Oh I get it now. This is one of those "Lifestyle Evangelist" Christians. They think if they treat people really well in life that eventually people will ask them about God and then they'll be saved. But these same people can't get anyone else saved because they don't know how they themselves got saved, because they don't know the Word of God and their churches are weak in the scripture.HouseMD wrote:I know enough to know that no one is good enough to pass through the gates of heaven, and it is by the grace of God we are saved. Your words tend to reek of self-righteousness, aggrandizing yourself and your knowledge. That is not, in my opinion, the way to go about things. I do good works. If it ever comes up, I let people know I am Christian, and that I do good in the name of Jesus and follow his example, albeit poorly. You sell salvation through fear rather than through hope, and that is not something by which I can abide.Adama wrote:Ouch. I'm personally offended by both of your comments. I am not complaining. I am informing you. Since you are both fellow Christians, also known as brothers, you should know not to proceed in this manner against me. I am your brother, not your enemy.HouseMD wrote:+1Ghost wrote:By threatening that they'll burn in hell if they don't believe your way?The_Adventurer wrote:How, then, do you get this person to realise there is only one right way?
But seriously, I've noticed that whenever someone is invoking God against others (because the others don't believe the "right" way) that the person is really just invoking his own ego. So when Adama says God's going to burn others in hell, what he's saying is he wants us to burn in hell. He's even said words to that effect - that he hopes others will burn in hell. Quite contrary to the idea of wanting to "save souls" and "win people for the kingdom." At the very least, you'd think his perspective would be one of seeing it as tragic, but he takes glee in it. And so I remember that when psychopaths invoke God, they are really just invoking their own ego.
Men like him just like to revel in their belief that no matter how awful their lives are right now, they're winning later. Schadenfreude is hardly virtuous.
So any time an active preaching Christian starts preaching to people, they get weirded out because you can't just start talking to people about God. You have to show them how awesome you are by doing your good works in front of them, and then those people will ask.
Too bad for those who ask these men still can't give the right answers because they are afraid of God's words. It is God's words which save. The most these guys can give to the unsaved is a nice story about getting saved, but they can't show anyone verses on getting saved because they themselves are afraid of the strength of God's words and are so afraid of even mentioning a word like "hell."
I used to work with a guy like that. He told me, "Don't you know we can't get others saved." I went home and posted to his FB: The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life: and he that winneth souls is wise.
God wants us to win the lost, not with lifestyle evangelism, which is weak, but WITH HIS WORDS, which are much more powerful than words of my own choosing.
Proverbs 11:30 The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.
Daniel 12:3 And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.
Romans 10:14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
Romans 10:15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
Proverbs 11:30-- tells us that the fruit of the believers is the tree of life (signalling everlasting life), and that those believers who convert others to believers are wise in God's eyes.
Daniel 12:3 ---tells us that the wise, meaning the soul winners, will shine bright, and those who were really good at soul winning will shine very bright.
Romans 10:14-15 ---tells us that a preacher must give them the word so that they can hear it, that we should go and preach the gospel of peace.
I love God's words. I do not fear using them to get people saved. Certainly you can use lifestyle evangelism, but how many people can you reach? And of those who are reached, how many can you convert with your own words when God's words are the ones that save? A person who uses God's words can get many more people saved than the Lifestyle Evangelists.
In order to get someone saved, you need to be able to show someone a verse, or you need to be able to quote verses FROM THE BIBLE. You can't get anyone saved without verses from the Bible. So anyone who thinks they can get someone saved without using God's words is either an unskilled Christian (who doesn't know their Bible AT ALL) or is not saved, or both.
(And that is why you have a hard time talking to people about the Lord. You don't know the Bible. Therefore you're not giving them God's Words. That's why you're ineffective at converting people. It is not because they've heard the fear doctrine because God Himself saves with fear and so do His prophets.)
And these LEs probably don't even know that the other half of their church is unsaved because the words preached to lifestyle Christians are so few because they prefer stories rather than the Word. (And many of their stories are of stuff that have nothing to do with the Bible at all.)