Comment addressed to me on a Christian blog today”

Ya know, Daniel, I do not need to talk to people about their sins.  I only want to talk to people about the Savior that loved me enough to come and assist me in living a successful life on this earth.
Once the people I talk with about my LORD and Savior and what He is to me and done in my life, it is then up to Him, through the power of His Holy Spirit to bring conviction for sin upon those whom He chooses.

Beating people down with all the sin I look for in their lives is really NOT my job.

My response:

Somebody needs to confront the person needing salvation with the sin issue, since it IS after all, the central issue that the message of the gospel addresses. I find nowhere in the Bible that says Jesus died to change your temporal life. If you do, let me know. You are free to tell (or NOT tell) people whatever you want, of course. Just don’t claim to be sharing a gospel message that has the ‘power to save’ when you fail to address the issue of sin. (Paul’s definition, after all).

The blog thread wasn’t really about evangelism, not even close, but we all know about ‘rabbit trails’. A ‘familiar atheist’ had once again complained about the ‘cruel God’ that commanded the slaying of groups of people in the OT (not the thread topic either), and the subject of ‘judgment’ had surfaced. To no one in particular I commented that:

Anyone who wakes up in Hell has only himself/herself to blame and everyone who wakes up in Heaven has only God to thank.

Somehow that prompted my friend to make his remarks about not needing to speak of sin and my subsequent response. Lest you think I was somehow unkind, this same man has told me the same thing over the last couple of years, even when I emphasized that I was only emphasizing the central issue the gospel message addresses being the issue of sin. For some reason even talking about sin is ‘looking’ for all the sin in their live and beating them over the head with it.

I’m not sure what causes this particular phenomena  to appear, but I see it often. I cannot claim innocence either, for there was a time when I felt the same way as my friend. I like to think I outgrew it with careful Bible study and learning that I had been duped by being told how we all have this marvelous ‘free will’ that by nature has the ability to come to Christ. I

I’ll stand by my conviction that ‘sin’ is the main issue that has to be gotten to (by somebody). At the same time I am convinced that we will meet many in heaven who think that their ‘natural free will’ got them there!

Be blessed!