I repeat: LOVE is the central message of Christ- not confrontation.
1 Corinthians 4:20
1 Peter 3:
There are people who have used the confrontational methods suggested by Way of the Master- but is there actually any follow-up to see how effective this method is? How many people that they confront actually go on to attend Church regularly and become Bible-believing, baptized Christians?
Please answer the question- as Christians, we need to ensure that we are as effective as possible.
Please Know, this isn't meant to ridicule or attack you personally, but to show the error of the way of those who follow modern methodologies and attempt to justify based on number of decisions.....
What Verse says we are to Drag People into Church and make them converts using a false Gospel message designed to make them feel good about themselves? hmmm I know.....
MATTHEW 23:15
15Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single(Z) proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a(AA) child of(AB) hell[e] as yourselves. (ESV)
wow... heavy stuff there Doc....
And what Verse says that Evangelical Methodologies must produce great Numbers to be Biblical Methods? I can't think of one....
We are to Preach the Truth, the WHOLE TRUTH, and nothing but....
If we let up in any area or change the message to get more to join us, we are as guilty as the Pharisees who strain out the gnat but swallow the Camel.... (Matt 23:24)
In Fact the Single Greatest Evangelical Preacher who served as a Spiritual Adviser to 6 Presidents and lead the great number of Revivals and Preached the Gospel to the most people ever lead me into a false conversion... I wasn't truly saved until I was 17, but at 8 because of his Ministry I had a false sense of Salvation, and would have ended up sincerely in hell... convinced that all I had to do was make Jesus Lord and Savior....
but did I? NO!!!!
He was already Lord and Savior before He found me.... and if He had Rejected Me, He was still Lord and Savior.....
I needed to humble myself and beseech His Mercies for my great sinful state of which I was heretofore unrepentant of....
And that was only Possible because He had First Called Me.... He Chose me, and Unregenerate Unworthy Mess before the beginning of Creation He Knew Me, and He Chose me.... and I am still wrought with Sin, and He Chose me....
The Only Numbers that matter in the Bible are always of the Tribes of Israel and unless you follow Replacement Theology we aren't Israel..... (I could claim I partly am, as I'm 1/25th Jewish... that point aside, I will go with the Gentile side of me which greatly outnumbers that).... We are His under His Mercies and His Choosing, we are the Branches Grafted into the Tree... Not another Tree that has Supplanted the first.... Anyways... There are Numbers Applied to the any of the Places the Apostle Paul went....
and He Taught Repentance and Faith... and he was stoned, beaten, left for dead, had to flee at night over the wall, finally he was killed after serving years in House Arrest.... by the Numbers of Converts standard, he was a failure, because 2 people departed his company during House Arrest and 2 others he had once held fellowship with became False Teachers....
and then there's Jesus.... He lost 70 on one day, He lost all 12 in a single Night(Judas betrayed him, the other 11 Fled), and He was Crucified....and then he Was Resurrected, afterword He gained the 11 back, and many more, but he still must have totally lost some of the 70.....
so Jesus and Paul failed the test.... the same can be said for Peter, James, and the 10 other Apostles and Matthias the Replacement for Judas....
Or we fail because we base Spiritually on Numbers like it's another Business Model to follow and we will have success.....
I am still amazed after all this... GOD REACHED DOWN TO EARTH AND HE CHOSE me!!!!!!