Does the “Infomercial Gospel” Produce True Converts to Christianity?

Seeker-sensitive churches have been popping up like weeds across our land. These churches claim that they exist FOR the unchurched NOT for believers. Their pastors claim that they are obsessed with evangelism. Yet, their evangelistic messages all too often skirt the thorny unpopular issues of sin and repentance and instead attempt to woo the un-churched into the Christian faith by presenting a ‘positive’ gospel that is designed to entice people to make a decision for Christ very much the same way infomercials convince people to pick up the phone and agree to make the 3 easy payments of $29.95. Examples of this ‘Infomercial Gospel’ abound, “Receive Christ as Your Personal Savior and you’ll...
know your life’s purposelead a simpler life stylehave a saner less stressful schedulehave a more fulfilling sex lifehave more rewarding careerhave financial freedoma dream familya healthier body
These messages are exactly the same types of messages that insomniacs are bombarded with when they flip through television channels in the middle of the night. The promises are identical.
After listening to hundreds of these sermons I feel that if these pastors would just throw in a free set of Ginsu Knifes for everyone that makes a ‘decision’ for Jesus in the next 15 minutes their numbers would skyrocket even further.
But this leads us to ask a critical question, “If people are ‘making decisions’ for Jesus so that they can have a more fulfilling life, have better sex, less stress, and a more rewarding career but they have not been told that they are sinners who face God’s wrath and judgement unless they ‘repent and believe the gospel’ have they really been converted to the true faith?
When one takes the time to examine the scriptures regarding these pastors’ messages you will find that they are preaching a gospel that is different than the Biblical Gospel. But, in order to fully appreciate this fact one needs wrestle with the Biblical doctrine of the MEANS through Which God Effects conversion.
Jesus said in Luke 24:46 “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
In this passage Jesus is defining the Christian message to the world. It is a call for repentance from sins and the proclamation of the forgiveness of sins won by Jesus Christ on the cross. The call for repentance is brought about through the preaching of God’s Law. Law preaching will have the effect of terrorizing its listners who will then need to hear the comforting words of the forgiveness of sins.
In other words, the message that effects true conversion properly utilizes BOTH God’s Law and the Gospel.
Here is what Lutheran Theologian Francis Pieper wrote on this matter.
The means of conversion is the Gospel, which produces faith. This very Gospel, which is a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks, has the wonderful power to create in man the faith which accepts its promises. Only by hearing or reading the Gospel is conversion brought about (Rom. 10:14–17; John 5:39; 17:20)...
Since, however, a man must first realize that he is subject to eternal damnation on account of his sins before he will accept the Gospel of grace, the preaching of the Law must always precede and accompany the preaching of the Gospel. “By the Law is the knowledge of sin” (Rom. 3:20)..In short, men will be converted to God only when Law and Gospel are preached in the proper order and with the proper distinction.Since conversion is effected by the Gospel with the aid of the Law, the inner motions of the heart which go to make up conversion are (a) the terrors of conscience (terrores conscientiae), which arise from the knowledge of sin engendered by the Law (“He came trembling … and said: Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” Acts 16:29–30); and (b) the trust of the heart (fiducia cordis) in the gracious promise of forgiveness extended to man in the Gospel (“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,” Acts 16:31). Where these two motions, contrition and faith, which are effected by the Holy Ghost, through the Law and the Gospel, are wanting, no conversion has taken place. Where they are found, we must say that the Holy Ghost has wrought a genuine conversion.
In other words, if a pastor's message does not properly utilize God’s law in order to bring about true sorrow for sins and terror of God’s judgment (penitent contrition) as well as the good news that all sins are forgiven because of Christ and by the free gift of faith in Christ Jesus then that pastor's message produced ZERO conversions regardless of how practical, relevant or appealing it may have been to an unbeliever.
The seductive error of so many seeker-sensitive churches in their evangelistic efforts is that they falsly believe that people can be converted to Christ without the preaching of the law which condemns sinners. They instead use sales and marketing tactics to entice the potential convert into making a decision that already appeals to their sinful and self-centered appetites for health, wellness and prosperity. But, these messages do not produce sorrow for sins, nor do they proclaim God’s just judgment and wrath because of sin. The 'Infomercial Gospel' only promises to make an easy American life even easier and more satisfying.
This ‘Infomercial Gospel’ is not the Biblical Gospel and is utterly impotent and incapable of producing true Christian converts.
The message that Jesus Himself said SHOULD be proclaimed to all nations including 21st Century America is ‘Repentance and the Forgiveness of Sins’.
It doesn’t matter how many people these pastors brag that they’ve led to Christ. If they are preaching the ‘Infomercial Gospel’ then Biblically we know that few if any are true converts to the Christian faith.