I have heard it before, but this time it really struck me.

Switching on a radio late one night, in the wee hours of the morning, I heard some preacher state: "Come to Christ as you are."

As a long-time Christian now in my early senior years, I said to the radio: "What a bunch of sh*t" (and pardon the perhaps-vulgar allusion to feces, dung, excrement, poop - but you get the point, I'm sure).

Should you or I or anyone else "come to Christ are you are?"

- If you tried to get into a military facility without military credentials, would the armed guard let you in?
- If you went to an exclusive country club, dirty-faced and dressed in gasoline-drenched greasy overalls, would the greeter allow you inside?
- If you came to a downtown bar carrying a pistol in your hand with a "Kill Bartenders" slogan printed with large letters on the front of your T-shirt, would the bouncer who you were shouting obscenities at let you in?
- If you went to a casino or neighbors party and threw buckets of urine or acid into the faces of the guests and host present, would they let you into the game room to play cards with the big guys?

"Come to Christ as you are?

Seems to me there was something missing in the "unconditional love" statement of the preacher, yes?

Drive on the road "as you are" - swerving all over it, bumping into and damaging other cars alongside you and running red stoplights as frantic cellphone calls to 911 are promptly made?

Shall we see if squad-car cops observing that "drive as you are" lives-threatening swerving agree that you can drive "as you are?"

Where is the preacher's inclusion of or reference to the word "sin?" Where is his reference to the word "repentance?"

As I remember during the Billy Graham crusades, the evangelist succinctly always qualified his "come to Christ" invitation with reference to "turning from and repenting of sins."

Indeed. Before you (or anyone else) comes to Christ, you (or anyone else) must (and I repeat: must) do several things first:

(1) admit that there is such a thing as "sin"
(2) admit that [you] have "sinned"
(3) think of actual applications involving [your] own type(s) of sin
(4) feel guilty about and abhor [your] own brand of sin(s)
(5) desire to completely and forever stop sinning [your] own kinds of sin(s)
(6) believe that there is a Savior who can and will atone for [you] because of [your] sins
(7) accept the one and only effective redemption against [your] sins done by that Savior
(8) adhere to that Savior who will empower [you] to completely stop doing [your] previous sins.

I remember my clergyman dad reminding me that the Lutheran approach to legitimately and properly ministering to people in general (and especially his own various congregations) was:

"Preach Law, then Gospel."

A point well taken.

Preaching the Law is like holding a mirror in front of the faces of sinful people so that they can observe with surprise and dismay how dirty their faces are, but did not even know that before that mirror was held up to them.

If, then when, they - in horrified desperation - seriously and urgently yearn for immediate remedy, the forgiving and reconciling gospel of the Savior and Lord Jesus Christ can promptly be declared to them.

If, and only if.

Understand, however, that the Christian gospel is, of crucial necessity, seamlessly and intrinsically integrated with Law and the abstract concept of sin (defined as violating any or all components and precepts of the Law).

The solicitation for people to need, seek, and claim a Savior understandably falls on deaf (and irritated) ears to those who presume that they have not sinned, that everyone sins somewhat now and then so that it is not that bad or grievous, that they can make up for it by doing whatever they concoct in their own imaginations as compensatory good works (whatever weird or perhaps even wicked attitudes or actions that consists of).

Why take on cumbersome and downright embarrassing allegiance to some Savior from sins if sins are not that big of a deal and nothing to get hung up on or depressed about?

People are already busy enough without burdening themselves with religious prohibitors and prohibitions restricting or preventing them from having a good time and a lot of fun.

Jesus as atoning Savior and Redeemer, to those whose concept of "sin" (if they have any at all) is non-Scriptural, is meaningless and an annoying distraction to them . . . even a noxious and dangerous public-nuisance affront against community tranquility and stability and safety . . . a needless negative against peacefully-coexisting unified cooperation devoid of unsettling disruption and troublesome antisocial dissent.

No, do not "come to Christ as you are!

The potentially-very-misleading lyrics of the Protestant hymn: "...dressed in His righteousness alone..." infer to the pornographically and indecently-minded that they can go around immodestly misattired in loose-long-haired mopheadedness, nude armed exposed with sleeveslessness, naked legs bared with shortened slacks or skirts or slitted skirts or shorts, and/or parts of soxless bared feet exposed in noisy flip-flop sandals....even during seasonably-warmer weather or for mixed-gender-viewed sports.

Such perverts will never ever make it into glory with the Lord - no matter how much they accursedly claim that "the Mosaic Law is totally done away with" being that "we're saved by grace through faith, not the Law nor works of the Law, and not of ourselves lest we boast, because Christ has become and is our righteousness imputed to us" [immodestly-misdressed az-holes who are sexually harassing and defiling victims of visual abuse caused by us and our own heretical doctrine-of-demons irrationalizations].

Proverbs 15:8 The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is his delight.

Proverbs 15:29 The LORD is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.

Proverbs 21:27 The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination; how much more when he brings it with evil intent.

Proverbs 28:9 If one turns away his ear from hearing the Law, even his prayer is an abomination.

Isaiah 1:15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.

Jeremiah 11:11 Therefore, thus says the LORD: "Hey, I am bringing evil upon them which they cannot escape; though they cry to me, I will not listen to them."

Jeremiah 11:14 Therefore do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer on their behalf, for I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their trouble.

Jeremiah 14:12 Though they fast, I will not hear their cry, and though they offer burnt offering and cereal offering, I will not accept them; but I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.

Lamentations 1:8 Jerusalem sinned grievously, therefore she became filthy; all who honored her despise her, for they have seen her nakedness; yes, she herself groans, and turns her face away.

Ezekiel 8:18 Therefore I will deal in wrath; my eye will not spare, nor will I have pity; and though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.

Ezekiel 24:13 Because I would have cleansed you and you were not cleansed from your filthiness, you shall not be cleansed any more till I have satisfied my fury upon you.

Amos 5:23 Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen.

Zechariah 3:3 Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments.
Zechariah 3:4 And the angel said to those who were standing before him, "Remove the filthy garments from him." And to him he said, "Hey, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with rich apparel."

Matthew 22:1 And Jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables, and said:
22:2 "The kingdom of Heaven is like a certain king who made a marriage for his son.
22:3 And he sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they would not come.
22:4 Again he sent out other servants, saying, Tell those who are invited: "Hey, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatlings are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the marriage."
22:5 But not caring, they went their ways, one to his field, another to his trading.
22:6 And the remainder took his servants and treated them spitefully, and killed them.
22:7 But when the king heard, he was angry. And he sent out his armies and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.
22:8 Then he said to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they who were invited were not worthy.
22:9 Therefore go into the exits of the highways, and as many as you shall find, invite them to the marriage.
22:10 So the servants went out into the highways and gathered together as many as they found, both bad and good. And the wedding was filled with reclining guests.
22:11 And the king coming in to look over the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment.
22:12 And he said to him: "Friend, how did you come in here without having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.
22:13 Then the king said to the servants: "Bind him hand and foot and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
22:14 For many are called, but few chosen."

Luke 16:15 But he said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts; for what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.

There will come a time for past-the-point-of-no-return separation and judgment, when it will be too late to make vital changes and adjustments to qualify for entrance into the eternal habitation of the Heaven of absolute moral purity:

Revelation 22:11 Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.

No need to get uptight about those who adamantly refuse to repent.

"Their Day is coming."