A MODEST PROPOSAL FOR THE CHURCH IN 2016

A MODEST PROPOSAL FOR RELIEVING THE BURDEN OF GUILT OF THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN DISOBEDIENT TO CHRIST’S COMMAND TO GO INTO ALL THE WORLD AND PREACH THE GOSPEL.

It is a melancholy object to those who walk through this great town or travel throughout theworld parish country, when they see in the streets, the roads, the bars, the movie complexes, stadiums and parks, all the lost for whom there is no hope, nor glimmer of smile from the weary and heavy-laden.

I think that it is agreed by all parties that Western Christianity has forsaken its sacred obligation, nay privilege, of spreading good news to all those who are perishing, those following gods of their own making, accountable to no one except their creditors and even then, slacking.

Years have passed and false Gospel presentations have been erected allowing all sinners to just ask Jesus into their hearts without fear of God or repentance of sin; the fruit of these endeavors being a false hope and negligible security for entrance into Heaven, but a most certain assurance of damnation to the lake of fire.

This being the case I shall now, therefore, humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hope will not be liable to the least objection.

Evangelism Gone Wrong, Part 1: Mistakes Were Made

Those unbelievers out there can be so darn difficult.

They don’t understand the Gospel message—or don’t care; they’ll try to get the evangelist off his game by ridicule, loud shouts of disapproval or verbal abuse; they’ll mock you and the God who made them, sometimes even blaspheming his name. And it’s possible they may even try to get you to stop preaching that message of eternal life by using force.

What’s a Christian to do? We’re called to be gracious, gentle, respectful, loving, kind, helpful and prayerful, especially to our enemies. But what happens when things go wrong—desperately wrong—and the witness for Christ is totally blown? And what about those other guys; you know, those who call themselves brothers but don’t represent Christ at all in action and attitude when witnessing about him? What should you do? What about Gospel tracts that don’t tell the full story of the Gospel, are imbalanced, giving a skewed picture of the Savior?

This is the first part of a series that will offer some perspective when evangelism goes wrong. I’ll be sharing a few missteps on my part in a moment, but first let’s read about what happened to Ray Comfort long ago:

He tells the story about a woman who was heckling him so badly, using filthy language and caustic comments, that he blew it. She asked him a question that went something like this: “I’m a lady, but I don’t agree at all with you about what you are saying about women.”

Ray flippantly responded with, “You may be a woman, Ma’am, but you certainly are no lady…”

He then explained how the “lady” proceeded to beat him up.