Repent or go to hell vs simply loving people and letting God show up

[Joshua-777]

[Guest]

Hallelujah~!

[Guest shiloh357]

How is calling on people to repent and warning them about hell counter intuitive to loving them?

[Joshua-777]

How is calling on people to repent and warning them about hell counter intuitive to loving them?

First, I apologize for the title of this thread. I realized after I posted it that it paints too much of a "me vs him" picture I don't want because we are all family and I love and respect that minister of God and appreciate his boldness for the Gospel.

In the video I said, "our opinions of the Gospel" so I admit I could be wrong on this. The message he conveyed was "Jesus died to save you from hell" and "So you can excape the judgement of God." though there were other things in his message, I didn't capture it all on film. Though those are truths, thats not the focus of the Gospel and thats not the message Jesus preached.

Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, the life, no one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6) and also "this is eternal life, that you You, the one true God" (John 17:3) So the focus of eternal life is on Knowing Him. God is radically good, and amazing. So much so He tells us to love our enemies and bless them,  and says He's kind to the wicked. (luke 6:27-36).

We are ambasadors for Christ, we represent to this world what God is like. If your a believer, the world will look at you and judge God.  I came across countless people who have been hurt by professing Christians and they have seen alot of hypocracy in the Church and their understanding of the Gospel is not really good news. Many believe God is angry at them until they accept Jesus and convert to Christianity, otherwise he's going to send them to hell and punish them. That's the message they've heard preached and they need to know the reality of God's love for them. When they come across someone angerly preaching repent or go to hell, that doesn't compute as love to them and they get more shut down to the Gospel. Also, on a side note. I've seen street preachers literally cuss out the audience calling them vulgar names and condem them saying God hates them because of these things, though this guy in the video wasn't doing that, that is what the people he's preaching at has dealt with on many occasions.

I'm shocked to find how many people know the basic Gospel message, they just havn't seen the other side of it. The Gospel isn't say this prayer and get to heaven, but come home to Your Father who loves you. God is despratly wanting to encouner the lost with His love. He's the shepherd that leaves the 99 to go after the 1. He's so amazing! The Gospel isn't a get out of hell free card but an invitation to know the most amazing person in existance.

The guy in the video brought up the point, you can't just love people and pray for people without giving them the Gospel, he meant what was written on his card, and he said if you love them and pray for them without them repenting, you are only enabling them to sin another day. So that is actually putting conditions on loving people. I do share the Gospel as much as I can, but at the end of the video, we ran into the same girl we've ran into a few other times. Each time we ran into her, she was getting plastered drunk but I just showed her love and prayed for her. I didn't preach at her, just represented God to her. One of those encounters she had back pain that left. Well, This time we ran into her she said she tried repenting of her sins and gave her life to Jesus and asked me if she did it right. We had her accept Jesus in her heart and prayed for her to be baptized in the Spirit. She got rocked and so did her friends around her.  Another guy we got prophetic words over said that was the fourth time someone said that to him and it was confirmation that God was after him. When we represent God well, people want to know Him and God is in pursuit of those he loves.

 

[other one]

i find it hard to love someone who's standing there wanting to cut off your kids and grandkids heads.....   i really hope we are not expected to do that peacefully.

[Guest]

i find it hard to love someone who's standing there wanting to cut off your kids and grandkids heads.....   i really hope we are not expected to do that peacefully.

 

I know what you mean. Let's just say I'd have some serious issues with that idea, and my response would be anything but peaceful if they attempted it.

[Guest shiloh357]

 

How is calling on people to repent and warning them about hell counter intuitive to loving them?

First, I apologize for the title of this thread. I realized after I posted it that it paints too much of a "me vs him" picture I don't want because we are all family and I love and respect that minister of God and appreciate his boldness for the Gospel.

In the video I said, "our opinions of the Gospel" so I admit I could be wrong on this. The message he conveyed was "Jesus died to save you from hell" and "So you can excape the judgement of God." though there were other things in his message, I didn't capture it all on film. Though those are truths, thats not the focus of the Gospel and thats not the message Jesus preached.

Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, the life, no one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6) and also "this is eternal life, that you You, the one true God" (John 17:3) So the focus of eternal life is on Knowing Him. God is radically good, and amazing. So much so He tells us to love our enemies and bless them,  and says He's kind to the wicked. (luke 6:27-36).

We are ambasadors for Christ, we represent to this world what God is like. If your a believer, the world will look at you and judge God.  I came across countless people who have been hurt by professing Christians and they have seen alot of hypocracy in the Church and their understanding of the Gospel is not really good news. Many believe God is angry at them until they accept Jesus and convert to Christianity, otherwise he's going to send them to hell and punish them. That's the message they've heard preached and they need to know the reality of God's love for them. When they come across someone angerly preaching repent or go to hell, that doesn't compute as love to them and they get more shut down to the Gospel. Also, on a side note. I've seen street preachers literally cuss out the audience calling them vulgar names and condem them saying God hates them because of these things, though this guy in the video wasn't doing that, that is what the people he's preaching at has dealt with on many occasions.

I'm shocked to find how many people know the basic Gospel message, they just havn't seen the other side of it. The Gospel isn't say this prayer and get to heaven, but come home to Your Father who loves you. God is despratly wanting to encouner the lost with His love. He's the shepherd that leaves the 99 to go after the 1. He's so amazing! The Gospel isn't a get out of hell free card but an invitation to know the most amazing person in existance.

The guy in the video brought up the point, you can't just love people and pray for people without giving them the Gospel, he meant what was written on his card, and he said if you love them and pray for them without them repenting, you are only enabling them to sin another day. So that is actually putting conditions on loving people. I do share the Gospel as much as I can, but at the end of the video, we ran into the same girl we've ran into a few other times. Each time we ran into her, she was getting plastered drunk but I just showed her love and prayed for her. I didn't preach at her, just represented God to her. One of those encounters she had back pain that left. Well, This time we ran into her she said she tried repenting of her sins and gave her life to Jesus and asked me if she did it right. We had her accept Jesus in her heart and prayed for her to be baptized in the Spirit. She got rocked and so did her friends around her.  Another guy we got prophetic words over said that was the fourth time someone said that to him and it was confirmation that God was after him. When we represent God well, people want to know Him and God is in pursuit of those he loves.

 

True, I can understand that the way some people deliver the message is pretty bad and makes for a really awful witness for the Lord.  I would not advocate that kind of angry preaching, as it would really cause people to tune out and not hear the message.

 

I was just concerned that we so often emphasize the love of God at the expense of his holiness.  People need to know why redemption was necessary in the first place. Many don't know where they stand with God and need to be made aware that God loves them but that God's chief attribute is holiness and that even though He loves them, their sin separates them from Him and that He has conquered sin and has made a way back into relationship with Him.  The consequences of rejecting His love gift is an eternity separated from Him darkness and agony. 

 

if you go to doctor, he has to tell you the bad news first.  He has to lay out your condition, how bad it is and what will happen to you if you don't get treatment.   it's the same way with the Gospel.  People have to be confronted with the fact that they are sinners and that God is holy and that their condition is terminal and that if they choose continued separation from God there is an existence that they do not want.  Only when we lay out the bad news can we offer them the good news that while they are not able to affect change in themselves that Jesus is able to transform them and restore them back to Himself.