THE CURRENT ANTI-EVANGELISM WAVE

 

"Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." Matthew 4:19.

Hello Friends:

Welcome to the Soulwinnersr.us website. I entitled my post today, “The Current Anti-Evangelism Wave”. It’s based on my observations of the past ten years that my wife said has been going on for much longer than that.

It’s about a group of prominent church leaders, and others that are sharing what I consider heresies. A heresy is defined as the following in the Merriam Webster dictionary: “An opinion, doctrine, or practice contrary to the truth or to generally accepted beliefs or standards.”

The thing about heresies is that the people spreading them think they are the correct ones, and everyone else is wrong.

A very strong problem is the fact that the beliefs they teach minimize the need for open evangelism. They are very direct and not shy in their teaching that message. I’m having a lot of difficulty understanding where they’re coming from, and why they think the way they do. I have heard it recently talked about as “progressivism”. Following are some of their beliefs:

1. Genesis, Revelation, and other prophetic books of the Bible make for good storytelling and drama, but they are just that, stories, and play no important role in our Christian faith.
2. Hell, and an eternity of torment are unthinkable. A loving God would never resort to such gruesome tactics. Everyone might go through some sort of testing, but after their death they will all be in a holding place, and after they come to their senses, they will ALL end up in heaven alongside the saints.
3. We must live good and godly lives to win people to Christ, and if all else fails, speak the gospel. This thinking is largely based on the Frances of Assisi quote: "Go out and preach the gospel and if you must, use words." This group of people believe strongly that we should not impose our wills on other people by verbally sharing the gospel, but by only sharing it with our actions.
4. The salvation of lost people was not the primary purpose of Jesus coming to earth. His primary purpose was to honor God. The salvation of lost people was secondary.

I did a dive into what the Bible says about the first set of beliefs today; the belief that Genesis, Revelation, and other prophetic books of the Bible make for good storytelling and drama, but they are just that, stories, and they play no real important role in our Christian thinking. I’ll address the other sets of beliefs in upcoming posts.

1. The belief that Genesis is not an important book in the Bible.
• Genesis was the first book with a prophecy about Jesus. It says the following: “I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” Most scholars suggest that due the fact that God went from plural “offspring” to “he" and "him” two times, that the “he" and "him” refers to the future coming of Christ.
• Genesis is also the first reference to the fall of man that Paul later talks about in Romans 3:23, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. We wouldn’t even know we are sinners if it weren’t for God telling us in Genesis about it.
2. The belief that Revelation is not an important book of the Bible:
• Revelation 1:3 states, “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep what is written in it, because the time is near.”
• Revelation 22:18 states, “If anyone adds to them (the prophecies), God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book.”
• Revelation 22:19 states, “If anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share of the tree of life and the holy city, which are written about in this book.”

Being blessed by hearing and keeping the words of John’s prophecy speaks for itself. Everyone wants to be blessed. The person, however, that minimizes Revelation might say, “I haven’t physically added to, or taken away any prophecies in Revelation. I just don’t believe they are relevant in my life or the lives of others.” I would say to that person, “What you believe yourself about Revelation is up to you, although I think it can be detrimental to your spiritual and even your physical health, but I would advise you to be VERY, VERY careful if you teach other people that the prophecies of Revelation are unimportant in their lives.

I think Genesis and Revelation are VERY, VERY important Bible books. I think the other prophetic books are also very, very important, and to teach otherwise is outright heresy. Jesus quoted them frequently, and the apostles wrote about, and also quoted them frequently.

Next week I’ll get into the next set of beliefs, that there is no real hell with eternal torment, and that this another belief and teaching that causes people to think that we shouldn’t evangelize.

See you next time,

Arlen