from their sin and to live a new life with God. It is good news!