1 Corinthians 1:18, “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.”
John 3:19-20, “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.”
In the Old Testament, they killed the prophets for preaching.
Luke 13:34, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee.”
Jesus was talking about Zechariah, when he went to preach to Joash in 2 Chronicles 24:20-21:
And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, which stood above the people, and said unto them, Thus saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments of the LORD, that ye cannot prosper? because ye have forsaken the LORD, he hath also forsaken you. And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of the LORD.
Of course, when Jesus preached like that in Luke 4 to the synagogue crowd, they tried to throw Him over a cliff.
Scripture teaches that people won’t like preaching, but we also already know that. And churches know it. So rather than going and preaching, which isn’t easy and takes living by faith, churches have designed the “invitation to church” philosophy.
The Bible says “go” and “preach”:
Matthew 10:7, “And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Mark 1:38, “And he said unto them, Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also: for therefore came I forth.”
Mark 16:15, “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”
Luke 9:60, “Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.”
Acts 16:10, “And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them.”
There are no “invite and preach” passages in the Bible, but people don’t want to go. Today they use all sorts of excuses, number one of which is that it doesn’t work. Go and preach doesn’t work. What God said doesn’t work. Do you think so?
What occurs as a result is that churches have designed their churches around what will attract the unregenerate. And this has affected the churches. Churches will always be more worldly when they design their services around what will lure unbelievers. But that isn’t even the worst of it. What’s worse is that God told us to go and preach and we don’t or won’t either do that or major on it. Church leaders have made the invitation philosophy, one not in the Bible, the one preeminent for churches.
God isn’t glorified and man is through the “invite and preach” philosophy. Man has a better idea than God. The world comes into the church. The church is affected by the world’s presence. How the world thinks affects the church, because of the horrible qualities of the world’s wisdom (James 3:15). God is misrepresented. Not everyone gets preached to. Christians aren’t obeying God’s Word.
The invitation philosophy is a scheme to avoid consequences that Scripture guarantees for true followers of the Lord.
Amen!
The "invite and preach" philosophy also significantly reduces the proliferation of God's word in the community and availability of God's Word to those who haven't the inclination to attend church.
Right on, Jonathan!