Sin

We should not attempt to make people aware of their lost and sinful condition

In a 10/5/84 letter to Christianity Today, Robert Schuller wrote, “I don’t think anything has been done in the name of Christ and under the banner of Christianity that has proven more destructive to human personality and hence counterproductive to the evangelism enterprise than the often crude, uncouth, and unchristian strategy of attempting to make people aware of their lost and sinful condition”.

Confutation

According to the Holy Scripture, we must make people aware of their lost and sinful condition, for only when they realize that they are lost and slaves of sin will they repent of their sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, it is the Holy Spirit who convicts people of sin; however for our part we must speak to them with boldness, saying to them the following things: first, they are lost and slaves of sin; second, Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose from the dead to save what was lost and to set free sinners from sin; third, in order to be saved they must repent of their sins and believe in Jesus Christ.

Let no one deceive you with empty words. The Scripture speaks abundantly about the sinful condition of men, therefore we are not wrong in speaking to men about their sinful condition. We must say what the Bible says. So, since the Bible says that men have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (cf. Romans 3:23), they are corrupt and they have done abominable works and they have all turned aside (cf. Psalm 14:1-3), and the imagination of their heart is evil from their youth (cf. Genesis 8:21), and that they shall be turned into hell (cf. Psalm 9:17) unless they repent of their sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Acts 20:21), we must say the same things. Why shouldn’t we tell men that they are lost? Why shouldn’t we tell them that they are sinners or slaves of sin? Why shouldn’t we tell them that unless they repent and believe in Jesus they will be turned to hell? There is no reason to refrain from saying to men these things. Instead, there is a good reason to tell them these things. The reason is this: that they might be saved from their sins and escape the torments of Hades first and then the everlasting torment in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone. Isn’t this a good reason?

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