Why people reject the gospel

The Bible tells us the human heart is very resistant to the message of Jesus. Archbishop Peter Jensen gives some reasons why.

We must recognise that it is absolutely normal for gospel work to be difficult. The Bible tells us that the human heart is very resistant to the message of Jesus.  Recently I asked a group of our women pastors, teachers and evangelists how they were finding evangelism. I did not get the sense that they were discouraged; but I certainly was made aware that we live in a society resistant to the gospel. Here were some of the difficulties they mentioned.

a. The sheer busyness of life in the new utopia we now inhabit. Our prosperity has been purchased at a fearful price to relationships. The cost of living virtually demands two incomes in a family; work has become all-demanding; shopping has become a recreation instead of a mere necessity; sport and children’s activities impact more and more on Sunday. Christian fellowship seems to be an optional extra, even for believers; Christian service has to be done on top of an already stressed life.
The person most likely to come to join a church is the person actually brought by a friend or relative. When relationships suffer because of busyness, the more difficult it is to succeed evangelistically.

b. Ignorance of Jesus and the gospel. With every passing decade, the knowledge of the basic facts of the gospel, which could once be taken for granted, becomes more and more garbled. I wonder what we would find today if we took a survey of Bible ownership; I wonder if we would do that work today. It is certainly easier to reach the person who has some knowledge than the person who has none whatsoever.

c. The bad name of the church nationwide. People want to disassociate the church from Jesus. I believe that there are several elements to this – a distrust of any authoritative institution; a recognition that church membership makes demands; bad experiences of boring and irrelevant church services; proven allegations of child abuse and cover-up, which tarnish the wonderful work done by so many over such a long period. 

d.The unwillingness to commit. We live in a society which sets huge store on the individual and autonomy and on freedom of choice. Commitment of all sorts seems difficult. People recognise that a commitment to Jesus is an all-encompassing matter; they see it as an unacceptable loss of freedom. My informants especially mentioned the generation between say ten and 30: for them accepting Christ would mean a totally unacceptable restriction on their moral freedom – unacceptable and unimaginable.

But, then, those who worked among the aged could see no great move towards spiritual reflection there either – except, and this applies to all age groups, a spirituality which is itself individualistic, which does not make spiritual or moral demands. 

That is a realistic list. It helps us analyse what the difficulties are and it reminds us that in the end all Christian work is spiritual. Scripture, prayer, preaching, sacrifice: these are still the means of advancing the kingdom; the difficulties are themselves fundamentally spiritual.

Thus, the list does nothing to weaken my resolve; it tells me that we must persevere and not be discouraged. It reminds me that it takes the power of God – his word and his Spirit – to bring people to himself.

It commits me once again to the gospel means by which God does his great work, the means which I must continue to use, no matter how difficult the times or barren the soil.

It commits me to planning, to strategy, to working out how we can advance. It commits me to using such tools as the vision of at least ten per cent in ten years; it commits me to sacrifice in the cause of Christ.

This is an extract from Dr Jensen’s Presidential Address to the 2005 Sydney Synod.

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