Chapter 4 of Why I Am A Christian

lSeveral years ago I drove to Yuba City, California to visit

some former high school friends for two days of “catch-

ing up.” On the morning of the second day, Bill said he

didn’t feel well. We thought it might be indigestion, since

we had eaten hot peppers at a Mexican restaurant the night

before. Two hours later Bill’s pain was growing steadily

worse.

Bill has periodic bouts with skin cancer and has had sur-

gery to control sleep apnea, so he handles pain well, but this

pain was making him very uncomfortable. We made a deci-

sion to take him to the emergency room at Rideout Memorial

Hospital in Yuba City.

We arrived at the hospital about 10:30 AM, by which

time the pain had Bill pleading for relief, but none was pro-

vided by the hospital staff. Nurses and a doctor prodded and

poked Bill, hoping to determine the cause of the pain. After

three hours, a nurse finally showed up with a hypodermic

needle and gave Bill a light dose of a pain-killing drug. It

barely touched the pain.

I watched my friend in agony for two more hours. He

pleaded for another shot. The doctor and the nurses seemed

indifferent, busily going about their business in a crowded

emergency room. At one point I confronted the head nurse

and pleaded for Bill’s pain relief myself. I did not prevail; Bill

continued to writhe in pain.

After a number of tests were run, a surgeon came into

the room and told Bill he would have to have his appendix

removed. He leaned over the bed and said, “Sorry about the

pain, but if there is no pain, we would be hard put to find the

cause. Painkillers hide disease.”

Bill came through the operation fine and is back at work,

although somewhat later than first projected, because the

appendix was gangrenous. Much more delay might have cost

Bill his life. But I learned something about pain and gospel

preaching.

When unconverted people hear the gospel, they will

sometimes feel rather uncomfortable. The Holy Spirit’s convicting

of sin can be most unpleasant. Hearing that repentance

to God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ are required

may be quite shocking to the system. Pain! – a deep, existential,

soulful pain may be the result. I have often seen this and

too often I have sought to bring comfort to the anguished

sinner. I have offered counseling, suggested therapy, and

made affirming and supportive declarations. I have supplied

a painkiller, not fully realizing that sin was causing the pain

and that radical, spiritual surgery was needed to cut out the

deadly disease.

A woman who had been attending our church for over

two years made an appointment to see me. She had realized

she was not a Christian and was greatly disturbed about it.

As she sat in my office, she cried, describing the stress she

was under and saying she was at her wit’s end. My response

was to comfort her. I opened my Bible to Romans 10:9-10

and read to her about confessing Jesus as Lord. I asked her

if she wanted to confess Jesus, and she quickly said she did. I

asked, “Do you believe God raised him from the dead?” She

said, “Yes.” “Okay then, confess that Jesus is your Lord.” She

did as I recommended.

That was five years ago. Within one month of that meeting,

she left the church and has never returned. I have maintained

contact with her, sending sermon tapes and newsletters

through the mail. I came to realize that she was never

converted. I gave her false and dangerous comfort. I did not

see it at the time; I thought I was helping.

The process of conversion to Jesus may be difficult.

Certainly we know that human childbirth is painful to the

mother, and the baby usually comes out crying. Would we

expect anything less in new birth? Sometimes people enter

the kingdom of God violently. They struggle with coming to

the light that exposes their sin, then they are confronted with

letting go of sin that may have been in place for decades.

As I preach the riches of God’s grace and mercy in Christ,

I have to allow the Holy Spirit to operate; and some conditions

are worse than others. In any case, I must not be too

quick to comfort, as I do not want to mask the pain that is an

indication of the disease. Physical pain will return when the

affects of the drug wear off, but the falsely comforted sinner

may never again feel the pain. Then their condition will be

worse than before.