I was at a retirement reception for one of my Air Force troops. His Baptist pastor was there. I introduced myself and told him I was a Christian. He asked me to what church I belonged. When I told him I was in the church of Christ, he shook his head and proceeded to "preach" me the gospel.
Doctrinal issues aside, I've met many like him, especially street preachers. They find an opportunity to whip out their magical formula salvation sermon. The sermonettes sound suspiciously like those Sinner's Prayers you find on the back page of bible tracts.
In a college speech class I took, there was a young man who took this as an opportunity to preach the Gospel to unrepentant sinners. After the third "speech," some of the class told him to come up with something else...they didn't want to hear it. The young man replied: "I gave you the gospel, so now, you won't have any excuse if you wind up in Hell."
This attitude--drumming up numbers--is both unloving and unfruitful. But many believe that the words of the Gospel weave some kind of magic spell to influence sinners to Christ.
Here's a story from the New Testament to illustrate how people believe this:
Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, "In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out." Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. [One day] the evil spirit answered them, "Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?" Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding. (Acts 19:13-16) NIV
There are no magical qualities in the arrangement of certain bible words and verses that can "wake up" a sinner who is unwilling to repent. Jesus' parable of the Sower and the Seed (Matt 13, Mark 4) shows how the Word of God reacts on different types of hearts. But the Bottom Line is this: a person has to be willing to accept Christ's salvation; it doesn't come like a spell being cast by a fairy godmother, where a person is taken by surprise.
