If you accept Jesus, you’ll be financially prosperous very quickly.
If you accept Jesus, you’ll be physically healthy and not get sick.
If you accept Jesus, people will like you.
If you accept Jesus, you’ll have a great marriage.
If you accept Jesus, your kids will start behaving and do well in school.
If you accept Jesus, life will be easy.
If you accept Jesus, everything will always make sense to you.
If you accept Jesus, you’ll never suffer again.
If you accept Jesus, you’ll never have trouble with people again.
If you accept Jesus, you will become physically attractive.
If you accept Jesus, you’ll never struggle with sin again.
If you accept Jesus, your American Idol pick will win.
If you accept Jesus, you’ll be able to lose weight.
If you accept Jesus, you’ll always get good parking spaces.
If you accept Jesus, lots of people will like you on facebook.
If you accept Jesus, your favorite television shows will never get cancelled.
If you accept Jesus, your team of choice will be champions.
If you accept Jesus, your computer will never freeze up or be slow.
See, some people complain that selling Jesus like this is a dangerous form of evangelism because it sets people up for disappointment when the promises don’t come true. Others see it as terrible theology because it treats the things we want in this life as more important than God by making him the means to them rather than the end purpose of having them. But I think our real problem in selling Jesus is we just aren’t being clever enough in the offers we print on our theological coupons.
2 comments:
My greatest problem with modern Christianity is in it's melding with New Age thought. Filling your pews by telling people what they want to hear, instead of the truth. The greatest example of this is in the "God as Fairy Godmother" doctrin. And the greatest danger in this, is that it is so easy to disprove a God that does not exist. [I prayed to God for a solution to my problem, my problem still exists, therefore; there is no God.] How can we convince the Athiest of the error of their ways when the facts are not on our side? Many Christians died when the Twin Towers fell, and I'm sure many more were washed out to sea in the tsunami that hit Japan. Let's be honest with each other. Bad things happen and were all going to die. Lying to ourselves and to each other leaves us feeling only worse in a time of trouble. We shouldn't be questioning why God has let something bad happen to us. We should be joyful in our suffering as Jesus suffered for us. My apologies for the dour tone, but is by Gods own design that life would not be sunshine and rainbows all the time.
Amen! Until we have a theology which doesn't merely tolerate suffering but affirms its centrality in God's plan for our lives, we will surely not be discussing the God of the Bible.
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