Present Day Evangelism # 2

Present Day Evangelism # 2

But serious indeed as is the indictment, it is only half of it - the negative side, that which is lacking. Worse still is that which is being retailed by the cheap-jack evangelists of the day. The positive content of their message is nothing but a throwing of dust in the eyes of the sinner. His soul is put to sleep by the devil's opiate, ministered in a most unsuspecting form. Those who really receive the "message" which is now being given out from most of the "orthodox" pulpits and platforms today, are being fatally deceived. It is away which seems right unto a man - but unless God sovereignly intervenes by a miracle of grace, all who follow it will surely find that the ends thereof are the ways of death. Tens of thousands who confidently imagine that they are bound for heaven - will get a terrible disillusionment, when they awake in hell!

What is the Gospel? Is the Gospel a message of glad tidings from heaven to make God-defying rebels at ease in their wickedness? Is it given for the purpose of assuring the pleasure-crazy young people that, providing they only "believe," there is nothing for them to fear in the future? One would certainly think so from the way in which the Gospel is presented - or rather perverted, by most of the "evangelists"! And the more so when we look at the lives of their "converts"! Surely those with any degree of spiritual discernment, must perceive that to assure such "converts" that God loves them and His Son died for them, and that a full pardon for all their sins (past, present and future) can be obtained by simply "accepting Christ as their personal Saviour" - is but a casting of pearls before swine!

The Gospel is not a thing apart. It is not something independent of the prior revelation of God's Law. It is not an announcement that God has relaxed His justice or lowered His standard of holiness. So far from that, when Scripturally expounded, the Gospel presents the clearest demonstration and the climacteric proof of the inexorableness of God's justice, and of His infinite abhorrence of sin! But for Scripturally expounding the Gospel, beardless youths and business men who devote their spare time to "evangelistic effort" are quite unqualified. Alas, that the pride of the flesh allows so many incompetent ones to rush in where those much wiser fear to tread! It is this multiplying of novices that is largely responsible for the woeful situation now confronting us, and because the "churches" and "assemblies" are so largely filled with their "converts" explains why they are so unspiritual and worldly.

No, my reader, the Gospel is very, very far from making light of sin. The Gospel shows us how unsparingly God deals with sin. it reveals to us the terrible sword of His justice smiting His beloved Son in order that atonement might be made for the transgressions of His people. So far from the Gospel setting aside the law, it exhibits the Saviour enduring the curse of it. Calvary supplied the most solemn and awe-inspiring display of God's hatred of sin that time or eternity will ever furnish! And do you imagine that the Gospel is magnified or God glorified - by going to worldlings and telling them that that "may be saved at this moment by simply accepting Christ as their personal Saviour" while they are wedded to their idols and their hearts are still in love with sin? If I do so, I tell them a lie, pervert the Gospel, insult Christ, and turn the grace of God into a license for sin.

No doubt some readers are ready to object to our "harsh" and "sarcastic" statements above by asking: "When the question was put, "What must I do to be saved?" (Acts 16:31), did not an inspired apostle expressly say, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ - and you shall be saved?" Can we err, then, if we tell  sinners the same thing today? Have we not divine warrant for so doing? True, those words are found in Holy Writ, and because they are, many superficial and untrained people conclude that they are justified in repeating them to all. But let it be pointed out, that Acts 16:31 was not addressed to a promiscuous multitude - but to a particular individual, which at once intimates that it is not a message to be indiscriminately sounded forth - but rather, a special word to those whose characters correspond to the one to whom it was first spoken.

Verses of Scripture must NOT be wrenched from their setting - but weighed, interpreted, and applied in accord with their context; and that calls for prayerful consideration, careful meditation, and prolonged study; and it is failure at this point which accounts for these shoddy and worthless "messages" of this rush-ahead age. Look at the context of Acts 16:31, and what do we find? What was the occasion, and to whom was it that the apostle and his companion said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ"? A sevenfold answer is there furnished, which supplies a striking and complete delineation of the character of those to whom we are warranted in giving this truly evangelistic word. As we briefly name these seven details, let the reader carefully ponder them.   

~A. W. Pink~

(continued with # 3)