The Honesty Road Dilemma
by Ray Comfort

The man looked to the heavens and shouted obscenities at Jesus Christ that would make your hair curl. He concluded his conversation by telling the Lord to strike him dead. He then turned to me and screamed, "Nothing happened!" I thought, "Yes it did. You have just stored up wrath, which will be revealed on the Day of Wrath."

Why would a man lack any fear of God? I believe it's because we insist on telling a sinful world that God loves them and has a wonderful plan for their lives. This is the gospel according to the contemporary Church. We give the world a choice: Do they choose God's wonderful plan, or is their own life's plan more wonderful?

But isn't God's plan for them wonderful? Your idea of "wonderful" and the world's may be a little different. Take them through the pages of the Book of Acts and show them the terrifying scene of boulders breaking the bones of Stephen. Then smile and whisper "Wonderful..." Listen together to the "wonderful" sound of a "cat of nine tails" as it rips the flesh off the back of the Apostle Paul. Follow together the word "suffering" through the Epistles, and see if you can get the world to whisper "Wonderful!" After such a ride down Honesty Road, they may think the pleasures of sin are a little more attractive than the call to "suffer affliction with the people of God."

Who in the world is going to listen if we are so blatantly honest about the Christian life? Perhaps not as many as are attracted by the dishonest talk of a wonderful plan. However, the answer to our dilemma is to make the issue one of righteousness, rather than happiness. This is what Jesus did. He used the Ten Commandments to show sinners the righteous standard of God (see Luke 10:25 and Luke 18:18). Once the world sees the perfect standard by which they will be judged, they will begin to fear God, and through the fear of the Lord, men depart from sin (Proverbs 16:6). They will begin to hunger and thirst after the righteousness that is in Jesus Christ alone.

If you study the New Testament you will see that God's love is almost always given in direct co-relation to the Cross: Herein is love, For God so loved, God commended His love, etc. The Cross is the focal-point of God's love for the world. How can we point to the Cross without making reference to sin? How can we refer to sin, without the Law (see Romans 7:7)? The biblical way to express God's love to a sinner is to show him how great his sin is (using the Law--see Romans 7:13, Galatians 3:24), then give him the grace of God in Christ. This was the key to reaching so many on the Day of Pentecost. They were "devout" Jews who knew the Law and its holy demands, and therefore readily accepted the grace of God to escape its fearful wrath.

When you use the Law to show the world their true state, get ready for sinners to thank you. For the first time in their lives, they will see the Christian message as an expression of love and concern for their eternal welfare, rather than of merely proselytizing for a better lifestyle while on this earth.

The Bible tells us that Judas led a "multitude" to Jesus. His motive however, wasn't to bring them to the Savior for salvation. Modern evangelism is also bringing "multitudes" to Jesus. Their motive may be different from the motive of Judas, but the end result is the same. Just as the multitudes that came to Christ under the direction of Judas fell back from the Son of God, statistics show that up to 90% of those coming to Christ under the methods of modern evangelism, fall away from the faith. Their latter end becomes worse than the first. They openly crucify the Son of God afresh.

In their zeal without knowledge, those who prefer the traditions of modern evangelism to biblical evangelism betray the cause of the gospel with a kiss. What may look like love for the sinner's welfare, is in truth eternally detrimental to him.

Like Peter, our zeal without knowledge is actually cutting off the ears of sinners. Those we erroneously call "backsliders" won't listen to our reasonings. As far as they are concerned, they have tried it once, and it didn't work. What a victory for the prince of darkness, and what an unspeakable tragedy for the Church!