The Gospel of Our Time is "Too Helpful"   JI Packer

There is no doubt that Evangelicalism today is in a state of perplexity and unsettlement. In such matters as the practice of evangelism, the teaching of holiness, the building up of local church life, the pastor's dealing with souls and the exercise of discipline, there is evidence of widespread dissatisfaction with things as they are and of equally widespread uncertainty as to the road ahead. This is a complex phenomenon, to which many factors have contributed; but, if we go to the root of the matter, we shall find that these perplexities are all ultimately due to our having lost our grip on the biblical gospel. Without realizing it, we have during the past century bartered that gospel for a substitute product which, though it looks similar enough in points of detail, is as a whole a decidedly different thing. ... [Read More!]

Evangelism, Then and Now   Joel Beeke

Puritans and modern evangelists both use persuasive argument in evangelism, but the content of those arguments differs. Modern evangelists do not believe that the necessity of holiness is a suitable subject for the unconverted, so they do not present the gospel as a divine remedy for corrupt and impotent sinners. Puritans, by contrast, believed that the best news in the world for sinners who are truly convicted of sin is that deliverance from the power of sin is possible through faith in Christ. Such sinners need more than forgiveness or pardon; they want sin to be put to death in themselves forever. They want to live for the glory of God. They want to be holy as God is holy. They want to be conformed to the character of the Father, the image of the Son, and the mind of the Spirit. ... [Read More!]

Should We Question Professions of Faith?   Mark Dever

Sometimes I get the feeling that people think there's something wrong with questioning the reality of a profession of faith. It's legalistic, or judging, or holier than thou. Or something. But if evangelists want to see lost sinners saved, and if evangelists know that we sinners can deceive ourselves, then it's not surprising that we want to try to make sure (with all appropriate qualifications about our limitedness) that conversions professed are conversions possessed. Or is it just sour-faced theologians who think about such things? Are preachers who think about such things unevangelistic? ... [Read More!]

Does 'All Things to All Men' Mean Anything Goes?    Link

1 Corinthians 9:22 (at least part of it) is often used to justify all kinds of activities done in the name of evangelism. But when Paul expresses his evangelistic passion to us in showing us just how far he is willing to go ("I have become all things to all men that by all means I might save some"), he is not arguing for an "anything goes" approach to evangelism. Specifically, he is not suggesting that it is OK to become a prostitute in order to win prostitutes or a murderer in order to win murderers. Granted, these are absurd examples, but they illustrate the point that this statement cannot be taken as a license to warrant anything and everything done in the name of evangelism. Founders Blog... [Read Link]

5 Puritan Evangelism Lessons For Todays Churches   Joel Beeke

The Word of God is preached too often today in a way that will not transform listeners because it fails to discriminate and fails to apply. Such preaching is reduced to a lecture, a demonstration, a catering to what people want to hear, or the kind of subjectivism that is divorced from the foundation of scripture . . . Reformed and Puritan preachers applied their sermons to every part of life, all of Scripture to the entire man. They were unashamedly doctrinal. We can learn much from them on how to evangelize, such as: ... [Read More!]

Superficial and Lop-Sided Evangelism   AW Pink

Many of the pulpiteers of the past fifty years acted as though the first and last object of their calling was the salvation of souls, everything being made to bend to that aim. In consequence, the feeding of the sheep, the maintaining of a Scriptural discipline in the church, and the inculcation of practical piety, was crowded out; and only too often all sorts of worldly devices and fleshly methods were employed under the plea that the end justified the means; and thus the churches were filled with unregenerate members. In reality, such men defeated their own aim. ... [Read More!]

Would God Be 'Fair' if He Offered To Save No One?

The discussion that ensued in the comments of my post earlier this week demonstrated the widespread confusion in the modern Church over the state of mankind and the role of the Gospel. Many Christians today are not afraid to say "it wouldn't be fair if God didn't give EVERYONE a chance to be saved". They include people in countries where they know the Gospel is non-existent. Incredibly, to defend this idea of fairness, they end up implying that there are ways to get around the need for the Gospel to be preached, as well as the need for missionaries to be sent. All of this in the name of 'fairness'. So let me ask a key question here, would God be fair if He offered salvation to nobody at all? ... [Read More!]

False-Conversions Worse Than Less Conversions   James White

The thing that people should biblically fear more than a lack of conversions is the existence of false-conversions, because there is nothing more difficult to deal with than a religious hypocrite. ... [Read More!]

Should Church Services Ever Be Evangelistic?

The tendency in our generation is to redefine church as a place where unbelievers are drawn in, appealed to, and then converted with weekly sermonettes, skits, and songs.
We've come a long way from the biblical definition of what is supposed to go on in church gatherings. But the question needs to be asked, is there any role for evangelism in church services? If there is a place for it in church, then what's wrong with what Seeker Sensitive churches are doing? ... [Read More!]

Present Day Evangelism (by AW Pink)    Link

Most of the so-called evangelism of our day is a grief
to genuine Christians, for they feel that it lacks any scriptural warrant, that it is dishonoring unto God, and that it is filling the churches with empty professors.
They are shocked that so much frothy superficiality, fleshly excitement and worldly allurement should be associated with the holy name of the Lord Jesus Christ. They deplore the cheapening of the Gospel, the beguiling of unwary souls, and the carnalizing and commercializing of what is to them ineffably sacred. It requires little spiritual discernment to perceive that the evangelistic activities of Christendom during the last century have steadily deteriorated from bad to worse, yet few appear to realize the root from which this evil has sprung. Its aim was wrong, and therefore its fruit faulty. ... [Read Link]

Mailbag: "The Way of the Master" Evangelism?

Jim: My church is really pushing "The Way of the Master". I'm having a little trouble with the "confrontational method" utilized by Comfort and Cameron. I've never met anyone that will stay in a conversation like some of the people shown in the videos. Most of the people I've approached using similar methods tell me to get lost within a minute or two. I have a hard time believing that people are converted on the street with the ease it seems to portray. Do you have any comments or opinions? Am I underestimating God and the power of the Gospel? --Keith ... [Read More!]

Counting Convert 'Kills'    Link

In some Christian circles soul winning ends up becoming 'belt-notching'. This misguided thinking brings to mind comparisons of the 'kill' talley painted on the cockpits of fighter aircraft. Here's the account of a former soul winning ace, who one day started to question the shallowness of manipulating people into praying that simple prayer; the one that is said to trigger salvation. In one of the accounts that he gives, a drunk man is coached into praying the sinner's prayer. Incredibly, it was later said of the drunk man: ____ "I wonder if he'll even remember getting saved? Boy will he be surprised when he gets to heaven!". ____ ... [Read Link]

When Churches Sacrifice Morality For Evangelism

Imagine this scenario: The year is 2050, the place is Germany, and due to changing cultural conditions, Adolf Hitler is once again viewed as a hero. Succumbing to the pressure of the people, the German government has abolished a century-old law forbidding the distribution of his book Mein Kampf. It's bad news for that country, but the one bright spot seems to be that the German church is sincerely motivated to reach the lost. Having learned valuable evangelistic lessons from the American megachurches decades earlier, they endeavor to exploit this new "Hitler mania" and use it to enhance evangelism. It's an aggressive soul winning strategy; what can be learned from it? ... [Read More!]

"I Really Want To Believe, But I'm Afraid I Can't"

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you might
remember the pastor and feisty commenter known as 'PDL'.
He was incensed at evangelists who believe in election and predestination, perceiving that they were not telling unbelievers the whole story. His suggested evangelism outline for such evangelists goes something like this: "Believe in Jesus. But do you know what? That's not going to do any good, because first you have to be elected by God, and if you aren't, then too bad for you". But some of the greatest evangelists in history were believers and defenders of the doctrine of election, and you might be surprised at how that impacted their evangelism. ... [Read More!]