true2yeshua
November 25th, 2007, 08:13 AM
'THE LOVE OF GOD' -
The Ugly Abuse of a Beautiful Attribute
By Tommy Clayton
GOD loves you ... and offers a wonderful plan for your life.
How many GraceTrax readers have encounterd this, or a similar, evangelistic slogan? written by Bill Bright in the mid-60's and adopted by virtually every church or para-church ministry searching for an "effective" method of sharing the gospel, ithas been unofficially enshirned as the faith-sharing methomantra of modern evanglicals.
Other "slogans" came and went - from the notorious bumper sticker "Smile, God loves you" to innumerable tracts and websites, all seeking to outdo the other with an appealing message for hopeless sinners. An active website boasts the title, "To God you are special". I do not question the motives of such persons, nor do I condemn them for their zealous efforts to reach and win sinners with a message of God's amazing love. The only problem is that this message is not reaching sinners, not winning souls and really not that amazing.
It is always both intriguing and instructional to go back into biblical history and obseve the messages God has chosen to bless in awakening sinners to their despaerate and hopeles condition. Evangelicals have a nasty tendency today to abuse the word revival We treat it as something that through human means can be planned, predicted and produced - while neglecting the sovereign, spontaneous regenerative work of the Holy Spirit.
Beginning with Nineveh, we could quickly note three instances of the Holy Spirit's regenerating work in history, through which God chose to display HIs mercy in bringing new life to a multitude of sinners. Scripture speaks of the "great city" of Nineveh, a pagan Gentile stronghold notorious for its hatred of Israel, wicked iolatrous practices and crjuel war tactics.
The book of Jonah narates and Christ in the NT recounts Nineveh's city-wide repenting at the preaching of Jonah. Jonah was a prophet with a specific message "from God".
The Holy Spirit was pleased to use this message to convert an entire city, perhaps up to one million people. What was the content of Jonah's sermon? The Bible tells of eight words ... "Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown" (Jonah 3:4).
There is no carnal appeal to the sinner's felt needs - no evangelistic trickery. There is no psychological manipulation or shallow doctrinal content. Note that God's love is not mentioned one time in Jonah's proclamation. Yet hundreds of thousands of pagan Gentiles, who, up to this point, had been alienated from the covenant God of Israel were brought into the kingdom. Can you imagine the look on a fierce Ninevite warrior's face had Jonah waltzed into the city saying, "God loves you and offers a wonderful plan for your life." No, the message was a warning of impending judgment, and God blessed it. There was nothing particularly clever or flattering about the proclamation of the messenger, a rebellious prophet.
A second example comes from the NT. On the day of Pentecost, threethousand souls were converted and added to the church. What message did the Holy Spirit empower to convert these sinners? Was it a presentation of God's unconditional love and tolerance of humanity, even in their rebellion and u8nbelief? Did the mighty Apostle Peter plead with the multitudes of wicked Jews with the blood of Christ still flesh on their hands to smile because God loved them?
Perhaps the closing words (Acts 2:36, 38-40) will suffice to convey the temper of the entire message: "Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified." ... And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit ... And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, "Save yourselves from this crooked generation."
A third example comes from the mid-1700s, when the renowned Great Awakening was taking place in the New England colonies, Jonathan Edwards, a theological stalwart, along with other fiery evangelists such as George Whitefield and John Wesley, were used by God to spark the fires of the Great Awakening. This movement of God, lasting only a few years, spanned not only the New England colonies, but countries as well, ushering in the conversion of thousands of souls. It would not be a far cry from the truth to place these men among the most passionate post-apostolic preachers ever gracing our naiton.
What beliefs united these men together in their campaigns? What characterized their message? Was the underlying them othe fact that the colonists were all "special" to God? Did Edwards and the other men appeal to their audiences with flattering thoughts of the love of God? The answer is a resounding "absolutely not!"
One of the messages considered by many who lived during that period to be the inauguration of the Awakening of was the famous Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. It was from this message that Edwards launched one of history's most graphic images of the wrath of God. Reflecting on the ministry and life of Edwards, John Piper writes, "Edwards believed that it was impossible to exaggerate the horror of the reality of Hell." There were other messages that spoke of God's amazing provision for sinners in the person of Christ, but the hallmark was God's wrath and judgment on sinners who provoked Him by their unbelief.
Consider this truth: God blesses all of His Word, and to preach only the portions of Scripture we perceive to be more palatable to the carnal mind is to do a disservice to unbelievers and a dishonor to Christ. The Western Church today is drunk with a superficial sense of the love of God. God did not call us as Christians to fly around like some kind of evangelistic cupid shooting love arrows at unsuspecting sinners. Perhaps more false conversions can be attributed to the abuse of the love of God than to my other doctrine.
People must be told of the immeasurable love of God toward sinners, demonstrated by sending His only Son to make atonement for sins. But that is not the first message we should be sending. That is the conclusion. The apostle John it best in his first epistle: Thi sis the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. That was the Apostle of Love, and the first message he seeks to communicate, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is the holiness of Christ - not His love. The Bible contains the proper, the Law came first through Moses; then followed grace through Christ.
Among the more detrimental things we can do in evanglism is leave a sinner flattered and comfortable in his sin by being trigger-happy with our presentations of God's love. Believers should be patient, loving and honest with someone who is lost, showing them from the Scriptures the horrific consequences of our rebellion and sin against God. No sleight-of-hand evangelism that substitutes God's love for His judgment against sin will ever be blessed by the Holy Spirit because it is not the whole truth of the gospel, and it does not magnify the sacrifice Christ made to atone for sin.
Let's master the gospel and get the message right!
The Ugly Abuse of a Beautiful Attribute
By Tommy Clayton
GOD loves you ... and offers a wonderful plan for your life.
How many GraceTrax readers have encounterd this, or a similar, evangelistic slogan? written by Bill Bright in the mid-60's and adopted by virtually every church or para-church ministry searching for an "effective" method of sharing the gospel, ithas been unofficially enshirned as the faith-sharing methomantra of modern evanglicals.
Other "slogans" came and went - from the notorious bumper sticker "Smile, God loves you" to innumerable tracts and websites, all seeking to outdo the other with an appealing message for hopeless sinners. An active website boasts the title, "To God you are special". I do not question the motives of such persons, nor do I condemn them for their zealous efforts to reach and win sinners with a message of God's amazing love. The only problem is that this message is not reaching sinners, not winning souls and really not that amazing.
It is always both intriguing and instructional to go back into biblical history and obseve the messages God has chosen to bless in awakening sinners to their despaerate and hopeles condition. Evangelicals have a nasty tendency today to abuse the word revival We treat it as something that through human means can be planned, predicted and produced - while neglecting the sovereign, spontaneous regenerative work of the Holy Spirit.
Beginning with Nineveh, we could quickly note three instances of the Holy Spirit's regenerating work in history, through which God chose to display HIs mercy in bringing new life to a multitude of sinners. Scripture speaks of the "great city" of Nineveh, a pagan Gentile stronghold notorious for its hatred of Israel, wicked iolatrous practices and crjuel war tactics.
The book of Jonah narates and Christ in the NT recounts Nineveh's city-wide repenting at the preaching of Jonah. Jonah was a prophet with a specific message "from God".
The Holy Spirit was pleased to use this message to convert an entire city, perhaps up to one million people. What was the content of Jonah's sermon? The Bible tells of eight words ... "Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown" (Jonah 3:4).
There is no carnal appeal to the sinner's felt needs - no evangelistic trickery. There is no psychological manipulation or shallow doctrinal content. Note that God's love is not mentioned one time in Jonah's proclamation. Yet hundreds of thousands of pagan Gentiles, who, up to this point, had been alienated from the covenant God of Israel were brought into the kingdom. Can you imagine the look on a fierce Ninevite warrior's face had Jonah waltzed into the city saying, "God loves you and offers a wonderful plan for your life." No, the message was a warning of impending judgment, and God blessed it. There was nothing particularly clever or flattering about the proclamation of the messenger, a rebellious prophet.
A second example comes from the NT. On the day of Pentecost, threethousand souls were converted and added to the church. What message did the Holy Spirit empower to convert these sinners? Was it a presentation of God's unconditional love and tolerance of humanity, even in their rebellion and u8nbelief? Did the mighty Apostle Peter plead with the multitudes of wicked Jews with the blood of Christ still flesh on their hands to smile because God loved them?
Perhaps the closing words (Acts 2:36, 38-40) will suffice to convey the temper of the entire message: "Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified." ... And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit ... And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, "Save yourselves from this crooked generation."
A third example comes from the mid-1700s, when the renowned Great Awakening was taking place in the New England colonies, Jonathan Edwards, a theological stalwart, along with other fiery evangelists such as George Whitefield and John Wesley, were used by God to spark the fires of the Great Awakening. This movement of God, lasting only a few years, spanned not only the New England colonies, but countries as well, ushering in the conversion of thousands of souls. It would not be a far cry from the truth to place these men among the most passionate post-apostolic preachers ever gracing our naiton.
What beliefs united these men together in their campaigns? What characterized their message? Was the underlying them othe fact that the colonists were all "special" to God? Did Edwards and the other men appeal to their audiences with flattering thoughts of the love of God? The answer is a resounding "absolutely not!"
One of the messages considered by many who lived during that period to be the inauguration of the Awakening of was the famous Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. It was from this message that Edwards launched one of history's most graphic images of the wrath of God. Reflecting on the ministry and life of Edwards, John Piper writes, "Edwards believed that it was impossible to exaggerate the horror of the reality of Hell." There were other messages that spoke of God's amazing provision for sinners in the person of Christ, but the hallmark was God's wrath and judgment on sinners who provoked Him by their unbelief.
Consider this truth: God blesses all of His Word, and to preach only the portions of Scripture we perceive to be more palatable to the carnal mind is to do a disservice to unbelievers and a dishonor to Christ. The Western Church today is drunk with a superficial sense of the love of God. God did not call us as Christians to fly around like some kind of evangelistic cupid shooting love arrows at unsuspecting sinners. Perhaps more false conversions can be attributed to the abuse of the love of God than to my other doctrine.
People must be told of the immeasurable love of God toward sinners, demonstrated by sending His only Son to make atonement for sins. But that is not the first message we should be sending. That is the conclusion. The apostle John it best in his first epistle: Thi sis the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. That was the Apostle of Love, and the first message he seeks to communicate, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is the holiness of Christ - not His love. The Bible contains the proper, the Law came first through Moses; then followed grace through Christ.
Among the more detrimental things we can do in evanglism is leave a sinner flattered and comfortable in his sin by being trigger-happy with our presentations of God's love. Believers should be patient, loving and honest with someone who is lost, showing them from the Scriptures the horrific consequences of our rebellion and sin against God. No sleight-of-hand evangelism that substitutes God's love for His judgment against sin will ever be blessed by the Holy Spirit because it is not the whole truth of the gospel, and it does not magnify the sacrifice Christ made to atone for sin.
Let's master the gospel and get the message right!