The Conservative's Betrayal of Christianity and the Case for Libertarianism

It finally happened, I'm interested enough in politics to write on the topic. Well, sort of. I'm not going to discuss a bunch of specific policy positions or candidates, but instead would like to examine the Christian theological basis for political thought. Even though there's an expected cultural identity for Christians to be a part of the 'religious right', I'm going to argue that this is a betrayal of core Christian values, and that libertarianism is the political philosophy that fits best with Christianity.

So, I begin with a fundamentally important assertion: all law is backed by violence. If you don't believe me, go pick a law and break it. Even if it's a minor offense punished by a fine, you will eventually encounter force if you refuse to pay. So let's be really clear about this. When you make a law about something, you're saying "I think we should use violence to enforce this".

Now, although the Bible doesn't really say anything about the particulars of government (no, the US is not Israel), it sure does set some rules when it comes to violence. In fact, peace is one of the fruits of the Spirit. To commit an act of violence against a non-aggressor is decidedly anti-Christian behavior. Our m.o. should be "If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peacably with all men." (Rom. 12:18).

There are plenty of behaviors that justify a forceful response. Murderers should be stopped and punished. Drunk drivers should be forcibly removed from the road to keep the public safe. What about moral issues? Christians generally do a good job at asking the most basic question, "Is this behavior right?", but when it comes to politics there's a second question that rarely gets asked, "Should we use violence to enforce/discourage this behavior?"

Let me emphasize that this is not an issue of moral relativism. I do believe in absolute truth and morality, but I also recognize that it's not Biblical to try to force someone into Christian behavior. How do we see Jesus and the apostles respond to immorality in the culture? They preach the gospel, sharply rebuke sin, and call people to repentance. Jesus spent a lot of time calling out religious hypocrisy, rebuking those who were only outwardly religious, but dirty on the inside (Matt. 23:25-28). So why should we use the government to force others into hypocrisy? Jesus tells us instead to clean the inside first (v.26).

We can also learn from history to see the disaster that comes when governments try to regulate morality. I won't even discuss the Catholic church because that's too easy. Even after the reformation, many of the reformers went on to establish their own state churches which bred corruption and often persecuted anabaptist Christians. This even carried over into the early American colonies and states, where taxes were used to fund the state church and refusal to attend church was a punishable offense. Calvin's Geneva is possibly the best example of this corruption. Personal morality was heavily regulated by the state, but in practice, the people of Geneva remained corrupt and only added hypocrisy to their sins. T.H. Dyer quotes Gallife, a Genevese writer, who gave the following account:

To those who imagine Calvin did nothing but good, I could produce our registers, covered with records of illegitimate children, which were exposed in all parts of the town and country; hideous trials for obscenity...I could instance multitudes of forced marriages, in which the delinquents were conducted from the prison to the church; mothers who abandoned their children to the hospital, whilst they themselves lived in abundance with a second husband; bundles of lawsuits between brothers; heaps of secret negotiations; men and women burned for witchcraft; sentences of death, in frightful numbers; and all these things among the generation nourished by the mystic manna of Calvin. (The Life of Calvin, p.153)

These accounts of the personal morality at Geneva are not uncommon. I wouldn't argue that the government caused this immorality, but it certainly did little to nothing to stop it, despite the strict intervention. If Geneva was the greatest example of a society attempting to legislate morality, it was an abysmal failure. The conclusion is obvious: you can not use government to force people into moral behavior, they must be changed from the inside out.

Let's use the gay rights issue as a recent example. Now, I don't believe in gay marriage, because marriage is first and foremost a Christian religious institution, which is defined by the Bible, not governments. With that said, should we deny homosexuals the equal protection of their civil liberties? Yes, homosexuality is sin, but since when is it our responsibility to stop others from sinning through the use of force? Do you really think that making their lives harder will stop them from sinning? Also, do we really want the government to have the ability to forcibly invade our lives for almost any reason? If you want our government to have that kind of power, what are you going to do in ten years when someone is elected who thinks that Christians are undesirables?

I also want to touch on the issue of war, which is another area where libertarians take a different position than typical conservatives. I don't want to get into a complete theology of war, but we should all be able to agree that aggressive war is completely anti-Christian and that every effort should be made to prevent civilian casualties if we do find ourselves in a war. Do we not believe in the sanctity of life? Then how can a Christian vote for a politician who is recklessly aggressive overseas? Or one who is willing to kill civilians through carpet bombing? Our overseas aggression has been justified as a 'war on terror', but I think we all need to be reminded that it has been almost 15 years since the US has been attacked and we're now mostly fighting in countries that had nothing to do it. How does this mesh with Christian principles?

So other than politics, what does this matter? First, if we're going to give account for every idle word, I think it's obvious that our voting record will be a part of that. I've given sufficient reasons to not vote republican, and there are even more reasons to not vote democrat. Some refuse to vote third party because they 'have no chance of winning', but do you really want to have to explain to the Lord why you supported someone who promoted violence? I'd rather use my vote as a message, and give it to the right person with a clean conscience. Second, I've seen several instances where the policies of the 'religious right' hinder the spread of the gospel. Ever try to share the gospel with a gay person? When I do, I usually have to spend the first few minutes breaking down walls that they have put up against Christians...sometimes it doesn't work. If they were offended by the gospel or our stance for righteousness, that would be fine, but many are offended by government interference in their lives.

In conclusion, typical conservative policies stand in contrast to Biblical principles. Libertarianism stands as the best alternative. Christians must abandon their undeserved loyalty to the republican party. We should be the first to stand against any policy of unnecessary violence, both domestic and foreign. Our efforts should be focused on converting sinners through preaching the gospel, not moderating their behavior through politics. Finally, we should conduct ourselves in a way that honors the Savior regardless of whether we can affect political change or not.

Studying the Law to Understand Grace

It's my observation that in the realm of Christianity in the U.S., grace is discussed all over the place. It's on the radio, in those 'encouraging daily devotionals', and in sermons both heretical and doctrinally sound. It's not that grace is a bad thing. Indeed, without God's grace toward guilty sinners, we'd all be doomed without hope. Still, I frequently have the overwhelming impression that all the talk about grace is out of balance. Why? The idea of grace is meaningless without an understanding of sin and the law.

To expand on my previous point; if we accept the definition that grace is favor given to the undeserving, then our estimation of the value of grace is determined by the difference between what we get and what we think we deserve. What we get – what God gives us, is essentially a fixed quantity (forgiveness, adoption, heaven, etc.). The variable here is our opinion of what we deserve. If you think that your relation to God is positive or neutral, you will appreciate grace less than someone who understands that our relationship to God is very much in the negative (of course, I'm talking pre-salvation right now). There's a beautiful example of this in Luke 7:36-50. The pharisees gave little regard to Jesus' presence, but this sinner (quite possibly a whore or adulteress given their reactions) showed him love and reverence in the most humble way. The reason for the different attitudes is obvious – the Pharisees had fooled themselves into thinking that they were pretty much OK, but this woman knew that she was a terrible sinner.

This principle holds true for each of us. You won't even begin to appreciate God's grace toward you until you understand the depth of your sin. Of course, this is true of the sinner who needs to repent and be saved, but it is also true for Christians. You see, even though we have a wonderful relationship with God, we have to remember how we got here. It was God who saved us and brought us into this right relationship. While we should rejoice in our new life, we should also never forget the pit that God dragged us out of, because if it weren't for Him, that's where we'd still be. Also consider that your pit is even deeper than you thought, because Christ didn't just die for sins present and past, but also future (as a Christian). In other words, Christ died for you when you were a liar, disobedient, drunkard, cheater, adulterer, etc. But he also died for you when you failed to serve him, when you blasphemed His name by acting in a way inconsistent with your calling, when you failed to love Him with all of your heart, etc.

So how do you gain a better understanding of sin? Romans 3:20 declares, “by the law is the knowledge of sin”. Pretty straightforward, we go to the law. As a side note, we focus on the general moral application of the law, not the sacrificial and governmental aspects. Only the former applies to gentiles (non-Jews). In the law we find that God expects us to love Him with all our heart. We are to love others as we love ourselves. We must not lie, steal, disobey our parents, lust, or covet. A single violation of a single law is enough to condemn you as a sinner (James 2:10). Each and every offense is punishable by hell. Recall, it only took one sin from Adam for God to curse not only mankind, but also the beautiful universe he had just created. I'm guessing you've stored up more than one, or even just a few offenses. It's within reason to estimate the number of sins in an average person's life to be in the hundreds of thousands. Man's justice is so incomplete, but we can still see some parallels. Some of the worst criminals are given multiple life sentences. Can you imagine a criminal who has been convicted of a hundred thousand life sentences? You're a little bit closer to understanding your sin.

Again, I'm not saying we should stay in the past, nor should you re-live your past to the point that you're unnecessarily tempted by old sins. Christian life should be lived in victory, love, and service. However, it does some good to think on where we came from every once in a while. Reflect on God's law, think of every sin that you've committed, try to comprehend the magnitude of your sin, then reflect on the fact that Jesus wiped away every blot with His sacrifice. When you develop a better appreciation for the gospel you will find a greater love for the Lord, a desire to further know Him, and greater motivation to serve.

In conclusion, you must understand sin in order to understand grace. When grace is discussed without also explaining why we need it, the result can only be confusion. An understanding of sin can be found by studying God's law. Occasionally reflecting on our old life of sin can be healthy in order to have a greater appreciation for Christ.

Shepherding a Child's Heart, Neglecting Their Soul

After 10 years, Tedd Tripp's “Shepherding a Child's Heart” is still one of the most popular books on parenting in Christian circles. My wife and I recently worked through this book to glean some things we can use on our own adventures in parenting. I didn't know anything about Tripp, but had heard good things about this book.

In the beginning, I really liked this book. When it comes to practical advice on raising children, I think Tripp mostly does a good job. I was happy to see that he rejects pop psychology and attempts to adopt a fully Biblical perspective. I especially appreciate his emphasis on communication throughout the book. In short, the purpose of discipline is to bring the child to repentance. Snap angry judgments and spankings are almost always unhelpful. Tripp makes the case for reasoned discipline. This means setting clear rules, and enforcing those rules with discipline, not angrily, but explaining to the child what they did wrong, why it's wrong, trying to figure out why they did it, etc. Essentially, punish the behavior, but also get to the heart of the matter. This teaches the child the important concepts of sin and its consequences.

Great so far, but still, I have a major problem with this book. Tripp completely whiffs on the most important thing: the salvation of your children. Tripp's attitude is most plainly seen on p.44 where he puts “saved children” in his list of unbiblical goals. To be fair, he's mainly criticizing manipulative evangelism and the sinner's prayer in this section. I'm fine with that part. Parents are seriously harming their kids by encouraging superficial professions of faith and accepting such as genuine salvation. However, for parents who correctly understand salvation, shouldn't we do everything we can to help them come to repentance and faith in Christ? Of course! Once they are old enough to understand, parents should have regular conversations with their kids about their spiritual state. Make sure they understand sin, the gospel, and what they must do to be saved. Explain repentance and faith. Plainly ask them if they've repented. Watch them and ask yourself if they are bearing appropriate fruit. Have they been born again? These should be our main thoughts as parents.

Tripp couldn't be more wrong when he says the salvation of our children is an unbiblical goal. Not only is this bad parenting, it shows a lack of understnding of salvation and Christian living. It gets worse on p.54 when Tripp suggests how to rework the goal of saved children. He says, “one of the problems with this perspective is that it looks for a major spiritual event of salvation and misses the spiritual process of nurturing your children.” Major spiritual event...you mean like passing from death to life, becoming a new creature, and being taken out of the Devil's family to become a child of God? (2 Cor. 5:17, Eph. 2:1-3, John 5:24) Of course there is growth and discipleship, but Tripp seems to completely neglect the child's need to be born again. The new birth is the beginning of a Christian's life. Before their salvation, your child is, at best, a well-behaved lost person. Don't expect that to last long. You can try to teach your lost child all you want, but until they've been born again, they will never really “get it”.

I imagine that if I were having this argument with Tripp, he would say that salvation is not a main goal, but is the outcome of a properly shepherded child. But this puts the cart before the horse. Sure, salvation doesn't mean that your child instantly becomes perfect, but it means they have a chance. No matter how well you shepherd their heart, until they've been born again, their chance of living a fruitful life pleasing to God is exactly zero percent. To say it again, your first real task as a parent is to make sure your children come to repentance and faith in Christ. After that, the task of discipleship can truly begin.

When you neglect to directly deal with the salvation issue, your kids may miss it. Churches are full of teens and adults who are moral, religious, and lost. Why add your child's soul to that number? That's the risk of teaching them to act Christian without being sure they are born again. All of your work to teach them good character will mean nothing if they go to Hell when they die. Even if your kids do get saved somewhere along the way, what have you taught them? If you had no urgency to share the gospel with your children, do you think they'll feel any urgency to share the gospel with the lost around them? So, even if they do get saved along the way, you may still cripple their growth.

There is a simple reason that Tripp is so horribly passive when it comes to dealing with your child's salvation and it comes down to his theology. Tripp is infected with the theological poison of Calvinism. This is most painfully shown on p.199 where, in reference to children internalizing the gospel, Tripp says, “While you dare not presume upon His sovereign mercy, you may labor with expectation that the gospel is powerful”. Or to put it more plainly, in Tripp's theology, God may have already arbitrarily damned your child to Hell before they were even born. No matter what they do, no matter what you do, your child cannot be saved and all your work is in vain. Of course, we can be happy to know that this is nonsense. God extends his love and mercy to all. You can be confident that if your child repents and believes the gospel, he will be saved.

In conclusion, Tripp gives some solid practical parenting advice in “Shepherding a Child's Heart”, but this is completely overshadowed by the fact that he fails to correctly address your child's pressing need for salvation. This means that his advice may lead you to raise religious, but unsaved children. Parents must avoid manipulative evangelism techniques, but should also do everything they can to ensure their children are born again. It's right to train your kids before their new birth, but they will not really "get it" until they know Christ.

Fear of man: the acceptable sin

The fear of man is perhaps not the worst sin that a man can commit, but I'm becoming increasingly convinced that it is one of the most sinister. Not only is it commonplace among Christians, most churches have a culture that encourages this sin. I will endeavor to explain why this sin is so pervasive and to expose the subtle ways that it can ensnare.

First, some basic definitions. I'll be using “fear of man” and “respect of persons” interchangeably. These two terms describe the same attitude which holds the opinions/approval of men in higher esteem than they should be held. This concern for man's approval can be motivated by fear of reprisal, but more frequently it's caused by the desire to fit in. The Bible speaks in broad, but clear terms about the fear of man. It is a snare to righteous living (Prov. 29:26), it is sin (James 2:9), and it causes the perversion of justice (Lev. 19:15).

Fear of man promotes the corruption of churches

I want to point out that much of Christian culture actually encourages fear of man. One obvious example of this is the fear of “going against the pastor”. I've seen many churchgoers who are afraid of saying anything contrary to their pastor. They claim the Bible as the ultimate authority, but their fear of one man's opinion makes them hesitate to follow Scripture, their conscience, and the Lord. When you see people who are afraid to discuss doctrine without including a pastor or other authority figure, this is certainly true of them. Similarly, there is a great fear of openly questioning the pastor's judgment or saying anything critical, even if it's constructive. In reality, I dare say every church could benefit from a healthy discussion, even debate, on doctrine. In the parable of the soils, is there only one soil that represents a saved person, or three? Is Calvinism Biblical? What about theistic evolution? In any church, it's unlikely that any two people see everything exactly the same. Imagine how robust our knowledge of Scripture would be if every church member openly and compassionately discussed any disagreement in doctrine! (Hey, you might even convince someone!) But in what church is this standard practice? The church culture promotes silent passive obedience. Anyone who voices a dissenting opinion is branded a troublemaker, no matter how loving their tone. The average churchgoer thinks, “I don't want to be a troublemaker, I'll just show up, smile at everyone, and grit my teeth when the pastor says something I disagree with.” Thus, fear of man dominates the church landscape.

This may sound like a small thing, but it tends to compound other errors. I've recently seen a church fall to such a degree that they're now preaching heresy to the surrounding community. I know for a fact there are men at this church who know better. However, they don't speak up against this problem because they are afraid of rocking the boat, disagreeing with the pastor, and losing their social status. I have to wonder how often this story is repeated around the globe. How many churches have become unbiblical, heretical, silly, or irrelevant even though they had members who were strong in the faith? How many churches have fallen away because men who knew better were too cowardly to stand up for Biblical doctrine? I imagine those cowards will have much to answer for.

Fear of man hinders the spread of the Gospel

While I'm on the subject of cowardice, this leads me discuss evangelism, another aspect of Christian life in which fear of man is accepted by the church culture. It's normal and acceptable for a churchgoer to share the gospel little, if ever. When evangelism is discussed, so much of what is said is just excuses for those who don't share the gospel, often out of cowardice. There is this perception that the average Christian is too weak/timid to share the gospel with the lost, so they need a lot of training, encouragement, and hand-holding. I'm increasingly convinced this is nonsense. The average churchgoer has little/no interest in evangelistic training, and most of those that do get training never put it into practice. They're more than content to show up to church, put money in the offering, and walk away justified that they're doing their part for missions. I don't buy any of the other excuses. “I don't know how.” Well, if you've been a Christian for more than a few months, you've had plenty of time to figure that out. But then again, if you figured it out, you'd lose that excuse, wouldn't you?

There is a great need for someone to stand up and say: “Your fear of man is a sin. Your lack of love for the lost is a sin. You don't need me to hold your hand, you need to repent.” The cold churchgoer doesn't need to be built up, he needs to be broken and humble before the Lord! Yes, there is a place for discipleship/teaching/training, of course. However, if we want churchgoers to get on board with the Lord's mission, it has to start with repentance. If we want zealous men and women with hearts on fire for the Lord and the lost, that doesn't come through training. That comes when we repent of our sin, draw close to the Lord, and say, “I'll start fearing you more than fearing men. I'll do whatever you'd have me to do.” Then and only then will our training/discipleship have any meaningful effect.

How about you, friend? Are you afraid that the world and quite possibly your church might think of you as a zealot? Have you found it enticing that you can earn a sort of respectability with the lost as long as you're quiet about sin, hell, and Jesus? Maybe there's something unbiblical going on in your church, but you've been quiet until now. Well, I dare say that the fear of man is a sin that has rooted itself deeply into your life. Repent. The Lord will forgive your sin and coldness. Draw close to Him, read Scripture, and obey it. Continue in this and you will find yourself developing the heart and mind of Christ, which includes a love for the lost, and a fear of God alone (Matt 10:28-39).

Basic rules for evangelism partners

The “busy season” for evangelism is coming up for those of us living near a university. The new semester brings campus events and football games; fantastic opportunities to get out a ton of tracts. I’m starting to plan ahead for these events, and I plan to pull together several friends to help with the effort. As I’ve been thinking about this, I decided that I need to sit down and write some ‘rules of engagement’ for who I will partner with and who I will not - and how all this will work. This is mostly for my own benefit, but I make it public for easy sharing and so that it may provoke some through for others to set their own rules and standards.

It’s hard to turn away someone who is interested in working together to preach the gospel, mostly because that passion is so rare. Nevertheless, it’s important to be at least mostly on the same page. So, here’s my list of things that are important for me to see in my partners. It’s best to have these issues out in the open and to avoid working together if we don’t think it will work. The alternative is to find these things out in situ, which makes for a very awkward time.

Goal

My goal is to connect people in the C-U community who are interested in preaching the gospel to the lost. I do not intend for this to be a formal organization, but more like a group of friends with a common passion. I will help coordinate large events (handing out tracts at football games) as well as smaller weekly efforts. Everyone in the network is encouraged to organize, support, and work with one another. If you are interested, please provide an email address (and phone number if you wish) to be shared with the network. We will also be using a shared calendar to help organize events.

Training

I'm interested in working with people regardless of experience. If you have little/no experience, but have a desire to reach lost souls, I would be overjoyed to encourage and equip you. Training programs/materials are fine (and I can recommend a few), but I mainly push a hands-on approach where you join me and observe as a silent partner until you're confident enough to talk.

Tracts

I use several different kinds of tracts and I am willing and able to provide enough tracts for everyone free of charge. You may use your own tracts if you like, but they must follow these basic rules:

1) Must have a solid gospel presentation that does not gloss over sin, but calls out specific relevant sins (e.g. lying, fornication). Must mention repentance and faith as the sinner’s response to the offer of salvation.

2) Must not include a “sinner’s prayer”, asking Jesus into your heart, or any other language that is typical of manipulative evangelistic methods or easy-believism.

3) Must not include church information. You may include personal contact info or link to a website as long as it is not a church website. Tracts with church info give the sinner the impression that you’re just trying to get church members. I’ve been doing this for years - believe me, it makes a difference.

4) This is not really a rule, but I strongly recommend that you use attractive, short tracts. The best tracts have an eye-catching design and succinct text. The basic tracts I use are all under 200 words. Longer, booklet/pamphlet tracts are fine to give out after a good conversation, but if you just hand them out to everyone, they're less likely to be read.

Doctrinal Unity
It’s important that we all speak the same thing, especially when reaching the lost. So, here is a short list of doctrines that I think are critical. If you have any questions about these doctrinal areas or want clarification, I would be happy to meet and discuss. Perhaps you have some convictions that I haven’t mentioned here. Great! I’d be happy to talk about any other issues to see if we can work together.

1) The gospel is that Christ died for our sins and rose again and that we can have this forgiveness if we repent and believe. Salvation goes hand in hand with the new birth – a changed life (2 Cor. 5:17). A person who claims to be a Christian, but is living in sin or has no interest in the things of God is a false convert. These are not ‘carnal Christians’, because all who are truly saved will be chastened (Heb. 12:6-8). You understand this and want to lovingly warn them of their lost condition.

2) The catholic church, mormons, and “Jehova’s Witnesses” are not Christian groups, but are all cults based on a false gospel. All other religions are false systems that only soothe the conscience. In other words, you can not get into heaven by being a good muslim, buddhist, hindu, etc.

3) Hell and the lake of fire are real places where guilty sinners who are not saved by Christ are punished for eternity. Repentance and faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to be saved and this life is the only chance that you have.

4) You reject: salvation by faith plus works, loss of salvation by sinning, infant baptism, baptismal regeneration, calvinism, prosperity gospel, and pentecostal false prophets. I’m aware that there are some mild pentecostals who would also reject the abuses of pentecostalism. I may be willing to partner with such a person on a case by case basis. In general, I’m willing to meet anyone, but it’s unlikely we’ll be able to work together unless you reject the above doctrines.

5) You reject manipulative evangelism, quick prayerism, and attempts to present the gospel that avoid sin/repentance. This includes the sinner’s prayer, asking Jesus into your heart, and the four spiritual laws. When you share the gospel with sinners, you implore them to repent.

6) You reject all forms of ‘theistic evolution’ and hold to a ‘young earth creation’ viewpoint. You are at least aware of the relevant issues: radiometric dating, fossil record, irreducible complexity, etc. I have some useful articles posted at ourmasterswisdom.com if you'd like an overview.

A call for laborers

I generally try to write thoughtful and thought-provoking articles for this blog. Not today. Today I have a rant. Yet, it's a very important rant that I hope will positively influence others.

This all started a few weeks ago. With the end of the spring semester, the university becomes relatively empty and my favorite witnessing spot dries up. This summer, I decided to try a slightly different evangelistic style. I'm working my way around the city door-by-door, but not door knocking as I have done in the past. This time, unless someone is visible, I'm just leaving a tract on the door and moving on. If I meet someone outside, I'll try to strike up a conversation. The goal is to get as many tracts out as possible, while still being open to divine appointments.

I'm keeping track of my progress on a city map. It makes me realize how big of a job it is to preach the gospel. It takes a good 3-4 hours of work just to mark off a few square blocks. I look at the map and think “man, I'm hardly making a dent in this city”. It's overwhelming at times, because I know how badly the gospel is needed in my city. Forget the 40/10 window. If you live in C-U or any other average American city, I can guarantee that 98-99% of the people you meet are not Christians, and maybe 95% of the people you meet do not know the gospel, and likely have never been confronted with a Biblical gospel message. I have no survey to cite, but this is my estimate after 7 years experience.

For the last few days, as I realize how much work there is to be done and how little impact I can make, I can't stop thinking, where are all the other laborers? There are dozens and dozens of churches in this town that at least know and supposedly stand on a Biblical gospel (heretical churches are disqualified). Yet, it's extremely rare for me to find evidence of others preaching the gospel. Where is everyone? Is there no concern for souls? No compassion? No love? Anything remotely Christ-like in these supposed Christians and their churches?

Perhaps it's there and I'm just not seeing it? I don't think so. You see, I've also visited a good number of churches over the last year. At each church, I ask around about outreach. Of course, there's typically some sort of homeless ministry or something, but the church does not officially go out and preach the gospel. For every church I've visited, I would be willing to bet that I could throw a rock from their parking lot and hit the house of someone who has never heard the gospel. That fact alone should have you in tears, dear reader. Of all my visits, I still know of only one church in town that has a weekly gospel outreach time – and even that is quite poor. On average, only 2-3 groups go out, and each group will visit only 4-5 houses. From what I've seen, that's the most “passion” churches in this town can muster. Absolutely pathetic. I thank God that in my visits I have found a few rare individuals who are interested in personal evangelism. However, they each struggle against an infection of passivity due to the church culture around them.

Now, dear reader, how about you? Have you lifted a finger to point a lost soul to Christ this week? This month? Are you blind to the reality of heaven and hell? Or are you consumed in a fake world of TV, movies, and sports? Are you content to go through life enjoying wasteful hobbies while others march to destruction? Worse yet, perhaps you've been convinced that your “calling” is to teach Sunday school,or AWANA, or some other church ministry. You think that's your spiritual duty, so you don't really need to focus on evangelism. Here's the thing, if you don't even have a moderate passion for evangelism, you haven't grasped Christianity 101. How could you teach others about Christianity if you don't even have the basics down? Men, how do you expect to raise Godly children if you don't even attempt to set an example of Christ-like compassion for souls?

If God answers my prayer, someone will read up to this point and will be feeling awful, maybe even angry. That's good, you should be upset. Do something about it. Don't squirm out of it by trying to rededicate yourself, or by reading your Bible more, or praying more. You're feeling bad because you've been disobedient to the great commission. You can't get out of it by trying to be more obedient in other areas. Go preach the gospel. Now. Or as soon as possible. And please contact me. If you're in the C-U area, I would be happy to provide you with training, tracts, encouragement, and support. Whatever you do, don't ignore the conviction to preach the gospel.

Spiritual warfare in evangelism

One of my passions in life is to share the gospel with the lost and to stir up Christians to do the same. I truly believe there is no other activity we can do on Earth which is more dear to the heart of Christ. However, if you're doing it Biblically, you can guarantee that you'll be on Satan's radar too. Preaching the gospel to the lost is an act of spiritual warfare and Christians should be aware that much of the fear and nervousness they feel about witnessing is normal, and should be expected. To make this point and give tips on fighting through it, I'd like to share my recent experience. Hopefully, if you read this and find yourself nervously sitting on an evangelistic fence, this will encourage you to hop off the fence and join the fight!

For a week, I had planned a time to do some evangelism on the UIUC quad. This is nothing new. It's been my favorite 'fishing hole' for years, and though I'm out of practice due to the long winter, I've surely done this more than a hundred times before. Yet, as I'm gathering my tracts before I leave, I'm overcome with a wave of nervousness. This is nothing new either, but is as strong as I've ever felt, forcing me to take a deep breath before I push myself out the door.

As you go through these feelings, you should immediately recognize them as spiritual warfare. You're going out there to steal members from Satan's family – of course he's going to fight! The demons tend to use the same tactics. They're predictable, but can still be very effective. They'll pull on every desire, weakness, and heart string that will take you away from your destination.

As temptation arises, the thoughts enter my mind as I drive toward the campus. “You're really tired, should just go home and rest.” “You're sick, maybe you can push through, but you'll feel even worse later.” “You're alone again. Who could blame you for quitting?” Wherever the thoughts originate from, I swat them aside and try to push through some prayers for strength and wisdom. I feel my chest tightening the whole time.

In times like these, you have several weapons at your disposal, and it pays to be prepared. Prayer is always a good option, but don't just wait until you're in the battle. You know the fight will happen, so pray beforehand as well. Scripture is great for encouragement and conquering temptation. Read it and memorize it. Songs can help as well – yet another reason to know some strong hymns. There's no magic formula for each situation, you must simply fight on. The Lord never promises to completely remove temptation, but he does promise that we will be able to handle it and that there will be a way out.

As I park my car, I'm hit with a wave of strong and completely irrational fear. I can't find it in me to open the car door. I pray a little more, then sing to myself a few lines of “Lord, send me anywhere”, a hymn that has often comforted me. I ask myself out loud, “Is your love for Christ so weak that you can't overcome this?”. Now it's on. There's no way I'm going to let a challenge like that stand. I collect my tracts, get out of the car, and walk toward the quad. On the way there, I see my first face and the crippling fear melts away instantly, replaced instead by love and concern, surely a mere fraction of a shadow of what Christ has for these lost sinners. I smile and cheerfully hand him a tract, “hey man, a free gift for you.” The next couple of hours are enjoyable and relatively easy.

I've found that this pattern repeats itself almost every time that I go out to preach the gospel. As I've talked to others who share the same convictions and act upon them, they report the same struggles. Though preaching the gospel is incredibly enjoyable and rewarding, there's nearly always a huge up-front energy barrier that must be overcome, usually in the form of fear/nerves. To be clear, as a scientist, I've done important presentations to superiors, public speaking at conferences, etc. Those things are work – not as enjoyable as sharing the gospel, but there's less fear associated with those things. However, when it comes to doing this thing that I really enjoy, there's a huge barrier of nerves/fear before I get started. Isn't that interesting? This can only be explained by spiritual warfare. Recognize this, and fight back! As I related in my story, the biggest struggle is overcoming that initial barrier, but it gets easy after that. Remember, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).

Finally, I recommend taking some time to debrief after you are done. This is obviously useful with regards to content (What objections were raised? How can I handle them better? What do I need to study? What verses should I memorize?), but it's also useful when it comes to handling spiritual warfare. Sometimes you won't be able to see the whole picture, but often you can. For example, you'll likely find that spiritual battles are more intense than normal if you are about to walk into a big opportunity. As you begin to recognize these trends, it teaches you to fight harder, recognizing that if the enemy is opposing you strongly, it might mean that this is a particularly important battle. In the example that I gave above, it turned out that there was a softball game that just ended, so there were many more people at the quad than normal. I was able to have several conversations, one which ended in great clarity, and hand out ~150 tracts, several times more than I'm able to do on an average day at the quad. That's certainly a good cause for the devil to want to keep me away from there. Was it the number of tracts? Or maybe the conversation with a pair of professing Christians where I pointed out that they are obviously not yet converted – and related their need of repentance, faith, and the new birth. Maybe both. Most of the time, you won't know how much difference your efforts will make, but the stakes are heaven vs. hell! If you could make that kind of difference, even for just one soul, would that not make every battle worthwhile? The point is, recognize the enemy's tactics, and don't forget what you're fighting for!

In conclusion, I've related this personal story with some commentary in the hopes that it will be an encouragement to others who are struggling through the same thing. Really, we have it quite easy in America, let's make use of our freedom. From the immature Christian struggling with the idea of sharing the gospel with strangers, to the battle-hardened elder, may we all be refreshed in our understanding of the importance of this great battle, and be encouraged to work harder for the Lord.

The sinner's prayer, four spiritual laws, Romans road, and other heretical gospels

Christianity in America is plagued with multitudes of religious lost – people who are convinced they are saved, but they bear no spiritual fruit. Their lack of fruit demonstrates that they are indeed still lost. (Matt. 3:10, Matt. 7:19). This is a bitter truth that every Christian in America needs to acknowledge before they will even have a chance to help those around them. Just as important, we must identify the root cause that is filling churches with many false converts. This root cause is easy to see: churches have silently replaced the Biblical gospel with watered-down, easy-on-the-ears, but heretical messages. This problem is maintained by an anti-biblical church structure that perfectly houses the religious lost that it creates. This is no coincidence. It's a well-planned system that could only come from the mind of Satan. I've talked a bit about church structure in previous posts. Now, I want to take some time to expose the heresies that are all too common and then discuss how to minister to others in this type of environment.

We'll start with the basics. Among other places, the gospel is defined in 1 Corinth. 15:1-4. The message is that Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead. Great news! So far so good – practically everyone gets that part right, even cults. Now, our response to the gospel message, or how we receive it, is by repenting of our sins and putting our faith in Christ (Mark 1:15, Acts 3:19, Acts 26:20). Adding or removing anything anything from the gospel makes it different, makes it 'another gospel', which is condemned in the strongest language (Gal. 1:6-8). This is how heresies are born. You take the gospel and add the keeping of the OT law, good works, baptism, etc. Or, in the case of fundamentalists and evangelicals, you add a sinner's prayer or remove repentance.

The Sinner's prayer is a heresy which promises that you can be saved by asking God for forgiveness or “asking Jesus into your heart”, typically by praying a modeled prayer. Let's be clear. You will not find these ideas anywhere in the Bible. Sinners are always called to repentance and faith. There's nothing wrong with expressing repentance toward God in prayer (Luke 18:13), but the error comes when people are assured that they are saved when and if they recite the prayer. In other words, this modern heresy promises salvation as a result of reciting a ritual prayer, not by repentance and faith in Christ. To make my point, let's look at an example developed and used by Billy Graham published on the Billy Graham Library's website (from the section 'prayer' at the bottom of the page):

Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe You died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior.

A few lines after this it goes on to mis-apply Romans 10:13 to suggest that anyone who prayed this prayer is now saved. It all sounds good, doesn't it? But faith and repentance are about actually trusting in Jesus and turning from your sin, not just saying that you will. To suggest that this prayer is sufficient for salvation is to accept lip service where Christ demands the substance.

The sinner's prayer can also be used without suggesting that it saves, but why would you? The prayer does nothing to help bring them to salvation, they need to repent. If the repenting sinner wants to pray, let him, but don't push it. Putting undue emphasis on a prayer can make the issues unclear, and you can make someone believe the prayer is important for their salvation even without explicitly saying so. This is especially true today. Maybe you don't tell the sinner a prayer will save him, but he has probably already heard that from several other pastors throughout his life. So, when you try to witness to that false convert and place the same emphasis on the prayer, he'll assume you're in the same boat. In short, using a sinner's prayer does nothing good, and is almost guaranteed to do some harm. So, if you really don't believe that a sinner's prayer saves, then stop doing it.

The "Romans Road" and "four spiritual laws" methods of sharing the gospel exemplify another type of heresy popular in conservative churches. The main problem of this heresy is that the gospel is proclaimed with little/no discussion of sin, and the need for the sinner to repent is either downplayed or neglected entirely. Yet, in the Bible, God makes it clear that repentance is absolutely necessary for salvation (Matt. 7:21, Mark 1:15, Luke 13:3, Acts 3:19, Acts 26:20). Let's look at some specific examples of this heresy.

The four spiritual laws can be found on the campus crusade website. In short, the four spiritual laws neglect the Biblical focus of sin/justice/hell/repentance/new birth and focus instead on “God has a wonderful plan for your life...you need Jesus so you can experience God's plan.” Sin is presented as a mere inconvenience that prevents the flow of blessings and is never properly defined. Repentance is almost completely neglected. Sure, there's a little cartoon at the end about Christ-directed vs. self-directed life, but their description of sin and repentance is so vague that it is practically useless to any sinner. Contrast this with the preaching of John the baptist, who called out specific sins and told men exactly what they needed to do (Luke 3:8-18). It wasn't just John, Jesus and the apostles did the same thing throughout the NT. So, instead of using the four spiritual laws, use God's laws (the 10 commandments are a great place to start) and show sinners their guilt, that they deserve judgement and hell, and that they need to repent and trust in the savior that died for them.

The Romans road is a very similar approach. Though older and more traditional, it's no better than the four spiritual laws. This approach relies on quoting several verses from Romans without their context. There are some variations, but let's look at the Sword of the Lord's website – a popular fundie resource. The shallow presentation of sin is similar to the four spiritual laws, but the Romans road is even worse because it mischaracterizes the nature of sin. At least the evangelicals talk about sin as a personal choice. In the Romans road, the fundies just talk about how you inherited Adam's sin nature. Too bad. How exactly are you supposed to repent of a sin nature? This description misleads sinners from gaining any concrete understanding of their personal, willful sins. The reality is that they must repent of their personal sins, not just the concept of sin, nor a supposed sin nature. Of course, they wouldn't know that anyway, because the Romans road doesn't even mention repentance at all. Therefore, the preacher robs the sinner of information they need to be saved. This road is just a spiritual dead end.

Now, given the nature and pervasiveness of these major errors, how can you minister to those around you? Realize that the number of religious lost is astounding, more than anyone would like to admit. From years of experience in preaching the gospel one-on-one, I estimate that less than 2% of Americans can give even passable responses to basic questions about the gospel, salvation, and the new birth – things that are necessary for salvation. If you don't believe me, approach some strangers or those lazy people at your church and ask them the following questions:

1) “Can you tell me how to get to heaven?” Probably the best response you'll get on this one is “believe in Jesus”. While not necessarily wrong, this answer is awfully incomplete. They should show some understanding of repentance in their answer to the rest of these questions. If not, they fail the test. Anyone who claims to have been saved for longer than a month certainly should be able to use the word “repent” without prompting.

2) “How is it that Jesus is able to save you?” they should have at least a basic understanding of substitutionary atonement – You are guilty of breaking God's law, but Jesus died in your place.

3) “What changed when you were saved?” Honestly, they should light up at this point. Every real Christian will have at least one story to tell that is very dear to them: loss of desire for formerly loved sins, a new hunger for the Bible, unexplained love for Christians, etc. They should be able to mention something like this which would demonstrate that they had a very real transition from darkness to light. If they have to think about it, you're looking at a lost religious person.

4) “So what are you doing for the Lord these days?” Maybe they're not making the best use of their time, but they should be doing something. Going to church, staying away from sin, reading the Bible, etc. doesn't count. That's no-brainer stuff that we do for ourselves. A person who does nothing for Christ is demonstrating that they do not really know Him (Matt. 3:10, Matt. 7:19-23, Matt. 25:23-30). Can someone recognize their sin and guilt, be saved from death and hell, then move on and not sacrifice and serve their Lord out of love? I don't buy it. There should be a desire to help and reach out to others that manifests itself somehow, ideally by sharing the gospel with others. Expect others to put up strong resistance to this one, as it cuts to the core of what is important.

As mentioned before, familiarity with the major errors that infect churches today is critical in order to minister to others. If you aren't willing to recognize the problems with a sinner's prayer or Romans road, you'll never ask the hard questions that are necessary to get through to the religious lost. This is not just theory. I seriously challenge you to ask the above questions to people around you. If they can't answer these simple questions about the gospel and the new birth, then it is evidence that they do not know Biblical repentance and faith. Treat them like a lost person until they prove otherwise. Specifically, share the Biblical gospel with them. Take away their hope in their superficial religious rituals, declare their need for repentance, and demand that they show the fruits of repentance. Be warned though, this simple Biblical practice will likely cause your friends and your church to turn away from you. But more importantly, you will have a chance to make a difference in their lives, and you will be following in the footsteps of Christ.

A goal worth living and dying for

Many Christians and churches today have rightly identified the plague of apathy that is presently gripping churchgoers across the nation. Any denomination, conservative or squishy, every church seems to have the same problem. It's almost impossible to get anyone excited about Christian ministry these days. In response, admonitions to action ring out from pounded pulpits in every corner of the country. Churches redouble their efforts to disciple their people (not a bad idea in general, but often done poorly) thinking that it must be a lack of discipleship. Church growth 'experts' conduct surveys and decide to add flashing lights and cool music to the old church programs. Yet, the state of things remains largely unchanged. Why? Why are people so cold? Why don't any of these proposed solutions work? What is the root problem? I suggest that there's one underlying cause that nobody is talking about.

Before I get into my main point, it's worthwhile to say that much of the coldness is due to many church member simply being unconverted. Lost people aren't going to get excited about the Lord's work, nor will they be willing to give up much of their life to be involved. This is a huge problem and one that must be addressed with urgency. People need to repent and live for Christ, and churches need to demand repentance from their members and boot those that live in sin and apathy. It is an easy fix, if only people would follow the Lord's directions. I'd like to move on though, not because this is unimportant, but because I want to focus on the more subtle problem facing real Christians.

So, for the real Christians, the truly born-again, why is it generally hard to get excited about Christian ministry? I suggest that it's because most churches are operated in such a way that they replace Christ's objectives with poor substitutes. Jesus outlined his big picture for his disciples: a self-sacrificing life in service to the gospel (Mark 8:34-35). How exciting! We get to be a part of God's master plan! We get to join him in the work of saving souls! We get to form relationships more dear than family as we disciple people and teach them to follow Christ! These things are all truly grand and noble goals, worth living and dying for.

Yet, on any given Sunday, these are not the goals generally laid before the people. While churches in theory hold to the above goals, the goals in practice are much different: We want you to be a greeter. Can you serve in AWANA? Billy has a cold and needs someone to watch him. We need you to work nursery so parents can sit down and....listen...without their children. Invite your friends to outreach day! Come grill hot dogs for our outing. If you're one of the really spiritual ones, spend 6 years in seminary to learn public speaking and never preach to a single lost soul while you're there. We really need a new organ/piano/sound system, so give sacrificially! I could go on. In this system 95% of the money and human activity revolves around keeping a show or program running. Wait, what are we supposed to be doing again?

Is the picture becoming clear? If an American worked for a month to make 10 dollars, convinced he had a great job, we'd call him a fool. Yet, we have done the same thing on a much bigger scale. Christian ministry and service has been redefined in such a way that it is largely useless, self-replicating busy work. In practice, the grand goals that Christ set for the life of every individual has been replaced by a hamster wheel. When you define service, sacrifice, and taking up the cross as 'running on the hamster wheel', why should you be shocked to find that people are not excited? Yet, when Christian goals and service are properly defined (preaching the gospel to the lost and discipleship), a man will gladly sacrifice much of his life, knowing that the cause is worthy. Likewise, a woman who babysits six kids so her husband and his friend can go hand out tracts has much joy in her act of service.

I've done time on the hamster wheel before, so I know that it's endless and tiring. However, I can also tell you that real Christian service done for Jesus involves hard work and sacrifice, but it is also full of joy, contentment, and fulfillment. If you find yourself weary with service and on the verge of burning out, there's a good chance that you're running on a hamster wheel. Take a step back and re-evaluate what you're doing. Men will give you activities and tell you that you're serving Christ when you're actually just serving their program. Instead, spend some time in Scripture and in prayer, see what the Lord wants for your life (hint: I talked about it in the third paragraph). Life is short and there's a grand battle to be fought. Don't waste another second.

How to personally fulfill the great commission

        In a previous entry, I dealt with the error of people who want to treat the great commission as a passive command, or one that only applies to certain Christians. Today I'd like to focus on a similar topic, but from a different angle. As we understand the great commission to be actively followed, how should we fulfill it? Do you need to be witnessing door-to-door? Do you have a specific quota to fill each week? Are you sinning if your friend preached the gospel to 10 people, but you 'only' witness to 4 people? These are the things I now seek to help you understand: What to preach, how to preach, when to preach, and to whom you should preach. 

        What should you preach? This one's easy. In fact, every real Christian knows this, but sometimes you can get confused by all the nonsense out there. The gospel is defined in 1 Cor. 15:1-11. Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again the third day. It's that simple. That is the gospel, and your main message. Now, if you read the gospels and Acts, paying attention to how people shared the gospel with others, you'll notice that the gospel is explained often in context of the law. It's worth saying that the law is not the gospel, but is necessary to understand the importance of the gospel because it helps people to understand their sinful state before God. Therefore, I suggest that any time you preach the gospel to someone, you should start with a discussion of sin, the law, and hell. Especially with the self-righteous religious people so common in America, you need to help them to understand they are lost before they will even have a chance to repent. If you want some examples, check out the videos located at: http://wayofthemaster.com/watchwitnessing.shtml or anything by Ray Comfort. Don't worry about the specifics or copying their “script”, but pay attention to the main points that are discussed. You'll also see examples of how to be firm, direct, and compassionate with the lost.

        How should you preach? Compassionately, zealously, with love. Pray much, know that as long as you're preaching the gospel, the Lord is working alongside you (Matt. 28:20). Don't minimize or dodge unpopular issues. Be firm on preaching sin. Most people have one or two “big” sins that define them. If you find out what they are, camp there, insist that they repent of those specific sins. Expect most people to hate you. They hated Christ, and you aren't going to be better at preaching the gospel than Him (John 15:18-20) . Don't forget that lost people are not the enemy. When they yell or react negatively, don't get angry at them, but pity them. They are lost souls that haven't been set free. They are lost and they will act like it. If a homeowner was angry at a firefighter for getting his house wet, the firefighter wouldn't stop trying to put the fire out. Don't wimp out when it gets tough. There is an enemy, you know. There are presumably plenty of demons and assuredly few people faithfully preaching the gospel. If you start, you can bet on the enemy trying to shut you down and discourage you.

        That covers motivations and attitude, but how about method? We have some examples in Scripture. Jesus preaches publicly to crowds at times. Other times, he approaches individuals with the intent of preaching the gospel to them. No particular method is commanded, and we see many different ones practiced in the Bible. One can only conclude that there's much freedom on how to evangelize. Tracts, open air preaching, 1-to-1 conversations, door-to-door, letter writing, chat rooms, movies/TV, etc. All of these and more can be valid ways to preach the gospel. Take some time to think about your preferences, special opportunities in your area, etc. and decide how you can spread the gospel. While none of these methods are wrong, some are better than others. For example, I think that in our culture it's very difficult to effectively communicate using open air preaching. Very few will stop and listen long enough to hear the gospel. Still, if you are inclined to preach open air, and are able to make it work, go for it! The only real requirement is that you actually have to be preaching the gospel. Doing charity work or having a good testimony is great, but nobody counts that as gospel preaching unless they're trying to justify their coldness. Unless you're somehow communicating to someone that they are a sinner, Christ died for their sins, and they need to repent, then you're not preaching the gospel.

        When should you preach? Only in season and out of season (2 Tim. 4:2). Or in other words, any chance you get. I strongly encourage everyone to seriously think about how you can make more effort to share the gospel with others. At the very least, get some good tracts (tracts that cover everything we talked about under the 'what' section and do not have a sinner's prayer on them) and give them out at the store and at restaurants. It may not seem like much, but it really makes a difference! Now, let's be clear, there's no quota or anything that says you have to witness to 100 people each month or you're a bad Christian. With that said, if you are feeling fine, but skip out on evangelism to watch TV or something, make no mistake, you're sinning (James 4:17). You should try to witness as best as you can while balancing other areas of life. Yes, there's an imminent need for people to preach the gospel, and yes there are souls at stake. Still, you will be useless to the Lord if you burn out or damage your family through negligence. For more info, a friend of mine wrote a really good article on finding balance that you can find on his website. I'll give another short, but important bit of advice: make sure you have strong Christian fellowship! This is fun and exciting work, but also draining. Find other Christians that are sharing the gospel. Swap stories with them, pray for each other, plan activities together if possible. If you can't find someone like that in your church, find a new one! If you can't find someone like that at all, then contact me!

        To whom should you preach? Sinners. You pretty much can't go wrong here. There are a few exceptions that I'll note. First, there's the whole “don't cast pearls before swine” thing. This isn't an excuse to not share the gospel, but guidance on when to walk away. The key is the second part of the verse, “lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you” (Matt. 7:6). In other words, if you're talking to someone and they tell you to stop, or start threatening violence (vocally or body language), just walk away and find someone else to talk to. Or, a more likely scenario, if someone gets argumentative and stops listening, it's fine to just walk off. Sometimes you may just have to use your best judgment on this one. The point is, you'll never run out of sinners to preach to. It's silly to waste your time on someone who's angry and not listening.

        Second, generally avoid preaching at work. You're not being paid to talk, but to do your job. Besides, there's a real possibility of getting in trouble these days if you open your mouth. Don't lie or deny it, but there's nothing wrong with using a little wisdom and discretion. I've met people who rarely/never preach the gospel in their free time, but they get in trouble at work because they won't shut their mouth. That's just stupid. If there's a particular opportunity that you see with a co-worker, I recommend inviting them out to lunch and using that time to witness.

        That covers almost everything! Preaching the gospel is actually quite simple, we only make it hard with all the silly ideas that people have these days. Find a sinner, tell them about the savior. Do it as often as you can. That's the main thing: do something. I've seen so many churches go through evangelism training programs, revivals, etc. but only two weeks later, you can't find anyone in the church who is making any effort to personally preach the gospel to others. Read the gospels and Acts to see how Jesus and the apostles lived and preached. Follow their example and you can't go wrong.

Does the great commission apply to everyone?

        Lately I've run into quite a few people who are determined to change the meaning of the great commission as it applies to Christians today. This command, which should give us joy, excitement, meaning, and purpose is seen as grievous by some. I can only assume that this stems from an over-attachment to this world with its temporary pleasures and comforts, fear of men, or plain laziness. Whatever the motives are for these attacks, I think it's worthwhile to frame some responses. The accusations generally fall into two main categories which I'll tackle here.

• The great commission only applied to the twelve, not the rest of us. 

        If you claim that the great commission applied only to the twelve, we have to ask the question, “which other commands only apply to them?” Perhaps the command to love one another was only intended for the original hearers. Nonsense. It's interesting to note though that people who make this claim refuse to apply their logic across the board. They only want to cherry pick the one commandment that they don't like. The answer to this objection lies right in the commission itself: “teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you”. Surely this commission is also included in “all things”. Also note that there's no way the twelve could have fulfilled this command on their own, and they certainly didn't.
        Let's also look at the rest of Jesus' ministry. He called every one of his disciples, not just the twelve, to follow him. He spent years showing them first hand how to minister to others, specifically in preaching the gospel. Obviously, the twelve had a special mission, but it was special only in scope and specificity. There is no indication anywhere in Scripture that there were certain commands that didn't apply to other Christians. In fact, this idea runs contrary to passages like Gal. 3:28 that state all Christians are equal. When Jesus wants something done, he doesn't only use a special group of people (contrary to the clergy/laity division you see in churches), but the Lord delights in using 'average' people to perform his work.
        Finally, we can see this claim as nonsense from the testimony of the early church. Much of Acts focuses on specific instances of the apostles, mostly Paul. Still, if you're paying attention, you'll notice that most of the spread of the gospel is accomplished by the average rank and file Christians. For example, see Acts 8:1 (notice the apostles stayed in Jerusalem, but others fled during persecution) and compare this will Acts 11:19-20. Recall that the first martyr wasn't an apostle or church leader, but a regular guy. As a deacon Stephen was to be in charge of taking care of widows and the poor. Apparently, even with this heavy charge on his shoulders, he was convinced it was important for him to go out and preach the gospel to people. We could go on. Acts and the epistles tell a unified story. The early churches had plenty of problems, but zeal in preaching the gospel was not one of them.

• The great commission isn't properly translated, it should be more passive. 

        Of the two accusations, I come across this one less frequently. Nevertheless, it has apparently found a home in the heart of plenty of people. This actually begs a deeper question that I want to touch – which Bible do you trust? It's not just an issue of different ways to say things, but revolves around trust in God's promises to preserve his word in the hands of Christians (ex. Ps. 12:7). For a more full treatment see #6 of The Ten Deadly Heresies. Since I hold to the Textus Receptus (from which the KJV is translated), I'll use it as the base for my discussion.
        So does the KJV translate the great commission improperly? One proposed rework that I've seen recently suggests that it should read more like: “as you are going, make disciples...”. Therefore, they say, there's no need to actively preach the gospel to others. Just go through life as you normally would, except live a little better, and maybe tell someone about Christ if they ask. Booorrring! Do you really think that's all that Christ asks of us? When Jesus calls us to lay down our life for the sake of him and the gospel (Matt. 10:39), do you really think he's just going to clean you up and then send you off in basically the same direction of life that you were going? What about the command to deny ourselves, to strive as faithful soldiers of the cross? (ex. Matt.16:24) None of this makes any sense if the battle for the gospel is merely passive.
        Now that we've looked at how the proposed understanding doesn't mesh with other parts of Scripture, let's deal with the proposed translation itself. First, I would remark that even if we grant the assumption that this new translation is correct, it still wouldn't justify the conclusion that sharing the gospel is passive. It would just make it sound like Jesus is assuming they're going to preach the gospel. After all, where else would they go, and what would they do? The Lord has just spent years teaching them to minister to others, even if Jesus gave the commission phrased like this, the disciples would still understand it perfectly. Again, if you try to make the case that the great commission was passive, a simple reading of Acts makes it perfectly clear that nobody understood it that way, but they all knew it was something to be done actively by each Christian.
         There's one final point I'll make on this. If this is truly the “correct translation” as decided by so many pastors who took one year of Greek courses online, why are you hard pressed to find any translation that renders it this way? Really, there's so much variety in modern translations, with some even removing whole passages and significantly changing others. If the translation is so uncertain, surely there's someone out there willing to translate it 'correctly'. Not really. I checked all the major modern translations and some historical, Geneva, ESV, NASB, NRSV, NIV, NLT, etc. and even a few very liberal translations. Of about 20 different translations that I checked, nearly all of them rendered the passage actively, as in the KJV. I found one exception in an obscure version that I had never even heard of before. Isn't that interesting. Even modern scholars, who are willing to change/question significant parts of the Bible, all agree on the translation of the great commission. I'm not saying that a modern translation would justify the argument, but if this idea is to be accepted, shouldn't you be able to find someone who has put serious effort into understanding the translation process who would agree to this rendering? Their argument fails on even this 'bare minimum' test. Without little/no suppport from any real translator, historical or modern, to support this position, I can only conclude that this idea is mostly championed by people who know just enough Greek to be dangerous, who use it to justify their cold heart towards the Lord and their fellow men.
        There's a good lesson here. In general, you should always get very skeptical when someone takes your Bible and tries to say what it really means in the original language. Translators, especially historic ones, were not stupid or careless, but devoted their life to their studies. If you've ever struggled with this type of thing I highly recommend doing some reading on God's preservation of the Bible. If you've been clinging to various excuses to justify your cold attitude, repent and seek to follow the Lord without reservation. I'll make another post soon which should be helpful in understanding your part in the Lord's work.