One gracEmail subscriber draws back from the thought of approaching strangers to distribute evangelistic leaflets. Another feels unable to engage in door-to-door "cold campaigning" but feels guilty in this regard. A third subscriber insists that evangelism requires a personal relationship to be authentic. And a fourth suggests that not every Christian is gifted to be an evangelist.
those who never heard (two parts)
"What about those," asks a reader, "who, through no fault of their own, never hear the gospel during this life? Must we assume that all such people will finally perish?"
Somewhere about the time Columbus "sailed the waters blue," a ... worldview was beginning that saw "Progress" as the ultimate human goal, with the roads to that goal being Science (providing insight), Technology (providing power) and Economic Growth (providing wealth). That philosophy was "Modernism," and by the end of the 20th century its promises were exposed as false. In its place has evolved a new philosophy, "Postmodernism."
Leonard Sweet told our gathering that the church of Jesus Christ in America, Britain and Europe now faces "the perfect storm," in which three threatening elements combine to present what might be its greatest challenge ever.... The three new threatening elements, Sweet explained, are aspects of a culture that is increasingly post-Christian, post-modern and post-human.
He never made the headlines. He is not on the lecture circuits. To my knowledge, no books bear his name. He doesn't even travel abroad, except for an occasional visit to friends and supporters in the United States. Yet for 35 years he has been an international missionary of Jesus Christ, a modern-day Apostle Paul carrying the simple gospel message to thousands of Muslims, Hindus and others ....
challenge to the sent (two gracEmails)
This dual piece is written by Edward's daughter, Melanie Simpson, who begins:"It appears to me that evangelism is much more difficult these days. It's a tough crowd out there. Look around and you'll see what I mean. People are church-phobic...."
Houstonians who work downtown enjoy an underground tunnel system, filled with restaurants and shops, providing air-conditioned escape from the weather and other inconveniences of sidewalk travel. Two encounters there on recent days have reminded me of the practicality and power of the biblical metaphors for our condition apart from God.
It's a veritable United Nations, the "228 Park & Ride," where ... scores of solo drivers like myself ... pick up some trusting stranger so we can zoom down the barricaded high-speed lane into the city... Over the years I have chauffeured passengers from Africa and Asia, Barbados and Bolivia, Singapore and Scandinavia, Russia and Rwanda, China and Croatia. This particular day my passenger comes from Greece. His name is Farook, he tells me, carefully distinguishing it from Farouk -- "the Moslem name." "I am a Zoroastrian," he proudly announces as we whiz along.
Regular readers know that I take on riders at the bus stop each morning.... Recent riders have included two Russian women, who chattered the whole trip in Russian, and a Buddhist lady from Thailand. The Russians and I conversed briefly (in English) about President Putin and their country's future. They despaired of progress, declaring all politicians to be crooks. I expressed my opinion that only Jesus Christ could give Russian people hope and strong character.
The sky was pouring rain as I drove up to the Park-and-Ride bus shelter, where a line of commuters regularly chooses to ride to downtown jobs with strangers in automobiles rather than taking the city bus.... My rider today was a Vietnamese lady.... We quickly struck up a friendly conversation. After I dropped a comment or two about God, she asked me whether I was "Catholic or Baptist" -- the two kinds of Christians of her acquaintance.
Recently I flew to Baton Rouge, Louisiana on business, where I took a taxicab from the airport to my hotel. Upon entering the cab, I immediately noticed a large and well-worn Bible on the driver's dashboard.... One thing led to another and we quickly launched into a delightful discussion, ... quoting Scripture back and forth for the next 25 or 30 minutes of our ride together. "You sure do know the Word," he said to me at one point, to which I honestly and enthusiastically replied, "And so do you!"
"Someone asks, "What is the core of the gospel?" This person hears preaching from the pulpit, through television, on the radio, via the internet, by video, cassettes and CD's. "None of it stirs my soul," she says. "What is the heart of the Christian message that once turned the world upside down?"
A gracEmail subscriber writes that although he serves Christ in a nondenominational fellowship that loves Jesus ... his mother considers him an unbeliever because he does not belong to her particular religious organization. The mother frequently gives him literature to correct his "false" views, but she is unwilling to read anything he might offer her. What, he asks, can he do in this situation?
Somewhere around 300 A.D., the story goes, the demon hordes gathered in emergency meeting to discuss how to hinder the gospel's spread.... Each suggestion was discarded as being ineffective. Finally an enterprising devil spoke. "Let's make the church of Jesus Christ popular and wealthy," he said. "Entice these Christians to ... build fine church buildings. When they have all gone inside, lock the doors and their progress will fade into oblivion."
I have never known of such an opportunity as this for obeying Jesus Christ's commission, for effectively sharing eternal life through Christ with those who have never heard. We sometimes wonder about the fate of those who never hear the gospel. Far better to see that they do hear it -- for now as well as hereafter!
I recently recommended K.P. Yohannan’s book, Revolution in World Missions, and the mission agency Gospel for Asia as exemplifying what I believe to be the most effective way of fulfilling the great commission of Jesus Christ in our day. GracEmail subscriber Harold Patterson, Director of the World Missions Department for the Advent Christian General Conference of America, responded with a different point of view. Following are his thoughts which I am happy to share for your consideration.
From ancient times it was God's plan that Jesus the Messiah should suffer and rise from the dead, and that salvation through him should be proclaimed to all nations. Before ascending to the Father, Jesus commissioned his chosen apostles that "having gone" (literally) into the whole world, they were to herald the gospel message to all creation.
A gracEmail subscriber writes: "In our Bible class yesterday, we were talking about Jesus' statement that the gate to life is narrow and 'few' pass through it. One class member has some relatives who believe that practically everyone will be lost, including most professing Christians, and other relatives who wonder, if that is true, why Jesus even bothered to die. Can you shed any light on this?"
my neighbor, the Jew (four gracEmails)
A gracEmail reader who is weighing the claims of Christ writes: "I cannot hold in scorn humans whom I know to be decent and caring, simply because they have a different belief about salvation. Is my Jewish friend a sinner because he practices his religion?"
While reading the very familiar final verses of Matthew's Gospel this morning, I was startled afresh by a phrase that seemed to jump right off the page: "The eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. And when they saw Him, they worshiped; but some were doubtful." Who was doubtful? Some of these 11 men, hand-picked by Jesus to be his student-apprentices ("disciples").
I have just read twice and highlighted The Dragon Slayer: Reflections On the Saving of the World (2004, privately published, 202 pages, paper), the latest book from my eloquent friend Jim McGuiggan of Northern Ireland. As usual, McGuiggan devotes his considerable mind and poignant pen to the profound realities that matter most, this time the atonement for sin which Jesus Christ accomplished once for all.
Jesus came preaching: ..."The time is fulfilled." This is not the word for clock-and-calendar "time" ... but is a word which ... refers to a special era when God will send his anointed One to break the destructive powers that oppose his will.... By this divine intervention through his chosen agent, God will restore peace with his estranged people and usher in his beneficent rule over this broken and rebellious world.
the great commission: to whom?
A gracEmail subscriber asks whether Jesus' commission to make disciples, then baptize and teach them (Matt. 28:18-20) applies to all Christians, only to duly ordained persons or only to the Apostles.
Someone asks about the "signs" that Jesus said would accompany his gospel as it spreads through the world. Mark 16:17-18 mentions casting out demons, speaking with new tongues, healing the sick and immunity from snakebite and from poison. Do these things still happen today?
why evangelize if God is sovereign?
After I said that God must regenerate one who is "dead" in sin before that person can believe, a subscriber responded, "So, why worry about preaching the good news to them? Why worry about them believing it?"
In an earlier gracEmail, I stated that God will judge all people by the light they had and not by truth they could not know. A missionary in South America asks, "If that is so, am I wasting my time here? Why preach the gospel today? Are you saying that people are saved apart from Jesus Christ?"