There are two reasons why I cannot regard the present religious movement hopefully:

1. Because the doctrine which is set forth to bring results seems often­times to be 'another gospel;’ even though it seems powerful and successful. Hyper-evangelism, I call it, because of the loud professions made by those who preach it. There is an extreme application of the truths which will attract sinners, while a neglect of other equally important truths which would offend sinners.

2. Because often times unscriptural practices are resorted to in order to secure results and success.

Hyper-Evangelism, another Gospel⤒🔗

In modern, popular evangelism the supreme end of the gospel is ignored — that is, the manifesting of God's glory. It misrepresents the gospel as merely unfolding a scheme of salvation adapted to man's convenience. I would present four reasons why the present evangelical campaign movement is weighed in the balances and found lacking.

1. No effort is made to present the character and claims of God as lawgiver and judge, and no desire at all to allow sinners to come into self-condemnation, that is, to accept their full guilt and condemnation before God. The law of God has its place in the preaching of the gospel and its use in the work of God. 'By the law is the knowledge of sin' (Romans 3:20). The Holy Spirit, who convinces men of their sin, uses the law in the work of conviction. A due regard for the glory of God demands that it be so. Sinners cannot be saved if they do not understand what they are, and what they deserve. They must own their sinnership. As sinners, they must be made acutely acquainted with their iniquity and guilt.
   
   It should be an aim of preaching to bring sinners to plead guilty before God, shut up to the sovereign mercy of God, against whom they have sinned. But where is this the practice in the current religious movements which are claiming many conversions? A call to repentance rarely issues from their trumpet. In the minds of many current evangelical leaders, there is no place for repentance either before or after a sinner professes Christ. It is too offensive. It is called 'legalism' to require a sinner truly to repent. A brief sense of need is all that is required. 'Just believe this, pray this prayer, and go home. And know you're saved!' These want to produce a gospel, a message that will suit a sinner's disposition, that dispenses with all humbling of the soul before God; a gospel which unrepentant man can simply 'use' to relieve his anxieties or meet his need. For the defence of such a popular gospel, the law and character of God and repentance must be excluded.

2. Modern, hyper-evangelism ignores the sovereignty and power of God in freely bestowing saving grace. If men are told that salvation is at the disposal of God's sovereign will, that they are so utterly lost and helpless that only the working of God's almighty power can save them, then the result will be that some will be offended, and some will sink down in despair. Am I therefore to cease from proclaiming Jehovah and his Son as absolute king? Am I to be silenced from telling sinners that it is his right and authority alone that determines who and when men will be saved? Are we not especially called to announce his sovereignty in saving sinners by the gospel? Did not the Lord Jesus make God's sovereignty in salvation the theme of his first sermon, and as a result enraged the congregation till their hearts became murderous (Luke 4:16-30)? Preaching that God sovereignly saves, not according to the will of the flesh or the will of man, will always arouse the rebellion of the natural man, who wants his own will to be sovereign. Did not our Lord Jesus Christ, in all his preaching, ascribe salvation to the sovereign will of the Father who sent him?
   
   Preachers and soul winners, anxious to secure decisions and results, do not like to think of the controlling will of a free, sovereign God, whose almighty power cannot be controlled, yet whose power must be active if a sinner truly comes to Christ. Modern evangelical Christians think clearly only in terms of cause and effect: certain methods and actions must produce certain results. This carnal earnestness, this zeal not according to wisdom, this proud determination to make a controlled business of soul-winning is intolerant of God's free sovereignty.
   There is, of course, verbal references to God's grace, the work of the Holy Spirit, and the need of Christ, but there is in the end no waiting upon God in dependence. Busy soul-winners and evangelists bustle around, acting as if somehow God's power is under their control.
   
   In the present movement, at any rate, there seems to be little that is actually a work of the sovereign Spirit of God. Of course, there is much 'strange fire' produced by clever song-leaders and religious cheerleaders. But where is 'the Holy Ghost being sent down from heaven,' producing a sense of man's depravity and the genuine helplessness of a soul who is dead in trespasses and sins? To face this reality in the light of God's Word, would be to discover the necessity of the almighty agency of the Holy Spirit. Let us be clear about this forever, man cannot control, manipulate or produce the moving of the Spirit of God. God must work, or all is vain. But leaders in the modern movement hide the true state of things so that success and 'results' can be obtained. There is little faith in the Holy Spirit as God. Men cannot bear the fact that there is a great work which God alone can do. It is the man who can cry, in faith, for life with a valley of dry bones before him who is the man with true faith in God.
   
   Often a sermon is heard in which the necessity of being born again is heard, but this is sure to be followed by statements that blunt the edge of all that was said before. In answer to the question of how one is to be born again, the answer is, 'You believe in Christ, and then you are regenerated.' Think of that, man's faith regenerates! If it does so, it is the act of a living soul, and that soul could not have been dead in sins. If that regenerating faith was the act of a dead soul, then a dead man, by his own act, brings himself alive! Men often say, 'God would not call men to believe, unless they had the power to do so.' Let them answer this question: Can natural men love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength? Yet they are commanded to do so. The power of God is necessary for the response and obedience of any sinner.

Saving Faith←⤒🔗

What about saving faith? It must be realised that there is a faith which can be exercised without the aid of the Holy Spirit. But it is not the faith that is 'to the saving of the soul'. That is expressly declared to be 'of the operation of God,' and requires the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead. Saving faith, too, uniquely rests all upon the person of Christ. It does so, not merely believing in the historical figure of Christ as found in the gospels, but also by apprehending him as a living, present Saviour, made real by the Holy Spirit. It actually receives him as a living, present person who is Jesus of Nazareth, the Lord Christ. It embraces him. It is not merely belief in the facts about Christ; it is also trust in the person who is presented in the gospel record. Faith implies unreserved dependence upon the grace of God offered in Christ. It is not merely taking advantage of a convenient ground of hope. It is an acknowledgement of being justly condemned and helpless at the footstool of the divine throne. It is the acceptance of salvation from the hands of the sovereign God 'to the praise of the glory of his grace'. Who knows best about the grace of the gospel, the man who thinks he is saved by grace through a faith which he alone produced, or the man who has learned that faith is not of himself but is the gift of God? Did Jesus hide this in his preaching in Luke 4, John 3, and John 6? It was in his preaching in John 6 that he said, 'No man can come to me except the Father, which hath sent me, draw him.'

3. No care is taken to show how God is glorified in the salvation of a sinner through the death of Christ. The modern gospel is a gospel primarily meant for man's relief and convenience. How salvation is 'to the praise of God's glory' the preacher is not careful to show, nor is the sinner anxious to know.
   
   True, much use is made of Christ's death. But it is usually referred to only as disposing of sin, so that the sinner is no longer in danger when he believes that Christ died for him. This use of the gospel as primarily an escape for the sinner has been very frequent and effective. Christ's death is declared to be the object of faith. But it is his substitution rather than himself that is made the object of faith. To believe in the substitution is what produces the peace. This serves to remove the sense of danger. But there is often no direct dealing with the person who was the substitute. There is little deep appreciation of the merit of his sacrifice because of the divine glory of the one who was offered. It is not faith in the work of Christ that saves, but faith in Christ himself who accomplished the work. This is the faith that saves.

4. No measures are used to warn professing converts against what is known as antinomianism. Antinomianism, simply defined, is the practice of living without the standard of God's law, being able to live as one desires now that one is saved and secure. No warnings are given to professing sinners who are coming to Christ, telling them to put off all sin, that they cannot continue in sin, that they are not free to continue to live as they did.
   
   If the law of God has no place in the initial conversion of a sinner, it is likely to have no place in his life as a professing believer. The person who thinks of his sin as something which has hurt him, rather than as a heinous crime of rebellion, is not likely to respect God and his law. The government under which he ventures to claim his salvation presents nothing demanding to his mind. He thinks of an easy reign of mercy, under which he can do as he pleases. There is no requirement to take up one's cross daily, to put off sin daily, to deny self, or to render full obedience to the Word of God out of a heart of thanksgiving to God. Such a convert is told nothing of watchfulness, self-examination, continual repentance, and restitution of wrongs against others.

The Lord calls the believer to examine himself as to the fruit which he produces in order to ascertain if his faith is genuine.

Faith without works is dead, being alone.James 2:17