Confusing Mission with Method in Evangelism

Re: Missouri Police Descend Upon, Arrest Evangelists Preaching Gospel in Public Square

The heresy of Decision Theology carries vast implications of unjust behavior. The church involved is Lighthouse Anabaptist Church in Springfield, MO (they have the bad taste to construct their whole site as a Flash application). They adhere to a goofy revisionist history known by the title “Trail of Blood.” You can read it if you want; there are copies all over the Net. It pretends to string together a long list of historical Christian minorities dissenting from the established churches. What’s almost hilarious is how some of those groups represented heresies Pastor Aaron and his flock have already denounced. In other words, the whole idea is vastly overwrought in order to claim some kind of continuous lineage back to the New Testament churches. It’s pretty much the same kind of mythology used by Pharisees to claim Moses personally approved or taught what eventually shows up in the Talmud.

There is plenty of bad history worthy of revision, but we often do so using much stronger evidence than the slipshod propaganda of folks like Jack Chick, James Carroll or Pastor Aaron Brummitt. Brummitt should be lumped in with the radical American Zionist Christians who bought into Dispensationalism. With a sigh of regret I note I was one of them some years ago, but it gives me first-hand knowledge of the intellectual territory they inhabit.

So Pastor Brummitt is part of that background and he has every right to be wrong. Under God’s Justice we don’t use coercion; we aren’t the truth police. We simply let folks know we have a different take on things and let God handle the results. That’s how we do evangelism, too. Brummitt participates in a branch of American Christianity that makes legal and constitutional rights a matter of Canon Law, as it were. It is a far-reaching logical extension of a collection of heresies, beginning with the adoption of Aristotelian epistemology. If any part of Western rational assumptions are correct, then Brummitt and friends represent a valid expression of the Bible. So we have to feel a bit sorry for them because they are not really in a position to know better without some miraculous intervention from God.

But we cannot let this episode pass without noting this does not qualify as “persecution” according to Scripture. You see, the Apostles had several very good reasons for preaching in public squares during the first century as they scattered across the Roman Empire. They were hardly alone in making their pitch or passing the news in that fashion. Their message was quite new, indeed, and justified engaging in a common practice universally accepted. They didn’t do it to disrupt other activities; it was a part of normal activity. They might continue at it awhile, but for the most part, we don’t hear about marketplace preaching once a church got started in the area. And if there were any synagogues around, they might not even bother with public preaching like that. The whole point was seeking a likely audience among the crowd of ordinary folks, knowing full well the majority was likely to reject their message.

However, we notice they didn’t harass people. They weren’t pushy within the context of the local culture. They didn’t seek to stir up trouble; it came to them for plenty of other reasons, but not for disturbing the peace. It was their opposition that created all the hullabaloo. When you read a dispassionate account of Brummitt’s behavior, you quickly see he’s just asking for trouble. He wants to falsely claim persecution for his faith, when the real issue is political hucksterism. The whole thing is a matter of constitutional rights, not a matter of sharing religious belief. First century Christians were taught to be unobtrusive for the most part, minding their own business because they had plenty of work just mending their broken lives and recreating the ancient tribal social structure within their church, along with all the other cultural adjustments. You won’t see much of that in any American church.

What we have here is a political sales pitch with Bible verses and an American Jesus face plastered on the outside. It’s pure political activism. Bringing out the old saw — “that may be the only way some folks ever hear the gospel” — has become a hideous excuse for very un-Christlike behavior. It’s not as if I support the illegitimate behavior of the police in this story, but I cannot support the illegitimate behavior of Brummitt, either. How about we live the gospel first, because the American public sphere has been saturated with dozens of false gospels. If by our conduct we bring glory to His name, folks can have an easier time deciding whose message they’ll hear. And for Christ’s sake, stop acting as if spiritual birth has anything to do with human choices and stop confusing the Two Realms.

Jesus has no part in Brummitt’s political activism.