Modern Evangelism seems to have lost its traditional
appeal. There was a time, when the pure
revelation of the word of God and story of the Gospel was enough to warrant the
attention of thousands. But not
today. Could it be that the example
Christians have set is so poor that non-believers are uninterested in our
‘differences’. Today religious
fundamentalists like the folks in Texas with the multiple wives get National
Press attention. Why? Because they are SO different from the norms
of society it is worth noting the conflicts they have with our laws and
traditions.
Put simply, mainstream Christianity is not so radical
anymore. Peter and Paul preached against
the social norms of the day. They upset
the governmental powers that be, and died still preaching and living their
example of the word. A church where true
unconditional love was the common uniting principle, alive and active in the
life of every believer would make National news. That is how rare it has become. How sad.
A church where messages of love for our enemies including the ones that
mean to kill us all would be considered radical. And you never hear about one like that. There is not one Christian Preacher of
prominence who is ridiculed for offering Love to Osama, Saddam, or Castro – let
alone a group of Christian preachers who share this radical belief of returning
love for hate.
We have become so like the world around us, it is impossible
to distinguish who follows God from who does not. Morality is the goal of the day. Divorced from the concept of an authoring
God, and applied only in relation to others, this subjective standard has all
but replaced any outside view of ourselves.
We all look alike to each other. One
Christian denomination looks just like another.
Oh there may be a few quirks in our doctrinal interpretations, but the
core of our characters do not reflect the love of our Master. They reflect focus on ourselves. They reflect only ambivalence to others.
Given this state of affairs, why would crowds gather to hear
yet another Christian preacher talk about love?
Love has lost its meaning. So how
can Evangelism survive? We must find
another motivating idea to replace the lost love we had for God. How about fear? Fear becomes the new rally call of the
typical Evangelist. If we cannot lure
you with our love for you, perhaps we can scare you back into the pews to
listen. After all, there is impending
doom of Judgment lurking out there, followed by an appointment at the
Fire-Sale. Most believers accept these
concepts readily (both based in salvation through our own merits, good or
bad). So when you strike the fear chord
in the heart of the backslider, he wakes up and pays attention. Remember Hell you backsliding heathen. Well,
if you don’t want to be there, you better get out to the meetings.
We do not outright focus on fear of course. We couch it under the banner “last day
prophesies.” Or anything to do with
prophetic events, interpretations, current world news, and impending doom. All of these are themes that modern Evangelism
has made its bread and butter. Again,
without a core of love to attract you, perhaps fear will wake you up. Then our logic gets replaced with
rationalization that some people learn differently from others. That it does not matter what the motive is
that gets you to come to God; only that you arrive in front of God. If fear does it for you, that’s OK. I mean, love can’t do it for everybody,
right?
But what happens when the message of impending doom based on
current world news, does not really evolve over a 40-50 year period of
time? Even fear mongering becomes
dull. Fear loses its edge when the
impending doom of judgment is delayed 5 decades. Then comes the reasoning that people have
been preaching the end of the world since Christ went home to Heaven, and we’re
still here. All the Y2K folks who spoke
of planes dropping out the of sky, and banks crashing, were wrong. The folks back in 1844 were wrong. Pretty much every doom-sayer has been wrong
so far. Looks like even preaching fear
can get tired. So now what?
The problem with all this line of thinking is the complete
loss of the fundamentals of the gospel itself.
The story of the salvation of man is NOT one of fear, but of love. God is not the enemy, He is the good
guy. He did not sit back in His throne
in Heaven and tell us to get our acts together or burn. He told us to wait right there and He would
send His only Son to us to die in our place.
He told us ALL we had to do was believe, and we would be saved from the
bondage of sin. He did everything for
us, and required nothing of us – this is the definition of love. This is the story no other religion or God
offers. But because we do not allow it
to take over our lives, we reflect only a fraction of the love God would send
through us. And our Evangelism becomes
pale.
You cannot scare someone into the Kingdom of God. Heaven is not a fire escape. God is not a Santa Clause, or a benevolent
dictator. It is impossible to know love
for someone you live in fear of. In
pandering to fear, we do the work of God a disservice. Think of the logic of it. First we tell you … you better pay attention
and do ‘x’, ‘y’, and believe ‘z’ OR ELSE.
Then later we tell you … ignore all that; it is really about God’s love
for you that He did all the work to save you.
Which is the lie? They do seem to
be mutually exclusive. It is because we
do not approach the interpretation of prophesy from a focus of love. We approach it with intentions to scare, to
startle, to wake up. It is wrong.
The end-of-the-world comes for ALL of us at different times,
basically when we die. If you think
about it in those terms, poor Tim Russert faced the end of his world
today. I am saddened at the loss of
Tim. I greatly enjoyed his work and will
remember watching him on Meet the Press with fondness. His replacement will have big shoes to
fill. But Tim is no more. He was not ‘planning’ to die. It was a sudden and massive heart
attack. He did not know it was
coming. He thought just like I think,
that we would have many more years to share, to love, to live, and to
enjoy. Sadly he has no more seconds, let
alone years. His judgment is now
sealed. No more second chances to repent
of some cherished sin, no more time to get back to God. Just gone.
The end-of-the-world is like that.
It is just going to be a on a broader scale.
So how should I meet this unexpected end? By valuing each moment I have left
today. By treating every minute as if it
were truly my last. By learning that
service to God is of infinite value, and the singular way to find
happiness. By removing evil from my life
as fast as possible, allowing God full control to rid me of my cancer, not go
looking for new ways to contract the disease.
You begin to see a pattern here.
It is not fear of death or the end of the world that adds any real
meaning to my life today. It only causes
me to keep in perspective what is truly important. It is not time away from God that I value, it
is time spent with Him. It is not the
bondage of sin I wish to continue, but the freedom from it. I do not live in fear, but in love. This is where we have turned the
interpretation of prophesy on its head.
We have approached the entire matter upside down.
End times are not warnings to cause us to fear God. They are proclamations and measurements about
how close to God we are getting – in short, how near to HOME we finally
are. The end-of-the-world is not fear
inspiring, nor should be the prospect even of our imminent demise. It is only a yard stick to measure the value
of love we exude every moment of every day.
Evangelism needs no fear. It
needs to help us refocus on the ONLY thing that was ever important – how much
we love. We must learn to take back
Evangelism to its core, and return to messages of real meaning and not be
satisfied with less. We must forsake
fear for love …
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