Why is the gospel so offensive?

I think it's because these other people don't have a working knowledge of the gospel to discuss it intelligently. They know they are ignorant of the gospel and don't want to talk about it. Easier to act offended and change the subject.

 

Your neighbor probably came under conviction and didn't like it. If they don't want to hear, all you can do is dust off your feet and walk away.

 

Playing off another reply, people tend to hate/push away/mock what they do not understand.

Fear is the mother of hatred, so people end up hating what they fear, which almost always turns out to be what they do not understand...the unknown.

Think about it. People fear the mentally ill. They fear people with physical disabilities. The poor fear the rich and the rich fear the poor. Democrats fear Republicans and vice versa. Many men fear women and many women fear men. People with less education have always had a fear of those who hold high levels of education.

That fear manifests into what we see. What we see is people pushing away from concepts, ideas, people, and things they do not understand and this is because those things frighten them.

Think about someone you always disliked. Perhaps it was a bully in school or someone at church who rubbed you the wrong way. In the majority of those cases, getting to know that person...how they grew up, what they honestly think of life and WHY, their culture, their heritage, what makes them who they are...once you understand that, the person becomes much more tolerable, even likeable.

The same holds true with religion but, like politics, many people are so set in their own views that they will refuse to put any effort into studying why you are who you are and what you are presenting to them.

It just is. That's why lifestyle evangelism is such an important part of Christianity Those who will not hear our words will still watch us and learn from our actions. They may not acknowledge it, but they do and it does impact them either immediately or in the future. It still plants the seed and gets the job done. That is a good thing!

 

I would say they are afraid what you have to say is true, and they really don't want that. Most people want to be happily ignorant of spiritual things.

 

Another example of the devil at work.

 

Jesus made it clear why the gospel is so offensive:

Joh 3:19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
Joh 3:20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.


Rom 1:28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.
Rom 1:29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,
Rom 1:30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
Rom 1:31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
Rom 1:32 Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

 

If I may add....

but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness,
1 Corinthians 1:23 NASB

 

Let's put it this way. You and I have a good long discussion. In that discussion, I expose every fault, failure, shortcoming, need, you have. You'd be offended at me, right? That is the Gospel in a "nutshell". It shows us how small we really are, and that we are not self-sufficient, but rather, self-deficient. It breaks down our pride, IOW, and that was OFFENSIVE to us when we were sinners.

 

Several possible reasons:

1. The Gospel is not understood and wrongly taught.

2. The Gospel, as taught, is not lived out in the lives of the teachers.

3. It is "unjust" for Jesus to have died for my sins.

4. Some are not "elect." <G>