The Gospel: To Preach, or Not to Preach? Doubts of the Pelagian Class within Our Hearts and Minds

The 20th Century in no way marked the beginning of man's quest to be god (if you have any doubts about that, official LDS/Mormon doctrine that predates the 1900s taught that man could acheive to godhood and be god over his own universe--I'm not sure if women can become gods in Mormonism, or just the wives of gods). Since the Fall of man (when Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate of the forbidden fruit in the garden), human-beings (both male and female) have been in a constant battle with the God over who will be the sovereign lord of their lives. Will God be in control of man's destiny, or will man (unfortunately for man, this is a futile attempt that will ultimately fulfill God's preordained plan to reveal His glory and for the Father to glorify the Son that the Son may glorify the Father, resulting in righteous judgment against the offending party--man--yet God does not delight in this rebellion, cf. Ezekiel 18:23; 33:11).

When mankind rejected God's rule, they did not take control of their own destiny, nor did they free themselves to do what they please (in an ultimate sense). Rather, mankind subjected themselves to the enslavement of sin. No longer was man able to choose good or evil...rather, his intentions would only be bent toward sin (Gen. 6:5). He was no longer able to do anything that truly pleased God, since everything was severely tainted by unbelief (Romans 8:6-8; 14:23, Hebrews 11:6). Mankind failed, and still fails, to give God the glory He deserves (cf. Romans 3:9-23). The human person, in all of his faculties, has been corrupted--mind, heart, soul, and strength.

If this is true, and it most certainly is Biblical, then this should inform and guide our preaching of the gospel (so defined in my previous post). When we preach, our reliance must be completely upon the Holy Spirit to apply the work of Jesus Christ to the hearts of our hearers. The bonds of sin must be broken for the light of the gospel to shine in someone's heart, or they will continue in darkness no matter how great our preaching, our arguments, or our conversations. What we must do is manifest the truth, "commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world [i.e. Satan] has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." We must therefore preach Jesus Christ as Lord, which inherently demands the response of humble submission, and nothing short of it. And only God can cause the Light, who is Christ, to shine in their hearts, that they may believe (2 Cor. 4:2-6).

So why do we still rely upon our own means...seeking to merely teach, or only to converse with others about the gospel rather than preach the gospel of Jesus Christ? For one, we lack boldness. But where does this confidence lack? In ourselves and our own abilities? Perhaps some, but definitely not fully. Our lack of confidence is in God. We believe, to name a few, either that God cannot make use of our fumbling presentation of the gospel, that He cannot change hearts without our aid (that is, without us having all the answers to all objections), or that He will not fully reward us for faithfulness (i.e. a lack of confidence in His eschatological promises (that is, concerning future blessings) that will be fulfilled in the resurrection of the dead at Christ's return). We believe that we play a part in conversion (that is, more than planting seeds and watering). We believe we cause the growth, which Jesus and Paul clearly teach otherwise (Matt. 13:1-23, John 15:18-27, 1 Cor. 1-3).

So often the problem is that we believe that unbelievers have the ability in and of themselves to change their own minds and hearts. We do not believe that they enslaved to sin, and that "the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God" (Romans 8:6-8). In other words, in our hearts and minds is a Pelagian Class lie: Mankind is free to repent or believe at his/her whim, perhaps when confronted with the right/enough evidence, etc. Thus we confront the person with historical facts, we give subjective evidences from our own lives, and we teach what the Bible says, but we fail to preach. For those of you who are not familiar, Pelagius was a 4th to 5th Century British monk who argued with Augustine over original sin--Pelagius, and his followers, Pelagians, deny the total corruption/depravity of original sin (Pelagius denied original sin altogether), leaving man in freedom to choose wrong or right.

This Pelagian lie denies the power of the Holy Spirit alone, the promises of the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:27-34, Ezekiel 36-37--God's regenerating of His peoples' hearts so that they will be His people), and the absolute necessity of the power of Jesus Christ's death, resurrection, and ascension. A gospel message that fails in such a way is bound to fail, for there is no power behind it (of the Spirit, God's Covenant promises, and Christ's work and person). To counter this, brothers and sisters, we must preach the gospel, and leave the results to God. "Who plants a seed beneath the sod and waits to see believes in God."

Let Him who boasts boast in the Lord.