I remember the look of irritation on the face of the lady who answered the door, and I remember how that same looked eroded into unbridled contempt as her glance took in our bibles. Without even engaging us, she closed the door to go back to whatever slumber we had drawn her out of, raising her voice as she did so (above the voice of my companion's knee-jerk and hasty, would-be sales pitch) to say, "I got my own religion, leave me alone." The fellow I was with turned on the stairs, and with mechanical indifference, we turned our attention to the house next door; but my heart was heavy within me.

I honestly would love to tell you dear reader, and have it be true,that my heart was burdened for this woman's soul, but my heart was not heavy for her soul, it was heavy for my own. Why was I doing this? I had read the scriptures, and I didn't see anything that looked like door to door sales in the scriptures. I wasn't there that morning acting upon some conviction to save the lost; I was there that morning responding to peer pressure and protecting the reputation I wanted to project: "Good and faithful servant."

Can I be straight with you, oh faceless reader of my words? Unlike Moody who quipped, "I like my way of doing evangelism better than your way of not doing evangelism", I actually prefer to not "do" evangelism (insert "shock value" here), if by "evangelism" one is talking about employing any scheme to harvest the lost that, at its heart, denies the sovereignty of God.

I am not suggesting however, that Christians I do not engage in evangelism, I do. Nor am I suggesting that we shouldn't evangelize the lost - we should. Rather my concern is with those who are dressing up as spiritual, what amounts to a numbers racket. Hand out a thousand tracts, and the odds are good that someone will be saved. Knock on a hundred doors, and the odds are good that someone will be polite enough to sit through your "gospel presentation". Learn how to control a conversation, and you will have more opportunity to bypass arguments. Look for "felt needs" in people lives so that you can offer Jesus as the balm. Sell Jesus with love, love, love. People want to be loved, and you can use that as an "in".

I tell you I despise this kind of "evangelism" - the kind that pays lip-service to the saving power of the message itself, and instead relies upon statistics, behavioral sciences, schemes, and human persuasiveness. Paul tossed all that out knowing only Christ and Him crucified in His evangelism. What passes for evangelism these days looks nothing like that. It is human invention dressed up as something spiritual, and the sooner it finds its grave, the better. If you share the news that what was promised in the scriptures by the prophets concerning the coming of God's anointed one has come to pass in Jesus.

If you share that God is reconciling people from all nations to Himself in and through His Christ, and if you share that every sinner who calls upon the name of God will be saved from God's coming wrath through placing your trust in God to provide this promised reconciliation, you are evangelizing. You don't have to cross the world to do it, you probably don't even have to cross the street to do it. All you need to do is surrender yourself in obedience to God, and when an opportunity arises to speak the truth in love, cast your reputation aside, and do it for God's glory.

What God has done deserves to be declared, in fact, is it not a cosmic crime to hold that truth in you hiding it from others when you can freely impart it? Do you make yourself the arbiter of who should receive this information? This one is polite and nice, so I will say something to him if I get the chance, but not that one, look at how she dresses. Listen: Do you really believe that what Christ did was worthy of being told? Then tell it! Not because some guy told you to, but because you have looked at the worth of Christ and understood what that worth demands of all who come into the knowledge of it. Don't evangelize because someone has pressured you, don't ride the coat-tails of someone else's dream - share the truth both because you know it, and especially because God's glory demands it.

If you are engaged in wonky forms of evangelism, may I suggest, Christian, that you get your Head on straight? (you saw what I did there, right?).

Labels: effectual calling, evangelism

In Romans 10:14, Paul intends to connect prayer with faith, as they are indeed things most closely connected, for he who calls on God carries himself, as it were, to the only true haven of salvation, and to a most secure refuge; he acts like the son, who commits himself into the bosom of the best and the most loving of fathers, that he may be protected by his care, cherished by his kindness and love, relieved by his bounty, and supported by his power. This is what no man can do who has not previously entertained in his mind such a persuasion of God’s paternal kindness towards him, that he dares to expect everything from him.

He then who calls on God necessarily feels assured that there is protection laid up for him; for Paul speaks here of that calling which is approved by God. Hypocrites also pray, but not unto salvation; for it is with no conviction of faith. It hence appears how completely ignorant are all the schoolmen, who doubtingly present themselves before God, being sustained by no confidence. Paul thought far otherwise; for he assumes this as an acknowledged axiom, that we cannot rightly pray unless we are surely persuaded of success. For he does not refer here to hesitating faith, but to that certainty which our minds entertain respecting his paternal kindness, when by the gospel he reconciles us to himself, and adopts us for his children. By this confidence only we have access to him, as we are also taught in Ephesians 3:12.

But, on the other hand, learn that true faith is only that which brings forth prayer to God; for it cannot be but that he who has tasted the goodness of God will ever by prayer seek the enjoyment of it.

Therefore we are in a manner mute until God’s promise opens our mouth to pray, and this is the order which he points out by the Prophet, when he says, “I will say to them, my people are ye;” and they shall say to me, “Thou art our God.” (Zechariah 13:9.) It belongs not indeed to us to imagine a God according to what we may fancy; we ought to possess a right knowledge of him, such as is set forth in his word. And when any one forms an idea of God as good, according to his own understanding, it is not a sure nor a solid faith which he has, but an uncertain and evanescent imagination; it is therefore necessary to have the word, that we may have a right knowledge of God. No other word has he mentioned here but that which is preached, because it is the ordinary mode which the Lord has appointed for conveying his word. But were any on this account to contend that God cannot transfer to men the knowledge of himself, except by the instrumentality of preaching, we deny that to teach this was the Apostle’s intention; for he had only in view the ordinary dispensation of God, and did not intend to prescribe a law for the distribution of his grace.

Labels: Calvin as Gadfly, evangelism, Gospel, preaching, salvation

There is actually a problem with the Gospel which men cannot fix.  But that doesn't stop them from trying.

On the other hand, The "problem" with the Gospel is that Christ's perfect and finished work, which cannot be added to, doesn't declare itself.  Someone has to declare it to those who, as the catechism astutely says, "frame their lives according to the light of nature, or the laws of that religion which they profess."

 

Labels: effort, evangelism, Gospel, preaching

“It’s just so unfair! All those poor, good, primitive peoples - living close to nature and never polluting anything, loving everyone freely and fully! And you say they’ll go to hell because of some message they never even heard! What monstrous sort of God do you believe in, anyway?”

Needless to say this is an entirely contemporary notion of anthropology. We could spend some time deconstructing it. Or we could dig into how scientists of earlier ages viewed cultural differences. Or, best of all, we could ask what God Himself has to say about the peoples of the world:

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. -Romans 1:19-23

If God is to be taken at His word, then all the “diligence” of men and all the “laws of that religion which they profess” are not moving them toward God, but always further away. And to put a fine point on it: this is true not only of the naked savages who live in remote places; it is true also of Westerners of every age, race, gender, and socio-economic status. Our neighbors profess a religion which they follow diligently, and through it their foolish hearts are darkened.

It is no wonder that there is no “salvation in any other, but in Christ alone.” Who else could lead us to the Father?

Labels: evangelism, Gospel, salvation

According to Wikipedia, there are at least 70 tribes of people in the world who have never had any contact with 'civilization' outside their tribe. They live in the forests of Brazil, New Guinea, and on islands near Indonesia. In most instances, they resist any contact with the outside world through acts of violence. They want to be left alone.

To make matters worse, if we did contact them, up to 50% of them would perish of disease. They have no immunity to things like pneumonia. To contact them would likely result in death for the one who contacted them, or else it would lead to death of many in the tribe by disease.

The Bible is clear that all men and women are sinful and morally bankrupt before God, and that the only hope of salvation lies in Christ Jesus the Lord. These people must hear the gospel or they will die in their sins. Someone must go to them, at the risk of their own lives and the lives of the tribe, or these tribes have no hope.

Jesus said, "Whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God" (John 3:18). We need not fear killing the natives with disease if we realize that they are dead already apart from the only gospel that can save them.

As for us, we need not fear dying at their hands. We are a crucified people. We, too, are already dead.

Labels: death, evangelism, Gospel, Great Commission, salvation

B*** P*****, 28, of Denver, a first-year season-ticket holder, longtime Tebow fan and a Christian but not a churchgoer, said Monday that he opened a Bible to check out John 3:16. "If that's where Tebow gets his inspiration, nothing wrong with trying that." USA Today 01-09-12

Dude! Where do we start? Christian but not a churchgoer? Opened a Bible to check out John 3:16? Gets his inspiration? Nothing wrong with trying that!!?? Obviously, B***, you're not even close to what you think you are, and you're not headed to the place you think you're headed. You're exactly what's wrong with Evanjellyfishicalism today, your theology is crap, your soteriology is non-existent, and your ecclesiology, well, case closed!

Except for this: before his arrest, trial, conviction, and sentencing, we failed to read this man his rights: But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God - John 1:12 (ESV)

Chances are, as far as B*** knows, he has received Jesus, and believed in his name. Chances are, as well, that he is not prepared, nor even inclined, to argue with you unless you present yourself as an adversary, or an accuser.

Note well that the application of the benefits of Christ's redemption are fully the work of the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Ghost gots means, and he gots people. And his people - his ministers, his ambassadors, his witnesses - they don't use the means of his enemy, the adversary and the accuser.

So when you meet B***, on the bus or at the store or at the office, and you get to talking about these things, remember first that he has received what was passed on to him, and save the vitriol for the wolf that passed it along. Then remember who you're working for, who's doing the applying, and then point the way to the one that he's pointing to.

Labels: Apologetics, evangelism, holy spirit, nominal Christians