Charles Spurgeon Against Modern Evangelism
Here's some words by Charles H. Spurgeon who sadly some easy believists misquote, "Just now some professedly Christian teachers are misleading many by saying that ‘repentance is only a change of mind.' It is true that the original word does convey the idea of a change of mind; but the whole teaching of Scripture concerning the repentance which is not to be repented of is that it is a much more radical and complete change than is implied by our common phrase about changing one's mind. The repentance that does not include sincere sorrow for sin is not the saving grace that is wrought by the Holy Spirit." Is it any wonder why C.H. Spurgeon is on the Repentance Blacklist website which is a pro-easy believism website?
In fact, I would say that a repentance without sincere sorrow for sin is not saving grace. I remembered some people prayed the sinner's prayer in Pastor Armando C. Borja's class but how many got saved? We can see a few, only a few. If repentance is just a change of mind, how shallow it is. As said, like it's impossible to repent of unbelief without repenting of one's sin first, it's also impossible for a person to change one's purpose without changing one's mind since these are steps. I know some people repent of their sins but haven't repent of their unbelief but I cannot tell of people who have repented of unbelief who have not repented of their sin. In fact, admitting one's a sinner, this one really is a repentance issue. It's not just a change of mind about unbelief, no a person must repent of their sins even before they can repent of their unbelief. The reason is because no man will see the need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved if they don't even see the need to be saved because they are sinners!
The problem today with the "Roman Road only evangelism" is that we just get people to nod and say, "uh huh" like some comic book character. We say, "Admit you are a sinner." then we move to the next steps in the Roman Road. However the person can nod all he wants to step one but IF he doesn't see himself as a sinner, it's pretty useless! In fact, I'd rather use Romans 3 evangelism to point out how depraved man is. I am glad that Pastor Ray Comfort of Living Waters and Pastor John Macarthur of Grace to You has gone against our modern evangelism methods. Pastor Paul Washer of Heartcry Missionary is against easy prayerism because it's a shoddy evangelism. Looking at Ray Comfort's use of the Law method vs. 1-2-3 evangelism, the former presents a very complete exposition of a person's sin. I really wonder why do people still insist that the preachers I just mentioned are works preachers? I used to think they are only because I was stuck in Hylesism (sort of) but at the same time, began to disagree with such stupidity as, "A Christian can live like the rest of the world and still be saved." No, a Christian CANNOT live like the rest of the world because they are saved. Antinomianism is just as satanic as conditional security because it denies God's grace to change lives and teaches false conversion, both are roads to Hell (Titus 2:11-14).
We must think of Jesus' evangelism and what He taught the Apostles. To the rich young ruler, he exposes the fact that no one can keep the whole law. To the woman at the well in John 4, He didn't give her a cheap and easy message. Notice before Jesus told her about salvation, He revealed to her the very fact she was a depraved sinner. He revealed to her he knew of her five broken marriages and one illicit live in relationship with a woman who was probably another woman's husband. We see that the woman here was first convicted of her sin, this humbling experience for the woman made her see her need for conversion. When the woman realizes how wretched she was, she received Christ as Lord and Savior and began to tell others. Peter's first sermon in Acts 2 was a huge heavy evangelism, in fact, very uncompromising to the fact you can see his preaching convicted sin before it told of the Savior. That's how evangelism should be!