It Needs To Be Said

Justin Peters took the words right out of my mouth:

Some fifty or so years ago a trend began to emerge among many evangelical pulpits. Preachers slowly but surely began to abandon the preaching of God’s holiness and wrath as the primary means to lead sinners to repentance and faith in Christ. The preaching of wrath and coming judgment fell out of favor because it was seen as too harsh and unfriendly. Preachers became increasingly reticent to offend the sensibilities of their congregants. They wanted their churches and denominations to grow and prosper and telling people that they were sinners who had offended an angry God and in peril of eternal punishment was not seen as conducive to those goals. So, many pulpits began to offer a kinder, gentler gospel: Come to Jesus because He will give you a better life; He will fill the “God-shaped” hole in your heart; Know Jesus, know peace – no Jesus, no peace; God will give you prosperity and healing; God will give you a purpose driven life; God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Of course, this was done to varying degrees by varying churches and denominations. Some softened more than others to be sure. However, over the years and decades, the trend continued. Like the proverbial frog in the pot of water slowly heating up to the boiling point, most people did not notice and few raised objections. Generations have now been raised under soft preaching. Generations of parents in Christian homes have outsourced their responsibility to teach their children the Bible to Sunday School teachers and youth ministers. Now, however, the water is boiling. Most professing Christians today are stunningly ignorant of basic Christian doctrine and are biblically illiterate. Most do not know what they really believe and have even less idea of why they believe it. Most are incapable of giving a reason for the hope that, they say, is within them (1 Peter 3:15). Some faithful preachers and laymen have been sounding the alarm but the point of no return may well have already been reached. The softening of the Gospel has led inexorably to theological and doctrinal compromise. The seeds which have been sown in the last half-century are now reaping a harvest of biblically ignorant, theologically confused, uncommitted and unconcerned masses with a post-modern worldview...

The problem of false conversion is the theological elephant sitting in the living room of evangelical Christianity. Many are aware of the problem but few have the courage to address it in a meaningful way. It is an immense problem that is getting worse. Weak preaching produces false converts who seek out more doctrinally weak churches (if they seek out churches at all) which must continue to soften the Gospel to attract more false converts. It is a vicious cycle which shows no signs of being broken. That is the bad news. The good news, though, is that some are sounding the alarm. Some do care. There is and always will be a remnant of faithful preachers who rightly divide the Word of Truth (2 Tim. 2:15) for God’s faithful remnant who desire it and will not settle for anything less. The power to right the ship is available – it always has been. The power of God is the Gospel. As bleak as the plight of today’s church may seem, there are rays of hope. There seems to be underfoot a move of God to awaken His people from their spiritual slumber. There seems to be a growing number of young people who are being awakened to the dangers of false conversion and who take doctrine seriously.*

Soli Deo Gloria!


*Vincent and Lori Williams (2012-02-01). Falsified: The Danger of False Conversion (Kindle Locations 138-148). WestBowPress. Kindle Edition.