gospel « Jeff’s Darn Blog

Is it a sin?

Relevance, is it a sin? It has been a hot topic among Christians lately and it has been on my mind a lot today. There are a lot of new churches out there proclaiming to be relevant or emergent. Many have been under attack from some who claim that by delivering the message in a new way they have distorted or destroyed the message.

This may be true in some cases, but not all. Sometimes you have to deliver the message in such a way as to get the current generations attention. For those who feel that this is wrong let me remind you that God made a donkey speak:

(26) Then the angel of the LORD moved on ahead and stood in a narrow place where there was no room to turn, either to the right or to the left. (27) When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, she lay down under Balaam, and he was angry and beat her with his staff. (28) Then the LORD opened the donkey’s mouth, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?”

(29) Balaam answered the donkey, “You have made a fool of me! If I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now.”

(30) The donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your own donkey, which you have always ridden, to this day? Have I been in the habit of doing this to you?”
“No,” he said.
Numbers 22:26-30(NIV)

Not enough for you? Jesus spoke in parables all throughout His ministry. Sometimes you have to talk to people on their own level in order for them to understand.

Is it a sin to change the message? Yes and a deadly one at that:

(15)Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. (16)He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
2 Peter 3:15-16 (NIV) emphasis added

Relevance though is not a sin, even Paul did it:

(19)Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. (20)To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. (21)To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. (22)To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. (23)I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
1 Corinthians 9:19-23 (NIV) Emphasis added.

No, delivering the message in a new and exciting way is not a sin. Not delivering the good news at all, THAT is a sin!

(Book Review) The Gospel and Personal Evangelism.

I have a lot of books on evangelism, a lot! Why you may ask, because I can. The book The Gospel and Personal Evangelism falls into the easy to read easy to understand category. Some books tend to take it too far, so the layman can’t really understand what they are talking about. Mark Dever, has kept it simple without taking any shortcuts. Just the facts, that seems to be what his idea was when writing this book and if it was he succeeded.

Mr Dever covers all the bases with this book from who should evangelize(everyone) to why. What stuck with me the most you ask? Alright you didn’t ask but I will tell you anyway. My favorite quote from this book would be

“We don’t fail in our evangelism if we faithfully tell the gospel to someone who is not converted; we fail only if we don’t faithfully tell the gospel at all.”

He also has a chapter called “Why don’t we evangelize” Which effectively destroys most of the reasons we tend to have to not share the gospel. Jesus made it simple for us too, in Matthew 28:18-20 He gave us the Great Commission. When you think about it it really isn’t that much to ask. He could have told us we had to jump through flaming hoops while dowsed in gasoline or cover ourselves in honey and lie on a fire ant hill, but He didn’t. He asked us to go and make disciples of all nations. And as usual I have gotten sidetracked. This is about Mark Dever‘s book and not my personal opinions on what we should all be doing.

Getting back on track. The Gospel and Personal Evangelism is a good read and very concise, he doesn’t go off track like I tend to do. This would be a useful read for all Christians and their pastors too.

I am giving this book five stars. If I could afford to I would get a copy for everyone in my church. I may approach the pastor with this idea and see if he could meet me halfway.
Rating:

The book, The Gospel and Personal Evangelism, was provided to me at no cost by Active Christian Media and Crossway Books for review purposes. To become a reviewer for ACM you may click here.