The False of Assumption of Decisional Evangelism

Old School evangelists would use the threats of hell fire and brimstone and God's wrath to convince their hearers to 'make a decision to accept Jesus into their hearts'.

New School evangelists (Seeker-Driven Pastors) don't like the negativity of discussing hell and sin and have found that they can convince large numbers of post-modern listeners to make a 'decision to accept Jesus into their hearts' by convincing them that Jesus will help them experience a more satisfying life.

Both of these types of evangelists are in serious error because NO ONE is born again by accepting Jesus into their hearts so that they escape hell or so that they can experience an abundant and satisfying life.

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Here is what God's Word says. (Pay attention to who is doing the deciding in all of these verses).

John 1:9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own peopledid not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of a human decision nor of the will of man, but of God.

John 3:3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

1Pet. 1:3   Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

John 6:43   “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. 44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.

John 6:61   Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. 64 Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. 65 He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.”

Acts 2:45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Acts 16:13 And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. 14 One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.

Heb. 12:2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith

Why is it that we can't make a decision to Accept Jesus into our hearts? Answer: because we are by nature DEAD in trespasses and sins.

Eph. 2:1   And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

This dead condition is truly spiritual deadness. Just as dead people cannot make a decision to make their condition better, spiritually dead human beings cannot make a decision to improve their spiritually dead condition.

Romans 8:6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

No sinful human being, seeks God! He seeks them!

Rom. 3:9   What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” 13 “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” 14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 in their paths are ruin and misery, 17 and the way of peace they have not known.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

So then how does saving faith come?

Rom. 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Luke 24:46 and [Jesus] said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things.

In fact saving faith itself is a GIFT from God. (notice in verse 10 whose workmanship we are)

Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are God's workmanship...

Conclusion: if an evangelist is not preaching repentance of sins and the forgiveness of sins in Jesus name (aka the word of Christ) then he is not preaching a message that God will use to impart the gifts of repentance, faith and peace with God through the forgiveness of sins in Jesus' name.

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Note: Please don't quote Revelation 3:20 to me in the comments section of this post. Go back and Read Revelation 3:20 in context and you'll discover this is not about a person letting Jesus into their hearts. It's about Jesus knocking on the door of a church that has shut him out.

Comments

[Walker]

You ask a great question at the beginning of your post.

Paul says..."Awake to righteousness, and do not sin (how could he tell us not to sin if it were not possible?)...for some have not the knowledge of God (I believe he means...within, His nature, His life within, or else why would he say...do not sin?)...I speak this to your shame". Paul's words not mine.

John, I have been exactly where you are with this last statement. I was a full on believer in entire sanctification on this side of the resurrection. Like you, I believed that Jesus would never tell us to do something that we were incapable of doing.

However an examination of scripture shows that God does command things we are incapable of.

Jeremiah 29:13 states “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.”

However Romans 3:11 says “THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD;”

This tension is all over scripture. God establishes a covenant with Israel having full knowledge they will be unable to keep it. Jesus tells his disciples in John 15 to “remain in Him,” “abide in His love” and “love one another” just hours before they are running away from him, cutting off people’s ears, and denying that they have even met Jesus!

In fact it is this very tension that God uses to reveal His gospel. Paul recognizes the disparity between God’s commands and our ability to meet them. In Romans 3 he reveals the primary purpose of God’s law.

19Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God;

20because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.

God’s law shows us our sin, it shows where we fall short, it shows our need for Christ. This is why Paul immediately follows with the following:

21But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,

22even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction;

23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

24being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;

This message needs to be repeated constantly, looking back at 1 Corinthians 15:31 Paul says that he “dies daily.” On this side of the resurrection our sinful nature is constantly creeping back on us. That is why as Christians we are constantly looking to the cross, allowing God to daily kill the old Adam.

Ok, I’ll admit, that was a whole lot to basically say, yes, God tells us to do things that we cannot do. This forces us to rely on Him.

As to some of your other thoughts… Also thanks for hanging in there on this long post, I appreciate your willingness to engage in dialogue. I have to point out that for someone who began all this by saying theological discussion is useless, you seem very willing to do it!:)

You said:

“Verse 49 reads...and as we have borne the image of the man of dust (man of the earth, natural, fleshy), we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man. As I once did, I imagine you view this from a future perspective right?”

Yes, I do. The verse is written in the future tense. It was written after the first resurrection of Christ and after Pentecost. Paul had the same access to the Holy Spirit that we now have, and he still wrote it in the future tense. Unless I missed a major event in redemptive history between then and now, this verse should still be read in future tense.

Also the very next verse begins the passage I quoted in my last post, which we both agree is obviously about the second coming of Christ and our FUTURE resurrection, so to look at this as referring to the present rather than the future is to read that into the text rather than draw from the text.

Now then, you go back to a lot of talk about Christ in us. Please understand, I’m not in total disagreement here. I too believe that Christ lives in me. I think the main point we have been arguing is whether or not Christ is all that lives in me. On this side of the resurrection the old Adam is still there too. You see this admission as a form of “settling,” and action whereby we sell ourselves short. I see this as an admission of reality. Christ does not tell us to ignore this reality, but to face it, admit it, and allow Christ to kill it. Jesus doesn’t just get us started He is the author AND PERFECTOR of our faith. This is why in John 1 we are told that if we say we do not sin we deceive ourselves.

In conclusion, I looked at John 14, and stumbled on this rather quickly:

2"In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.
3"If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.

Christ is at the right hand of the Father, preparing our place. Yes, this would fall into “we down here Him up there.” The Holy Spirit is in us, so yes we can say that Christ is working in us, but that work does not drive us deeper into the depths of our soul, but pulls us out of ourselves that we might see Christ and the work He has done on our behalf.

Admit the reality you live in, let the Holy Spirit do His work.

[John C]

Walker...

Thank you sir for your good thoughts, I am grateful for the love you have in your heart for Him, who is the truth and honored to know you in this limited way.

Blessings,

John C

[Robert]

This is stated multiple times in scripture: there is only one method by which man is brought into heaven and that is through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. The infant murdered in the womb, the Apostle Paul, the child of God to whom the gospel shall not reach in this life (sadly) - all brought in the same way, The Way, Jesus Christ. The problem with eternal salvation depending upon any act of man (works, a decision, a prayer, baptism, the preaching of the gospel, repentance, etc) is that there is always at least one group left out. Sometimes it's the infants, sometimes the poor person that didn't get to hear the gospel. Then man goes about creating ways to solve this problem.
A few quick things. We aren't to make images of God. Jesus is God. Therefore, common sense says not to make likenesses of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, we really don't know what He looked like. Many picture Him with long hair. I've always had a hard time reconciling that with the fact that Paul told the corinthians that it is a shame for a man to have long hair. Also, many picture Him as being very caucasian like when He was clearly a Jew. Furthermore, and this will be my last point, why make a picture of Jesus Christ? To what purpose is it? We aren't to worship idols so that can't be why. Jesus doesn't dwell in that statue or picture. Honestly, what purpose does it serve. Whether we are talking about a crucifix, a statue, a picture, or a movie cover it's all the same thing and it really has no purpose.

[John C]

Robert...

Its time we lose the image in our minds of the physical, historical Jesus, its like this "Therefore from now on we recognize no man according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. 2 Cor 5:16.

Christ is now resurrected in our mortal bodies, Christ in us being what Paul calls the "mystery of the ages". Col 1:27

"Until we all attain to the full measure of the stature of Christ" Eph 4:13