Soul Winning: One of the things that continues to fascinate me in modern Christianity is how easily certain phrases become accepted as unquestionable truths. “Winning souls” is one of those phrases. Recently, I listened to a sermon that began by declaring that God’s highest priority is winning souls to Jesus Christ. Yet when I search the Scriptures, I do not find God’s purposes described in those terms. What I find instead is a God who works all things after the counsel of His own will, a Savior who came to save His people from their sins, and a salvation that is repeatedly attributed to the work of God rather than the efforts of men.
Not because I oppose the preaching of the gospel, nor because I think believers should remain silent about Christ, but because such a statement raises an obvious question: Where does Scripture actually say that? Is that really how Scripture describes God’s purpose? Is salvation ultimately presented as something dependent upon the efforts of Christians? And when did the language of proclaiming Christ become replaced by the language of winning souls? These may seem like small distinctions, but they touch some very important questions concerning grace, sovereignty, and the work of Christ.
The longer I listened to the sermon, the less it seemed to be about Christ and the more it seemed to be about human responsibility. The emphasis was not upon what Christ accomplished, but upon what believers were failing to do. We were told that soul winning is God’s highest priority, that failure to witness is a serious sin, and that people remain lost because Christians are not doing enough. By the end of the message, I could not help wondering: When did the focus shift from Christ saving sinners to Christians trying to save sinners?
Going back to that statement above, that God’s number one priority is winning souls for Jesus Christ, I cannot help but feel that something has gone seriously off the rails. Since so much of the message seemed to rest upon this assumption, it is worth asking whether Scripture actually speaks this way. It does not. Instead, it speaks of God’s glory, God’s purpose, God’s will, God’s kingdom, and God’s Christ. It speaks of a salvation planned by the Father, accomplished by the Son, and applied by the Spirit. The language of “winning souls” may be familiar to modern ears, but familiarity should not be confused with biblical authority.
Closely connected to this is the assumption that lost sinners remain lost primarily because Christians fail to witness to them. That idea is repeated so often that many believers simply accept it without question. Yet is that really the explanation Scripture gives? When the Bible explains why one man believes and another does not, it consistently points us back to God. “Salvation is of the LORD.” Faith is described as a gift. Repentance is granted. The new birth is of God. While God certainly uses means, the decisive cause is never the effort or faithfulness of the witness, but the power and purpose of God Himself.
This is law, guilt, fear, and human pressure dressed up as gospel concern. The most glaring problem is this: Christ almost disappears. His blood is mentioned, yes, but functionally the sermon is not about what Christ accomplished. It is about what men are failing to do. When did proclaiming Christ become winning souls, and when did the success of salvation begin to sound as though it rests upon human obedience and effort?
The next statement that caught my attention was this: “You realize every person you’ll ever meet everywhere has a soul, and that soul is either gonna be in heaven or hell for eternity. The reason that you’re saved is somebody shared the gospel with you.” Leaving aside for the moment the common assumption that every person possesses an immortal soul destined for eternal conscious existence, I find myself asking another question. Is the reason I am saved really because somebody shared the gospel with me? Certainly God uses means, and I am thankful for every person who has ever spoken to me concerning Christ. Yet Scripture consistently traces salvation back to something far greater than the actions of men. The reason I am saved is not ultimately because someone witnessed to me, but because God purposed to save me, Christ died for me, and the Spirit of God gave me life.
None of this is intended to discourage the preaching of the gospel or speaking to others about Christ. The question is not whether God uses means, but whether we have begun attributing to those means what Scripture attributes to God alone. The apostles preached Christ because they trusted the power of God, not the power of man. The difference is not a small one. The further we move from that foundation, the more confusion inevitably follows.
I was just about ready to bring these thoughts to a close when my mind returned to a passage often cited in support of modern soul-winning terminology: “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.” Proverbs 11:30. This verse is often treated as the foundation of the entire soul-winning enterprise. Curious how others understood the passage, I consulted a few commentaries and before long I came across the following explanation, and once I read it, there was little hope of simply moving on.
“Success in soul-winning is only given to skill, earnestness, sympathy, perseverance. Men are saved not in masses, but by careful study and well-directed effort. It is said that such is the eccentric flight of the snipe when they rise from the earth, that it completely puzzles the sportsman, and some who are capital shots at other birds are utterly baffled here. Eccentricity seems to be their special quality, and this can only be mastered by incessant practice with the gun. But the eccentricity of souls is beyond this, and he had need be a very spiritual Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord who would capture them for Christ.”
First off, I’m not even sure what a snipe is, obviously some type of bird, but this reads like a hunting manual more than a commentary on Scripture. The sinner is portrayed as elusive prey. The evangelist becomes a skilled marksman. Success is attributed to technique and well-directed effort. One almost expects the writer to recommend a better rifle and a few extra hours at the firing range. What strikes me most is where all the emphasis falls. The focus is upon the hunter, his skill, and ultimately his success. God is scarcely mentioned. Christ is scarcely mentioned. Yet Scripture never speaks this way.
The Bible knows nothing of spiritual Nimrods stalking sinners through the underbrush in hopes of capturing them for Christ. It describes men as dead in trespasses and sins. That is a very different picture. One requires a skilled hunter. The other requires a sovereign God. Dead men are not captured. Dead men are raised. This is no minor distinction. One glorifies the skill of the hunter. The other glorifies the power of God.
Perhaps this explains why I find myself recoiling from much of the language surrounding soul winning. The focus so easily shifts from Christ to man, from God’s accomplishment to man’s activity, from divine power to human effort. The apostles preached Christ and left the results in the hands of God. Sinners are not saved because men become skilled enough to reach them. Sinners are saved because God saves sinners. Jonah 2:9. MPJ