In this video (of preaching? False converts: Suicide in church?As we launched next week), Mark Dever warns of the danger of distorting or softening the gospel message to make it more acceptable to modern man. the betrayal of the Lord Jesus Christ will do no good to the evangelized, for it will probably only produce a false convert.
This tendency to modify the Gospel or present the benefits of being a Christian evangelizing rather than presenting the Gospel (which Christ did), coupled with the modern pragmatic tendency (everything will put people within the church) has generated many people. Born spiritually dead, people who “raised their hands to accept Jesus, but who have no idea what it means. “
In his book, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, Mark Dever talks about it:
One of the most common and dangerous mistakes is to confuse the results of evangelization with evangelism itself. This is perhaps the most subtle of all misunderstandings about evangelism. Do you think evangelism is its own fruit?With a different understanding than we have explained in previous chapters dealing with the gospel and conversion, then it is quite possible that you will end up thinking not only that evangelization is simply about seeing others converted, but it is within your own power to convert others. . . This way of thinking can lead to it becoming manipulative.
Who can deny that much of modern evangelism has become emotionally manipulative, seeking only an immediate decision of the sinner’s will, neglecting the biblical idea that conversion is the result of God’s grace to the sinner?
The Christian call to evangelize is a call. It is not just about persuading people to make a decision; Rather, it is a call to announce the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ, to call them to repentance and to give God the glory of regeneration and conversion. We do not fail in our evangelism if we faithfully present the gospel and yet the person is not converted. We fail only if we don’t faithfully present the gospel.
As the scriptures teach, evangelism cannot be defined in terms of results or methods, but only in terms of fidelity to the preached message. In Acts of the Apostles, you will find times when Paul preached the gospel and few of them became. Great conference of evangelism in Lausanne in 1974, John Stott said that “evangelizing” doesn’t that mean winning converts?Does that mean simply announcing the good news, whatever the results?In this congress, evangelization was defined in these terms:
To evangelize is to spread the good news that Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead, according to the scriptures; and, as the reigning Lord, he now offers forgiveness of sins and the liberating gift of the Spirit to all who repent and believe.
When we understand that evangelization is not about converting people, but about telling them the wonderful truth about God and the good news about Jesus Christ, then obedience to the call to evangelize can become true and bring joy. Understanding this promotes evangelization, as it is, ceases to be motivated by a strong sense of guilt and becomes a privilege and a joy.
Adapted from chapter 5 of the book Nine Marks of a Healthy Church
People, of course, don’t believe in our message. Men love darkness instead of light, knowing and teaching this, we protect ourselves from the mistake of thinking that if we move chopsticks we will get the right combination to which everyone responds and until everyone responds, we can continue to do so. which is almost certain. Be very careful with this reasoning, brother shepherd, this can keep you away from the biblical gospel that is so unpopular.
Ponder Ezekiel 3 and the call God gave Ezekiel. How many churches seem to be degrading, if not denying, natural depravity and human doom. And whatever gospel they accept, they accept it only because it has been forged, not a change in them, but in the gospel we preach.
But, folks, when we do things right, when we teach that we deserve God’s judgment, then we protect the church from those who are offended by the idea of doing something wrong, something so bad that God should judge them. This more general humility, as we have seen above, of god’s incredible judgment increases when we specifically consider that we deserve this Judgment. Our general sense of God’s grace becomes a familiar sense of God’s mercy that we need. Deserve. But someone deserved it for us.
By: Mark Dever, © T4G Together for the Gospel. All rights are reserved Original: Fake Conversions: Suicide of the Church (Session III)
Translation: Alan Cristie Review: Vin-cius Musselman Pimentel? Faithful Ministry © All Rights Reserved Website: ministeriodfiel. com. br: False Converts: A Product of a Distorted Gospel
Authorizations: You are authorized and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format, provided that the author, his ministry and translator are no longer no longer modified and not used for commercial purposes.