Pragmatic Foolishness Undercuts the Power of the Word

For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching (or "the message preached") to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (I Corinthians 1:17-25)

I have been dismayed recently by the extreme pragmatism that I have both personally seen and heard of within independent, fundamental Baptist churches. Though our movement is characterized by those who would claim that they "just preach the Bible" in superior comparison to all the other Christian movements in the world, I am finding that the claim is not quite as accurate as they would suggest. To my dismay, I am finding that there are many who really do very little preaching of the Word, filling their public addresses with a high percentage of pragmatic, emotionally-driven appeals instead of the sincere milk and meat of the carefully exposited Word. I will give two recent examples.

At a recent youth conference in a church that I love dearly, whose pastor is a godly man and friend in the ministry, a visiting speaker gave a message on hell. The topic of the message is certainly not wrong. (In reality, this topic is often bypassed in much of evangelical Christianity today since it is too negative. To the "seeker-friendly," emerging church the certain everlasting punishment of wicked men is far too negative to weigh people down with emotionally!) However, the attending antics were certainly wrong. The speaker at this youth conference had the church turn the heat up in the building as high as it would go during the "preaching" of his message on hell. The conference was in the late spring/early summer, so it was plenty warm already! Anyway, he had also sequestered a certain percentage of those in attendance to scream, moan, and wail at key moments during his "message" as though they were the very souls of the damned! He filled the evening with many stories of the lost and conjecture regarding specific experiences they had and were having. Of course, he did not state that it was conjecture! Now when I say he "filled the evening," I do mean exactly that. He "preached" for over two hours. By the end of the evening, the whole group was worn down emotionally by the content of his "message," and physically by the exposure to extreme heat for such a long period of time. He was able to get almost everyone up to the front to make one decision or another. The amazing thing is, he is lauded for his preaching in a certain segment of fundamentalism! The whole "That is a man who knows how to get results" awe follows the mention of his name. Finney would have been proud to know this man! (See this article for more regarding that statement.)

The other story occured in a VBS program. At the end of the week the children were to cast their vote for either Jesus and Heaven or the Devil and Hell by placing a folded paper "vote" into the corresponding barrel. Throughout the week, the children were bombarded with emotional appeals about how good Jesus and Heaven were and how bad the Devil and Hell were. When that moment of voting came the children were ushered by the two barrels. The barrel representing Jesus and Heaven was decorated beautifully with appealing colours. The barrel representing the Devil and Hell was incredibly ugly and even had smoke issuing from it! Not surprisingly, every child put their "vote" into the Jesus barrel! The church then broadly proclaimed to anyone that would listen (and a few that would rather not) how they had seen incredible numbers of children saved at their VBS!

What these individuals are saying in a very blatant fashion is that the "message preached" is not sufficient to the task. When a man implements these emotionally manipulative practices, he very clearly demonstrates what his true hope of "results" lies in. Within our movement today the words of our LORD must be heard again "So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it (Isaiah 55:11)." Also, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith (Romans 1:16-17)." And "For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of the message preached to save them that believe (I Corinthians 1:21)". Proclaim the message boldly and passionately; but above all proclaim it accurately in dependence upon the very Spirit who spoke it into existence, trusting that He will, through His Word, do His work in the hearts of men.