Pastors: Stop Manipulating People to Follow Jesus

 Ray Comfort - Founder & CEO, Living Waters

Nathan’s heart went out to King David. The king had made some bad decisions. Even though he wasn’t actually aware of it, he had messed up, and God wanted to help him. David had had an affair, and then he tried to remedy the problem himself. What had happened was unfortunate, and the prophet saw his job as one who was there to help bring some sort of healing to the situation.

He began his message by gently explaining to the king the good news that there was something missing from his life. That missing piece was “real and lasting peace,” or, as someone once put it, there was a “God-shaped vacuum” in his heart. It was the good news that God had a wonderful plan for the king’s life and that He wanted him to experience that plan.

The prophet was steering toward a moment of decision. Would the king respond to this incredible offer that God had made him, or would he reject it?

To help the king, Nathan psychologically prepared him by telling him what he was going to do. He had said that in a few moments, he would want him to respond by coming forward. The prophet had learned that this would help the king move closer to the decision he needed to make.

To help further, Nathan had David and the guards who stood around his throne close their eyes. This would help to make sure that the king felt a little less self-conscious about his decision when he did come forward.

David, like King Saul, had a personal musician close by, so as Nathan continued to speak, he nodded to the musician to begin to play some appropriate music. Even though the song was very moving, there was no movement from David. Nathan nodded to the skilled performer to play the tune again and then again as he pleaded with David to respond.

To help him further, the prophet let him know that if he did come, he had prearranged with one of the king’s guards to come forward with him—to stand alongside him in support.

Still the king didn’t make a move. Nathan gently reminded him that no one was watching him and that every eye was closed. He again spoke of the incredible offer God had made to him.

Suddenly, it seemed that David was convinced about this new life that could be his if he would just respond. He began to move slowly forward, and as he did, one of the closest guards gently took him by the arm and walked with him.

It was a very emotional moment. It was so touching that the rest of the guards couldn’t contain themselves. They burst into joyful applause. David smiled slightly at their gesture of support. The guards smiled. So did Nathan. There was great joy. This was what it was all about….

Not quite. God hadn’t instructed Nathan to talk to the king about a “God-shaped vacuum in his heart” or to talk about real peace or of improving his life. He was there to reprove a devious murderer who had despised God’s Commandment and committed adultery with another man’s wife. As a married man, the king had burned in lust after another woman. Knowing that she herself was married, he had illicit sexual intercourse with her, which caused her to become pregnant with his child. And then, as if that wasn’t bad enough, he had her loving and faithful husband murdered and married her himself. He had carefully covered his terrible sin, but as far as God was concerned, his wicked hands were dripping with innocent blood.

What an awful betrayal it would have been if the prophet had reduced the king’s horrible crimes against a holy God to insignificance by talking to him about a new and better life that could be his.

The Uncompromised Message

But Nathan didn’t pervert the message. He told the king about a man who stole another man’s pet lamb and slaughtered it, and when David became indignant, Nathan said, “You are that man!” Then he said, “Why have you despised the commandment of the Lord?” When David cried, “I have sinned,” Nathan then gave him the good news of God’s mercy and grace.

There was no mention of a vacuum in the heart, no music to stir the emotions, no deceptive psychological manipulation, no closing of the eyes to make things easier. David was a devious lawbreaker. He was a conniving criminal. He was a man who had deliberately violated the moral Law, but God was willing to show him mercy.

It was the king’s breach of God’s Law that shaped the prophet’s message, and it’s the sinner’s breach of that same Law that should shape our message. We too have the same commission—to reprove and rebuke those who have despised God. We are to preach the Word, in season and out of season, and to “convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching” (2 Timothy 4:2). In the sight of God, every sinner is a devious criminal, but neither the Church nor the world will see that as being true without the Law to show sin as being “exceedingly sinful” (see Romans 7:7-13).

The sinner enthrones himself as a king, enrobed in the filthy garments of self-righteousness. He commits adultery in his lust-filled heart. His throat is an open sepulcher. His mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. There is no fear of God before his eyes. He lies, steals, blasphemes, and hides murder in his heart; and, in doing so, he sins against a holy God and stores up His wrath. He has a desperately wicked heart and a multitude of sins which he thinks his Creator doesn’t see. The Bible tells us that God is filled with indignation and wrath, and it promises that He will bring tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that does evil (see Romans 2:5-9).

The Law Trivialized

We have such a wicked heart. Without the light of the Law, we reduce sin to insignificance and trivialize the claims of the Divine Prosecution. The modern message is a betrayal of our commission and a victory for the enemy. Like the Pharisees, contemporary preachers prefer their traditions to the truth of God’s Word. They cling to the security blanket of closed eyes, emotional music, and psychological manipulation, misguidedly pleading with wicked criminals about the promise of a wonderful new life in Christ.

Such folly is perhaps the greatest deception of the last days. It is to do the work of the enemy, by planting tares alongside the wheat. An unbiblical, Lawless gospel will almost certainly produce lawless converts—workers of iniquity—who the Bible warns will be cast out of the gates of Heaven into the waiting jaws of Hell (see Matthew 7:21-24).

Stop the Insanity

A forsaking of biblical evangelism has left our churches looking and acting just like the world. This has happened because our pulpits have reduced the glorious gospel of God’s grace to a 30-minute, low-budget infomercial, peddling the Word of God as a competing product for life enhancement.

If you have been trusted with a pulpit, or if you are someone who cares about the lost, please stop this insanity. Don’t think of the use of the Law as a “method,” and don’t look for “results” as a legitimate criterion to measure its worth. Our churches are filled with misleading “results.” The impressive numbers are the product of unbiblical methods. The use of the Law brings the knowledge of sin. Jesus and Paul used it (see Luke 10:17; Romans 2:20-24). Ask the question: “Is this principle biblical?” If it is, then instigate it and leave the numbers game up to God.

Adapted from The Way of the Master 

Ray Comfort

Ray Comfort is the Founder and CEO of Living Waters and the bestselling author of more than 90 books, including God Has a Wonderful Plan for Your Life, How to Know God Exists, and The Evidence Bible. He cohosts the award-winning television program Way of the Master, airing in every country in the world, and is an Executive Producer of “180,” “Evolution vs. God,” “Audacity,” and other films. He is married to Sue and has three grown children, and hasn’t left the house without gospel tracts for decades.

John Piper: Ravi Zacharias turned 'position of power' into 'neediness and woundedness'

 By Leah MarieAnn Klett, Christian Post Reporter

John Piper has weighed in on the misdeeds of late apologist Ravi Zacharias and identified the “lessons” Christians can learn from his posthumous fall from grace after he was accused of “sexting, unwanted touching, spiritual abuse, and rape.”

“There’s a lesson to be learned from Ravi’s manipulation of people — a lesson to be learned about the need for tethered sympathy,” Piper, chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary in Minneapolis, Minnesota, wrote on his Desiring God website.

Piper explained that every time sympathy is called for, it needs to be “tethered to the truth, so that it is given lavishly when the truth calls for it and is withheld when the truth clashes with it.”

“How did [Ravi] manipulate people into sinfully providing him with sexual stimulation? He did it by demanding untethered sympathy. He portrayed himself as an embattled, burdened, wounded warrior in the righteous cause of the gospel. And ironically, he turned his position of power into a form of neediness and woundedness. And then he tried to coerce untethered sympathy under the guise of calling for ‘kingdom therapy for the wounded warrior.’”

Piper said he had seen this kind of “demand and manipulation for untethered sympathy repeatedly among fallen Christian leaders.”

“[They say], ‘The burdens are so great. The wounds are so many. Those who understand me are so few. The weight of faithful ministry — oh, it is so great. I deserve some relief. Have some sympathy on this poor, wounded warrior. Empathize with your embattled hero. I need your body if I’m to carry on in the Lord’s work,’” Piper paraphrased. 

“To which the administrative assistant or the old college flame or the teenage boy in the locker room should say, ‘That’s disgusting. Don’t ever talk to me like that again. My sympathy is not for sale; it’s tethered to truth and righteousness.’”

To those who came to Christ under Zacharias’ ministry or who had their faith mightily strengthened by what he taught, Piper advised: “Don’t let the imperfections and failures of men turn you away from the perfections and the triumphs of Christ, who will never, never fail you.”

An investigation released earlier this year found credible evidence of a long pattern of abusive behavior by Zacharias, one of the most recognizable figures in American Christianity for decades.

The report found that the apologist, the founder of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, who died last May, coerced massage therapists at a spa he co-owned to perform sexual acts. It also uncovered a collection of explicit photos — many of them of much younger women — found in Zacharias’ possession. 

One woman told the investigators that “after he arranged for the ministry to provide her with financial support, he required sex from her.” 

She told investigators Zacharias “made her pray with him to thank God for the ‘opportunity’ they both received.” Zacharias reportedly warned her that if she ever spoke out against him, she would be responsible for millions of souls lost if his reputation was damaged.

Following the release of the report, numerous publishers pulled Zacharias’ books, while RZIM was forced to restructure and change its name.

In an interview with The Christian Post, bestselling author and pastor Michael Youssef said Zacharias’ downfall is a sobering reminder that “accountability” must be a significant pillar of ministry.

“Accountability is a word that's almost a dirty word among some of the celebrity preachers, and that's got to come back,” he said. “Whether a church has 10 members, 100 members or 10,000 members, he must have accountability. This is a word that is lost in today’s churches and must be returned to our vocabulary.”

New York-based pastor Tim Keller told CP earlier this month that when pastors get to be “well-known,” the praise can turn their heads, the criticism can prompt self-pity and the overwork can cause them to neglect their prayer life. 

“For all those reasons, very often, so-called ‘celebrity ministers and figures’ very often live lives less consistent with the Christian faith than Christians who are not so famous,” Keller said. 

“It's the job of the so-called ‘famous Christians’ to just live ordinary, good Christian lives, and not overwork and burn out and get filled with self-pity and anger over all the people that are criticizing them. That’s the thing that sets them up for these things where they embezzle money, they have affairs or they do things like that.”

While Christian leaders who have “not been faithful or responsible with the platform God has given them” must be held accountable, Keller stressed their moral failure “doesn't mean that the Christian faith doesn't work.”

“A quack doctor doesn't mean that medicine is illegitimate. A quack evangelist doesn't mean that the Gospel isn't true,” he said. “So, on one hand, don’t make excuses for your heroes. On the other hand, it doesn’t mean that everything they’ve ever said is illegitimate.”