We are living in an age where everyone is a skeptic. Our culture is steeped into postmodern thought and pragmatic philosophy; I believe that that is why everyone is a skeptic. It seems that the “arm-chair” theologians are coming out of the woodwork attacking everything that Christians hold dear to their hearts. These folks are everywhere and can confront us at anytime. It may be because they just watched the latest documentary on so-called “new biblical findings” or some “made-for-television’ movie, but they feel empowered with this new knowledge that seems to undercut the Scriptures. Often times the conversations with these folks go bad, and tend to keep subsequent conversations very volatile. “Don’t go there” is often said to stop any type of evangelical attempt by sincere loving Christians. Another stumbling block in evangelism is the Scriptural ignorance on the part of both the skeptic and the Christian. It is a weak defense, Christian, to say, “I read my Bible five minutes everyday.” I heard a minister on the radio the other day say that if he could put a tape recorder in the living-rooms of both the saved and unsaved for the hours from 6pm to midnight, there wouldn’t be a nickel’s worth of difference from the television shows heard on that tape. I’m afraid that he is right and the unsuspecting Christian doesn’t realize that he or she is being boiled into a stew prepared by the liberal media and seasoned with anti-God propaganda. We have to call it like we see it folks! Jesus is the Word, right? Christians winsomely sing, “I know God!” or, “I know Jesus!” Well, if you don’t know your Bible –then you don’t know God! Or, to put it a little more diplomatically, your knowledge of God is in correlation with your amount of Scriptural knowledge.
Apologetics is the branch of theology in the defense of Christianity. Its proponents use reason and logic to form their arguments. In my opinion, Ravi Zacharias is the most anointed apologist living today. While attending one of his seminars a few years back, I asked him how far apologetics could take the unsaved? Can someone be converted by reason and logic alone when we know the Scriptures say, “we are saved by grace –through faith…?” I asked him this during the lunch break and just before the afternoon session was about to begin. Being a minister myself, I knew that the time just before he ministered he would want to be talking to God, not to some inquisitive fellow that should have known better. I apologized profusely and he was very gracious to lead me to some authors that had helped him. But what he told me was exactly what I felt in my heart all along. All of the tools that Christians use to try to win the lost can only take us so far. Sometimes apologetics isn’t the tool; sometimes it is a song, a sermon or maybe a cake to the new family in the neighborhood. Ultimately it is God who causes the increase. It is the work of the Spirit that brings them to the Cross and changes their lives. Peter tells us to be ready to give an answer to those who would question our hope and Paul tells us to be instant in season and out of season. One man sows and another waters but it is God who brings the growth. Here is a little secret on evangelism: True conversion brings the sinner to the Savior. At the Cross of Christ, the penitent lays down his pride, his self-justification and all his excuses. For years, especially here in America, the Church has tried to answer life’s toughest questions for the unbeliever while attempting to let them hold on to their self-esteem and narcissistic behavior. The answer for today’s society is the same answer that was the Answer for yesteryear’s –the Cross of Jesus Christ. The old hymn still sings true; “At the Cross, At the Cross, where I first saw the light. And the burdens of my heart rolled away…” Because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Cross of Christ is God’s greatest victory and the Answer for all!

I remember it well; it was an early March morning back in 1974. You could smell the warm snow that patched the landscape of this late winter day. Spring was knocking at the door but Old Man winter was still making his presence known. It was one of those days that said, “Brave the cold and chill and go outside and get some fresh air.” So, my buddy and I jumped in the car and traveled north to Cuyahoga Falls just north of Akron, Ohio. We started hiking north of the falls right into the heart of the gorge. Some of the cliffs rise close to 200 to 250 feet in the air from the bottom of the gorge. The trail offers many a spectacular view and that particular morning would prove to be a blessing beyond the norm. We had walked for about a half hour and decided to sit for a moment on some dry rocks that gave us a clear view of the cliffs on the other side of the river. The cliffs in this particular view were well over 200 feet high and attached to the top of them were large formations of ice that looked as if they were 50 to 60 feet in length and at least 20 feet in width. Picture all the ice cycles along your house rainspout and enlarge them by 100 fold. As we sat there quietly hoping to see some wildlife, we began to hear a cracking, then, all of a sudden our eyes caught a large portion of these ice formations break free from the ground above it and plummet to the bottom of the gorge. The whole scene lasted about three seconds and all was over except for large chunks of ice floating down the swift waters. Within five minutes everything was quiet, as though it never happened. We were so blessed because we both felt very privileged to have witnessed such a spectacular sight. I wasn’t a Christian, so I couldn’t appreciate the wonder to its fullest. But it didn’t stop us from trying to share with others what we saw. All of the words that we could muster never really captured that first awe and wonder that we felt in the depths of our hearts; we always fell a little short of describing it in all its beauty. Nevertheless, thirty-five years later a small fragment of the wonder still blesses me through the memory of that incident.
I could never understand how Christians could keep from testifying of the wonder of Jesus Christ. God freely forgave us of all of our sins through the blood of Jesus and actually removed the death sentence that hung over our heads. We have passed over from death to life and the promise to live eternally blessed has been given to us free of charge. This is all too wonderful to keep to ourselves. I guess Jesus was right when He said, “Those who have been forgiven much love much.” Those who realize the price that God paid to forgive them as very great (the death of His Son) find that His love is really something wonderful and they think that everyone should know about it. I can tell you how God loves me, in what way He loves me but I still cannot comprehend why He loves me –it is too wonderful. This greatest thing that has ever happened to a Christian was the day that Jesus met them at the Cross. And for a moment in time they experienced the most wonderful thing. And God promises that if they would live it He would make sure that it would never become just a memory. Live the Wonder!

Twenty-five years ago Robert Schuller was the most influential preacher on television. He was on two hundred stations and being watched by nearly three million viewers. Christianity Today writes that Schuller’s gospel of success and self-esteem are becoming so important in the Church that it seems to be overshadowing everything else. In an article dated October 5, 1984 Schuller says,

“I don’t think anything has been done in the name of Christ and under the banner of Christianity that has proven more destructive to human personality and hence, counterproductive to the evangelism enterprise than the often crude, uncouth and unchristian strategy of attempting to make people aware of their lost and sinful condition.”

Oddly enough, Robin and I became born-again Christians only four months after Mr. Schuller made this bone-headed statement. But we didn’t decide to become Christians so that we could “feel” better about ourselves; we became Christians because we were lost in our sinful condition. And after twenty-four years of living for Jesus Christ, my honest assessment of myself would be: I am the chief of sinners and if God’s grace and mercy were not given to me everyday –I would be lost to my own demise. I am persuaded to agree with Paul when he said, “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.” As we grew in the Christian faith, Robin and I never really got caught up with the latest trend in the Church or listened to the most recent popular author. Our studies took us back before all this nonsense of the self-esteem gospel “Trojan-horsed” itself into the Church. Again, this is only because of the mercy of God and we thank Him continually for His grace and love.
My question is this, however; what has twenty-five years of this kind of self-esteem theology promoted? What is the outcome or the fruit of this kind of evangelism? What sort of things are we seeing now because the Church’s leaders have taught her that she is somebody and that she deserves God’s best, because after all, she should think of herself as good and special and worthy. Six years ago I wrote a paper to a local minister trying to explain to him that the Church received God’s love because of His mercy and grace to her. He thought that the Church received God’s love because she deserved it. Twenty-five years of this garbage as produced a Church of carnal Christians who are more concerned about how they are treated in this life than where they are going in the next. They are more concerned about the money they make and their toys that they play with than the thousands of thousands of lost souls that Jesus died for. They want to feel good in their Church and never be confronted about their “mistakes”. They have no desire to separate themselves from the world and they are more concerned about their happiness than their holiness. They lay claim to Heaven but their hearts are full of strife. They are like the Laodicean Church that Jesus said to them, “You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.”
Beloved, ask yourself honestly, which gospel did you receive? Which gospel do you live? For a time is coming when men will not put up with the sound doctrine of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around themselves a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. But let us not be of them who shrink back, but let us press on in, by and through the blessed Gospel of Jesus Christ.


Have a great week! Pastor Jim