"Why does the Truth offend?" by Shane C. Montgomery

The more time I spend preaching the true Gospel of Jesus Christ, the more I see how much it offends people, not true believers, they take no offense. But to the unbeliever and to those who are false converts, it makes them very angry. Why is this? The more I preach the Word, the more I want to preach the Word. I am driven more and more everyday to serve my Lord. Thus driven to get the Gospel to anyone and everyone. The town I live in is spiritually dead, no one is preaching the Bible. We have a abundance of churches preaching what my 13 yr. son refers to as "A Cotton Candy Gospel", it taste good but has no real substance, nothing but empty calories.


I have learned that people do not want to hear the truth, that we are all wretched and going to Hell without Jesus Christ. I try to give them the "Law" and then the "Grace" just as Jesus did, but most times they are so offended by the "Law" part that they will not stick around for the "Grace" part of the Gospel. To let someone know that they are truly wicked at heart is too much for them. Why is this a problem to so many
. It was not until I saw myself as I really was, (Wicked, Wretched, Sinful) that I was able to be saved by Christ. I would not ever been saved if I did not see myself in the mirror of the Ten Commandments. That my transgression of the Law was keeping me out of Heaven and making my life miserable. When I was a slave to Satan, I was never happy. It was only after Christ freed me from that life of slavery that I began to live abundantly. I began to see everything clearly, life made sense once I knew my purpose.

Yet I am constantly heckled, screamed at, verbally abused, and on and on. So be it. My reward waits for me in Heaven, this I understand, I can put up with anything they throw at me, Philippians 4:13. Bring it on! I will never stop preaching the Gospel. The truth demands to be heard, the Word of God must be noticed.

My few friends that remain with me, tell me that I turn people away by preaching this "Hard Gospel", that if I would concentrate on "God is Love" and "God Loves You" that I would not get all this trouble, more people would come to my church and stick around longer than a few weeks. That people respond better to a loving heart. It must not matter that people from other churches come to us when they are in desperate need, when they are sick, we pray with them, we stay with them, help them recover. When they are hungry, we feed them. When they can not buy presents for their children at Christmas, we do. When no other church in town will volunteer for any worthwhile cause, we turn no one down! We send people to clean, to deliver food, to deliver hope. Yet we art the evil ones! We are being mean in the way we preach the Gospel. To tell someone that they are not a good person, but rather they are truly wretched in the eyes of Holy God is being mean to them. I see this as having a loving heart.

Me and people from our small church have been thrown out of just about every public place in our area for handing out gospel tracts, for witnessing to people on the street, for giving bottled water to those working on road crews, you name it, we are constantly told "you can't do this here, someone might complain.", yet no one complains when we bring them food when they are hungry, or pray with a parent of a sick child, or bring Christmas presents to a family who have none for their kids, or give bottled water to those who thirst.

It bothers me to see so many complain about Christ. You can help them with anything in life, just not their eternal salvation.

May God have mercy on us all. We are truly a fallen nation. Charity is welcomed and expected from the Church. But God has to stay in the car.



If you preach the Word, then preach it. Please do not be afraid. Do not worry about offending someone. If they get mad at the Truth, then maybe they will examine their lives more closely. Maybe they will see how wretched they really are, maybe they will pick up the Bible and start to read. That is all I am asking of anyone. We should have no desire to make any one's ride to Hell more comfortable, we should desire that they avoid that trip all together. May God's Grace Be With You All.