Preach!

On Tuesday September 26, 2013 the daily 49ers, a California State University of Long Beach news source, wrote an article "Speaker provokes more than 50 incident reports from students." Apparently, a speaker known as Paul Mitchell an independent evangelist preacher, was carrying signs that read “Homo sex is a God damned sin” and “Abortion is a God damned sin” which drew crowds to the free speech lawn and resulted in 50 incident reports submitted to Student Life and Development Center.

A crowd of students gathered around Mitchell and argued about his views, which included that “those who don’t believe in Christianity are idiots.”

“I saw students yelling and screaming at him,” said Rodrigo Rubi, a freshman pre-biology major.
Julie Potter from KBeach radio thought that Mitchell was enjoying the confrontation and dared her to get him off campus. She said he was personally attacking students, being extremely sexist toward female students and targeting homosexuals. The crowd clapped in response to two male students who kissed in front of Mitchell.

However, many other students engaged with Mitchell and not everyone complained or felt offended.
“He’s been relatively respectful from what I’ve seen,” senior film major Travis Savacal-Martin said. “I think he has a right to be here, just like anyone else does.”

During this incident Mitchell called his preaching "tough love."

However, this is not the first time CSULB has encountered a "Tough Love" God preaching Message.
An evangelist organization called Brother Jed has come to speak many times about God's judgment  repentance and sin.

The video above is the last time Brother Jed has been at CSULB, but will return in February of next year.

Brother's Jed mission statement: "Our purpose is to declare the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the college and university students of America and the world. The skeptics on the campuses are constantly condemning God and justifying their unbelief. Our goal is to defend and glorify God and his government so that every mouth may be stopped and all the world become guilty before the Judge of mankind. Our desire is to see men and women reconciled to God through repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world".

Brother Jed and Mitchell's preaching style is one that many students have a problem accepting. It is seen as being discriminating, hateful and sexist. Now that I've shared one side, lets take a look at another style of preaching the gospel.

Jeffery Bethke, who evangelizes on colleges campuses, You Tube Channel and personal website; preaches the gospel in a very different way than Brother Jed. In this video below, Bethke enlightens us on the creator of the earth and how humans were made in the image of God. That we are not filthy and worthless, but are made to be great. Jeffery style of preaching is considered to be a message that is full of equality, justice and love.

 

 

Jeffery Bethke mission statement, in my opinion, is described in one of his blog post called "Why God loves ungodly people(including you)." "When you trust in Jesus, God then looks at you the same way He looks at Jesus. If you are in Jesus He looks at you (even when you fall and mess up!) and says “pure, spotless, blameless, perfect, holy, my son, my daughter, you’re free!” That’s what changes a heart. That’s what stirs us to worship. That’s what changes someone’s life, so please rest in this verse," Bethke said.

"You don’t have to keep trying. You don’t have to hide that you’re ungodly. You just have to trust in the one who exchanged Himself for you at the cross. He took your shame. He took your sin. He took your filth so that God could be both just and justifier of those who put their trust in Jesus."

Also, another preacher, British Preacher name C.H. Spurgeon, was the pastor of the congregation of the New Park Street Chapel Street in London for 38 years and has preached to around 10,000,000 people in his life. "By the mouth of His servant Paul, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, He takes to Himself the title of' 'Him that justifies the ungodly.' He makes  just those who are unjust, forgives those who deserve to be punished, and favors those who deserve no favor," Purgeon said. "You thought, did you not, that salvation was for the good? That God’s grace was for the pure and holy who are free from sin? It has fallen into your mind that, if you were excellent, then God would reward you; and you have thought that because you are not worthy, therefore there could be no way of your enjoying His favor."

So you have brother Jed and independent evangelist who emphasizes the “God who Judges”, which is commonly disliked by many, but  you also have Jeffery Bethke and Spurgeon who emphasize the "love of God", which is what everyone really likes to hear even if they are not believers.

But who’s right or are they both right? Or Is it right to give a message that only shows the "God who judges" or  the "God who loves"?  Maybe its right to say that Brother Jed didn't talk about the love of God and maybe its right to say that Jeffery didn't talk about the importance of the repentance of sins and to turn away from them. Again these video clips, articles, and blogs I showed are just samples of what these men do and what they have done. However, we should take in account that there is so much in the bible, that how could one cover everything in one message. Right? But maybe we can say that God is the God who loves, but also the God who judges? Some may think that this is a conflict, but I did some research and found a columnist, Billy Graham, who writes for the Seattlepi and he explains it perfectly in a article called, "God loves us, but also judges us."

Graham says, "Have you ever asked yourself what the world would be like if God were only a God of love, who never judged evil or tried to stop it? If He were only a God of love, evil men could carry out their plans without fear, because they would never have to worry that God would judge them or try to stop them. Hitler and Stalin would be just as welcome in heaven as Mother Teresa"

 "Or have you ever asked yourself what the world would be like if God were only a God of judgment, who punished us every time we did wrong? If God were like that, none of us would ever have a chance, for we sin every day. We would have no hope of a happy life right now, or of heaven, either. But God is not like that! The Bible says, "The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and rich in love" (Psalm 145:8).

To conclude: John 15:5-8, reads, I 'am the vine, you are the branches. If man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into a lake of fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you. This is my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

There’s 1 side, there’s the other, and then there’s the TRUTH!