This question cannot be easily answered. There are many factors which contribute to this sad phenomenon. The prominence of this scourge within Christ’s church today has undoubtedly caused many unbelievers to stumble and therefore not take the gospel seriously. No doubt, stories could be told until the end of time about its damaging effects, especially so of its key attribute, religious hypocrisy. And one thing is clear about the latter; our Lord hated it and preached against it more than any other sin (Matthew 7:21-23; 23:13-39)!
Unregenerate church members are typically noticed by their chronic and overt religious hypocrisy. Our Lord’s parables of the wheat and the tares (Matthew 13:24-30) and the sheep and goats (Matthew 25:31-46) reveal this. But it’s the modern church, through its pragmatic and man-centered ministry methodology, through its love-affair with unscriptural pet-traditions, and through its failure to truly preach the gospel and practice Biblical Church discipline (Matthew 18:15-20; 1 Corinthians 5:1-13); who is the real culprit.
As a once youthful minister who is now getting along in age, I continue to learn and re-learn the hard lesson gleaned from the church problems cited above – namely, that both believers individually and their churches corporately, do not like to have their ministry methodology “tested” by Scripture (despite the clarity of Acts 17:11; 1 Thessalonians 5:21; and 1 John 4:1). Why? Because the accepted mantra, “if it works, then leave it alone” (That is, “The end justifies the means”) is never to be challenged.
In other words pragmatism, not Biblicism rules the church in our day. Nowhere is this “do not test” attitude more prevalent than when one questions the Biblical validity of that well-worn institutional method called the “invitation or altar-call”. A debate which is not over whether we should invite people to Christ, but over whether we must invite them to “come forward to do so”. Iain Murray wisely responds to the pragmatists in our day, “Because giving an invitation is simply a question of method … the practice itself compels debate”. In such a debate, two components of this system quickly become clear: First, its rejection of the truth behind its historical origin, and second, its refusal to admit to an inherent pragmatism. As to the former, very few people today are even aware that Charles Finney (the father of this method) admitted at the end of his life, “I was often instrumental in bringing Christians under great conviction, and into a state of temporary repentance and faith … they would soon relapse into their former state”.
The real issue here is, can Biblical support be found for such methodology? Not whether the Sovereign Lord of the universe can save His elect (Luke 18:7; 2 Timothy 2:10) through the unscriptural methods employed by man-centered pragmatists – all true believers know that He can and does (Acts 13:48)! However, this does not give us the right to err in this way (2 Timothy 2:15). Instead, let us be faithful to Scripturally call all unsaved men, women, boys and girls to Christ each day (Psalm 96:2; 2 Corinthians 5:18-21), while trusting Him alone to bring conviction of sin. Further, we must also trust Him to give repentance and saving faith to all who hear the gospel through us (2 Timothy 2:25; Ephesians 2:8-9)! Dear child of God, may God help us all to be willing to have any area of our life or any aspect of our church’s ministry come under the lens of Scripture. This is Biblical humility – and God gives grace to the humble (James 4:6)…
Jerry Marcellino is pastor of Audubon Drive Bible Church in Laurel. He can be reached by e-mail at pastorjerry@audubonchurch.org
For more information on Audubon Drive Bible Church, or to view Pastor Marcellino’s sermons online, visit: www.youtube.com/adbcvideoministry
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