Why Preach Against Error?
It is never pleasant for the sincere preacher of the gospel to condemn the sins of people and to expose the teachers of religious error as the false prophets which they are. Such preaching is often embarrassing to the audience, particularly if it is their own sins being condemned, or if they have friends present who espouse the error being exposed. So we should not be surprised when many brethren object to such preaching. Sometimes they object so strongly and condemn the preacher so forcefully that they become guilty of doing to the preacher that which they say is wrong for him to do to others. Many members would prefer that they be fed a light diet of milk and sugar, when truly their teeth are sharp enough to chew strong meat! But occasionally they try to base their objections to strong preaching on what they consider to be reasonable grounds. Let us take a look at some of their points.
"Not The Spirit Of Christ"
We are often charged with not having the spirit of Christ, for, we are told, He was a meek man often pictured as a lamb. Therefore we should be meek and quiet in the presence of error in order to manifest the spirit of Christ. However, those who present this kind of reasoning do not really understand the spirit of Christ. The spirit of Christ would be his attitude toward things; as He showed the spirit of obedience toward the Father, and the spirit of love toward His disciples. Now, what attitude did Jesus show toward religious error in His day? Did He fellowship false teachers, or did He ignore them? He did neither! Some brethren want to fellowship sin, while others want to just ignore it. But what did Jesus do?
Turn to Matthew chapter 23. We read a few selections from verse 13 down. This is Jesus speaking to the Pharisees and scribes, who were guilty of a strictly legalistic view of the law of God, while they neglected such weighty matters as judgment, mercy, and faithful. Listen:
"But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of God against men.... ye devour widows' houses, and for pretense make long prayers: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. ...ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?"
Sound pretty hard, does it not? Do you wonder just what the spirit of Christ was toward error? He told His disciples not to fellowship these false teachers in their sins: "Do not ye after their works." He condemned and exposed them. The objection that the spirit of Christ will not permit us to condemn sin and expose the sinner is certainly not valid.
"Violates Religious Freedom"
We are sometimes accused of attempting to curtail religious freedom. Since our Constitution guarantees that a man may believe and worship as he pleases, he should not be molested or disturbed in any way. And since God created man with freedom of choice, we ought not bother anybody.
Certainly we concede to every man the privilege of believing as he pleases. If you want to believe and practice error, go ahead. But have you thought of the consequences of believing and doing wrong? I am sure that many never consider the fact that they will be lost eternally if they are not right. Though the Constitution grants me freedom, and God gave me the liberty of choice, still I will not stand uncondemned before the Lord on the day of judgment if my choice is the wrong one. When you stand there, my friend, and the Books are opened and you find that your life has measured short, you cannot plead, Religious freedom! Religious freedom! You prize your freedom, yes. So do I. But we ought to prize truth and salvation more.
No one who truly loves the souls of men and women will be worrying overly much about interfering with religious freedom, but will be marking the dangers and shining the light on sin so that all may see its hideous face and turn away.
Usually those who cry about us curbing their religious freedom are inconsistent. They want us to leave error alone. They want error to be free and unfettered, but would have us so bound that we cannot fight against it. Now what kind of freedom is that? If purveyors of false doctrine are to be free to lead souls astray, then we should he free to warn against their tactics. Religious freedom works two ways. It not only allows people to be wrong if they want to be, but it also allows us to show them that they are wrong. Let no one object to me exposing sin or he will be interfering with my religious freedom! I am sure that all can see how foolish this objection is.
"Preach Christ And Leave Everybody Alone"
When we engage in negative preaching we are told that we should instead just preach Christ and Him crucified. We can do this it is said, without disturbing anybody. But did you ever think about how to do this? You know it is easy for a member to criticize the preacher, but if you were faced with the necessity of preparing a sermon designed to lead someone from error to truth, but were determined not to get on anyone's toes, what would your subject be?
Oh, you say, I should preach the God of the Bible, that He exists. But suppose your audience was under the influence of a convincing atheist. Obviously you could have no effect unless you exposed his fallacious reasoning. You could not preach God without condemning atheism. Well, you decide, I shall preach Christ of the New Testament, that He was born of a virgin, died for our sins, and has now been raised to the right hand of God. But if your audience contains a number of Jews they will be thinking, "He quotes from the New Testament, but I do not accept that; I have the Old Testament, and I like Judaism." The Jew will go away totally unconvinced that Jesus is the Christ unless you answer his objections. In other words, you must show the weaknesses of Judaism to get home to a Jew.
Then you think you will preach on the church. But denominational people think their churches have some good points too; you simply have to show them the difference. What will you preach? Repentance? The Universalist does not believe it is necessary. It is obvious that no part of the gospel can be preached with maximum effectiveness without developing its negative aspects. Then why try? Why not just tell the people in a kind way who and what you are talking about? It is not possible to show anyone what to do to be saved until you first convince him he is lost. So if you ask me to preach the gospel and leave everybody alone, please tell me what to preach because I know I cannot preach the gospel like that. Of course I could preach myself, but even that would be offensive to some who do not like me. I suppose you get the idea.
Then let the proclaimer of the word do his duty, pleasant or not. Let us tell the people the truth and warn them against error. Nevertheless let us do it gently, kindly, and with genuine love for those who hear us.
— 1364 Manzanita Avenue, Chico, California