Reformed. Christianity. Evangelism. Modern Culture.
I know there are different voices in the wind whispering and pandering formulas to getting a revival in our times. One popular televangelist, Benny Hinn has proposed that the death of Billy Graham will truly open the flood gates of heaven. Well I don’t think people should be seeking out their pitch forks and hunting down poor ol’ Billy. You see, biblical illiteracy has reached very high levels in the church that anything goes these days. Critical Issues Commentary has an interesting post:
”For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8, 9)
A key idea in the contemporary evangelical movement is that revival can be engineered. The Purpose Driven Web site says, “Peter Drucker called him [Rick Warren] ‘the inventor of perpetual revival’ and Forbes magazine has written, ‘If Warren’s church was a business it would be compared with Dell, Google or Starbucks.’” The Purpose Driven movement can cite this business management guru approvingly only because they have a faulty theology of human ability. For example, Rick Warren says, “It is my deep conviction that anybody can be won to Christ if you discover the key to his or her heart. . . . It may take some time to identify it. But the most likely place to start is with the person’s felt needs.” If this were true one could use modern marketing principles to sell people on their need for Christian religion and convince them to convert in order to find satisfaction of their felt needs. But it is not true. …Read More!
I have had my fair share of altar calls. I have walked down many an aisle to the tune of an emotional appeal. These days preachers get converts after appealing for almost anything. Do you want a better house? A happy marriage? Do you think life is hard and your kids don’t finish their porridge? Here is what you can do they say: Just say this prayer and let Jesus into your heart. He will come in and make things alright. He is seriously knocking at that door and he really wants to come in. Wait a minute you say. There is no preaching about sin, no preaching about righteousness no repentance? Yup, sadly that is the state of evangelicalism. We have mega churches and therefore can accommodate more converts but … to what?
A while ago, William Franklin “Billy” Graham (one of the most recognisable Evangelical faces of the 20th Century) was said as of 1993 to have made more than 2.5 million people “step forward at his crusades to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour“. …Read More!
William Franklin “Billy” Graham has featured several times in TIME magazine and will remain one of the most recognisable faces of the 21st Century. A spiritual adviser to multiple American presidents and an avatar of Christianity on the six o’clock news. Billy Graham is believed to have preached in person to more people around the world than any other Protestant in history. It is said that as of 1993, more than 2.5 million people had “stepped forward at his crusades to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour“. As of 2008, Graham’s lifetime audience, including radio and television broadcasts, topped the 2.2 billion mark.
“Accepting Christ” and “making a decision” for Christ are clichés sprinkled all over church notice boards and statistics spread sheets and missions reports. These ambiguous yet glossy sounding expressions should always be run and tested by the Word of God to see if they align with sound teaching and doctrine. The modern day gospel has moulted and produced yet astronomically illustrious results highlighting numerous “decisions made for Christ.”
But what did Jesus tell Nicodemus? Read More
A Twisted Crown of Thorns ® 