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Not long ago, I was asked to speak at a
“seeker friendly” church. A couple of weeks
before the date I was to speak, a pastor from this
church called me and wanted to know exactly the
content of my message. When I told him that my topic
would be the importance of creation to Christianity,
he expressed some concerns. “We will likely have a
number of evolutionists in our service, he said.
“We don’t want to offend any of them.”
A few days later I received another call from
this same pastor. Apparently there had been a skit
scheduled for the morning I was to be the guest
speaker at his church. He wanted to let me know that
the time for the message had been reduced. “Would
it possible to cover what you are going to say in
five to ten minutes?” he asked.
The Sunday came and I was at the church ready
to speak. A skit was performed by two men who played
the role of “birdwatchers” as they presented
their case. The theme of the skit was to show that
God is creative, but not necessarily the Creator as
described in Genesis. “You just can’t take the
Bible literally,” one said. Then later he added:
“The Bible is a good book to learn about faith,
but it was never intended to teach on scientific
matters.”
My message that followed was short and brief.
I presented my view that creation is the basis of
the Christian faith. Then I shared some of my
personal testimony of how I had been converted from
an evolutionist to a creationist, then to a Bible
believing Christian. I shared how God had
transformed my life and now the lives of others
around the world by the overwhelming evidence that
supports the biblical creation view. As the message
continued, I noticed that the necks of the people
seemed to be stretched upward indicating they were
listening to every word.
I concluded my message by presenting the gospel.
“God is the Creator and man has been separated
from the Creator because of sin,” I said. Then I
told the congregation that the indoctrination of
evolution was Satan’s clever plan to deceive
people that God didn’t create. Finally I mentioned
it is infinitely important that we acknowledge the
Creator and what He has done. “As well,” I said,
“the Creator is also our Redeemer, and He wants to
have first place in our lives.
The
skit was “seeker friendly.” My message was not,
although it was based on the truth. It seems to me
when we try to bring people to faith by watering
down the Bible, we have removed the power that
transforms lives. Faith comes by hearing the Word,
the Bible states.
I
don’t have a problem with using drama for the
purpose of drawing people to Christ. However, a
seeker friendly message that isn’t biblically
based could actually be responsible to leading
people to Hell. Then it would be seeker unfriendly.
Let’s make sure the gospel message remains
biblically based.
I
am Roger Oakland. This has been a biblical
perspective to help Understand the Times.
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