Two weeks ago we looked at the dangers of a moral conversion and last week we looked at the dangers of an intellectual conversion. This week I would like to continue to think through the dangers of intellectual conversion and its impact on the methods of evangelism. Clearly, I think, if we want to avoid the terrible danger of intellectual conversion in our evangelism, we must have certain things in mind when we evangelize. If we are interested in undeceiving people who are deceived, and possibly ourselves, we need to see how vital this really is along with some of the ways that this can function. The way evangelism is practiced determines in some way how many people view salvation and Christianity for the rest of their lives.We must ask ourselves if our evangelism is primarily the imparting of information that can readily be understood by the natural man. If so, what is there that would prevent our evangelism from being conducive to intellectual conversions? Paul spoke of the mystery of the Gospel (Eph 6:19) and the mystery of Christ (Eph 3:3-4). He prayed “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him” and that “the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints” (Eph. 1:17-18). He said that “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God ( I Cor. 2:12). Clearly the Spirit is necessary in order to understand the things of God who is spirit. It is only if believers know the things of God given by the Spirit that they can speak with spiritual understanding. “Which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised (I Cor 2:13-14).
Now if in our practice of evangelism all that we say is understood by the natural man, then what we are saying can be accepted by the natural man and turned into an intellectual conversion. To put this in a different way, we can say that the Gospel does have many things that the natural man cannot understand. So if we only preach and evangelize in such a way that the natural man can understand it, then the natural man might respond to it with his unregenerate nature. The natural man will respond to the Gospel if he is convinced that God loves him enough to die for him and give him eternal life. A man does not need a new nature for that; he can love those who love him from his prideful and selfish heart. The mystery of the Gospel is to be preached in such a way that the natural man does not and cannot understand it in a comprehensive way. This is why Paul said that the word of the cross was foolishness to those who were perishing (I Cor 1:18). We are to make the basics understandable, but that is not the whole of the Gospel. When we water down the glory of the cross and the Gospel to a set of intellectual propositions that the natural man can understand, we are not preaching the cross and the Gospel in its glory. “For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe (I Cor 1:21). The wisdom of God must be preached if the Gospel is to be declared. The wisdom of God appears as foolishness to the natural man since it is so far above His natural mind that he cannot reach it. It is much like a person who does not understand something and laughs at the things that are above him rather than admit that he cannot understand it.
In our day we see people trying to simplify the Gospel so that everyone can understand it. In one sense it is commendable to make the effort to make things clear, but in another sense to simplify the Gospel so that the natural man can understand it is to essentially preach something other than the Gospel. When we have lowered the Gospel enough so that the natural man can understand it, we have essentially just given a false gospel and provided the opportunity for people to be deceived. I know that it hard, but I am not sure that the Bible allows us any other way of understanding the situation. Our churches are filled with intellectual converts because we have watered the Gospel down to where even the natural man can understand and respond to it in his own strength. Somewhere I have read John MacArthur’s words that we are not presenting the Gospel well enough for the non-elect to refuse it. Those are powerful words to meditate on.
Within the SBC there is a huge push for baptisms. The natural man can understand something of baptism and can be motivated to be baptized. But isn’t that a way of leading people to a state of deception? True evangelism is not focused on baptisms; it is focused on declaring the glory of God in the Gospel. Well, Reformed people say, that is atrocious (it is) and we need to teach people the truth (we do). But when we teach people the truth in a way that only the mind is changed, what are we doing that is accomplishing something that is substantially different? Intellectual conversions appear to be widespread in both Arminian and Reformed camps, though they are accomplished a bit differently. Even if the Gospel or doctrines of the faith are taught at a high intellectual level, they are still able to be understood and obeyed by some natural men. So some people have an intellectual conversion at a higher intellectual level than others. The difference between Reformed evangelism and others in terms of these results is negligible. A higher form of intellectual conversion is still an intellectual conversion.
Let us look at three examples where correct doctrine can be taught in a way that leads to intellectual conversions. The first example is the new birth. We can imagine a pastor who is preaching on the new birth and tells the people the utter necessity of being born again. The people listening hear his words and they believe what he says. In other words, they intellectually believe in the new birth. The next step in this is that they become intellectually convinced that a belief leads to a changed life. So the people know that they believe in the new birth and that they have become more moral. When these people are interviewed for membership they state that they believe that a person must be born again and this is evidenced by a changed life. These people are simply intellectually convinced of certain truths and have become more moral. What a great deception. The second example is justification by faith alone. We can imagine that this truth is set out with a great deal of precision in terms of forensic justification and imputed righteousness set out with clarity. The teachings of grace versus law are also set out clearly. So when people come to intellectually believe these things as being what the Bible teaches, are they really converted? Surely we must posit something other than an intellectual belief of a doctrine as needed for salvation. Nothing more is needed to believe this doctrine as true than the faculties that a natural man has. So are we sure that a person is converted who intellectually adheres to this truth?
Example three is that of faith in Christ. All across America people have been accosted in various forms and told that they must believe in Christ. Okay, but what does that mean? In Reformed circles we are told that people must pray a prayer and believe in Christ too. So many people are told Sunday after Sunday and at door after door that if they will believe in Christ they will be saved. In one sense that is correct. But have these poor people been told that to believe in the biblical sense is something different than to believe that it is raining outside? Have they been told that this is beyond their natural powers to believe in the biblical sense? Have they been told that they must repent and believe? Are they told that they are supposed to repent from outward acts of sin that any natural man can do if he really wants to?
In these examples we have seen the great danger of teaching the Gospel in a way where these doctrines are simply believed to be taught in the Bible and the person counted as a believer. Is there a huge difference between believing that something is true and being saved? Can one believe that these doctrines are true and not be saved? Jesus and Paul never taught that a person must only intellectually believe these doctrines are true in order to be saved. It is true that a person must be born again to be saved, but it is not true that the intellectual belief is the same as being born again. While it is true that a person must believe in justification by faith alone to be saved, it is not true that just because a person believes the doctrine is true that the person is justified.
To boil things down in an effort to end quickly, a person must be born from above to see and enter the kingdom and not just believe that one must be. A person must really be justified by a declaration of God based on Christ alone and that received by faith alone in order to be saved and not just believe that it is a doctrinal truth. To practice evangelism in a manner that is consistent with the Gospel, we must evangelize in a way that the natural man cannot accept. The heart is deceitful above all else so some will slip through. But to be faithful to the Gospel we must not present it in a way where the natural man can simply accept it as true teaching and become more moral on his way to hell. This is, as John Montgomery wrote years ago, to be “Damned Through the Church.” May God deliver us all from the practice of an evangelism that is conducive to that. Do you practice evangelism that is addressed to the mind alone and acceptable to the natural man? Remember, even the devil believes that there is one God and that the Gospel is true. An intellectual understanding is not enough.
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