August 1, 2017 @ 4:00 PM
Do you know the definition of the word enmity? The Bible begins with God's prediction of enmity between the seed of the serpent, the children of the devil, and the seed of the woman, the children of God (Genesis 3:15). Paul teaches that the carnal mind is at enmity with God and incapable of obedience to God (Romans 8:7). James adds that friendship with this world is enmity with God and that everyone who is a friend of the world is an enemy of God (James 4:4). The Bible even teaches us that the world is at such enmity with Christ that worldly foes will lay down their animosities toward one another in order to join forces against Christ (Luke 23:12).
I've long believed that there is no greater gullibility among contemporary Christians than their erroneous and unscriptural belief that sinners are seekers receptive to the Gospel as long as the Gospel is tactfully presented with the latest Madison Avenue marketing techniques. According to the Bible, "there are none that seek after God" (Romans 3:11). We really have no idea what we're up against, which explains the impotence of the contemporary church when it comes to impacting this fallen world for Christ. We really believe the salvation of lost humanity is a simple matter of the power of our persuasion rather than, as the Bible teaches, a miraculous thing that can only be wrought by the power of God. If we believed the latter rather than the former we would spend more time in earnest prayer and less time honing our skills in public communications.