If you were to die tonight and you stood before God, and He asked you, “Why should I let you live forever with me in Heaven? What would your answer be?
I would submit this question is the quintessential evangelism technique to use when witnessing. It is open-ended, insightful, and forces people to clearly articulate their understanding of what it takes to enter a felicitous union with God.
I am deathly afraid most Evangelicals have no accurate, firm understanding of the Gospel and how to communicate effectively, both intramurally with fellow believers but more importantly to those who so desperately need it.
In my most recent YouTube post (https://youtu.be/ul725auHIVA), I attempted to demonstrate how Eric Dyson claims to speak as one of God’s anointed heralder is indicative of how so many in the African American Clergy community do not accurately communicate the Gospel. I submit men like Dyson display no fundamental understanding of what the Gospel truly represents.
If I am correct (and who writes or enters the public square not believing they are correct), then what you have is a classic of the blind being led by the blind, and hopefully, it is easily understandable what the final outcome is in that case. Both the false heralder and the recipient of the false Gospel both fall in the ditch (ditch=hell).
We are talking about matters of grave, grave concern. Matters, if not remedied before life expiration, will find many believing they were traveling on the narrow road only to be shocked to hear Jesus Christ say, “I never knew thee, depart from Me you worker of iniquities.”
Like so many from the Africa American Clergy, Dyson preaches what theologians coin as Black Liberation Theology. For those not familiar with Black Liberation Theology, telos (Greek word for end, goal) is Black deliverance from oppression. Please note this is an Earthware orientation instead of the Heavenward orientation the true Gospel promises and will ultimately deliver.
I am just speaking from personal experience and observation, but the majority of the African American preachers I am aware of do not correctly understand the Gospel. They preach akin to the theology behind Campus Crusade Gospel understanding. The language of the Campus Crusade Evangelistic message is “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.”
I challenge anyone to demonstrate convincingly where the Bible espouses such an Evangelistic posture. The Gospel is also not the Four Spiritual Laws (https://www.gotquestions.org/four-spiritual-laws.html). The Gospel must always be grounded in the proper context. The mere fact that many do not adequately ground their Gospel presentation leads many people to either reject the Gospel outright or, if they happen to assent it intellectually, produces a false faith profession.
I feel it necessary to address what I understand as a more significant problem and address it more fully in a separate blog post. I submit to you the Evangelistic Ministry of Billy Graham has done more immeasurable harm to the cause of God than anyone in Church history. Graham took his cue from the notorious false teacher Charles Finney. Charles Finney was a rank heretic. He believed if anyone could effectively gather positive confessions of faith if they only created the right conditions. It was Finney who honed the craft of the Altar Call still used today by so many in the Evangelical Church. It was Finney who popularized the Mourner’s Bench. Finney famously or better infamously understood the intoxicating power of Music. Finney knew the power of persuasion and crowd manipulation. Finney understood if he could combine all of these elements, people would be conditioned to respond positively to his public pleas for Decisions for Christ.
Graham followed the principles of Finney down to the finest detail. Franklin and all subsequent devotees of Finneyism always begin with an emotional plea accompanied by a heavy, heavy dose of dramatic music. What is most unconscionable are the plants (volunteers who work with the ministry) strategically located in the audience. These plants are located throughout the audience and are trained to come forward to prime the pump. Many people have come forward at a Billy Graham crusade, not because God has regenerated their sinful hearts but because they were caught up in the enthusiasm of the moment.
A fair question will always be why I chose to speak primarily about African American issues and not speak more generally or deal with matters of Caucasians. One can easily make the incorrect assumption I am giving Caucasians a pass, but nothing could be further from the truth. I fully understand the vast majority of Caucasians could never address the matters I discuss. There are not more than a handful of Caucasians Apologists that would dare to dissect and criticize Eric Dyson, and I am confident Dyson counts on that very understanding.
Our highly charged racial climate allows shills like Dyson and Sharpton to act with impunity. In fact, as of right now and maybe even in the future, many will choose to disregard my words due to my low platform. Yet, my relatively low platform will not deter me from speaking the truth into my sphere of influence. Maybe God will graciously grant me a more prominent platform, but perhaps He will not. My marching orders will be the same, no matter the platform God sovereignly grants.
I will continue to speak because speak is what God commissions His divinely appointed Emissaries and Ambassadors to do. God is the Potter, and as God’s emissary, I am His clay. I do not have any control of the expanse of my audience; my job is simply for God to find me faithfully manning my post. I will, from time to time, address the larger Evangelical community just as I choose to do by my slight detour to address Graham, but I will spend the majority of my time sounding the alarm of African American malfeasance.
I will do so because of the sheer volume of African American pathology. 77% of African Americans' homes have no father present. Over 85% of African American Evangelicals votes for Democratic Candidates. Same ethnicity murder in the African American community is THREE TIMES the rate of Caucasian and Hispanics COMBINED. African American females account for more than 35% of all abortions yet only constitute 6% of the U.S. population. African American boys and girls lag significantly behind their peers in standardized testing in our public school system. (Editor’s note: given the horrific academic performance record, it is mind-boggling African Americans vote, in the main, for the political party staunchly in opposition to School Choice).
But now, back to the ranch: How would you respond to the question that began this blog post?
If you were to die tonight and you stood before God, and He asked you, “Why should I let you live forever with me in Heaven?
If your answer includes responses like,
“I faithfully attend Church,”
“I love my family,”
“I keep the Law/Ten Commandments,”
“I don’t drink, smoke, or chew or go with girls who do,”
“I was baptized,”
“I live a moral life”
“I am a good person”
Then, I submit you have not demonstrated any cause for confidence, and I implore you to make positive you are in the faith BEFORE it is too late. The danger is no one knows how late it is for you. The tragic event of the building collapse in Florida last week is yet just another graphic reminder. Over 150 souls went to bed that Wednesday and stepped in eternity in an instant with no advance warning nor a chance for remedy once they took their last breath.
Regrettably, many in the professing Evangelical community indicate an abject failure to comprehend the essence of the Gospel correctly. The Gospel message begins with understanding the desperation of the human condition in conjunction with God’s demand for absolute holiness. Every descendant of Adam is indwelt with sin, making the situation impossible for humans to meet this demand. In a word, let to ourselves we are spiritually hopeless.
We are born spiritually DOA=Dead on Arrival. Consequently, it does not matter in the slightest how often you attend Church, how much you love your family, how vainly you attempt to keep the Law, how you nobly date people of good character, how you wisely decide to get baptized, how much you seek to live morally or how you ascribe to be a good person you will never reach God’s required standard which is Moral Perfection.
It is ontologically impossible due to the mere fact God judged the entire human race to spiritually present in Adam. So, when Adam transgressed, you and I transgressed. You might not necessarily like that or even know this is what the Bible teaches, but no one really is concerned with your opinion, especially me. One should only be concerned with what is God’s revelation in the matter.
Additionally, Evangelicals should be the last ones to complain as this exchange is precisely the basis of God imputing Jesus Christ’s righteousness to our account. All of humanity was present in Adam and thus subject to eternal death and torment, and all of those who and only those are in Christ find divine rescue from the aforementioned eternal death and torment.
Hence, it is imperative we understand the Bad News if most people are to understand the severe gravity of the situation. I point to an excellent example by Jesus Christ in Luke 13
Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4 Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
Clearly, those present at that time expected Jesus Christ to express horror at such a tragedy befalling those Pilate mercilessly slaughtered or that a tower fell and eighteen souls entered eternity in an instant through no fault of their own. Instead, Jesus Christ focused on what all must focus on, which is repentance. Yet, this is not the message you will hear from the Eric Dysons of the Evangelical Left.
In closing, I would answer the Evangelistic question in this fashion:
I would respond to God,” I have trusted in the finished work of your dear Son for the remission of my sins,” period, full-stop, and end of story.” Nothing about anything I have done because I can never do enough. In fact, even the good things I happen to do are considered “filthy rags” by God.
God regards my good (humanly speaking) as filthy rags because He knows me perfectly. He knows the innermost desires and secret musings of my black heart. I can never do anything good of an absolute pure motive. That is just how adverse the human condition truly is for every descendant of Adam.
We are hopelessly in bondage to sin. Because of His active and passive obedience, Jesus Christ stands as the only means of reconciliation between sinful man and a thrice-holy God.
This understanding is not what most preachers communicate in most pulpits in the Evangelical Church. This is not the typical Gospel understanding for many when they share or understand the Gospel.
Listening to professing preachers like Eric Dyson will lead many to eternal damnation. I hasten to add the following names of African American Preachers that you should absolutely avoid.
Creflo Dollar
TD Jakes
Eddie Long
Fred Price
Al Sharpton Jeremiah Wright
I refuse to include any females as the Bible explicitly forbids women from teaching or exercising authority over a man (1 Timothy 2:12). I know in our very liberal and highly feminized culture, many will reject this premise, but my conscience is held captive to the Word of God.
As always, let me know what you think. Until then, keep your hands to the plow and seek to serve for an Audience of One.