“I just want you to know, Mr. Washer, 22 people, I believe it was are on their way to heaven now because last night they prayed that little prayer that you are always speaking against.”

And I wrote him back and I said, “I had no idea you were that charismatic.”

And he wrote me back, “Well, I am not charismatic. Why did you say that?”

I said, “Because apart from a supernatural revelation from God, explain to me how you know they were converted.”

And he said, “Well, that is not my job.”

I said, “Then what is your job, sir? Your job is that when you have properly preached the gospel and you have called men to repentance and faith that even though you have surveyed their life for a few hours in counseling, deep counseling, you depart from them with both promises and warnings. Promises that if God truly continues this work, it is evidence that he began it; and warnings that if after this night or after a short period of seeming to walk with Christ they fall away or turn away, it is evidence that nothing happened to them that night.”

“Why is it that you call people to repent? Why do you call them to believe the Gospel? You cannot deal properly with repentance without dealing with the doctrine of man, the doctrine of sin and the wrath of God against sin. Then when you call men to come to Christ and to give themselves to Him, how can you do so without knowing who He is, and on what grounds you invite them to come to Him, and so on. In other words it is all highly theological. Evangelism which is not theological is not evangelism at all in any true sense. It may be a calling for decisions, it may be a calling on people to come to religion, or to live a better life, or the offering of some psychological benefits; but it cannot by any definition be regarded as Christian evangelism, because there is no true reason for what you are doing apart from these great theological principles. I assert therefore that every type of preaching must be theological, including evangelistic preaching.”

– Martyn Lloyd Jones, ‘Preaching and Preachers’, pg. 65.