I Drank the Cool Aid of Modern Evangelism — E.A. Johnston

Modern Evangelism and Formulaic Conversions

I guess it was about 30 years ago when I was a senior trainer in Evangelism Explosion at a big Baptist church. There I trained men and women to go out into the surrounding neighborhood on Tuesday evenings and knock on doors as I taught them how to present the EE outline of the plan of salvation.

We would go out in a team of three. The three of us would work our way into someone's living room and they would observe me as I went through a memorized step-by-step process to get some poor victim to accept my Jesus.

Then we'd go back to the church and assembled in a big room to boast and brag about how many we led to the Lord that evening. The trouble was when we would conduct follow-up work the next week and go back to visit our new convert, they wouldn't answer the door.

We would see a light on in their house and we could hear the TV on in the living room. But as loud as we knocked or rang the doorbell, they never came to the door they hid from us because all they did the week before was to say yes to a formula that could get them to heaven.

The Easy-Believe Gospel and Man-Centered Salvation

I was sincere in my ignorance back then of what the true gospel was. I drank the Kool-Aid of modern evangelism, but all it did was make me less thirsty on my way to hell. And that's the title of my message today, friends.

I don't need to repeat it because some of you drank out of the same punch bowl as well. You know what I'm talking about. The easy-to-believe gospel is so diluted and so popular today because it's easy to swallow.

It has no rights or claims on you. You can take Jesus or leave him, and he'll still be hanging around the front door of your heart waiting until you're good and ready to let him in. The man-centered, modern gospel says, open your heart, friend, and receive this Jesus and you will be saved.

Human Inability and the God-Centered Gospel

The old God-centered gospel taught that men were dead in sin, like the Bible says about them, and they had no power in themselves to open their heart any more than a dead corpse can open his own coffin lid.

The man-centered, modern gospel presents an impotent Jesus who stands helplessly at the door of the human heart hoping you will let him in. It's up to you because salvation is in the hands of men. The old God-centered gospel got men lost by the preaching of the law and shut men up to God for salvation because it taught that salvation was in the hands of God.

Jonah 2 .9 declares salvation is of the Lord. The man-centered, modern gospel exists to make men happy, and it is centered around the happiness of man. The old God-centered gospel made men holy as it glorified God.

Repentance and Belief Rather Than a Repeated Prayer

The modern man-centered gospel says all you have to do to be saved, friend, is to repeat this prayer and believe it, and you can know for sure you are going to heaven. The old God-centered gospel said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and repent of your sins or just go on to hell.

Holiness and the Lordship of Christ

The man-centered, modern gospel says accept Jesus as your personal Savior and you will go to heaven because once saved, always saved means you can sin all you want to and still arrive at your heavenly destination.

The old God-centered gospel declares for without holiness no one shall see the Lord because it taught that self must be dethroned and another enthroned there, the Lord Jesus Christ. Maybe some of you got into the church by drinking this Kool-Aid that tasted good and was easy to swallow.

Repentance, Mercy, and Owning Christ as Lord

Spit it out, friend. Get to God, repent of your sins, and become a seeker of mercy. There on Calvary hung a bloodstained Savior from sin, and if you want to be saved from a devil's hell, you must come to Him confessing you are a sinner and repent of your sins and believe on Him and own Him as your Savior and Lord.

Don't drink the Kool-Aid. Get under the blood.