A Non -Threatening Message - Glenn Conjurske
A Non-Threatening Message
by Glenn Conjurske
Not long ago an acquaintance informed me that the evangelical church which he attends invites strangers in to hear “a non-threatening message.” Not long after this I heard from his wife that they were trying to get to know the people at the church, but that this was a little hard, as they were “just coming in off the street from everywhere.” This “non-threatening message,” then, is evidently one of the keys to success. This should come as no surprise to those who know the truth, for in spiritual matters compromise is always a key to success. “Men love darkness rather than light.” Light, in its very nature, threatens darkness, and those who love darkness will scarcely tolerate this. Much less will they come to the light, “For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.” (John 3:20).
But to be short, anyone who preaches a “non-threatening message” must assume that sin is of little consequence. Either man does not love it, or God does not hate it. It is, in fact, no issue. The gospel does not present a “sin question,” but a “Son question.” Men may be saved without dealing with their sins. They may be saved from hell without being saved from their sins. Salvation by faith evidently has nothing to do with believing the Bible, for as a plain matter of fact, the Bible is full of threatenings. The apostles of Christ evidently knew nothing of any non-threatening message.
Paul says, “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.” (I Cor. 16:22). This would seem to threaten those who love him not.
Paul writes again, “And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.” (II Thes. 1:7-9). We suppose that those who obey not the gospel might feel “threatened” by such language.
Peter informs us, “But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” (II Pet. 3:7). We see not how ungodly men could fail to be much threatened by such a message.
“Woe unto them!” says Jude, with little ceremony, “for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core. These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.” (Jude 11-13). We suppose this might be considered a threat.
There is no need to enlarge. Who that has ever read the Bible could dream of finding a non-threatening message in it? Those who preach such things must first throw the Bible overboard—-half of it, at any rate, and if we may throw half of it overboard at pleasure, what reason is their in retaining the other half? We think rather with the great George Whitefield, “If you would have Christ as good as his word of promise, remember he will be as good as his word of threatening.” This is no more than reason.
How anyone who believes in death and hell as the wages of sin can preach a non-threatening message must remain one of the grand mysteries of the universe. And how a church which preaches such a message can call itself evangelical is another. We may be thought uncharitable, but for all that we frankly avow that though we put on all the charity and courtesy which we possess, and though we adopt the most non-threatening attitude of which we are capable, still we are obliged to affirm that “evangelical” in these degenerate times is too often but a soft term for “liberal.”
We might suggest an alternative to this non-threatening message. Such churches might dismiss such preachers, and look for a prophet of God. The former they might do in five minutes. Finding a prophet is another matter, for prophets are scarce, but we supppose that if folks are earnest about it, they might find or make one, given time enough. And having done that, they might print up some such invitations as the following:
Come and Hear the Preaching
of the
PURE WORD OF GOD,
Which will threaten & thrash & torment you,
Until you FORSAKE YOUR SINS,
& submit to THE CLAIMS OF CHRIST.
Ah, you say, but this would defeat the purpose. This would keep the people from coming. We are not so sure of that. It would at any rate elicit the respect of serious souls, while the namby-pamby twaddle which is commonly preached by Evangelicals, coupled with the cheap subterfuges which they use to trick people into hearing it, excites only contempt. We think the world itself may be sick of an anemic and half serious religion which requires nothing of them. Wise men are accustomed to value things in relation to their cost, and these at any rate are likely to perceive that a religion which costs nothing is worth nothing. It is a historic fact that liberalism has emptied the churches, while the preaching of the prophets of God has drawn the people. John the Baptist preached no “non-threatening message” when he ushered in “the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,” (Mark 1:1) with such things as, “O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” (Luke 3:7)—-and yet all Judaea went out into the wilderness to hear him.
From this it may appear that there are other keys to success besides softness and compromise. Faithfulness and plain speaking may succeed also. When Ananias and Sapphira were struck dead by the holy hand of God, the rest of the liars in the region, and all the ungodly in general, felt so “threatened” by this that “of the rest durst no man join himself to them”—-and yet for all that “believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.” (Acts 5:13-14).
Billy Sunday preached no “non-threatening message.” At the very outset of his career a reporter wrote of him, “He makes no compromise with the world, the flesh or the devil, and sends plenty of hot shot into the ranks of sinners.” And so he continued for many years. “He calls things by their right names, even if to do so he has to use words that almost burn and blister. It is doubtful if any living preacher can pour out such a stream of red-hot and sizzling adjectives to show the scorn and withering contempt he feels for all that bears the name of sin as Billy Sunday.” “Portraying most vividly, by word and action, the character of the sin he denounces, he shoots into the audience volley after volley of gospel hot shot, until many before him pale and tremble with conviction.”
This hardly looks “non-threatening.” And what was the result? The building never existed which was large enough to hold the crowds which came to hear him. Special trains ran from the outlying areas to the places of his meetings, for the sole purpose of bringing loads of passengers to hear him preach. Other activities were set aside while he was in town. “For more than seven weeks hundreds of business men had neglected their private affairs; for an equal period social engagements were disregarded or side-tracked,” while the whole populace flocked to hear Billy Sunday, who “flayed with scalding invective every sort of wickedness.”
And the people knew very well they would be flayed by his preaching. Many sinners therefore vowed never to attend. Others bolstered their vows with wagers, some betting a hundred dollars that they would never set foot in Sunday’s tabernacle. Yet for all that they went, losing their bet, and their hide too, for the prophet of God flayed them with the sword of the Spirit.
But perhaps I cloud the issue. Success is not the issue. We are bound to be faithful, success or no success. We are bound to threaten with everlasting perdition every sinner who will not repent of his sins. We are bound to preach that “if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die.” (Rom. 8:13). We are bound to proclaim that “the wages of sin is death,” and bound also to define “sin” just as Almighty God defines it. We are bound to proclaim with Paul that “the works of the flesh are manifest, which are THESE: Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and SUCH LIKE: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which DO SUCH THINGS shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Gal. 5:19-21). No doubt many will feel threatened by such a message. This will “threaten” even many “believers,” and “born-again” Catholics and Charismatics and Evangelicals and Fundamentalists, who confess the Lord in word, but in works deny him. These will certainly go away to greener pastures, where they may be rocked to sleep in the devil’s cradle, and taught that they may have their sins and heaven too. Ah, what a pleasant, dreamy sleep is this!—-but the awakening will be of another sort. We prefer to awaken men while yet they have space to repent. This may perchance curtail our success, but whatever success it brings us will at any rate be solid and enduring. Any other success is not worth having.