What If You Died Tonight? Is the Wrong Evangelism Question!

Any Person is Capable of Any Sin Ekklēsia or (Church) in the Old Testa...

What If You Died Tonight? Is the Wrong Evangelism Question!

“If you died tonight, where would you go, heaven or hell?” How many times have you heard that question used in evangelism? How many times have you used it yourself? What if I told you it just might be the wrong question? What if I told you that those types of questions almost always lead into preaching another or a false gospel?

How many of you would be at a loss in evangelism if that question were ripped from your evangelistic repertoire?

A better question might be something like this: “If you don’t die tonight what are you going to do tomorrow?” The answer to that question is certainly more probing and more difficult to answer. “But wait!” You say, isn’t “Today the day of salvation?”

Let’s take a look at this misunderstood and often abused scripture. The first part of that verse is a quote from the first part of Isaiah 49:8 “This is what the LORD says: “At just the right time, I will respond to you. On the day of salvation I will help you.” NLT

The idea brought froward from it’s original use is “an accepted time” and “a day of salvation, NOT “the accepted time” and NOT “the day of salvation”. This means that now is an accepted time and now is a day of salvation but it IS NOT the ONLY accepted time and NOT the ONLY day of salvation. This is clear in the Greek and in some translations like the NASB and KJV which put the missing words in italics.

All that to say it’s manipulative to try and get people to make rash decisions by heaping on them the threat of this being their last day on earth. Maybe the question exposes people who trust in their good works, or perhaps are just uncertain, so that the evangelizer can further expound the hope of Christ, but often it’s just the same old path to a scripted and truncated gospel.

Even when people say, “Oh, I’m definitely going to heaven,” we’re poised to pounce and tell them why they’re not. After all, we’re there to save them from their bad assumptions and from hell. Ever see an evangelizer get disappointed when coming across someone who already believes? It’s just one less notch they can put on their “salvations” stick. It grieves me when I hear someone report X #’s of “salvations.” It usually means that X #’s prayed a “sinner’s prayer,” which usually means that X #’s heard an anemic gospel.

The “if you died” question closes off two of the most effective ways to reach people for Christ besides the Gospel: showing God’s love, and showing God’s power. Chances are that most of our evangelism methods are ill prepared to do both of those things. It’s easier for us to give our shtick then to show our Savior. “If you died tonight” takes God’s Judgement seat and makes it OUR pulpit from which to preach OUR version of the Good News. When “If you died tonight” is asked without personal conviction of sin first, the hearers see your segway to a condemnation whose origin is not God. The “if you died tonight” question attempts to induce labor on fetal Reconciliation and Repentance before, and often without, sufficient Revelation.

“If you died tonight” makes the Gospel out to be a “Hell Pass.” Remember when Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life and have it to the full?” He wasn’t talking about heaven, He was talking about the here and now. He was preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, not the gospel of the Escape Hatch.

So instead of asking someone the question “If you died tonight, would you go to heaven?” Pray that God’s Kingdom will come on earth as it is in heaven.” For yourself and for the persons you encounter along your evangelical paths. If you lived through the night, would you repent and believe? Would you love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength? Would you love your neighbor as yourself?