When people think of the days when Jesus, Paul and Peter talked to the crowds of people who hung on their every word, it’s easy to wonder what it would be like to attain such glory and attention. So they go out in the name of God, proclaiming that everyone is going to hell in the classic style of a street preacher.

But despite the sandwich boards and trite rhetoric, they still manage to turn people away from God. They appear to be doing the right things. Jesus said before he went up to heaven, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations.” (Matthew 28:19.) What could be wrong?
When Jesus gave his famous Sermon on the Mount, Matthew said a great crowd had followed him. And when Jesus spoke, he began by telling them about the different ways people are blessed and the ways to gain riches in heaven.

Note the dissimilarities between Jesus and street preachers. Jesus had people follow him, street preachers go up to random strangers and interrupt them. Jesus sought to teach people, street preachers try to condemn people. Jesus told the people how they were blessed and how they could gain riches in heaven – street preachers tell you how you are going to Hell if you don’t repent of your sins.

Psalms 64 calls our words swords and arrows. How wise is it to shoot arrows at random strangers, or how can you help anyone by swinging a sword around? Psalms 64:8 says that people who act in such a way “shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves: all that see them shall flee away.” Words are weapons, and we shouldn’t use them like a kid who’s just found his father’s gun.

During the Sermon of the Mount, Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” Telling a random stranger, “You can reject Jesus if you want to, but you’re going to hell,” is not meek.

If street preachers want to be powerful and influential, they should take a lesson from the leader they are trying to follow. They might just get power beyond anything they imagined. They might just inherit the Earth.