The original Four Spiritual Laws was a 1952 tract titled, "Have you heard of the Four Spiritual Laws" authored by Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ ("Cru"). The Four Spiritual Laws remains a popular tool of proselytizing today, including at Cru's Global Media Outreach. Unfortunately, the Four Spiritual Laws are counter-productive and contradict the Bible's Gospel. Here are the Four Spiritual Laws:
"1. God loves you and offers a wonderful plan for your life.
2. Man is sinful and separated from God. Therefore, he cannot know and experience God's love and plan for his life.
3. Jesus Christ is God's only provision for man's sin. Through Him you can know and experience God's love and plan for your life.
4. We must individually receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; then we can know and experience God's love and plan for our lives. We receive Christ by Personal Invitation - [Christ speaking] "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him." (Revelation 3:20)"
What is unbiblical about these Four Spiritual Laws?
A. The Four Spiritual Laws promote the prosperity false gospel.
When unsaved sinners hear "wonderful plan for your life," they understand "life" as the remainder of their earthly life, and "wonderful plan" as something related to wealth, health and fun. This contradicts Jesus' words, "In the world you will have tribulation" (John 16:33), and His command for us to focus on eternity, not the remainder of our earthly life. The Bible calls our earthly life a momentary "vapor" - "... For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away" (James 4:14) - and warns, "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable" (1 Corinthians 15:19).
B. The Four Spiritual Laws omit repentance and hell.
Whenever Jesus and His disciples addressed sin, they said we must "repent" (Matthew 4:17) from sin, and Jesus spoke about hell, where unrepentant sinners go, more than about heaven. The Four Spiritual Laws mention sin twice but omit the need to repent from it, as well as the existence of hell, which should drive sinners to the cross of Christ far more than the lure of a "wonderful" earthly life. Omitting the reality of everlasting agony in hell also robs the cross of its full value, and the Lord of the full gratitude He is due.
C. The Four Spiritual Laws denies God's sovereignty.
Romans 6:23 states that "everlasting life in Christ Jesus our Lord" is "the gift of God," not some response to a "Personal Invitation" from us. When Peter personally invited Jesus to depart from him - When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!" (Luke 5:8) - Jesus did not respect Peter's wish. Instead, Jesus stayed and turned Peter into a Christian. Also, Jesus turned Paul into a Christian not in response to Paul's "Personal Invitation" to become one but while he was on his way to arrest, imprison and kill Christians.
D. The Four Spiritual Laws omit Jesus' last eight words of Revelation 3:20 to twist the verse's meaning from fellowship with the saved to the salvation of the unsaved.
Here is the full text of what Jesus said in Revelation 3:20: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and dine with him, and he with me." Did Jesus say that He will come in through the door and save? No, He said He will "dine" - "I will come in to him, and dine with him, and he with me" - i.e., have fellowship - with a "church" (Revelation 3:14), which is an assembly of people who are already saved. The tracts and websites of Cru and Global Media Outreach omit the last eight words of Jesus - "and dine with him, and he with me" - of Revelation 3:20 because without those eight words, they can claim that "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him" means unsaved people need to open a door to permit Jesus to enter and save them. This is unbiblical and heretical. If the door isn't opened, will Jesus turn around and walk away from the door rejected and with slumped shoulders? Jesus is God, who is omnipotent. If some door blocks God from saving someone whom He intends to save, God will kick down that door and save that person, as He did with Peter and Paul above.
Proponents of the Four Spiritual Laws claim that despite being unbiblical, their Four Spiritual Laws get people to become "baby Christians" and pave the way for them to learn the Biblical truth later. But this is untrue. Such deception merely slaps a fake "Christian" label on unrepentant, unsaved sinners who later feel cheated when the promised "wonderful life" of earthly wealth, health and fun doesn't materialize. They then deem Christianity, even Jesus, to be a fraud.
In the short run, the Four Spiritual Laws and other gimmicks that pressure people to quickly say a prayer may boost the claimed number of converts "won" by the missionary group. In the long run, however, they end up tarnishing the Lord's honor and making those people disappointed, bitter and thereafter resistant to hearing and heeding the true Gospel.