Is your heart burdened for the many professing Christians who have never experienced the second birth? Do you have compassion for people who honor Jesus with their lips, but their hearts are far from him? These false converts are tragic victims of a subtle, yet potentially fatal deception. Unless they are confronted with the truth, they may never know they have been deceived. One day they may hear the most terrifying words anyone could ever hear when Jesus says: "I never knew you; depart from Me" (Mat. 7:23). These precious souls have either been led astray by a compromised gospel or manipulated to make a decision with unbiblical methods of evangelism.
By Mike Gendron of proclaiming the gospel
The blame must fall on church leaders who have discovered they can gain a larger following by making the Gospel more appealing and more inclusive. By broadening the narrow road, they have found they can build bigger churches by exchanging God's Gospel for an "easy to believe" gospel. This watered-down version of the Gospel is hardly worth living for and certainly not worth dying for. Yet, it is gaining popularity within evangelical circles and must be exposed and confronted with the truth of God's Word.
These compromises are helping Satan plant his tares among the wheat (Mat. 13:39-40). The devil loves to see false converts deceiving and being deceived in the name of Christ. He continues to raise up false teachers to teach false gospels, about false christs, for the purpose of producing false Christians, with a false hope. The apostle Paul warned us that the same serpent who deceived Eve by his craftiness also sends his workmen to preach another Jesus and a different gospel (2 Cor. 11:3-4). Satan hates the Gospel of grace and has been using men filled with religious pride to pervert the message ever since it was first announced. That is why Paul informed us that the Gospel he preached was not according to man's traditions or philosophy. He received it directly from God through a pure revelation of Jesus Christ (Gal. 1:11-12).
Rather than calling sinners to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, church leaders are asking unbelievers to repeat a prayer, sign a card, raise their hand, come forward, or "accept" (rather than trust) Jesus as their Savior. None of these modern traditions have any biblical foundation. Not only do they dishonor the Savior, but they often mislead souls into a false hope of salvation. We must warn those who are misleading people that they must not go beyond what is written (1 Cor. 4:6). No one has the right to lower God's entrance requirements into His Kingdom. Unless we evangelize God's way, we run the serious risk of deceiving people about their eternal destiny.
Biblical evangelism requires making disciples, not decisions. This involves teaching people to observe all that Christ commanded (Mat. 28:18-20). His first command was to "repent and believe the Gospel" (Mark 1:15). Repentance is a change in mind that is granted by God and leads to a knowledge of the truth (2 Tim. 2:25). It results in turning from idols to God, from dead works to faith, from sin to righteousness and from the traditions of men to Christ and His Word (Acts 26:20; Col. 2:8; 1 Thes. 1:9; Heb. 6:1, 9:14). The importance of calling sinners to repentance is also confirmed in the last command Jesus gave: "Repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations" (Luke 24:47). Remember, Jesus did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance (Luke 5:32). Those who respond to the Gospel with repentance and faith will escape from the kingdom of darkness and follow the Light of the world (John 8:12). They will turn from the broad road and enter the narrow way that leads to life everlasting (Mat. 7:13-14).
Have you noticed that modern evangelism puts too much emphasis on God's love and too little on His holiness and righteous justice?This is a stark contrast to first century evangelism where, in the Book of Acts, the word "love" is never even mentioned. Clearly, without a true and balanced knowledge of all God's attributes, sinners will not know the God they have offended or the God who controls their destiny.
It is the duty and responsibility of every disciple of Christ to fight the good fight of faith. We must keep the imperishable seed of God's Word from being corrupted and contaminated by foolish men who are chasing after their own agendas. We must contend for the purity and exclusivity of the Gospel for the glory of Christ and the sanctity of His Church. We now have a book that will equip you and encourage you to fight the good fight of faith!
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