Am reading Beeke's Puritan Reformed Spirituality, and came across this quote from J. I. Packer's Quest for Godliness. How true is the old master in this:
"All devices for exerting psychological pressure in order to precipitate 'decisions' must be eschewed, as being in truth presumptuous attempts to intrude into the province of the Holy Ghost."
Further, Packer writes that such pressures
"may produce the outward form of 'decision', they cannot bring about regeneration and a change of heart, and when the 'decisions' wear off those who registered them will be found 'gospel-hardened' and antagonistic...Evangelism must rather be conceived as a long term enterprise of patient teaching and instruction, in which God's servants seek simply to be faithful in delivering the gospel message and applying it to human lives, and leave it to God's Spirit to draw men to faith through this message in his own way and at his own speed."
How contrary to modern evangelism is that!? Yet I am convinced that Packer's synopsis is absolutely on the money. Modern evangelistic 'formulae' are so (it seems to me) foolish, and really do grave injustice to the great commission, and to the honor of the Holy Spirit. But such efforts are consistent with the underlying Pelagian view of human nature held by most evangelists.
Posted by toddpedlar at June 12, 2004 02:21 PM | TrackBack