Do you ever get the feeling that today’s church is turning into a big mound of mush? I do. Thanks to church growth gurus who champion “seeker sensitive” churches, most Christians today have bought into the notion that the Gospel must be sugarcoated in order to persuade “seekers” of our sweetness. Never mind that the Bible declares, “There is none that seeketh after God” (Romans 3:11), we’re still assured that seekers are everywhere. Therefore, we’re instructed to fill our churches with “happy talk” in case a seeker happens to be seated in our Sunday morning congregation. This explains why so many pulpits today are aflame with messages on whipping terrorists with olive branches and winning prodigal souls with social ministries that keep them out of pig pens.

Christianity Today recently ran an article on Derek Webb, a solo artist, formerly with the Christian rock band Caedmon’s Call, who CT applauded for calling men to conversation rather than to conversion. According to CT, Webb’s “brilliant lyricism” is “too Christian for the masses, too provocative for Christian music, [and] too brainy and introspective for general listeners.” In spite of this, CT reports that Webb is winning over “fans of intelligent songcraft.” Having observed many a driver of a vehicular boombox whose reverberating music shook my car and rattled my nerves while sitting at a red light, I can’t help but wonder who CT means by “fans of intelligent songcraft.” Surely, they’re not talking about today’s droopy drawered, body pierced, tattoo covered Generation Y, who get their news from Jon Stewart, their theology from Bono, and their worldview from YouTube.

Some examples of Webb’s “intelligent songcraft” are cited in CT’s article. First, there is Webb’s song Mockingbird, which implies that war is the result of our aversion to peace and unwillingness to forgive and love unconditionally. In other words, there would be no war on terror today if we had only pursued peace after 9/11 and been willing to forgive and unconditionally love al-Qaida. Well, I can’t argue with that. Following the advice of Webb’s “brilliant lyrics” would have definitely kept us out of war with Islamofacists. Although it might have resulted in us being decapitated or living today under Shariah Law, it would have unquestionably kept us out of war.

C. S. Lewis, considered by many as a great thinker, despite the fact that he never set his ideas to catchy tunes, once quipped that pacifism “is taking the straight road to a world in which there will be no pacifists.” To Webb’s credit, he apparently concurs with Lewis, but insist in his song A Love That’s Stronger Than Our Fear that we should not fear death but be willing to die. In another song, I for an I, Webb explains that he has “got no choice [but to die a pacifist] unless you tell [him] who Jesus would kill.” I suppose Webb overlooked that part in the Bible where Jesus says, “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both body and soul in hell” (Matthew 10:28). Also, Webb has apparently not gotten to the end yet in his daily Bible readings; you know, to that part in the Book of Revelation where Christ returns and “the fowls” are summoned to “the supper of the great God” to feast on “the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great” who are “slain with the sword of [the returning Christ], which sword [proceeds] out of his mouth.” (Revelation 19:11-21).

I know that all the windup Christian dolls currently populating the pews of modern-day churches snap their springs every time some preacher like me has the audacity to bring up subjects like the wrath of God, eternal damnation and the end of the world. Don’t I understand that we must limit our preaching today to “gentle Jesus meek and mild,” lest we upset a world at enmity with God and in open rebellion against Him? After all, our only hope of winning the world is to converse with it; and to converse with it we must serenade it. Thus, crooning guitar pickers who tickle people’s ears are the order of the day, not uncompromising Gospel preachers who tick people off. If Jesus had only had a guitar maybe He wouldn’t have ended up on Golgotha.

For those who suggest that we call the world to converse rather than to convert, I’ve got a question. What do we have to talk about? My Bible teaches me that Jesus is God’s final Word to this lost and dying world (Hebrews 1:1-3). God has nothing else to say. When He said Jesus, He said it all. It’s now up to us to either receive or reject Jesus Christ (John 1:11-12). No decision in life is more important, for none other determines our eternal destiny or the fate of our immortal soul.

When it comes to Christ, the Scripture is clear-cut. He alone is the hope of the world (Titus 2:13). He is the only Savior (Acts 4:12). He and no-one else has the words of eternal life (John 6:68). There is no other way to God, but through Him (John 14:6); and no hope of heaven apart from Him (Colossians 1:27). Truly, the salvation God has wrought for us in Christ is neither open to discussion nor up for debate. Indeed, it is eternally settled in heaven (Psalm 119:89). Therefore, Christ did not commission His church to call the world to dialogue, but to call the world to decision; that is, to call all men to answer life’s most important question: “What shall I do then with Jesus who is called Christ?” (Matthew 27:22).