Philosophy of Evangelism
Purpose of Evangelism
God has saved us and given us the command to “go
and make disciples
of all nations.” (Matthew 28:18-20). The beginning of that
process is evangelism. Evangelism glorifies God by exposing
man’s
sin and subsequent need for forgiveness and inability to obtain it on
his own. The Gospel reveals the kindness of the
Father to
have sent the Son, Jesus Christ, who lived the perfectly obedient life
(Matthew 5:17) we should have lived and died the death we should have
died taking God’s wrath upon Himself for the sins of man. He
rose
again on the third day and after appearing the Disciples He ascended
into Heaven. (Acts 2:22-35). He has promised to come again
one
day at which time He will judge the world in righteousness.
All
who are found not having repented and believed will be eternally judged
(Acts 1:11; 17:31). Those who will obey the Gospel call to
“repent and believe” (Mark 1:15) have the promise of God that they
shall be forgiven, granted eternal life, receive the Holy Spirit within
them, justified, and made Holy on the merits of Christ alone (John 3:16)
Evangelism
is part of our worship to God and it is only a part of obeying the
Great Commission. The Great Commission’s command is to “go,”
that’s evangelism and “make disciples,” that’s the work we do
afterward. As God graciously grants some from among those to
whom
we witness to repent and believe the Gospel it is our duty to take them
under our wing and help them learn the great truths of Scripture so
that they grow to themselves become disciple makers. It is
not
the function of evangelism to make converts because we cannot make a
convert. Salvation is of the Lord and God alone brings
conversion
by the work of the Holy Spirit. We have no way of knowing who
will and will not respond to the Gospel because that knowledge is kept
for God alone. Our job is to preach the Gospel to all and
trust
God for the results. Our goal in evangelism must be to point all
towards Christ in the hopes that they will respond by asking what they
must do to be saved.
METHOD OF
EVANGELISM
In Scripture
there is
no reference found for “asking Jesus into your heart,” “accepting
Jesus,” or “praying the sinner’s prayer.” What is replete
throughout the Scriptures is the command from God to repent and
believe, to receive the good news of the Gospel by faith. If
there is to be any model of a sinner’s prayer to be found in Scripture
it would have to come from Psalm 51:1-12 or Luke 18:13. We do
affirm that a prayer to God from the individual seeking His forgiveness
and salvation is Biblical and necessary. What we reject is
the
idea that there is a special set of words which, when repeated
sincerely enough, will save someone.
Friendship evangelism is
only beneficial when the relationship begins with the upfront
earnestness that your goal is to first share the Gospel with them and
then build a friendship that demonstrates the results of the Gospel in
your own life. To do so the other way around is at best a
disingenuous motive for beginning a relationship. Nowhere in
Scripture do we find anyone building a friendship with the hopes of
earning the right to share the Gospel with that person. On
the
contrary we find that relationships are begun with the Gospel and built
on that solid foundation of Christ.
The testimony of Scripture
is clear that God’s intention for the Law (the 10 commandments) is the
primary means used by the Holy Spirit to bring conviction of
sin.
The law must be used in our evangelism to bring humility and conviction
to the proud. The Law must precede the Gospel so that sin is
understood by God’s terms (Romans 7:7). Within that outline
many
methods or approaches of evangelism may be employed so long as the law
is used, the Gospel is not watered down, and the promise of the Gospel is
not distorted. The promise of the Gospel is not that God has
a
wonderful plan for your life. The Gospel promise IS that
Jesus
has died to forgive and set people free from the bondage of sin
granting them eternal life in Himself and giving them His Spirit to
convict, comfort, and guide.
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