No, this is NOT how I evangelize…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nHow I Evangelize<\/h2>\n I share any truth of the gospel I think is necessary to get a person to believe in Jesus for everlasting life. All of the truths of the gospel either prepare a person to believe in Jesus for everlasting life, or prove that He can make good on His promise.<\/p>\n
So,\u00a0when I evangelize, I always begin with the gospel invitation and tell them that if they believe in Jesus, He guarantees them eternal life.<\/p>\n
Then, I allow the convicting and drawing work of the Holy Spirit upon that person and their natural, logical questions to lead me into what other information about the gospel I might share. Most people, I find, already know and believe that Jesus was God, that He died on the cross for their sins, and that He rose again from the dead. Even most unbelievers believe this.<\/p>\n
So generally, the conversation centers around how Jesus can guarantee eternal life to those who believe or how it can be only faith without works, or why a good person cannot get into heaven. This is when we get to Stegall\u2019s five truths plus any of the other gospel truths that will convince the person to believe in Jesus for everlasting life.<\/p>\n
One time, I actually talked to a person in the United States who didn\u2019t know who Jesus was. I was pretty amazed that they had never heard of Jesus, but went on to explain to them that He was God, who came to earth 2000 years ago, and lived a sinless life, yet died a painful death on a cross for the sins of the whole world. His resurrection three days later proved that His death was acceptable to God as the payment for our sin. We were able to have a long and lively discussion about the gospel and the offer of eternal life. The conversation naturally led to all of Stegall\u2019s five points, plus several others. But even if the conversation is short, I have still expressed the bottom line gospel invitation.<\/p>\n
Natural Conversational Evangelism<\/h2>\n This, it seems, is the most natural and biblical way to evangelize. It\u2019s what Jesus did. It\u2019s what Paul and Peter did. I’m not trying to run through a checklist of ideas, which have no basis anywhere in Scripture, or in actual practice. I can\u2019t find any place in Scripture where a person shares all five of Stegall\u2019s points when evangelizing or defining the basics of the gospel. Even 1 Corinthians 15 and Romans 10 don\u2019t include all five of these truths. And when compared, those two passages don\u2019t even include the same gospel truths. The truth is, I can\u2019t find one Scriptural passage that includes all five of Stegall\u2019s truths. He has to pick and choose from various passages to get his essential gospel truths, and these five seem pretty arbitrary.<\/p>\n
He may accuse me of having a crossless gospel (which I don’t), but I can accuse him of having a cherry-picked gospel.<\/p>\n
So what do I share?<\/p>\n
When I evangelize, I share anything and everything I can in the time I have that I think will get the person to the point where they become persuaded that simply by faith alone in Jesus they have everlasting life.<\/p>\n
Once, when I was a pastor in Montana, I was outside by my woodpile (we use wood to heat our houses in Montana)\u00a0talking with a man about all of this, and he wasn’t persuaded.\u00a0He said, “I just don’t know if all of this is true. If it is true, I wish God would just hit me over the head with a 2×4. Then I would believe it.”<\/p>\n
I almost reached out and grabbed a 2×4 and whacked him on the head with it!\u00a0If he said “Why did you do that?” I could have responded, “God told me to, and He wants to know if you’ll believe in Jesus for everlasting life now.” If I had done that, I would have called it the “2×4 gospel,” because not only did I share with him about his sin, the deity, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, I also got a 2×4 in there…all in an effort to get him to believe in Jesus for everlasting life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was accused of teaching a Crossless Gospel (which I don’t). Then I was accused to doing Crossless Evangelism. I don’t do that either. This post contains some examples of how I evangelize and share the gospel with other people. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7082,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2231],"tags":[1248,1241,1246,1249,1244,1242,1225,1240,1227,1243,1233,1245,28,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-2889","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-redeeming-theology","8":"tag-christian","9":"tag-crossless-gospel","10":"tag-eternal-life","11":"tag-evangelism","12":"tag-forgiveness","13":"tag-gospel","14":"tag-grace","15":"tag-heretic","16":"tag-jesus","17":"tag-resurrection","18":"tag-scripture","19":"tag-sins","20":"tag-theology-general","21":"tag-theology-salvation","22":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\n
How I Evangelize<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n