If you want people to believe a lie, make it something that they want to believe. Something that makes their life easier. Here’s some good examples:
- You can lose weight by taking a pill.
- You can get rich quick on the internet by only working a few hours per week.
- You just have to go to church to make God happy.
- Evangelism is just warning people that they’re going to hell.
People want results without having to invest the time, energy, and discipline it actually takes. So if you just promise to give results without work, people will flock to it!
If there was a pill that actually kept you think and gave you ripped abs, don’t you think everybody would take it? Of course! So the fact that not everybody is thin and has ripped abs tells you there is no such pill, right? And yet if you watch TV for an hour, you’ll probably see at least 3 commercials advertising products that make getting in shape seem simple, quick and effortless.
When people want results without investment, they are willing to ignore the reality all around them that shouts the truth. They buy into the lie because it’s more attractive.
Losing weight is going to mean eating differently, eating less and working out more.
Getting rich (if that’s even a good thing) will require time, energy, effort and taking risks.
Jesus didn’t say anything about ‘going to church’ making up the Christian faith. He did mention something about ‘take up your cross and follow me’ (Luke 9:23)
Evangelism requires you to live a life that bears witness to God, not just spout words that do.
But all these things are tough. They can’t be easily checked off a checklist and forgotten about.
So write a book about how living for God will make everyday like the weekend. Or how if you pray a certain prayer from the Old Testament, God doesn’t have any choice but to give you what you want. They love that kind of stuff.
None of that will help foment a Christianity that actually makes a difference in this world; that works to restore this world to the perfection it had when God created it, but hey - we can’t have easy and get results. But we can keep telling people they can!