God Loves… Himself

Last week we dealt with a tract that is being used in Kansas (if not other places). This week we will deal with another tract that is being used by the same group(s). I have personally received this tract while walking in downtown Lawrence, but I will discuss that later.The tract starts off with this: “God wants you to be 100% certain that when you die you will go to heaven. That´s why the Bible says. ‘These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life.’ I Jn 5:13.” This verse, I John 5:13, is a famous verse that is used for the purpose of giving people assurance. What is shockingly obvious, however, is that there is not another verse from I John in this tract used to show what John wrote in order that people may know they have eternal life. This is what happened to me when I was approached by two groups of two people just minutes apart. Each time I asked the speaker what things John said that would tell me I had eternal life. Both times the speaker went to Romans 10:13. So I asked them if they thought I John 5:13 was referring to Romans when he said “I have written these things.” Both of them said that indeed that was what John had in mind.

This is hard to believe for those steeped in hermeneutics and who actually use the context of a verse, but this is also what the tract does. So, without a context from I John, the writer of the tract goes on: “What must you know from the Bible to be 100% sure?” The writer then lists eight things for people to know in order to obtain 100% certainty that they are going to heaven:

1. You are a sinner and don´t deserve to go to heaven. Romans 3:23
2. The only way you can pay for your sins is by spending eternity in hell. Romans 6:23; Rev 20:14
3. We can´t do anything good enough on our own to merit heaven. Titus 3:5
4. Jesus Christ paid the price for our sins. Romans 5:8
5. Jesus not only died, but also rose from the dead! I Corinthians 15:3,4
6. Jesus freely offers salvation to you with no strings attached. Romans 6:23b
7. You accept the gift by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, and by confessing Him with your mouth. Romans 10:10
8. You are 100% certain simply by believing the PROMISE of God. Romans 10:13

“Why not be 100% sure today? Would you just pray this prayer from your heart? Lord Jesus, I know I´m a sinner and that you died and rose from the dead for me. Please forgive me from my sin and take me to heaven when I die. Thank you! AMEN”

Many of the criticisms offered last week are certainly applicable to this tract. But this tract is much worse since it encourages people to have assurance of salvation based on false teaching. There is a massive danger for people if they arrive at assurance of salvation before actual conversion. In what follows I will give several quotes from a book on the subject, Self-Deception (International Outreach). “There is an awful probability that the deceived professor of religion will remain deceived until probation closes, and all opportunity of salvation ceases for ever” (Jacob Helffenstein). “I believe there is no instance recorded in the Bible of a sinner´s being rescued from a false hope unless it was founded in the belief of a false religion. In the short period which I have had to make my observations, I recollect very few instances of persons apparently renewed after they had settled down for years upon a false hope and with that hope had joined the church. Indeed, I remember but one. We read of tares, we read of foolish virgins, but we never read of their conversions” (Dr. Griffin). “Speaking of those who imagine themselves to be converted when they are not, President Edwards remarked that he had “scarcely known the instance of such an one in his life that had been undeceived.” The confident hope of the hypocrite, he says, is “in one sense much more immoveable than truly gracious assurance.” Without going into the issue, note that Edwards believed that true believers can be more shaken than those with false assurance.

If it is that dangerous to arrive at a false assurance, then evangelists and preachers of the Gospel need to be extremely careful in this regard. I John does set out excellent ways to arrive at assurance, but it requires close examination of the life and soul. That is not quick enough for “productive” street evangelism where numbers need to be counted quickly and all is in the power of the people being evangelized. In training people in evangelism, we must be aware of how dangerous false conversions are and evangelize accordingly. Now, let us look at some of the issues with this tract. I John 5:13 does not say that John wants the people to know 100% for sure that they are going to heaven. What he does say is that he wrote (the book of I John) for this purpose: “so that you may know that you have eternal life.” He did not use this in an evangelistic way, which is what the people who wrote this tract use it for. John wrote this for people who believed already. What does it mean to believe? John uses the term “believe” and its corresponding words eleven times. At no point in I John does he tell people that to say the words or to pray a prayer was what it meant to believe.

The content or object of their belief was “in the name of the Son of God.” What does it mean to believe in the name of the Son of God? John uses the term “Son of God” or refers to the Son in the context of God nine times and refers to the Son 22 times in the book of I John. If a person is to believe in the name of the Son of God, it would be helpful to determine what John meant by looking at the book. I John 5:20 tells us this: “we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.” To grapple with this is to realize that people must believe that Jesus is fully divine and that He is eternal life itself (or Himself). We can look at I John 4:8-16 and understand the concept of love. We can also look through I John and see the biblical context of the cross which is propitiation, not just a concept to get people to pray a prayer. Those who have the Son have true love and true life, but we don´t see that a prayer enables people to have 100% assurance of salvation.

The reason John wrote the book was so that people who believed in the name of the Son of God “may know that you have eternal life.” John does not refer to them going to heaven, he wants them to examine themselves and know that they had eternal life. There is a huge difference between the way the tract uses I John 5:13 and the way John uses the verse. The writer of the tract uses the verse so that people who pray a prayer in can be 100% certain that they are going to heaven. John wants people who believe in the name of the Son of God to know that they have eternal life if they examine themselves. The tract would have us to believe that a saving belief is exercised or seen in saying a prayer. That is patently false. Many people pray without saving faith in Christ. The demons prayed and their prayers were answered when He allowed them to go into a herd of pigs.

A person must not just have an intellectual belief or want to believe, but really have a deep faith in Christ. Many have a belief in Christ and believe they are going to heaven. However, John is asking if a person has eternal life. It is only when people have eternal life (the life of Christ) in them that they can have true assurance. The text (I John) does not even use the word “heaven” at all. In the book of I John “heaven” is not used in the NAS and only once in the KJV (I John 5:7) where it is referring to the three witnesses who bear record in heaven. The book of I John is all about people examining themselves to see if they have eternal life, not if they believe. A person can know if he has eternal life by the evidence of life, but he cannot know the distinction between a true belief and deception by looking for belief in himself. This tract does not address this vital issue at all.

This tract is useless in pointing out the glory and majesty of God. The Gospel is all about the glory of God in the face of Christ who lived a perfect life, went to the cross, and was raised again to the praise of the glory of God. Whenever a message that pretends to tell people the Gospel and the glory of God is not displayed, the Gospel has not been preached. There is nothing of the glory of God in this tract and nothing to show people what sin really is which is against God and His glory. There is nothing in this tract that talks about sharing in the life of God or of Christ living in the person. Again, there is no talk of the new birth. This type of tract is focused on making intellectual converts (give assent to information) rather than dealing with the souls of men.

So what can we conclude? This type of “tractateering” is built on a false theology and practice. It is sad that people do this, but it is even worse for the many that arrive at a false assurance based on evangelistic appeals like this. There is no real Gospel presented in this tract and no biblical way of arriving at assurance. It is a method that appeals to man´s fears and then gives man something to do that he can do when he wants to and under his own power. It is a tract that is very man-centered in focus and content and as such it makes God out to have less power than man. Let us flee from this type of theology and methodology. Let us try to undeceive people from this type of cheap evangelism which is to the destruction of their souls.

There are many evangelistic tracts on the market today. Some of these are written well and are helpful to get across the Gospel. There are others that are harmful and destructive to the Gospel and the souls that read them. If we are to be faithful in the proclamation of the Gospel, the literature we hand out must be faithful to the Gospel too. The article this week is a critique of a tract that is being handed out in at least the Manhattan and Lawrence areas of Kansas. This tract is an example of what to do if you want to get people to pray a prayer and become an intellectual convert. It is also an example of a tract that is a virtual denial of the Gospel. It is entitled: HOW TO GET TO HEAVEN FROM KANSAS.

This tract gives us three things to realize. The first thing is to “realize you are a sinner. No matter where you are physically, everyone starts the same place spiritually. All are sinners. ‘For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.’ (Rom 3:23). Man comes short of Heaven (the glory of God) because of sin!” The second thing: “Realize there is a penalty for your sin. Not only does sin keep you out of Heaven, but it also condemns you to Hell. Romans 6:23 says, ‘For the wages of sin is death…’. Sin brings both physical and spiritual death. ‘And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.’ (Rev. 20:14)” The third thing: “Realize Jesus paid the penalty. Jesus Christ´s death, burial, and resurrection provided a way for you to go to heaven. ‘But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.’ (Rom. 5:8). Since Jesus was the only One who could pay for our sin, He is the only Way to Heaven.”

Then it gives us one thing to do: “Repent of your sin and receive Jesus as your Saviour. The final part of Jesus´ directions is to repent and receive Him. Acts 20:21 says, ‘Repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.’ In order to go to Heaven from KANSAS, you must accept Christ by calling on Him in prayer. He tells us in Romans 10:13, ‘For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ Follow Christ´s directions by praying in faith the following prayer, or one similar to it, to receive Him now: Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, please forgive me of my sin, and take me to heaven when I die. I believe that you died and rose again for me. I am trusting you completely and nothing I can do. Thank you Jesus!”

It is sad to think of people being deceived by tracts like this because of the great danger to souls who are misled about the Gospel by such teachings. It is hard to imagine, but people leave solid churches to go and hear this deceptive “gospel.” If Paul were here today, what would he say? Is this a different Gospel? Remember what Paul said in Galatians 1 about teachers of a false Gospel. A love for the Gospel demands that we point out such serious errors. I am not making fun of those who write or hand out such things. This is an attempt to expose the egregious errors presented in this tract and help some see that a tract is not necessarily a harmless thing.

Observation 1: People need more than a realization that they are sinners; they need to be convicted of sin. This tract does not teach the truth about sin and only once attempts to define sin. That attempt is wrong. If no real concept of sin is given, then how are people to repent? The text (Rom 3:23) defines sin, but the writer of the tract defines sin differently than the text. The text says that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” The writer says that “man comes short of Heaven (the glory of God) because of sin!” Indeed man misses heaven because of sin, but that does not make God´s glory and heaven the same thing. Coming short of God´s glory is the definition of sin. God created man for His glory and man has lived for his own honor and glory instead of God´s. When man falls short of the glory of God (glorifying God), man commits sin. Scripture also tells us that sin is lawlessness (I John 3:4). But there is nothing in this tract to even give a hint of these things.

There is nothing in this tract that gets beyond the outward aspect of sin. This is what the Pharisees did. They focused on the outward acts and never arrived at the true intent of the law which is the heart. In doing this, the tract is not dealing with sin of the heart. This means that the Gospel is undermined and the focus is on seeing or recognizing that one has sinned rather than dealing with the issues of the heart. True evangelism deals with the heart. Souls are misled if they only given a passing reference to sin and that to some outward actions. Only those souls that the Spirit convicts and gives a real conviction and sorrow for sin really fly to Christ.

Observation two: simply realizing that death and hell is the punishment of sin does little if anything. Hell must be explained and driven into the hearts of people. Simply mentioning hell does not give any sense of the real idea or meaning at all. Just realizing that there is a penalty for sin does not get across any meaningful information and anything that would reach the heart unless many other things are dealt with. Just hearing of a penalty does not assure a person that he or she will suffer that penalty even if they do many good works. Many people do not believe that God will actually enforce the penalty for sin, and perhaps at any moment.

Observation three: simply realizing that Christ died is to do no more than the devil. Just because Jesus is the only one who could pay for sin is no evidence that He did. It is also a very impoverished view of the Gospel since there is no mention of the imputation of the righteousness of Christ. Even if someone did pay for sin, that delivers a person from hell, but does not obtain heaven. The only mention of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ is that the events happened. This is to skimp on the truths of the Gospel that even believing them is not a belief in the Gospel. Anyone handing out this tract should realize that it does not have enough information to do anything but make people like me sad and deceive others who think that it is the Gospel.

When we reach the directions on what should be done, we are told to repent of sin and receive Jesus as Savior. First, there has been no concept of sin given so no one could possibly know from this tract what sin is and how to repent from it. Repentance is not explained and so no one would know about it either. The Bible does not tell us to “accept Christ by calling on Him in prayer.’ Throughout Scripture we are told that we must have faith in Christ in order to be saved. A prayer is not a sign of faith, but to really pray one must already have true faith.

Ironically enough, what is given here is a works gospel. Jesus never told people to pray a prayer of faith, He told them to believe (have faith). Salvation by prayer is not the Gospel of grace. One must have faith in Christ and not faith in a prayer to Christ. Romans 10:13 does not contradict Romans 3:11 which tells us that “THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD.” No person really seeks God in and of himself. A person must have faith if he is going to pray in faith. So if a person prays with true faith, then the person is already saved. Romans 10:14 says “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?’ You do not call or pray unless you have believed already. The deceptive thing about this is that if a person has head knowledge of facts and prays this prayer, he will believe that he is praying in faith. If the message of this tract is followed, a works Gospel is the result. A person is told that he must pray in order to accept Christ, but in the prayer he is told to pray that he is trusting in nothing of himself. This is utterly and frightfully deceptive to naïve souls.

This tract falls far short of the Gospel and its corresponding truths in many areas:

• It does not present the truth about sin and repentance as from the heart
• It does not present the truth about Christ and the cross
• It does not present the glory of God and of Christ
• It does not speak of justification by grace alone through faith alone
• It does not speak of the new birth which is utterly necessary to enter the kingdom
• It speaks of salvation as being a decision or a prayer rather than by faith alone
• It does not make any demands on people such as self-denial, taking up the cross, or counting the costs

This tract is a classic example of how to deceive souls by making intellectual converts. This method, however, is one that many people (even Reformed?) follow as the basic model of evangelism. Why do I say that? Some basic information is given and then pressure for a decision is applied. We don´t see anything like this in all of Scripture. What we see in Scripture is Jesus telling people to count the cost. We see a true repentance from sin taught and a real hell proclaimed. We see sin and the heart being dealt with. So any evangelism that does not deal with sin and repentance from the heart is mirroring this tract in some way. A type of evangelism that pushes people to pray a prayer mirrors this tract in some way. Do we see a sinner´s prayer in Scripture? This should lead us all to examine the way we do evangelism. Surely the great and glorious doctrines of Scripture would lead us to do evangelism much differently than this tract sets out. For some really good tracts, go to www. intoutreach.org.

Evangelism is serious business. It should not be done without much thought and study of Scripture. While evangelism does not have to include a study of the depths of theology, it is based on theology. The more correct our theology is, the more correct our evangelism will be. Evangelism is a telling the good news, but what good news? It is the good news about what God has done through Christ and continues to do through the Holy Spirit. So the more we know about God the more accurate our information will be concerning the truth about Him. The good news does not come in a vacuum, it comes to people who are sinners and have certain dispositions because of that sin. So the more we know about the sin of man and those dispositions, the better we will be able to evangelize. The heart is the spring from which dispositions flow.

Let me be crystal clear, man´s problem is a prideful and selfish heart that loves itself. We can preach to men and tell them about the truths of the Gospel and they will only hear with a heart where every intent of the thoughts is for self (Genesis 6:5). The self-love in them deceives them and twists the messages they hear. One of the most dangerous things we can do is practice evangelism based on the model where we tell them that God loves them. We never see the love of God set out in Scripture as a motive in evangelism. Until men are actually converted, the love of God is not in them. We must practice evangelism in a way that takes the depravity of the heart seriously and know that men must turn from that selfish and sinful heart that loves self to a true love for Christ in order to be converted. No matter what else a man may do, he is deceiving himself if he does not love Christ in reality. Man only loves God when He loves God for who He is and not just for what man thinks God has done for him.

Man is only truly evangelized when he is taught about his wicked and selfish heart. It is only when he sees that heart and sees that he can never do anything to save himself will he truly cry out to God for mercy and grace. It is only when a person reaches the end of self-effort and all that self-love can do is a person ready for the Gospel of sola fide (justification by faith alone). False evangelism leading to deceived hearts starts with “God loves you.’ Man´s love for God must not come from a selfish love, but from a new heart which has reached the end of self so that the love of God dwells in man. Whatever else we do, our evangelism must be in line with sola fide which teaches that a man must trust in God through Christ alone. There is no room for self-love or selfishness in that “alone.’ For that, man must be humbled to the point of self-despair. All of the thoughts of the unbeliever´s heart are for self. Instead of evangelizing according to that selfish heart which deceives the heart, people must be broken from that selfishness and self-love. That is why the Law is so necessary in evangelism; it breaks the heart by showing it the holiness of God and His standards are. Self-love is seen in light of that.

We can teach many things including a strong form of repentance, become Reformed and zealous for religion, and even be theologians and pastors. But until the heart is broken from self-love, nothing is being done out of love for Christ. We can lead many people in prayers and stir up a lot of religious activity, but until the heart is broken from self-love and pride, not one individual will be converted. The very intent of the thoughts of the heart, if every intent of the heart is evil and that continually (Gen 6:5), must be changed or all religious activity is simply an activity of self-love intended for the purposes of self-love. The intent of the thoughts of the heart must be changed or our morality is simply like the Pharisees. The intent of the thoughts of the heart must be moved by the indwelling Spirit who works true love in His people or all we do will be from self-love. The intent of the thoughts of the heart are either moved from self-love and toward self or they are moved from the love of Christ and toward Christ. This whole issue is that serious. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is at stake.

Now, we need to closely examine a main problem in evangelism. It is the heart of self-love in man. Understanding the heart of man and how it is approached is vital. Luke 6:32-34 is an important text in showing the heart of the unbeliever and how the unbeliever responds to information that God may love him: “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 “If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 “If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount.’ Here we see that sinners love themselves and love those who love them. But this is not a true love for others, it is simply an extension of the love they have for themselves. Man is born in sin and loves himself as the center of all things. He is insulted for self and loves only that which is good for self and self-love. So, when man hears a message that God loves him, he responds with a heart of self-love. It is of no surprise that God would love him, he already loves himself. It is not hard to love God who loves him so much; he already loves himself and all those that love him.

So, it is easy to see how many people will respond to the message that God loves them so much that He sent His Son to die for them. How that feeds their self-love and nothing really has to change in their heart. They can still be religious for self and serve God for self. Since God loves them and is focused on them, they can love themselves and focus on themselves and in that be like what they think God is. But the Gospel does not save men in their self-love and leave them there; it must take them from themselves and give them a love for God. Paul teaches that if anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ he is to be accursed (I Cor 16:22). Surely Paul is talking about a true love for Christ and not just a love moved and motivated by self-love. This requires that a person be born again and receive a new heart from God. This is the work of the Spirit, not the work of man.

A message in evangelism that leaves men the room to have Christ as Savior and yet for them to still be moved by a love for themselves is a false evangelism. People will gladly hear that God loves them and has a wonderful plan for their lives and respond with a return of affection that they say is toward God. They will pray a prayer, start attending church, and even become teachers or people who “sacrifice’ a lot. But are they delivered from self-love to where they do those things out of love for Christ? If not, they are only doing those things out of idolatry with themselves as their own chief love and idol.

Luke 6:32-34 surely teaches us something about evangelism if man is so centered in his self-love that he only loves those who love him. Let´s look at vv. 32-33 a little closer, section-by-section. “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?’ What credit is it to love God or man if the so-called love for them is only because of self? If a person has love for God based only on self-love, is that of any credit or benefit? Clearly, it is not. So, if we evangelize people based on this model, are we really evangelizing them in a way that is based on truth? “For even sinners love those who love them.’ In other words, they do not have to be converted in order to love those who love themselves. A person does not have to change anything to be “converted’ (by this method) if he thinks that God loves him, even if the saving love of God is not in him. How deceptive, then, is the practice of evangelism that starts off with a “God loves you.’ How deceptive is it because the person can look at other Scriptures and think that he can have assurance because he loves God. But in fact he does not love God, he only loves himself. How terribly deceptive! The devil couldn´t devise a more clever plan to have people evangelize for him in a way that deceives people and fills the churches with unbelievers.

33 “If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.’ This is essentially saying the same thing as v. 32, though in a slightly different way. A person who begins to go to church and do good because he falsely thinks that the saving love of God is on him has no credit at all. Even sinners and unbelievers could do that out of the love they have for themselves. The good that is done is not out of a true love for God, but out of a love for self in thinking that God has done good for him. This is tied in with much of the so-called prosperity Gospel and the easy-believism of today. These people think that God has done good for them and so they do what they think is good back. While many can see through the errors of the prosperity teaching and see that it is really selfishness in the sinner that is being moved, do they also see that the same root of self-love is in the “God loves you’ method of evangelism? All of these movements have the same root and that root is the self-love of the sinner.

True evangelism must focus on the need of a changed heart. The heart must be changed from a heart that does all out of self-love and defends itself based on that same self-love. The sinner´s heart hates the truth about God who loves Himself primarily and will punish all who do not love Him with all of their hearts. They reject that teaching out of self-love and want to hear the message that God loves them. But sinners must have a heart that takes the side of God out of love for Him against themselves if they wish to be converted. No one follows Christ in truth out of love for Him if he or she does not deny self even to the point of hating his or her own life (Luke 14:26. Christ does not come to save us and then leave us in our self-love where whatever we love is only loved for self´s sake, but to deliver us from that bondage and give us a heart that loves all things for His sake. Our evangelism must reflect the truth of what Christ came to do. That alone will be true evangelism.

Self-love in evangelism is the current topic. Last week we looked at the type of evangelism that starts with “God loves you’ and the terrible results this method leads to. Total depravity is still true and its affects and effects are enormous on those being evangelized. People who are dead in sins and trespasses are by nature children of wrath (Eph 2:1-3). Okay, but what does that mean? Without going into every issue of depravity and the nature of the fall, we can know that every unconverted person is fixated on themselves in self-love. The unregenerate individual does not have the Holy Spirit who pours out the love for God in the hearts of believers. This means that the person is moved by self as his or her chief love and goal in all things. The Great Commandment to love God is broken every moment. The Ten Commandments which hang on the Great Commandments (Mat 22:35-40) are violated when God is not loved. Conversely, the Ten Commandments are only kept when there is love (Romans 13:8-10). So, sin is lawlessness (I John 3:4), which is simply man not loving God. Man does not love God primarily because he loves himself and is the goal of all he does.

The unregenerate person in his focus on himself in selflove judges all things by whether it appears as good for himself or not. Something is not rational if it is not according to his self-love. Things are clearly immoral if they are not for the good of self. Yet, whatever fits with his goal of doing all for self can be rationalized to appear good to him. When an individual has self-love as the goal and standard by which all things are to be judged, self is really the god. So when Scripture is brought to bear on the sins of the person´s self-love, the battle for who is really God begins (though in a sense it is just heightened). While it is not a widely taught fact, this is one of the reasons behind the ten plagues that God sent on Egypt. “’For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments– I am the LORD’ (Exodus 12:12). Without going into great detail, in Exodus 7 we see a conflict between serpents. Moses, the representative of God, and Pharaoh, who was thought of as a god, squared off. Pharaoh had a symbol of a serpent (think of the serpent in the Garden who deceived Eve) on his headpiece. Moses threw down his staff and it became a serpent, but when the magicians mimicked this in some way the serpent of Moses swallowed up the others. The god of Pharaoh lost to God.

Without going through all of the plagues and the gods those represented, each plague that God brought on Egypt was a frontal attack on the gods of Egypt. The plagues were not just brought on to bring misery; they were brought on to show that God had power over creation and all so-called gods. When Moses called to God and according to his prayer the different plagues came and went, the gods of Egypt were shown to be false gods. The battle between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent was being carried on right there in Egypt. God won. In much the same way, then, evangelism is a battle between God and gods. Each individual is his own god and Christ must conquer that god for the person to be converted.

Since each person is his own god, the idolatry of that person´s heart must be seen. Each person carries within his own heart his own god. Each person walks according to the wisdom of his own god and obeys the god-self. At times, some people will become religious, but that does not mean that the god in the heart has changed. That person is still doing all for self-god. He goes to church and is religious for self-god. If praying a prayer is thought to be best for self-god, it is done. If following some form of outward conformity to God´s laws appears best for self-god, it is done. If he thinks that studying religion and becoming a pastor is the best thing that he can do for self-god, it is done. If he thinks that following unbiblical ways of “doing church’ is best for self-god, he does it. In other words, the very god within the person (self-god) reigns in the heart of each individual whether given over to outward sin or religion. That must be addressed for a person to be converted to the real God.

Now what I have described in the above paragraphs may appear harsh and over the top. How can it be, one might ask, that people who are so religious are really in the grip of self-idolatry? The Bible describes that quite clearly. Take the case of the Pharisees. Luke 18:11 shows a Pharisee who prayed to himself. Matthew 6:2 shows hypocrites giving to the poor in order to be honored by men. What is this but a man giving to that which is his chief love, that is, himself? In giving to the poor, he did an outwardly good thing, but in his heart, he only wanted to be honored by men. This was an act of love for himself rather than God, so his religious act was instead an act of idolatry as it was from self-love. He was his own god in terms of affection and primary purpose.

We can continue on in Matthew 6 and find in verse 5 a hypocrite who prayed long prayers in order to be honored by men. Who were those prayers offered to? They were offered with love for the main desire, which was self. When prayer is offered and man simply wants honor from others, that prayer is idolatry and is to the god-self and not God. Another way to look at this is to see that god-self tries to use God for selfish ends. This is using the name of God to serve the ends or purposes of god-self. Surely, that is taking the name of God in vain too. But what we see, again, is a person that has never been broken from god-self or self-love using religion as a way to gain honor for himself. Then, in verses 16-18, we see the religious hypocrite or the self-god exerted in a different religious exercise. This time the hypocrite fasts for the sake of gaining honor before men. This guy puts on a gloomy face and neglects his appearance so that others will see and know that he is fasting and honor him for religious sacrifice in fasting. Is this person fasting for God or for self-god? Is this person seeking to glorify God or self-god? Without question, then, a person can be outwardly religious to the extreme and still be in full worship of the self-god.

Now, how are we to evangelize people like this? After all, these are the only kind of people that we will ever evangelize. People will take whatever we say and twist it to fit with their self-love (self-god). If we tell them that God loves them, they will twist that according to their god of self and fit it very neatly in with their selfidolatry. Instead, I would think, we must understand evangelism as a battle between God and self-god. When we bring the commandments of Scripture to them, we are telling them that self-god is in rebellion against the true God. We must proclaim the Great Commandment, which demands that people repent of self-love and love God with all of their being. We must tell people that they must stop their worship of self and bow in obedience to the real God. We must proclaim the glory of God to them so that they will repent of living for the honor of their own name and live for the glory of His name. We must tell them that they must love their neighbor, not just be nice to them out of self-love. In fact, if I do something nice for my neighbor out of selflove, that is an act of idolatry for me in at least two ways. One, I am doing the nice deed out of love for myself instead of love for God. Two, I want my neighbor to honor me instead of honor God. Both of those acts are wicked in the heart. But beware; it is better to be nice to the neighbor out of self-love than it is to be cruel out of self-love.

Evangelism, then, requires good theology and the wisdom of Christ. We must learn to pierce hearts that are in full god-self mode. Hearts that love self view all things through the lenses of self-love. That is a heart that will deceive itself and others. That is a heart that will justify itself and seek refuge for itself as well. As those who truly want to see the reign of God in the hearts of people and not just gather “convert scalps,’ we must learn to love people and pierce through their self-deceptions and self-love to the core of the heart. We must learn how to show them that their self-love is enmity with God. We must learn that when they hate us it is really Christ that they hate and learn to accept the brunt of the anger of their self-gods with meekness. After all, the Golden Rule requires us to do this. We would want others to do this for us wouldn´t we?

As Moses was the representative of God and Pharaoh was the representative of the serpent in the battle of the gods in Egypt, so believers are to be Moses (in a representative sense) and view unbelievers as defending the self-god as Pharaoh did his god (himself) and the gods. We cannot allow an outward conformity be construed as true repentance and true belief. We know that until the god-self has died (death to self-love) and Christ is ruling over that person in the heart, true conversion has not happened. This is why we must show men their sin in order that they may see the godself that rules in them and deceives them, perhaps even with great religious devotion. The intents of the thoughts of the heart are only evil continually because man lives out of self-love and for god-self instead of the true and living God. No matter how religious or Reformed in doctrine a person may become, that person is not converted until that person is doing what he does out of love for God. I know that sounds hard and perhaps even harsh to many, but examine the Scriptures to see if this is correct. If the sign of conversion is love to God and our neighbor, how can we argue that a person who is religious out of self-love is truly converted? Can we argue that they need more teaching on how God loves them? Can we argue that they need more instruction in doing religious things? No, they need to know that god-self must be repented of or they will perish. If that is true, isn´t it time we rethink our methods of evangelism and make sure they are in line with our doctrine? “The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives’ (Phil 1:17). “For they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus’ (Phil 2:21).

We are continuing to think through the practice of evangelism in light of the depravity of man and his self-love. Evangelism is never really effective (actual conversion) when practiced upon the self-love model. Sinners will always believe that God loves them just as they are since their self-love and pride hides the true nature of their own hearts to them. They might be willing to change some outward behavior in the interest of self-love, but true evangelism tries to show the sinner the nature of the heart and what must be done to awaken the sinner from the slumber of death. Our culture and churches are so infatuated with self that they take it as a given that God savingly loves them as they are and apart from Christ. It is only when the hideous nature of sin as pride and selflove is pointed out as the nature of the sinful heart that people begin to see through their own self-love and see the danger that they are in. True repentance is being turned from self-love to a true love for God.

It has been taught for years and continues to be taught that Christians must feed and do good deeds for people in order that people will see the love of God in action. I am not totally arguing against that, but simply trying to show that there is nothing in that method that shows a person the nature of the heart. It might be true that the Holy Spirit might bring to mind a Scripture from the past when they saw a good work being done. However, in John 6, Jesus gave thousands a free lunch and they did not come to Him as the Messiah, but simply wanted more food. The mercy and compassion of God was in feeding these people and became the backdrop that Jesus used to proclaim that a person must eat His flesh and drink His blood in order to be saved. However, it does not appear from the text that anyone was converted with the thousands of free lunches. They actually came to hate Him when He demanded something of them. This shows that they were never converted, but simply loved what Jesus did for them, that is, they loved Him only for what He did for them. That is just an expression of self-love.

Feeding people and doing good works for people are not necessarily wrong actions. After all, Jesus did them. But we must never think that people will be converted by those actions in and of themselves. Feeding people food can be doing nothing more than feeding their selflove unless we do like Jesus did and show them how much they loved themselves. Jesus used the situation to point to the sin of their hearts. “Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled’’ (John 6:26). People will usually be very nice and speak well of us if we feed them, which is evidenced by virtually every preacher in the world. However, sinners love those who love themselves. Feeding people in one sense shows them the kindness of God over the world, but they will never understand the true and saving love of God in turning them from their pride and self-love apart from the teaching of the Bible being applied to their hearts. Scripture must be patiently applied and driven to the depths of the heart.

Well, some might say, the practice of medical missions is surely good. Again, that is not a bad thing and is something that is good. However, no one is converted apart from the Gospel. No one is converted unless that person repents of a selfish and proud heart. No one really knows the love of God until the love of God is put in the person´s heart. All the outward things that we do for people have the possibility of hardening the hearts of sinners into more self-love and pride. People will view all things done for them through the lenses of self-love. They must be turned from that self-love in order to understand the truth of the Gospel, which alone is the power of God for salvation. We see some of this in Luke 17 where we have the story of ten leprous men. They cried out to Jesus for mercy regarding their leprosy. Jesus healed all ten, but only one man returned to thank Jesus and give glory to God. The others apparently had what they wanted and it was not Jesus Himself, they just wanted physical healing. If even Jesus was treated like this when He healed people and gave out free lunches, then we must beware of trusting in anything like that. The food and the medical help that people receive will not change their selfish hearts, so we must teach them these things. We are to strive for the welfare of people´s souls and tell them their true spiritual state. People need the Lord but they don´t know what they really need Him for until they see the desperate state of their selfish and proud hearts. People need to be saved from themselves. If they are not delivered from a prideful heart, then each of them is in the hands of a wicked and prideful person (self). People are not safe from themselves unless Christ delivers them from themselves. How desperately people need deliverance from self since deceived people guide themselves into all sorts of trouble.

Some might complain that the focus on self-love and self-centeredness has gone on too long. My argument is that we tend to forget the enormous ramifications of the depravity of the heart in evangelism. Scripture, on the other hand, teaches us something far different. We can look at how Jesus dealt with people and see that He was always dealing with the sin of the heart. This is not just a minor issue; it is vital. Why speak so much about selflove, self-centeredness, and pride? Well, it is because these are the issues that are at the heart of depravity and repentance leading to salvation and this is how Jesus did it. No matter what else we do in evangelism, even in telling the truth about the glories of the cross, no one will see those in truth unless the depths of pride and selfishness are pointed out. The cross will be viewed through the lenses of self-love and used to promote selflove unless faithful evangelists begin to point those things out to people. People will say prayers and make professions of faith, even with tears, but their stubborn and selfish hearts are still all about themselves. Judas and Esau wept with tears, but they were for selfish hearts and not because they had offended God.

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love’ (I John 4:7-8). This text shows very clearly that a person must know and love God in order to be a converted person. This is in line with the Greatest Commandment. There is no love in a person unless that person has the love of God in him. That person and that person alone knows and loves God. If a person does not have true love, then that person is not a true believer. All who have true love know God. But we know that those who love themselves as their chief love do not have that love from God. So we can know that one who lives for self, even if it is a religious living for self, is not one who knows God and has the love of God in him.

Jesus taught us that we can only serve one master. We will be devoted to one and despise the other (Mt 6:24). People either love themselves or they love God as their primary love and master. We cannot love God and money, yet no one really loves money in and of itself. People love money because they love self and money is perceived as having the power to do something for self. So that leaves us with a few facts deduced from the previous two verses. A person who is not aware of his sin of pride and self-love will not turn from those sins. A person must turn from his idols (and in this case it is himself) in order to love God. True evangelism demands that we tell people of the true nature of sin in order for true repentance and true conversion to occur.

If what I have been saying is indeed biblical, then it should be clear that there is a huge amount of teaching and evangelism that goes on that is not Christian. All the teachings that tell people that God loves them as they are and all they need to do is pray a prayer is simply and utterly false. All the teachings to unbelievers that water Scripture and the Gospel down to where the unbeliever thinks that he is the center of the universe are false. The teachings that we give people within the four walls of church buildings that are focused on them in such a way as is conducive to selfishness is false. Christianity is built on the glory of God through Christ. Christ changes people when He lives in them so that they turn from self-love and idols to love God. All the health and prosperity teachings are aimed right at the selfishness of people who are then moved to be religious and serve God because of what they can get out of it. Much of the Arminian way of evangelism is aimed at promising people a good life now and then an escape from hell. All that can be based on self-centeredness and self-love too. The modern Reformed way, for some reason, is virtually the same as the Arminian model of evangelism. We must wake up and see that the doctrine of depravity is vital to evangelism and true conversion.

What we are seeing in America is a nation turned over to hardened hearts full of pride. We have much religion under the guise of Christianity, but it is not the real thing. Church buildings are full of people who are selfish and full of self-love who think that the decisions of the church should be centered on them. Those in the Reformed ranks are accused of being proud and argumentative. Without agreeing with all that is said, let us note that pride is a huge problem within the Reformed community and that is because of unhumbled hearts that have grown proud with knowledge of doctrine. In evangelism, we have forsaken the truth that depravity is of the heart and we can´t change it. When the truth of depravity is cast out in the practice of evangelism, Reformed people practice evangelism just like everyone else does. The effort is to get the sinner to pray a prayer, make a decision, or perhaps to agree with some doctrine. All of that can be done out of an unchanged heart full of self-love and pride. But people argue that people will ridicule and abuse us if we teach that. The fear of that shows our own pride and self-love in having more fear of man than love for God and man. God alone can grant repentance of the heart and we must teach that. Self-love does not want to be cast out and cannot cast self-love out. How hard that is for our pride to accept, but Scripture is clear that God loves broken and contrite hearts.

Evangelism is a vital but dangerous issue. God has commanded that His people are to take the Gospel to the world. However, the Gospel is under attack. The devil wants the Gospel to be diluted or misdirected. He works overtime to deceive people regarding the Gospel. He wants people to deny the true nature of sin and the need for repentance from the heart. He wants people to trust some in Christ, but not completely. He wants people to trust in Christ and believe in Him as Savior, but not as Lord. The devil is not bothered by people becoming religious and very moral. As long as self-love and selfcenteredness still reign in people, the devil has them right where he wants them. People deceive themselves with their outward morality, and it is a great deception.

A moral conversion happens in different ways. One, the person has a conscience and knows that he must change. All have some inward knowledge of God and of basic right and wrong because God put it there. So many people who have lived to some degree immoral lives become moral and pacify their conscience. Two, many are raised in church and so have moral instruction. So they are able to say a prayer, make some form of commitment, continue in morality, and think that they are converted. Three, many seem to trust in their outward behavior as evidence that they are converted. Indeed James does teach that faith without works is dead, but does that necessarily mean that because works and morality are present that saving faith is there? Clearly not. There are other kinds of moral conversions, but these three examples can serve in a broad way as a picture of moral conversion.

In Scripture, the Pharisees are very moral people who are enemies of the Gospel. In fact, all moralists are enemies of the true Gospel. The Pharisees trusted in themselves, their morals, and their good works. They refused to confess their sin and thus resisted Jesus and His Gospel. They wondered why Jesus would eat with tax collectors and sinners instead of with them. But Jesus Christ did not come to call righteous people; He came to call sinners (Luke 5:30-32). Those who are well do not need a physician, the sick do. This is vital in evangelism. When people refuse to confess or admit their sin, we can know that Jesus is not calling them. They have no need for the good news and will in fact resist any message that tells them that they need it. The Gospel is only good news to those who feel the bad news of their hearts, are under conviction of their sin, and know their desperate need of a Savior. The Gospel is wonderful news to the person who has felt the flames of hell lapping at his soul. But those who are moral and think that they are good, the good news is not all that good at all. The Pharisees did not see the Gospel as good news, it just made them angry. Moralists are angered at the true Gospel and resist teachings of sin.

We see in Luke 18:9 that Jesus told a parable to some who “trusted in themselves that they were righteous.’ The picture that He gave there is that of a Pharisee who prayed to himself (yes, the text says “to himself’). No one can really pray to God and thank God that he is moral compared to others as he looked down on others. People who truly pray to God are those who are humble in heart and not proud of their own morality. So selfrighteous people are like that when they trust in their own righteousness. They are not humble and do not really trust in the righteousness of Christ alone for salvation. They are lifted up in their own eyes, and even if they give Christ some of the credit, they don´t really trust in Him alone.

The evangelist, then, has to be careful not to breed this type of convert. Just because a person has some sense of sin does not mean that the person is really convicted of sin. “To err is human’ is known by many, but to make a mistake and to err is not the same thing as to be convicted of sin and broken in heart. David said that he knew his sin, but he only knew his sin when he saw that it was “against You and You only have I sinned’ (Psa. 51:1-4). The practice of true evangelism requires that we probe deeply in the hearts of people. A moral conversion is quite easy to accomplish and we don´t need a lot of help from God to obtain it. But if we are to deal with the hearts of people and go to a true conversion, the Spirit of God must work or there will be no conversion.

What is the real issue behind the three types (as set out above) of moral conversions? The problem with all three types is that these people have not been turned from their real nature of selfishness and pride. A person who sins out of selfishness can also be moral from selfish motives as well. A person who has some moral upbringing and prays a prayer at some point can also go on in selfishness and pride and be deceived about the nature of true conversion. Then the person who has perhaps gone through many things but now trusts in his works as evidence for salvation. Trusting in works is never safe since one is always to trust in Christ alone. Many people in the world who hate Christianity do good works. So, a person can see that Christianity is true and simply never turn from his selfish heart while doing good works. He is not able to see that his works are from himself and not from Christ.

One text (I Cor. 13:1-3) clearly teaches us the dangers of the moralist. It matters not how many good works the person does, there is no benefit without love. It matters not how nice, how religious, or even to what degree a person is given to good works, without true love those works are of no benefit. It does not matter how good a preacher or conference speaker a person is, if they do not have love, they have become “a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.’ It does not matter how much knowledge a person has or even how much faith a person has if he or she does not love. Without love, “I am nothing.’ Even if the moralist gave all of his possessions to feed the poor and gave his body to be burned in the name of Christ, yet without love “it profits me nothing.”

There is nothing that a person can do to save himself. There are no good works that in and of the works themselves that are demonstrative evidence that a person is saved. A person can give all that he has away and even give his body to the flames, but in the end is not converted. Works do not save and they cannot show a person with certainty that he is saved. The point, then, is that moral conversions are extremely dangerous and yet they are utterly worthless. The evangelist has to be ready to go to the issues of the heart and deal with people like this in truth. Until a person has been turned from self-love and selfishness, which means that all a person does is motivated by self, a person is not converted. Only those who truly love are converted.

The evangelist must be aware of how dangerous moral conversions are and strive to avoid the traps of them. Modern evangelism is ill-quipped for this because of the lack of the application of biblical theology to the practice of evangelism. We are told that we must get people to do many things, but we are not told to guide people to the place where they are humbled and broken from pride. If the real issue is that the nature of man is selfish and proud, then truly that nature must be changed to one of love. The only way this happens is if God changes the heart and puts His love in that heart. God is the only source of love in the universe and true love comes from Him alone. All works can be done by the natural man. Only true love cannot be copied in its true nature. Some of the kindest and nicest people in the world are not kind and nice out of a true love. Most of the good works in the world are done without true love. Let us beware.

How many people in our churches have simply undergone a moral conversion? How many people are there that truly love God simply because of who He is and not just because He is thought to have done something for them? How many people truly look after the true good of others and take joy in the good of the other people apart from selfish concerns (even religious honor and concerns)? How many people work for the glory of God and do not worry about which human gets the honor on earth? How many are willing to do good and do it solely for the pleasure of God and not so that they will be honored? Ah, how deeply the sword of the Word cuts.

Until pastors preach and teach the dangers of moral conversions, our churches will have deceived people in them. Even if we preach the Law and the standards of Christ the hearts of people might not see the depths of pride and selfishness. That leaves their chief idol untouched. There is nothing that a selfish and proud person cannot do in outward religion. The zeal of the proud person can burn hotter than the true believe which gives him who trusts in his own works (down deep) a lot false confidence. Until a person repents of selfishness and pride, a person is not converted no matter how moral he may be. This is a person who violates the two Greatest Commandments in the very best things that he does. This is what happens when the heart of the person is not converted. His very morality is used to deceive him. This must be pointed out or the deception remains.

Those who practice evangelism must realize that there are many who are deceived. There are many who will be evangelized with their hearts left untouched and as such utterly deceived by false evangelism and moral lives. They may weep out of a deceived love for Christ at times, but sinners love those they think love themselves. To be true to the Gospel, we must learn to undeceive people by reaching the depths of their pride and selfishness. Unless those things are touched and changed, all is truly lost. A changed life is good, but it is not always a sign of salvation. It can be nothing but deception. Children who are moral and well behaved is to be desired, but it can also cover up selfish and proud hearts. We must beware of these deceptions and learn how to deal with deceived people if we are going to be faithful messengers of the Gospel rather than contributors to deception ourselves.