Matthew 5:1-3 – Now when he saw the crowds, Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down.  His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them, saying:

“If you died tonight, do you know where you’d go?”

What’s that?  You mean Jesus never used the threat of hell to pigeonhole people into making a decision to follow Him?  That’s not what my MERV says! (FYI – before you go running out to your nearest Christian bookstore looking for you very own MERV, relax – it’s not real)

Last week I shared how a report on Teen Mania’s misuse of statistics in order to shock people into action got me thinking about the way evangelicals love to use alarm, shock, and urgency in order to persuade people to repent and motivate believers to action.  I have seen how evangelism strategies can focus on dangling hell as a threat in order to awaken people to their need for Jesus, how books about the end times can frighten people into not wanting to be “left behind,” and how Christian culture warriors can sound the alarm about various menacing secular movements that threaten to destroy Christianity as we know it and kidnap our young people’s devotion.  And frankly, I’m shocked and alarmed by all this shock and alarm.  Yes, my friends, I think it’s time to sound…

A Call to Arms!!!  The Biblical Jesus is being hijacked by Christians and something must be done about it!!!  If you don’t read this post and agree with me, the loving Jesus you know will CEASE TO EXIST and will be replaced by a militant, secular music smashing, MTV hating, boycott-crazy Lord and Savior!!!

Having just about had enough of all the sketchy ways evangelical Christians can use shock and alarm and urgency in order to motivate people to action, I decided it was time to go to the source.  You see, if Jesus really used shock and alarm in order to motivate his disciples to action and crowds to repentance, then I need to get off my high horse and join the hellfire and brimstone crowd, decrying the declining state of values in America and calling people everywhere to join the battle.  But I don’t quite remember Jesus being this way, so I think we need to take a closer look.

As some of you pointed out in your comments to last week’s post, Jesus does overwhelmingly seem to honor people’s free will.  He seems content to teach the truth, often in mysterious parables, and then to leave it up to his listeners to respond with either obedience or rejection.  This approach is perhaps best illustrated by the parable of the sower in Matthew 13 – Jesus teaches or “sows the seed”, and people will respond in various ways according to the state of their heart.  Some will reject his message, some will receive it well but only obey a short time, while others will receive his words, understand them and live a fruitful life.  Even when Jesus says shocking things (i.e. Matthew 8:21-22 – Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”  But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”), there is not a hint of manipulation or threat.  Instead, he seems to focus more on what it means to follow Him, what the cost of discipleship is, instead of using Hell as a motivator.  The best example is probably the rich young ruler in Matthew 19, who is invited to sell all he has and follow Jesus, but is unable to do that and goes away sad.  People are simply drawn to Jesus because of his revolutionary love, groundbreaking teaching, and miraculous powers, and Jesus wants them to understand how complete their discipleship to him needs to be.  Do you see that?  People in the gospels are drawn to Jesus by love and awe for who He is or by their need for Him, and Jesus welcomes them but usually makes things harder by trying to communicate how committed a disciple must be.

As I read the gospels, I find that the motivation for evangelism never seems to be rescuing people from Hell or reversing an alarming trend of unbelief, as the Teen Mania ad mentioned last week communicates.  In fact, the motivation I find in the gospels is the desire to share the most amazing, life-giving story ever to take place.  This message, proclaimed by Jesus when he first burst onto the scene in Matthew 3, and repeated by his disciples when they are sent out in Matthew 10, is simply this:  “The kingdom is near.”  The kingdom is near!!!  The reign of God that heals the sick, raises the dead, comforts the afflicted, delivers the oppressed, destroys evil and rights wrongs, is within reach!  The greatest love you could ever experience, the sweetest justice, the most delightful joy, the most transcendent peace – all is available to those who would turn from their sin to embrace Jesus, God the Son.

That, my friends, is motivation enough.

So you can keep your alarm over decaying morals, and your use of threats in order to increase conversions.  Why not instead go deeper into comprehending the real message of the gospels – the kingdom of God is near.  All who know God will one day experience the kingdom of God in its fullest form, when, as it says in Revelation 21:3-4, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”  Until that day, we have the opportunity to give people a taste of that kingdom, to experience to some extent the amazing love, grace, joy, peace, and justice that are found in following Jesus.  I pray that this might be motivation enough for us.

(next week – although Jesus doesn’t threaten unbelievers with Hell the way some Christians do today, he does mention Hell often, and also communicates a sense of urgency and awareness when he discusses his second coming.  How does Jesus use Hell, and how can that inform our use of it today?)

How would you react if you read the above statement in a Christian magazine?  Would you be alarmed?  Intrigued?  Or would you think it’s all just a load of bull???

I’ve noticed that for many years now, evangelicals have been fond of using alarm and urgency in order to motivate believers to action and (they hope) those outside the church to repentance and faith.  From the Left Behind series’ depiction of the Rapture to evangelism strategies that ask “If you were to die tonight, do you know where you’d go???”, from outrage at cultural entities like MTV, South Park, and Marilyn Manson, to painting the gay marriage agenda as responsible for the breakdown of the American family, evangelical Christians love to shock their listeners into action.  Sometimes, of course, such outrage and alarm is Biblical and right.  Often, however, Christians can be guilty of using the worst kinds of manipulation in order to reach the worthy ends of faith and righteousness.  Case in point: the first line of this post.

The line “Christianity in America Won’t Survive Another Decade!” comes from an advertisement for a Christian youth organization known as Teen Mania, which produces high-energy youth rallies called Acquire the Fire all over the country, and sends thousand of teens on missions every year as a part of Global Expeditions missions.  Having attended more than my share of Acquire the Fire events, I can attest to their high quality and life-changing potential, as well as the sincere devotion and charisma of their leader, Ron Luce.  However, I can also attest that Teen Mania has more than a few times raised the question in my mind of “when do the ends cease to justify the means?”  When is alarm, urgency, and shocking your listeners to action Biblical, and when does it actually harm the name of Jesus?

The impetus for this discussion came from a Christianity Today article by Christian Smith (author of Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers) called “Evangelicals Behaving Badly with Statistics,” which answered a question I had been wondering about.  Teen Mania initiated a Battle Cry campaign a couple of years ago, which loudly trumpeted as a statistic that only 4% of today’s teenagers would grow up to be evangelical Christians, a shocking downturn from the 34% of the generation before them.  Teen Mania used this statistic as the foundation of their campaign, calling Christians everywhere to arms against the evil forces of this secular world (predictably TV, music, the Internet, and advertising, as opposed to prophetic Biblical issues such as greed, indifference to injustice, and empty worship – but that’s another essay), so that somehow our teens might be saved from the forces of this world that are apparently winning the battle.  From the beginning I was skeptical of the “4%”, but when I noticed that it came from a statistic in a book by a highly respected author and seminary professor, Thom S. Rainer’s The Bridger Generation, I figured there must be some merit to the 4%.

However, Smith decided to actually check out the reference in Rainer’s book, and noticed that the 4% was based on an informal survey of 211 young people in three states over seven months in the mid 1990’s.  Apparently only 4% (roughly 8 out of 211) of teens surveyed responded that they were born-again Christians who had trusted in Christ alone for salvation, as opposed to 34% of adults surveyed.  After reading the reference, now I was really alarmed.  How is it possible that an informal survey of 211 teens in three states in 1996 could be used by a respectable Christian organization to create a panic that would drive youth groups and churches everywhere to declare a state of emergency and fork over $39 apiece to attend an Acquire the Fire conference and $12 more for a copy of Ron Luce’s Battle Cry?  How is this remotely honorable to the name of God?

But before I get too outraged, let’s take a moment to reflect on the probable outcomes of this Battle Cry campaign.  Knowing Ron Luce and Teen Mania, I am sure that the results of this Battle Cry have been more teens becoming aware of the destructive potential of media and turning to the Lord, more Christian teenagers getting serious about their faith and developing an outreach mentality, and Christian adults everywhere becoming attuned to the forces that are seeking to distract teens from what really matters.  So who am I to get on my high horse and call Teen Mania to task for using shady means to reach such incredible ends?  What am I doing in my life and ministry that remotely compares to what this incredible ministry is doing?

On a side note – I said earlier that this was not the first time I questioned Teen Mania on whether or not the means really justified the ends, so I thought I’d share one other example that is worthy of debate.  In their sincere desire to see youth groups everywhere grow in number and more teens come to faith, they encouraged youth pastors to employ a strategy known as the Great Commission Competition in their youth groups.  Essentially, the teens in the group would be divided into three teams, and whichever team invited the most amount of friends to youth group over a given period of time would be rewarded with an all-expenses paid trip to Six Flags amusement park.  I was certainly enamored by the thought of doubling my youth group and seeing kids hear the gospel, so I came very close to using this strategy.  But in the end, I just couldn’t shake the feeling that somehow the ends didn’t justify the means in this situation.  I felt that the motivation of a trip to Six Flags wasn’t the right reason to bring someone to youth group.  But I’m also sure that my youth group could have grown bigger if I hadn’t listened to that suspicion.  If the ends are more believers and a bigger youth group, does it matter what means are used?

Back to the main question – When is alarmism and shocking people to a sense of urgency Biblical?  Are the Left Behind books an accurate depiction of how we should prepare for the last days, or are they another example of evangelicals trying to scare people into the kingdom of God?  And what about asking someone “if you died tonight, do you know where you’d go?” – is this something Jesus would do in order to bring people into His kingdom?  Is the gay marriage agenda really threatening the breakdown of the American family, or is it just clever wordsmithing by pro-family organizations in order to rally Christians to action?  Did Jesus ever try to alarm his listeners to action?  Did Paul ever try to scare people into the kingdom of God?  When is alarmism and shocking people to action and repentance Biblical, and when is it manipulation?  If the ends are repentance, greater righteousness, and increasing faith in God, does it matter what means are used?

These questions are worth a serious look over the next few weeks.  I want to be sure that our zeal for seeing people come to Jesus and grow in righteousness doesn’t cause us to use means that do not honor God, and I also want to be sure that we don’t point a self-righteous finger if Jesus himself used alarm and shock in his own communication.  Until I pick this up again next week, I’d be curious to hear what you think.  Any thoughts, experiences, or insights on alarming Christians to action and scaring people into the kingdom of God?

However, the organization has seen a decline in its impact since the 2000 election of George Bush, a decline which they hoped to turn around with the election of a Florida megachurch pastor named Joel Hunter as the new president.  Hunter has become a national church leader in the issue of global warming by forming the Evangelical Climate Initiative, which acknowledges the reality and dangers of global warming and challenges Christians to do something about it as part of our mandate to be stewards of God’s creation.  And many leading Christians have responded to the ECI, including Rick Warren of The Purpose Driven Life fame, as well as the presidents of 39 evangelical Christian colleges (including Wheaton College).  Others, however, have argued against the ECI, claiming that global warming is a big scam and a waste of time, including Jim Dobson of Focus on the Family, Chuck Colson of Prison Fellowship Ministries, and Jerry Falwell of Liberty University.

So it was interesting to see an article in The Hartford Courant last week proclaiming that Joel Hunter had decided to step down from his upcoming appointment as President of the Christian Coalition.  His explanation was that he realized he would be unable to broaden the organization’s agenda beyond opposing gay marriage and abortion.  Apparently, he had hoped to include issues such as easing poverty and saving the environment, but was told that although those issues were fine, they weren’t the issues Coalition members were concerned about.

That’s right – apparently fighting poverty is no longer an important issue for Christians.

How in God’s good name did abortion and gay marriage become the defining issues for Christians in America???  And after those two issues, it seems that more focus is given to issues like prayer in schools and morality on television and in Hollywood than it is to causes that are ABSOLUTELY CENTRAL to the Bible and the teachings of Jesus – issues like poverty, injustice, and oppression (read the oft-overlooked prophetical books some time if you disagree).

Certainly the environmental issue is one of those that believing Christians differ on.  The theology of some Christians is that God has called us to be stewards of His good creation, which He will ultimately redeem at the end of time, when the barrier between heaven and earth is destroyed and God descends to live for us forever in the new heavens and new earth (read Revelation 21-22 if this is a new concept to you).  Thus, creation care is part of bringing God’s kingdom to earth.  Others, however, believe that God will rapture Christians out of the earth and ultimately destroy much of what remains on the earth in his wrath before re-creating the new heavens and the new earth (a literal reading of Revelation popularized in the Left Behind series).  Which of these two theologies you agree with will have a huge say on whether or not you believe saving the environment is worth dedicating time to.

But back to the relative importance of poverty, injustice, and oppression versus abortion and gay marriage.  First of all, there should be no need to make this into an either-or debate.  Certainly there is room for Christians to lovingly and truthfully engage with all of the above issues.  But if I had to set a priority as a political advocacy group based on what the Bible teaches, I would have a hard time keeping fighting poverty and injustice in the world off the top of the list.  Am I to believe that although we live in a world where millions are dying from AIDS in Africa, where there are genocides, wars, injustices done in all countries, millions more living below the poverty line, that the issue of primary importance for the church is making sure Adam and Steve don’t tie the knot???

If you have noticed any of the current books, articles, and blogs dealing with the intersection of Christian faith and politics, you will notice a heavy dissatisfaction with the impact organizations such as the Christian Coalition have had on how Christianity is seen and issues Christians are being encouraged to devote their time to.  From Jim Wallis’ God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get it to Joel Hunter’s Right Wing, Wrong Bird: Why the Tactics of the Religious Right Won’t Fly With Most Conservative Christians, a theme I see repeated over and over is that God is not a Republican (as the Christian Coalition seems to have convinced many American Christians) nor is He a Democrat.  Candidates should not be evaluated solely on their stance on abortion and gay marriage, but on all faith issues, including poverty, injustice, and even war.  Certainly killing people, whether they are unborn babies, death row criminals, or people in a foreign land, is an issue worth engaging as a believer.  And Christians should not be misled into thinking that God’s biggest agendas in this world are outlawing abortion and gay marriage.

One of the most hopeful things I see as I look to the future of the church in America is the number of evangelical churches recognizing that feeding the poor, clothing the naked, caring for the sick, and fighting oppression and injustice are an integral part of what it means to be a Christian.  They have realized that engagement with these issues does not make one a “liberal,” but rather a follower of Jesus who recognizes that bringing the kingdom of God to earth means doing all of the aforementioned things.  My deepest prayer is that NewLife, and the Christian church in general, would be known not for what we are against, but for what we stand for – good news, the gospel of Jesus, freedom and justice for the oppressed, hope for the poor, healing for the sick, and eternal life for all who are willing to trust in Jesus Christ.
 
In closing, take time once again to listen to the revolutionary words of Jesus, who identified himself with the poor and oppressed so that he could teach us that every act of kindness is truly worship unto him:

Matthew 25:31-46 – “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory.  All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.  ”Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.  For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,  I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’  “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?  When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?  When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’  ”The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’  “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.  For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,  I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’  “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’  “He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’  “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”