Contemporary approaches to
evangelism almost always begin with God’s love. People are told, “God loves
you and has a wonderful plan for your life,” or simply, “God loves you.”
In
most churches, it's taken for granted that this is the place to begin when sharing the gospel. In fact, if you challenge this approach, many Christians will
look at you as if you had a second head!
Well,
the more I have studied the Bible, theology, and church history, the more I
have become convinced that it's generally unwise to begin our evangelism with
God’s love. Please don’t misunderstand me. I certainly believe we must proclaim
God’s love, but I don’t think it’s the biblical starting point. Here are some
of the considerations that have led me to this conclusion.
1. There is not one example of anyone taking this approach in the New
Testament.
Neither Jesus nor his Apostles began evangelistic encounters with “God loves
you.” If this were the right approach, why can’t we find one example of it? Read
through the four Gospels and the Book of Acts and you’ll find a variety of
starting points. You won’t find one example that begins with “God loves you.”
Surely there is wisdom in this.
2. Sinners will not embrace God’s love unless they are first
convinced of their sin. Although saying, “God loves you,” may be used by the Holy Spirit to
convince a sinner of his guilt, it doesn’t ordinarily have that impact.
Instead, “through the law comes the knowledge of sin” (Rom. 3:20). How will
sinners be able to comprehend God’s love for them in Christ’s death unless they
are first made aware of their sin?
3. This approach gives sinners the false impression that God doesn’t
have a holy hatred for sinners. Most people are unaware that God has a holy
hatred for the wicked, which is astounding. Christians have been fed so much
cheap grace that they are shocked when you show them the very clear verses
speaking of God’s hatred. For example, see Psalm 5:5; 11:5 (Read those verses
carefully. Notice that they teach a hatred for the sinner, not just the sin.)
4. This approach fails to distinguish the different aspects of God’s love. We affirm God’s
love for mankind in general. According to Jesus, God shows this love in the rising
and setting of the sun and the sending of the rain upon the earth (Matt. 5:45).
We also affirm that God has a loving posture toward all mankind and invites all
to believe the gospel (John 3:16). But we also need to recognize that God has a
special, unique love for his elect, and, in most cases, when the Bible speaks
of God’s love, it speaks of his love for his Church. Believers are those who
are loved by God (Romans 1:7). We are the “beloved.” If you simply consult a
concordance, you’ll find that most references to God’s love are in the
epistles, which are addressing believers.
5. This approach is relatively new in church history. As far as I
can tell, this emphasis goes back to D.L. Moody. If you consider the
Protestants who preceded him, they simply didn’t preach this “God loves you and
has a wonderful plan for your life” gospel. Instead, they spent a great deal of
time talking about God’s holiness, his law, and man’s sin and guilt. The older
preachers certainly spoke about God’s love in Jesus, but they did so only after they had explained God’s holiness
and righteousness. If you look at the track record of the new approach, I don’t
think it can be disputed that it has produced many false conversions. If you
want a good study of the older approach, which is far more biblical in my
opinion, consult Iain Murray’s The OldEvangelicalism: Old Truths for a New Awakening.
No comments:
Post a Comment