Presented in 7 Chapters
by David Wilkerson
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- Chapter 2—Why I Quit Judging Sinners
One day I took a long, honest look into my own heart, and I didn't like what I saw. I saw a minister who preached holiness to others, only to wage a private battle with the same evil presence that is in all sinners. I have discovered since that, some of these famous ministers, who cry so loudly about the corruption of society and the evil in the land, are fighting their own personal battles against lust. It's possible to be a world-famous evangelist, moralizing about the corruptness of sinners, and be as phoney as the world's worst hypocrite.
Prepared as you are to instruct others, do you ever teach yourself anything? You preach against stealing, but are you sure of your own honesty? You denounce the practice of adultery, but are you sure of your own purity? (Romans 2:21 Phillips Translation)
I am at the place that I believe it is the uncharitable Christian, so harsh and unforgiving, who drives the sinner away from the redeeming power of Christ. The church often drives people with life- controlling problems to wreckless abandon and despair by their phoney, pious ferocity against their sin. Christians, who are themselves victims of all manner of temptations, often shut out the habituated by telling them they are hopeless cases. This judgmental attitude says to the sinner, "Keep going deeper into your sin! You are hopeless! The Bible condemns you, so give yourself over to your iniquity. You are already lost, so we won't waste our time trying to help you."
A young lesbian who attended one of my meetings told me of her difficulty with church people accepting her—even after her conversion to Christ.
"I wish Christians would quit 'totem poling' sins and treat everybody alike. They tend to put homosexuals on the bottom when it comes to being concerned about them, and on top of the pole when it comes to judging them as hopeless.
"I get tired of Christians accepting converted adulterers, prostitutes, alcoholics, masturbators, and then recoiling like vipers when homosexuals seek help. They seem on the verge of throwing up when they talk to me; they watch my every move; they eyeball and analyze me, looking for errors. They can't forget my past, as if Jesus came into this world to save everybody but homosexuals."
No wonder sin is driven underground. No wonder people with life-controlling habits tend to react violently. These troubled souls are degraded; scorn is heaped upon them by a church that wants nothing to do with "queers," "faggots," and "nellies." We have all become very adept at heaping scorn on those we consider hopeless sinners. The scorn and smirk of Christians is one of the greatest causes of injury to those who indulge in sensuality.
We stigmatize people with life-controlling problems. We take away their character by thinking of them as hopelessly hooked. We are so offended by their practices, we have made their sins so scandalous, we turn them into outcasts with no hope of return. We help to destroy their hunger for God by bringing down on them an avalanche of reproach and unforgiving wrath.
If you rob a sinner of his character, if you take away his dignity, if you focus only on his failures, if you treat him as a non-person, if you shut off all his roads of retreat—he is driven to hardness. He becomes calloused and begins to fight back because that is all that is left for him. It is an easy step from hardness to violence. Humiliate the sinner, take away his sense of worth, and soon you will have driven him to total remorse. If there is no God in him to support him, he will lose all hope and finally give himself over to those who will accept him. Then he often uses that hostility as an excuse to remain in his sin.
My compassion for hardened sinners has been sorely tried. I've seen gangs of leather-clad sadomasochists parading down Folsom Street in San Francisco, flaunting their perversion. They carry nail-studded belts, heavy chains, whips, and other such sadomasochist paraphernalia.
Drag queens strut around, proud, thumbing their noses at straight society. I have had countless numbers of gays call me a fanatic and a fraud. They have cursed my honest efforts to help them—they have thrown my books into the gutter, jumping on them, reviling the author with torrents of cursing.
It is then that horrible thoughts begin to surface in me. I think to myself, "God, they are hopeless. They don't want You; they don't want help. I'm wasting time. Maybe an earthquake is the only language they can understand. Why preach cure to proud people who won't even admit they need help?"
But when I go down to the Tenderloin in San Francisco and talk to those who have hit rock bottom—stoned, bombed out, at the end of their hope—something beautiful happens. Sinners tend to get honest when desperate. The truth surfaces when the games are all over. The phoney fronts, the make-believe facades, all come tumbling down. And suddenly you find just another poor, lost sinner needing the love and compassion of Christ. They weep out pitiful confessions of being kicked around, abused, used, rejected, and misunderstood.
I cannot explain the joy of seeing broken bodies and minds restored by the power of God. That is what draws some of us back time and again to the streets, willing to suffer abuse from the hardened Christ-rejectors. It may be only one out of a thousand who admits to a need or who hurts enough to want to change. But God will lead us to that one—and no power on earth or in Hell can hinder the Holy Spirit from zeroing in on that hungry heart to bring healing.
Paul the apostle said, "God has shown me that I should call no man unfit or unclean" (Acts 10:28).
Searching for a Solution
For years I have been trying to find the key to power over sin. I see in me so many hurtful things, and I yearn to be free from the bondage of my flesh.
My search for power over sin took me on a ten-year journey through libraries, commentaries, conferences with Bible scholars, and a thorough study of the Bible—especially Romans. Everything I read and heard clearly described the human condition of weakness and the ever present struggle with evil. From Paul the apostle to church leaders such as Origen, Cyprian, Chrysostom—from Augustine to Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Wesley, and even modern theologians and scholars—all of them described the battle, and all of them admitted they, too, were in the same struggle. In one way, it was reassuring to me that I was not some kind of freak Christian and that the shame for the sin in my own heart was shared by the godliest men who ever lived on this earth. But, in another way, it was discouraging to learn so much about the struggle and so little about the cure. Like Paul, they all asked the one great question: "Who will deliver me from this wretchedness in me? How can I be set free from my sinful nature?" And, like Paul, they all answered, "Through Jesus Christ the Lord."
Fine! Christ is the cure. Paul knew that; the church fathers knew it; and I know it. But just what does that mean? That's like saying: Light is caused by the sun,. How is Christ the cure? How do I get His great power into my puny body? How do I plug into that supernatural source of righteousness? It is not enough to tell me Jesus can save me and keep me from all sin. It is not enough to say—Freedom comes by faith.
Paul tried to explain the steps to power over sin in his letter to the Romans. He talks about the struggle between an old man and a new man. He warns Christians against being carnally minded and that victory over sin is contingent upon being spiritually minded.
Two men in me? Two laws at work in me? Two minds seeking control of me? Two spirits in combat? Frankly, it is all confusing. I read many scholarly interpretations of what Paul is supposedly saying, and I was left even more confused. Scholars disagree on the true meaning of Paul's message in Romans. Even Peter had difficulty understanding certain of Paul's arguments. "As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood" (2 Peter 3:16).
I can't believe the path to power over sin is a dark, deep secret that would take years to comprehend. You see, I need help right now. The clues can't wait. If I don't understand how God works and what He expects me to do, I will be down and out. Sin could overpower and destroy me, unless God throws me a lifeline of truth.
What is really needed is for God to come down to my earthbound, confused, sin-prone soul and show me how to break sin's spell.
To Chapter 3
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