There is a curious problem today in the evangelical world _one that poses sobering questions for
the church and for the individual believer. The problem in brief is this:a great at army of personal
soul-winners has been mobilized to reach the populace for Christ. They are earnest, zealous,
enthusiastic, and persuasive. To their credit it must be said that I they are on the job. And it is one
of the phenomena of our times that they rack up an astounding number of conversions. Everything
so far seems to be on the plus side.

But the problem is this. The conversions do not stick. The fruit does not remain. Six months later
there is nothing to be seen for all the aggressive evangelism. The capsule technique of soul
winning has produced stillbirths.

What lies at the back of all this malpractice in bringing souls to the birth? Strangely enough it
begins with the valid determination to preach the pure gospel of the grace of God. We want to
keep the message simple_uncluttered by any suggestion that man can ever earn or deserve eternal
life. Justification is by faith alone, apart from the deeds of the law. Therefore, the message is
"only believe."

From there we reduce the message to a concise formula. For instance, the evangelistic process is
cut down to a few basic questions and answers, as follows:

"Do you believe you are a sinner?"

"Yes."

"Do you believe Christ died for sinners?"

"Yes."

"Will you receive Him as your Saviour?"

"Yes."

"Then you are saved!"

"I am?"

"Yes, the Bible says you are saved."

At first blush the method and the message might seem above criticism. But on closer study we are
forced to have second thoughts and to conclude that we have oversimplified the gospel.

The first fatal flaw is the missing emphasis on repentance. There can be no true conversion
without conviction of sin. It is one thing to agree that I am a sinner; it is quite another thing to

experience the convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit in my life. Unless I have a Spirit-wrought
consciousness of my utterly lost condition, I can never exercise saving faith. It is useless to tell
unconvicted sinners to believe on Jesus_that message is only for those who know they are lost.
We sugarcoat the gospel when we de-emphasize man’s fallen condition. With that kind of a
watered down message, people receive the Word with joy instead of with deep contrition. They
do not have deep roots, and though they might endure for a while, they soon give up all profession
when persecution or trouble comes (Matt. 13:21). We have forgotten that the message is
repentance toward God as well as faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

A second serious omission is a missing emphasis on the Lordship of Christ. A light, jovial mental
assent that Jesus is Saviour misses the point. Jesus is first Lord, then Saviour. The New Testament
always places His Lordship before His Saviourhood. Do we present the full implications of His
Lordship to people? He always did.

A third defect in our message is our tendency to keep the terms of discipleship hidden until a
decision has been made for Jesus. Our Lord never did this. The message He preached included
the cross as well as the crown. "He never hid His scars to win disciples." He revealed the worst
along with the best, then told His listeners to count the cost. We popularize the message and
promise fun.

The result of all this is that we have people believing without knowing what they believe. In many
cases they have no doctrinal basis for their decision. They do not know the implications of
commitment to Christ. They have never experienced the mysterious, miraculous work of the Holy
Spirit in regeneration.

And of course we have others who are talked into a profession because of the slick salesmanship
techniques of the soul-winner. Or some who want to please the affable, personable young man
with the winning smile. And some who only want to get rid of this religious interloper who has
intruded on their privacy. Satan laughs when these conversions are triumphantly announced on
earth.

I would like to raise several questions that might lead us to some changes in our strategy of
evangelism.

First of all, can we generally expect people to make an intelligent commitment to Christ the first
time they hear the gospel? Certainly, there is the exceptional case where a person has already been
prepared by the Holy Spirit. But generally speaking, the process involves sowing the seed,
watering it, then sometime later reaping the harvest. In our mania for instant conversion, we have
forgotten that conception, gestation, and birth do not occur on the same day.

A second question:can a capsule presentation of the gospel really do justice to so great a message?
As one who has written several gospel tracts, I confess to a certain sense of misgiving in even
attempting to condense the good news into four small pages. Would we not be wiser to give people
the full presentation as it is found in the Gospels, or in the New Testament?

Thirdly, is all this pressure for decisions really scriptural? Where in the New Testament were
people ever pressured into making a profession? …

And I must ask you this:is all this boasting about conversions really accurate? You’ve met the
man who solemnly tells you of ten people he contacted that day and all of them were saved. …
I don’t want to doubt the honesty of people like this, but am I wrong in thinking that they are
extremely naive? Where are all those people who are saved? They cannot be found.

What it all means is that we should seriously re-examine our streamlined, capsule evangelism. We
should be willing to spend time teaching the gospel, laying a solid doctrinal foundation for faith
to rest on. We should stress the necessity for repentance_a complete about-face with regard to
sin. We should stress the full implications of the Lordship of Christ and the conditions of
discipleship. We should explain what belief really involves. We should be willing to wait for the
Holy Spirit to produce genuine conviction of sin. Then we should be ready to lead the person to
saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

If we do this, we will have less astronomical figures of so-called conversions, but more genuine
cases of spiritual rebirth.

(This appeared first in Help and Food, and is reprinted with permission of the publisher, Loizeaux
Brothers.)