The Four Spiritual Laws
I was trained to use the famous ’Four Spiritual Laws’ booklet for witnessing. As a young Christian, I found it helpful because it is structured, it starts with a very positive ‘God loves you’, and it was easy to use. The success rate is quite high too as you could see people praying at the end of the presentation.
But is it scriptural? Let’s take a look.
Law 1 ‘God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life‘. Did anyone in the whole bible start his evangelism with ‘God loves you’? Did Jesus? Did Paul or the other apostles? A big No! Why didn’t they? Because it is unbiblical.
When a sinner rejects God, the wrath of God is upon him. When the sinner rejects the message and walks away, he goes away with the thought ‘God loves me’. This is a misleading message.
The bible does teach that God so loved the world in John 3;16. But the bible also teaches that God hates the sinner, and even the clothes stained by sin. You need to reconcile the two, and its not my aim to do so in this article. Here are just two
- Psalm 5:5, “The boastful shall not stand before Thine eyes; Thou dost hate all who do iniquity,”
- Psalm 11:5, “The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked, and the one who loves violence His soul hates.
God does have a plan for your life if you reject Him – hell fire, and it’s not so wonderful. Another false statement.
Law 2 states that Man is sinful and separated from God. Therefore, he cannot know and experience God’s love and plan for his life.
I have no problems with this statement except it is incomplete. Most people will agree that no man is perfect. What this second law avoids is confronting the person reading this that he is a sinner. It talks in general and carefully avoids any mention that the other person is a sinner in God’s eyes.
It tells the sinner that he is losing out on this abundant life God promises. He could walk away and still feel perfectly safe as all he has lost is ‘abundant life’. He thinks ‘Who cares, I am happy to continue living my life without this ‘Christian abundant life’. What he hasn’t been told is that the wrath of God is on him, and he will end up in hell if he dies now. There is no explanation of what sin is. Hell is deliberately left out, and in its place ‘separation from God’. The truth of the bible is watered down so as not to give offence. It’s like apologising for the harse words used in the bible. This second law gives the sinner a false confidence that all is well.
Law 3 Jesus Christ is God’s only provision for man’s sin. Through Him you can know and experience God’s love and plan for your life.
The 3 sub points cover key concepts – He Died In Our Place; He Rose from the Dead; He Is the Only Way to God
Again, this statement is fine except it is also incomplete and no explanation is given as to what it means. The hearer will have no idea what is being said. Why is Christ the only provision for sin? ‘He died in our place – what for? He rose from the dead, so?
Did Christ die such a horrific death so that we can ‘experience God’s love and plan for your life’. No. He died so that our sins can be atoned for. There is no experiencing God’s love or plan without the atonement. It has diminished the work of the cross to a nice fluffy kind of gospel message. The centrality of the cross has been replaced by this ‘wonderful plan’ for your life. The gospel presentation is man centered, like selling ‘abundant life’ to a buyer.
Law 4 We must individually receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; then we can know and experience God’s love and plan for our lives. We receive Christ by Personal Invitation – [Christ speaking] ”Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him” (Revelation 3:20).
I have problems with this superficial presentation of what it means to ‘receive Christ’.
Rev 3:20 is a text for Christians, not non-Christians. It was written to the disobedient church. Christ has NEVER asked a non Christian to receive Him into the heart. What Christ requires is to Repent and Believe in Him.
Saying the sinners prayer is not repentance. The person may repent without being asked to, but you cannot assume this has happened. The command to repent must be made clear.
What does ‘receive Christ’ mean? In the context of the New Testament, it means to receive Him in all that He represents – as Prophet, Priest and King, As prophet means that we are to listen to Him and obey everything He says. As Priest, we are to rely on his mediator role as our substitute. King means we are to bow before him as Lord of everything in our lives, holding back nothing.
There is a high chance that the person who says the prayer at the end of the booklet does not understand the gospel. He goes away thinking he is ‘saved’.
The danger to him is that he will later give up the faith, and tell others that he has tried Christianity and found it did not help. What he has experienced is not Christianity, but an imitation of it.
The danger to others is that he will continue to live his life as an unconverted fleshly person, but telling others he is a Christian. Imagine what damage he can do in the church and to the name of Christ. Imagine if he were a pastor?
If he is talented and has a great personality, he will get into the leadership of the church as churches have this tendency of selecting people based on popularity and human talent. Before long, we have a whole bunch of people who have not been converted running the church. Does this not explain many of the problems we see in churches today? Why are pastors and elders not behaving like Christians? May I suggest that many are not Chrisitans, but think they are. Where is the Christian leader who radiates Christ.
In general, the 4 spiritual laws over simply the gospel. It uses human psychology techniques to bring in converts. It appeals to the flesh – what I can get from God – the abundant life, God’s wonderful plan for my life. In short, it is a presentation based on human wisdom to increase the number of converts. I don’t question the sincerity of its users, but I do question its methods and the motives behind its design. In short, it is not the real gospel being presented, but a diluted version designed to appeals to the ego. The result is the filling of churches with unconverted people who profess Christianity, and who later take over the running of churches.
Here is an article by an ex-Campus Crusade leader http://www.biblebelievers.net/falseteaching/kjcfourlaws.htm.
A booklet I would recommend for use as a tract is ‘Ultimate Questions’ by John Blancard.
Read this book ‘Today’s Gospel’ by Walter Chantry.
I was trained to use the famous ’Four Spiritual Laws’ booklet for witnessing. As a young Christian, I found it helpful because it is structured, it starts with a very positive ‘God loves you’, and it was easy to use. The success rate is quite high too as you could see people praying at the end of the presentation.
But is it scriptural? Let’s take a look.
Law 1 ‘God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life‘. Did anyone in the whole bible start his evangelism with ‘God loves you’? Did Jesus? Did Paul or the other apostles? A big No! Why didn’t they? Because it is unbiblical.
When a sinner rejects God, the wrath of God is upon him. When the sinner rejects the message and walks away, he goes away with the thought ‘God loves me’. This is a misleading message.
The bible does teach that God so loved the world in John 3;16. But the bible also teaches that God hates the sinner, and even the clothes stained by sin. You need to reconcile the two, and its not my aim to do so in this article. Here are just two
- Psalm 5:5, “The boastful shall not stand before Thine eyes; Thou dost hate all who do iniquity,”
- Psalm 11:5, “The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked, and the one who loves violence His soul hates.
God does have a plan for your life if you reject Him – hell fire, and it’s not so wonderful. Another false statement.
Law 2 states that Man is sinful and separated from God. Therefore, he cannot know and experience God’s love and plan for his life.
I have no problems with this statement except it is incomplete. Most people will agree that no man is perfect. What this second law avoids is confronting the person reading this that he is a sinner. It talks in general and carefully avoids any mention that the other person is a sinner in God’s eyes.
It tells the sinner that he is losing out on this abundant life God promises. He could walk away and still feel perfectly safe as all he has lost is ‘abundant life’. He thinks ‘Who cares, I am happy to continue living my life without this ‘Christian abundant life’. What he hasn’t been told is that the wrath of God is on him, and he will end up in hell if he dies now. There is no explanation of what sin is. Hell is deliberately left out, and in its place ‘separation from God’. The truth of the bible is watered down so as not to give offence. It’s like apologising for the harse words used in the bible. This second law gives the sinner a false confidence that all is well.
Law 3 Jesus Christ is God’s only provision for man’s sin. Through Him you can know and experience God’s love and plan for your life.
The 3 sub points cover key concepts – He Died In Our Place; He Rose from the Dead; He Is the Only Way to God
Again, this statement is fine except it is also incomplete and no explanation is given as to what it means. The hearer will have no idea what is being said. Why is Christ the only provision for sin? ‘He died in our place – what for? He rose from the dead, so?
Did Christ die such a horrific death so that we can ‘experience God’s love and plan for your life’. No. He died so that our sins can be atoned for. There is no experiencing God’s love or plan without the atonement. It has diminished the work of the cross to a nice fluffy kind of gospel message. The centrality of the cross has been replaced by this ‘wonderful plan’ for your life. The gospel presentation is man centered, like selling ‘abundant life’ to a buyer.
Law 4 We must individually receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; then we can know and experience God’s love and plan for our lives. We receive Christ by Personal Invitation – [Christ speaking] ”Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him” (Revelation 3:20).
I have problems with this superficial presentation of what it means to ‘receive Christ’.
Rev 3:20 is a text for Christians, not non-Christians. It was written to the disobedient church. Christ has NEVER asked a non Christian to receive Him into the heart. What Christ requires is to Repent and Believe in Him.
Saying the sinners prayer is not repentance. The person may repent without being asked to, but you cannot assume this has happened. The command to repent must be made clear.
What does ‘receive Christ’ mean? In the context of the New Testament, it means to receive Him in all that He represents – as Prophet, Priest and King, As prophet means that we are to listen to Him and obey everything He says. As Priest, we are to rely on his mediator role as our substitute. King means we are to bow before him as Lord of everything in our lives, holding back nothing.
There is a high chance that the person who says the prayer at the end of the booklet does not understand the gospel. He goes away thinking he is ‘saved’.
The danger to him is that he will later give up the faith, and tell others that he has tried Christianity and found it did not help. What he has experienced is not Christianity, but an imitation of it.
The danger to others is that he will continue to live his life as an unconverted fleshly person, but telling others he is a Christian. Imagine what damage he can do in the church and to the name of Christ. Imagine if he were a pastor?
If he is talented and has a great personality, he will get into the leadership of the church as churches have this tendency of selecting people based on popularity and human talent. Before long, we have a whole bunch of people who have not been converted running the church. Does this not explain many of the problems we see in churches today? Why are pastors and elders not behaving like Christians? May I suggest that many are not Chrisitans, but think they are. Where is the Christian leader who radiates Christ.
In general, the 4 spiritual laws over simply the gospel. It uses human psychology techniques to bring in converts. It appeals to the flesh – what I can get from God – the abundant life, God’s wonderful plan for my life. In short, it is a presentation based on human wisdom to increase the number of converts. I don’t question the sincerity of its users, but I do question its methods and the motives behind its design. In short, it is not the real gospel being presented, but a diluted version designed to appeals to the ego. The result is the filling of churches with unconverted people who profess Christianity, and who later take over the running of churches.
Here is an article by an ex-Campus Crusade leader http://www.biblebelievers.net/falseteaching/kjcfourlaws.htm.
A booklet I would recommend for use as a tract is ‘Ultimate Questions’ by John Blancard.
Read this book ‘Today’s Gospel’ by Walter Chantry.
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