The Bible is explicit regarding the desperate consequences of sin, the reality of eternal punishment, the urgency of the gospel, and God’s command for people to place their dependence on the finished work of Christ for forgiveness of their sin and restoration to God.

I sat across the table from a young man with whom I have been having Bible studies for about two months—I will call him Dave. He was not a believer but clearly interested in the gospel message. I did not need to cajole him to meet with me. We had been working through The Exchange—a four part gospel presentation that starts with the holiness of God, moves on to the justice of God, then the love of God, and finishes with the gospel message of grace. It is an excellent presentation that introduces people to the nature of God and appropriately emphasizes the nature of sin.

I have found as I do these studies with people that they are often ready to trust Christ after the third study, but not the case with Dave. He answered every question. He explained back to me what the holiness of God is and the condemning nature of his sin. He clearly understood what Christ did on the cross.

“Are you ready to place your trust in Christ?” I asked.

“I am not sure yet. I don’t think I am quite ready.” he responded.

I knew that his sister, brother-in-law and other family members had also been sharing Christ with him. I marveled that he could be so close and not yet there.

The next week as I finished the final Bible Study, I diligently prayed as we conversed. I was afraid Dave would delay again. I have always dreaded this. The more people put off the final step of trusting Christ, the more opening there is for Satan to snatch away the seed of the word of God sown in their hearts.

So I prayed as I talked. Then the thought crossed my mind that Dave understood the gospel, but he did not yet fully understand the urgency and desperate nature of his present condition. He saw trusting Christ as—for lack of a better term—optional. He did not yet comprehend that rejecting the gospel message is disobedience to the direct command of God—it adds sin on sin and is THE sin that sends someone to hell. And it’s hell that he is missing too!

We have reacted to abuses of the past.

The canned gospel presentations of the past, especially in certain realms of fundamentalism and evangelicalism, were manipulative presentations designed to get people to pray a gospel affirming prayer—whether they truly understood it or meant it or not. Such presentations led to bitterness, false professions, and in the worst cases, a false sense of security based upon a false profession of faith.

It became a psychological ploy rather than a true work of the Holy Spirit in the heart. It became “prayerism” equating the salvation moment to the uttering of a prayer as if the prayer were some sort of magic spell if the words were spoken in just the right way. Often, it was just annoying, with some people praying just to get this guy out of their face and away from their front door.

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