Posted: 09/13/06

The "Bait and Switch" Gospel

Professing Christians in America have had little impact over the last thirteen years on the false perception of God's standard of what "good" is. 

A recent research poll shows little change from the last time this question was asked on America's perspective of the standard God uses to determine entry into Heaven:

 "There is a tendency to believe if a person is generally good, or does enough good things for others during their life, they will earn a place in Heaven. In 2006 the public decided on the matter: 54% agree, 40% disagree. This represents little change since 2002 when 55% agreed and 38% disagreed; 1996 when 54% agreed and 38% disagreed; or 1993, when 56% agreed with this notion." (1)

 Yet another poll from the same research group shows this startling result:

 "The majority of born again Christians (59%) feel a sense of responsibility to tell others about their faith." (2)

 So if we can believe these polls, professing Christians have had little impact over the last thirteen years on the false perception of God's Standard of "good." And yet a large majority of "Born Again" Christians, 59%, still claim they share their faith regularly. What's wrong?

Mark 16:15
He said to them, "Go into all the world, and proclaim the Good News to the whole creation."(3)

Are we not preaching where everyone can hear it then?

(4) Matthew 10:32-33 Everyone therefore who confesses me before men, him I will also confess before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, him I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven.

The director of the Barna Research Group, David Kinnaman, said in a Barna Update (5), concerning the September 11th, 2001, attack,

Many Christian leaders predicted that terrorism on U.S. soil would catalyze a spiritual awakening in the country. The first few weeks were promising. But people quickly returned to their standard, faith-as-usual lives: within a month, most of their spiritual fervor was gone. Within 90 days, surprisingly few people were pursuing important questions about faith and spirituality. Now, five years removed from that fateful day, spiritually speaking, it's as if nothing significant ever happened. People used faith like a giant band-aid – it helped people deal with the ugliness of the event but it offered little in the way of deep healing and it was discarded after a brief period of use.

The majority of professing Christians in this country have been living a lie. I lived that lie for decades before I understood my error. I thought I could be "good enough" and believe what I wanted, act how I wanted, and yet still lay claim to the salvation Jesus offered. I had heard a false gospel.

A friend recently told me she had been deceived by the false gospel too, which she called a "bait and switch" tactic.

I like to think of this type of 'false evangelism' as 'bait-and-switch' evangelism, like used-car sales. You tell someone all about the goodness and love, but when you teach them about the foundations of their faith you have to admit they've been fooled, because there's a consequence for our sin for which we must repent in order to be saved. We deny the whole truth in order to get them in the door, then we shock them with the whole truth. (Or maybe sometimes that whole truth never gets taught, depending on your church.) That's when many turn away. Jesus said some very hard things, and some turned away while he was preaching. It's not easy truth, but it's the whole truth.

I grew up in a church that preached hellfire and damnation, turn-or-burn every week. As a little girl I asked my mom why the preacher pounded the pulpit and yelled at me all the time. The first message I ever heard preached about the love of God was after my dad died and we went to another church. There must be tempering of our preaching on both sides. We temper our message of eternal damnation with the beauty of God's love. We temper our message of God's love with God's eternal judgment.

 (6)Both James and Peter quoted Proverbs 3:34 which tells us to preach God's Grace when someone is already aware of his sinfulness. No one should ever run to God to escape Hell.

 My friend concluded, "This conviction of the ugliness of sin draws us to realize we need saving from an awful judgment we deserve."

False preachers lure you with a false hope of a better life and may never tell you the truth: Good works are not enough. The only "works" that can save you is to believe in the One whom Yahweh has sent to save you (7).

(8)Ray Comfort is going to share some teachings on these hard sayings of Jesus. Maybe we fifty-nine percentiles should listen up if we expect Americans to learn being "good" is not good enough for God. To the other 41% of the professing Christians who don't believe it's their responsibility to share their faith, I ask you to go here.

Footnotes/References :

(1) Barna Poll, Topic 3

(2) Barna Poll, Topic 18

(3) Mark 16:15 He said to them, "Go into all the world, and proclaim the Good News to the whole creation."

(4) Matthew 10:32 Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.

(5) Barna Update, ID# 244

(6) Proverbs 3:34, James 4:6, 1Peter 5:5

(7) John 6:28-29

(8) Ray Comfort

If you do not desire to deliver the lost from Hell, then whose are you?
.For Evangelism Resources, please visit LivingWaters.com.
.To learn how to share your faith biblically, simply and effectively begin here.

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By Patrick Burwell Click here for bio and archived articles