Consider the following: 

   “Bible faith is a clinging trust that madly believes in our loving heavenly Father, both when we understand and things are well, and when we cannot understand and nothing seems well.”  “We really learn nothing fresh and helpful about our Lord except through the deepest of sufferings and the darkness of sorrows; these gifts illuminate His Word and give life its unfeigned meaning.”  “…the highway to heaven is paved with blood, sweat, and tears… Even our Lord is described as “…a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief’ (Isaiah 53:3)… The cults tell us that obedience and faith will carry one into the heights of plenty, prosperity and material power; all so alien to Bible Christianity.”  “Each individual in Hebrews 11 lived a life of suffering and sorrow, mingled with victory and triumph… Despite their prayers God saw fit not to deliver [many of] them from terrible sufferings.”  (Henry R. Pike, Suffering and Death:  The Saint’s Highest Calling, p.14, 24, 25)

   The life of a born again believer is a life of suffering:  “In the world ye shall have tribulation:  but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)  “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”  (2 Tim 3:12)  “For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake”  (Phil 1:29).  “I will be with him in trouble”, meaning that trouble is to be expected  (Psalm 91:15).  We are to be tried in the refiner’s fire. 

   So, why deceive children in Sunday School and VBS that the Christian life is fun and easy?  That God always comes to the rescue?  Why talk only about the heroes of faith who were miraculously delivered?  Why ignore the shame and reproach?  And what about repentance?  Why present them with a false plan of salvation?  Is this what Bible believers did down through the centuries?  Is this how the Waldenses taught their kids?  Why teach children in such a way that it makes them immune to the Truth (repentance, suffering, persecution) and leads them into easy prayerism and hell.

   Why lure/attract neighbourhood children into the church using deception and an unscriptural approach and method, and then ‘sell’ them a false plan of salvation?  All that these fun programs do is to prepare kids for ‘Christian’ entertainment, and easy prayerism, false gospels, religion; and create an experience whereby they can ‘pray to receive Jesus into their heart’ (not Biblical) and think that they are headed for heaven and even be assured of that fact by those in the church. 

   Just looking at the typical VBS advertisement gives the unsaved neighborhood a picture of the church as a fun place.  A place that is not to be taken seriously.  A place that will entertain their kids for free.  And as a born again believer, doesn’t one automatically think:  wishy-washy worldly church – fun religion – not the real thing?  The whole concept and approach makes a mockery out of God's Word and the church.  It’s designed to attract worldly parents and kids; the superhero, video game generation who need constant entertainment.  Constant fun.  Noise.  Music.  Games.  Activities.  Coloring. 

   Does the end justify the means?  How come the Lord Jesus Christ did not use this approach?  How come the Apostles did not use this approach?  Instead they preached repentance.  If we want souls to get scripturally saved, we must heed the method for evangelism presented in the Bible. 

   A.W. Tozer writes:  “Without Biblical authority, or any other right under the sun, carnal religious leaders have introduced a host of attractions that serve no purpose except to provide entertainment for the retarded saints.  It is now common practice in most evangelical churches to offer the  people, especially the young people, a maximum of entertainment and a minimum of serious instruction.  It is scarcely possible in most places to get anyone to attend a meeting where the only attraction is God. One can only conclude that God's professed children are bored with Him, for they must be wooed to meeting with a stick of striped candy in the form of religious movies, games and refreshments.”

   Think of it this way; if unsaved kids come to church to play and have fun, then what's wrong with doing that on an adult level?  Let's invite adults to socialize, play games, do crafts and have fun at the church and in the process let's sneak in a quick presentation of the plan of salvation.  But careful, if it's too holy, or convicting, if hell and repentance are mentioned, they won't come back - so better not mention those until the people are 'Christians'...  Isn't that what most churches are doing?  Get them 'saved', get them in the pews, take their money, and then lull them to sleep and send them gently to hell.

   A.W. Tozer writes:  “The old cross slew men; the new cross entertains them. The old cross condemned; the new cross amuses. The old cross destroyed confidence in the flesh; the new cross encourages it. The old cross brought tears and blood; the new cross brings laughter. The flesh, smiling and confident, preaches and sings about the cross; before that cross  it bows and toward that cross it points with carefully staged  histrionics--but upon that cross it will not die, and the reproach of that cross it stubbornly refuses to bear.”

   Imagine the Apostle Paul running a ‘fun gospel’ Sunday School or VBS program.  Imagine the persecuted church, the tortured believers running these programs. 

    “The Bible tells us to “train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”  (Prov 22:6)  Turning children’s programs, such as VBS, into a carnival and then presenting the false, ecumenical, new-evangelical, love-oriented, no-repentance, 'fun gospel' simply inoculates a generation of kids (and parents and whole neighbourhoods) against the True plan of salvation.