Worldly Methods Produce Worldly Results. 

The Bible teaches that even truly converted ministers of Christ - who will themselves enter Heaven in the last day - may spend their lives proclaiming the Gospel in the wrong way, and consequently reap a harvest of false ‘converts’. Speaking about men who are sound on foundational or fundamental doctrines, and who set out to spread the Gospel Paul says - Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it… and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is … If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved (1 Corinthians 3.12-15). The tragedy of building churches with wood, hay and stubble only to have one’s work come to nothing at the last day is a serious possibility for all Christian workers. So the apostle warns - let every man take heed how he build. From the Creation the principle has been laid down that creatures beget after their own kind (Genesis 1.24-5), and it is an evident and disturbing fact that worldly evangelism has tended to produce ‘pop Christian’ converts who rarely forsake the world. While there will doubtless be exceptions to this observation, the operation of a Gospel-pop style of outreach in a church usually gives rise to an unintegrated clique of young people, most of whom never find a place in the regular worship, ministry and service of the local church. The Lord says - Either make the tree good, and his fruit good,. or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt (Matthew 12.33). Apart from the risk of false converts or badly scarred true converts, there is another terrible source of harm which comes into churches when worldly methods are adopted. The confidence tricksters and crooks appear in great numbers. The atmosphere of the world always attracts such people, as Bunyan shows in his picture of Vanity Fair: Therefore at this fair are all such merchandise sold as houses, lands, trades, places, honours, preferments, titles, countries, kingdoms, lusts, pleasures; and delights… And moreover at this fair there is at all times to be seen jugglings, cheats, games, plays, fools, apes, knaves and rogues, and that oral sorts. 

Phonies and Opportunists 

Since evangelicals have admitted carnal Christianity wholesale there has been a great increase in the number of opportunists and false pretenders. Vast numbers of people who parade on church platforms or make Gospel-pop records have no credible testimony at all. One only has to listen to their ’spiritual’ conversations to discover how shallow their statements are. A few years ago an evangelical magazine carried the testimony of a ‘converted’ rock performer. How had he become a Christian? One day he was performing on the stage, feeling lonely, dejected and depressed, when, turning round, he ’saw’ Christ on the stage behind him, also playing a guitar and helping him by putting in the chords which the young man missed! That was his conversion. From that moment he was certain that Jesus would help him in everything he did, but there was no element of conviction of sin or repentance in his experience at all, and his worldly lifestyle went on unchanged. Perhaps this young man was just sadly deluded, but many in his position are deliberate tricksters. They make trade out of facile conversion experiences and get a good living from Gospel pop. It is all rather obvious that they are very worldly people in tastes and behaviour, yet their records are played constantly on evangelical broadcasts and in church youth groups and they are personally present at numerous evangelical special services and crusade meetings. Many Gospel-pop enthusiasts advance the old argument that we should identify with and use the current fashions and interests of society in order to reach the people. They ask, ‘Did not Paul say that he would become all things to all men in order that he might save some? [1 Corinthians 9.22]. Surely this means that we must fit in with what people like to hear in order to get a hearing for the Gospel?’ But when Paul wrote these words he was talking about preaching (as he says very clearly in the preceding verses). He said that in his preaching and witnessing he always tailored his message to suit the level of understanding of his hearers. He always spoke appropriately. The apostle’s words are wrenched completely out of context when they are used to justify worldly methods of evangelism. The solemn lesson of the last twenty years is that worldly methods yield worldly results, and we may be sure that our enemy, the devil, will give every encouragement to methods which will ruin the rising generation in our churches. Gospel pop enthusiasts will therefore have no resistance from Satan. What is claimed as ‘blessing’ by advocates of entertainment-style evangelism mostly turns out to be short-lived and spurious. Where there are true conversions it is due to the mercy of God, and is but a token of what would be possible if carnal methods had not caused God to withhold His hand.