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YES

Well, Praise the Lord!!!

You know I see some of you Calvinists claim that in order to be a true Gospel message it must be offensive. So some of you guys deliver it with the deliberate intention of offending the listener. Yet God tells US not to be offensive to men. It is the gospel message that is offensive and it is not necessary to present it in an offensive way. Indeed, if you present it in a attractive way, it will still be offensive to those who ultimately are going to perish, so why try to scare people away?

Jesus told us he would make us all "Fishers of Men." We will not catch any fish if we deliberately bait our hooks with fish repellant. We must use bait. The best bait we can use is showing others the fruits of the spirit that God puts in our lives.

When people see the light in our lives, they will be attracted and hopefully God can use our lives as bait to reel in his "chosen." ones.

I violently disagree with those on these threads that think that the more offensive they are the more they are doing the work of God.

I think we should be clear in presenting the gospel. The gospel does offend the natural man, and so be it. We do not need to add our own vinegar or tobasco!

We need also to make sure that we do not sacrifice clarity in an effort to make the gospel attractive. The issues of sin and guilt are central and shouldn't be camoflaged. We can perhaps be too tactful.

BTW my favorite definition of tact is "Tact is the art of telling someone to go to Hell, and having them look forward to the trip!"

When people see the light in our lives, they will be attracted and hopefully God can use our lives as bait to reel in his "chosen." ones. I violently disagree with those on these threads that think that the more offensive they are the more they are doing the work of God.

I agree that we should show the fruits of the Spirit in our lives and that incorporating demeaning adjectives in our language probably does not further the Kingdom. Since we have Van Til here, let us also be reminded that we must present the gospel as it is, and not watered down to suit the taste of the sinner.

"Jesus told us he would make us all "Fishers of Men." We will not catch any fish if we deliberately bait our hooks with fish repellant. We must use bait."

Did the fisherman Peter know anything about bait? I think not. His fishing consisted of casting a net and drawing in the catch. He didn't dangle a tasty tid-bit on a hook, and hope that some fishy would take a nibble. Instead, he threw his net over a school of fish, and dragged them to shore.