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Should churches use something evil like the Internet to reach people?

    One could argue that you are using an "evil" tool in this web page. Honestly, most of the internet is pornography but you have seen fit to use it as a tool to reach people.

  As you will notice, most of this web site is simply giving the Word of God, calling people to repentance. We do not emphasize pictures, video clips, fancy computer graphics, etc. The most striking thing about this web site is not its high tech appearance, but its simple, old-fashioned, warning that people need to get right with God, and that they need to recognize the fads of this present hour as error.

Anything can be used for evil, including web sites. But, like with money, it is not money that is the root of all evil, it is the love of it. I Timothy 6:10 says, “For the LOVE of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” People use guns for evil (to murder people), and guns for good (to protect nations). People use cars for evil (to get away from a bank robbery), and cars for good (to take someone to the hospital). Even so it is with web sites. People can use them for evil (pornography), and for good (giving the Word of God).

Although there is a lot of evil on the Internet (and I wish that the government would shut down those sites), I doubt that your statement is true, “Honestly, most of the internet is pornography…” When you take into account all of the businesses that now operate on the Internet, as well as the multitude of personal pages out there, I think that pornography sites are not nearly the majority out there. I think that they are like the sodomites in our country — not the majority, but trying to push their message as though they were. I have no proof, and certainly I am not going to personally check it out, but I have an idea that the pornography sites are also in the vast minority, but seem the majority, because they illegally send out vast amounts of spam email. If churches used the same illegal tactics, people would think that the vast majority of web sites on the Internet are church sites, but that, also, would not be the case.  I say that because we would never pay money to be on something that was dedicated to immorality.

When I was in Bible College, a visiting speaker told of how he advertises the gospel in newspapers and secular magazines around the world. He then turned to our pastor and said, “And I would like to see Dr. ___________ put an advertisement in Playboy magazine.” Our pastor immediately said, “No sir!” And our pastor was right. By paying to advertise in that wicked magazine, he would be helping to keep it going. If we really thought that the Internet was mostly evil, we would not be paying for access to get on it. That is the same reason that we will not pay money for time on secular or Christian rock stations to preach the gospel. By paying for time on those stations, we are helping to keep them on the air, and causing people to keep tuning in to those stations. That is like paying a bartender for 30 minutes to preach the gospel in his bar. Are there sinners there? Yes. But by paying him money, it is helping to keep his bar open, and actually encouraging people to come back to it. There is a way to reach sinners, without actually furthering their sin.

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