PRINCIPLE 9 |
The chart in the pervious chapter indicates that an individual must understand that God is holy before he can understand sin properly. But there are several other concepts that a person must also understand before he can understand the concept of sin. He must understand that God exists, that God is personal, and that God is the creator (which makes us his creatures who are responsible to him). If the individual either misunderstands or rejects any of these ideas, he cannot logically accept the biblical idea of sin.
This list of prerequisite concepts may look rather long to some of us. And some of these subjects are very involved. So how much should we discuss in our witnessing? Should we simply "stick to the gospel" as some would advise? The answer depends upon the person with whom we are talking. If he has genuine questions about the prerequisites mentioned above, we should do all that we can to help him answer those questions. This means that the whole field of apologetics (which focuses primarily on the questions of the existence and nature of God and the reliability of the Bible) is appropriate and often necessary in evangelism. Such preliminary work, which is called preevangelism, lays the necessary foundation for evangelism proper – the presentation of the concepts of sin, separation, substitution, and resurrection.
In some cases, the person's questions may not be relevant (even in his mind) to the concepts in the gospel. Also, there are some people who love to argue about religious things just to have a hot debate, not really wanting to learn anything. Thus, it is important to discern whether or not the individual's questions are both relevant and genuine. If they are, we have an opportunity and an obligation for preevangelism.
There may have been a time when our North American culture favored Christian evangelism more than it does now. This was the time when the concepts mentioned above were more commonly believed. When that was the case, the gospel message made sense to a person more quickly, and preevangelism was required less often that it is now. But today, the common beliefs in our culture are often the opposite of these concepts.
We cannot assume that the person who has grown up and been educated in our culture is "with" us when we discuss such topics as God, sin, and life after death. Regarding belief in God, he may well be an atheist or agnostic rather than a theist. In other words, he may have concluded that there is no God, or he may have concluded that no one can be certain whether or not there is a God. And if he does use the word "God," he may use it to refer to the impersonal forces of nature or to some mystical ultimate essence. Even if he thinks of God as a personal God, he may view him as a lenient pushover who oozes love and will quickly forget our "mistakes." Or he may feel that all "God talk" is irrelevant. In our society, it is quite rare to find a nonbeliever who is already convinced that God exists and is personal, holy, loving, and relevant.
Regarding sin, he may well be a moral relativist, rather than holding a biblical view of right and wrong. In other words, he may believe that each individual has the right to determine for himself what is right or wrong in any given situation. Even a person who uses the word "sin" may be referring to his own relativistic and situational view of sin, or only to the huge social sins such as murder. He may even call certain actions sins, but on balance he would probably feel that very few people (if any) should be called sinners. This means that the bad situation (being a sinner who is separated from a holy and just God) does not make sense to many people.
Regarding life after death, he may be an evolutionist who holds that there is no personal existence after physical death. Or he may be a reincarnationist who holds that everyone returns to earth in a different body in an ongoing cycle of earthly lives.
These and other views commonly held in our culture make evangelism more difficult. We have a responsibility to be aware of the common beliefs of our culture and to be able to respond to them intelligently so that we can pave the way for the presentation of the gospel.
Our problem with our culture is even deeper than suggested above. Even our source of information is not recognized. We can expect many people to look at us rather funny when we use the Bible as our authority. Many twenty-first-century people feel that theirs is the only enlightened generation. Thus anyone who lived centuries earlier is categorized as ignorant and superstitious. And since the Bible was written long ago, they easily lump the Bible into that same category – an ancient book which is good only for musty scholars and quite irrelevant to anyone alive today.
Others may belong to a religious group which has substituted another book, or institution, for the Bible. Still others may be existentialists or postmodernists who recognize no authority outside themselves. The truth-of-the-moment, or self validating subjective experiences, or the weight of public opinion (that which is "politically correct"), may be the only "authority" they recognize.
Some Christians assume that they can add a persuasive punch to their witnessing by starting with, "The Bible says." But when they identify the Bible as the source of their message they automatically discredit their message for many groups of people. The Holy Spirit does convict people of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8). If we communicate the gospel message clearly and answer questions carefully, the Holy Spirit will be faithful in convicting, whether or not the individual knows that the Bible is the source of the message.
Witnessing with biblical authority is accomplished when the message is accurate (true to the Bible) and clear, when the evangelist's pattern of life exemplifies and supports the message, and when the witnessing is done in the context of prayer and love. It is not necessary to begin every sentence with "the Bible says" in order to have biblical authority in our evangelism.
Of course, there may be some individuals who respect the Bible as an authoritative book, but are just plain ignorant of its teachings. In such a case, instruction which is from the Bible or which includes "the Bible says" will strengthen rather than discredit the gospel message for them.