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Apologetics and Evangelism A forum for practical Christianity centered on answering the tough questions posed to our faith as well as sharing the gospel of Christ. This forum is for Christians to help Christians.

 
 
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Old Nov 3rd 2009, 10:32 PM
murrare murrare is offline
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murrare a couple of folk like your posting style
Motivation

I'm posting this as a spin-off of what was talked about in another post, but rather than hijacking the other post, I'll start a new one.

Jesus told us to make disciples. That's clear. Everything past that can get a little fuzzy, including what our motives should be. What should our primary motives be behind making disciples? I've come across a variety of teachings when it comes to this. Some of the motives I've heard are:
-concern for the sinner's well-being
-to rescue people from hell

To me, that seems like a man-centered gospel. "What is man's benefit from God", so to speak. I've tended to start to shy away from those types of teachings, and this is my reasoning: God wants people to come to Him not because of what He can do for them, but because of simply Who He is.

I hear people all the time saying, "Look at your city and all the lost people in it. They are dropping into Hell every second of every day. Go do something! How could you not tell them about Christ?" I guess my first gut instinct would be to reply: "Because they don't care about God, nor do they want to know about him or hear about Him!" I know it's a harsh way to put it, but it is Biblically accurate that most people don't want anything to do with God. Romans 1, 2, and 3 tells us that.

So, should we warn people about Hell, even if they don't want anything to do with God? There are many "scare" videos online about hypothetical examples of people going to hell and then "blaming" you, their Christian friend, for never warning them... I'm not sure what I feel about that because them being in Hell is only just... you know? They got what they deserved, Biblically speaking. Sometimes when I focus heavily on Hell with a person, I feel like I'm trying to "save them from God" so to speak.

I think our motivation should be for people to glorify God, not to see people escape hell. Am I right? When a teacher tries to "pull at the heart strings" and tell us that we should warn people about hell so they won't have to endure the flames, I can't help but feel that the teacher is putting the "get out of jail free card" above the "glory of God" on the priority list. Am I making sense?

I've been listening to a lot of a "certain man's" sermons lately and I get the general sense that this man's primary objective when preaching the gospel is that God deserves it, period. No begging sinners to come to Him, no pleading for people to repent, just plain old gospel preaching and leaving it at that. I think this is the purest, most Biblically correct way to evangelize. It makes me think of Jesus and how He never, ever once begged someone to come to Him. He did the opposite - He turned away many who came to Him for the wrong reasons... "Are you sure you want to follow Me" was the jist of a lot of His messages!

I guess I've answered my own questions on this issue, but I would still like people's input as well. Thanks!
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