{"id":1557,"date":"2018-03-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-03-06T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.namb.net\/apologetics\/resource\/people-compel-us-2\/"},"modified":"2022-06-22T15:54:09","modified_gmt":"2022-06-22T19:54:09","slug":"people-compel-us","status":"publish","type":"resource","link":"https:\/\/www.namb.net\/apologetics\/resource\/people-compel-us\/","title":{"rendered":"People Compel Us"},"content":{"rendered":"

Evangelism demands we understand the spiritual state of those we evangelize.<\/p>\n

In order for lost people to glorify God rightly and submit to the lordship of Christ, they need forgiveness of sins. We evangelize because people are lost in sins and their only hope is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Their problem is doubly bad: They are lost, but do not know it. The apostle Paul depicts the response of unbelievers at the time of the second coming as one of total shock. They will say, \u201cPeace and security,\u201d before he comes like a thief in the night (1 Thess. 5:1-4).<\/p>\n

Lost people do not know their peril. Some recognize they have \u201cproblems,\u201d and they may employ some self-help, or \u201creligion,\u201d or attempt to make themselves pleasing to God through philanthropy or moral improvement. But the gospel makes clear that such efforts are to no avail.<\/p>\n

Cornelius Van Til once illustrated such efforts by comparing them to a man made of water, trying to get out of a vat of water, by climbing up a ladder made of water. The analogy, someone might say, is ridiculous \u2014 but so is the belief that one can save oneself. The gospel message, articulated by Paul in Romans 1-4 and in Ephesians 1-2, renders that entirely clear, as do many other passages.<\/p>\n

Humans have a fundamental need for a conversion experience. The greatest of all evangelism texts makes this abundantly clear:<\/p>\n

“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”\u00a0(Matt.<\/em>\u00a028:19-20)<\/em><\/p>\n

We must make disciples, and this most often happens with a gospel encounter and a resultant experience of repentance and faith. Curiously, such a theology of evangelism was absent from most of the church for much of its history. Even with the Reformers\u2019 recovery of the doctrine of justification by faith, they often did not call for a \u201ccrisis of faith,\u201d or a specific moment when a person became a disciple. They catechized their children (nothing wrong with that) and believed that the elect among their children (hopefully all of them) would find justification. But it was Anabaptists like Menno Simons and Conrad Grebel in that period who first urged people to repent and be baptized.<\/p>\n

They were followed in the next century by many Puritans, who spent years \u201cpreparing\u201d their children for conversion, so that they might be capable of relating a genuine conversion, become \u201cvisible saints,\u201d and enter into the full covenant of the church. Then, in the next century, it was the revivalists \u2014 Jonathan Edwards and (especially) George Whitefield \u2014 who took that to the next level and preached to large numbers, calling upon them to experience the new birth.<\/p>\n

A theology of evangelism must emphasize the conversion experience, even if there are some in the church who do not remember their moment of conversion. If they are saved today, there was a time when their discipleship was \u201cmade.\u201d<\/p>\n

This post is an excerpt from the\u00a0<\/em>Guide to Evangelism\u00a0edited by Southern Seminary. It is used with permission. You can purchase this resource in its entirety\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Evangelism demands we understand the spiritual state of those we evangelize. In order for lost people …<\/p>\n

People Compel Us<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2576,"template":"","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"tags":[],"channels":[],"topics":[9,13],"languages":[],"class_list":["post-1557","resource","type-resource","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","resource_type-article","topics-apologetics","topics-bible"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPeople Compel Us - Apologetics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.namb.net\/apologetics\/resource\/people-compel-us\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"People Compel Us\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Evangelism demands we understand the spiritual state of those we evangelize. 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