Biblical Evangelism and the Call To Christ
Author: Michael Gott
Thank God for evangelists who have the Holy Spirit’s fire in their hearts, but thank God also for theologians that have the Holy Spirit’s fire in their minds. Men like Dr. J. I. Packer, who is the intelligent friend of all who do evangelism. He said, for example, “All true theology has an evangelistic thrust, and all true evangelism is theology in action.” What balance that statement shows.
So every evangelist must be involved in action, yes, but in action with a sound understanding of why we do what we do. Some of that relates to the message we preach, but also to the methods we use, and that quickly brings us to the matter of making clear and compelling the call of Christ; that is, the place of decision in evangelism.
Billy Graham has openly declared that he believes the most authentic evangelism does not aim primarily at emotions but rather the human will, and that influences how we invite people to respond to Christ. Let me now quote him as our authority. “True evangelism speaks to the intellect and may not product emotion, but its main job is to speak to the will.” If he is correct, this puts much of the highly charged emotional evangelism of the past in serious question, and it indicates much of it was very seriously misguided and flawed.
Graham adds, “Some of the most effective evangelists I have known were [preachers] who informed the mind of people even as they pricked their consciences by their use of the word of God.”
At this point we encounter the subject of the ethics of an evangelistic invitation. Let every evangelist admit there is a great danger in “the success status psychology” of our culture. The pressure to produce often severely haunts people involved in evangelism. I am convinced this is a leading factor for some who choose to leave evangelism; they cannot live under this heavy and undue pressure. Ours is a competitive society, and the “get results” mentality is often very brutal.
The climax, this “get results” mentality in evangelism is seen in promoted attendance, increased decisions, and, the unsaid reason, for better offerings as a result of this apparent success! But there is even more bitter fruit attached; abortive responses under high-pressure manipulation and coercion that leaves some people feeling tricked. The last state of this individual is often far worse than at the first, and that is a spiritual crime!
Billy Graham said of these dubious invitations that are primarily emotional in character and manipulative in intent because they employ scare tactics, manufactured deadlines, and frightening verbal threats; “by such methods we can be guilty of giving people a false assurance of salvation. That’s leading them astray, and leaving them in a worse situation than before.” Therefore, to be authentic — I may plead, but I must never coerce; I may invite, but I must never manipulate; I may persuade, but I must never entrap.
We admit some have been guilty, even well-intentioned evangelists who possess or acquired an ability to excite emotions with a desire to get hearers to respond positively. At that point evangelists have crossed the line, for manipulation comes into play, and it is wrong; biblically and ethically! Such invitations by evangelists are given without taste and tact, without dignity and without responsibility and with a very questionable purpose in mind.
The danger is that it produces what could be called a kind of “buyer’s regret.” That’s the emotion commonly felt after a high-pressure sale is completed in the business world. “Buyers regret” is a sudden back swing when the hard realities hit the consumer. The feeling is often one of anger, a feeling of deception, and a mood of lingering resentment toward the salesperson and his company. When the Holy Spirit has not initiated the response, and when the skillful evangelist has strong-armed his way into a life, this is also the emotion often felt. God hold every evangelist responsible for biblical integrity; that is, persuasion, not manipulation. Faithful evangelism is not success built on questionable appeals and doubtful decisions but obedience and a very real sense of a kind of uncompromising ethics! God calls us to be faithful first, and then fruitful.
There seems to be two opposite poles: the extreme of being overly zealous and the extreme of being overly cautious. Both are wrong in their extremes. And we must desire and demand the balance. We appeal to the whole person: will, emotion, conscience, and intellect. Jesus calls for a response of all we are to all He is! All of us recall the passage “. . . love the Lord thy God with all . . .” (Deuteronomy 6:5 and Mark 12:30) This “all” means emotion, intellect, will, and conscience. That is surely the meaning of every verse that speaks of “the whole heart” or “with all your heart.”
“Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn you to me with all your heart” (Joel 2:12). C. S. Lewis says about this matter, “Conversion requires an alteration of the will, and an alteration which, in the last resort, does not occur without the intervention of the supernatural.” Moody reminded us, “There is not a better evangelist in the world than the Holy Spirit.” A. W. Tozer said essentially the same thing another way, “The Holy Spirit is God’s imperative of life;” so that, in the end it is the Holy Spirit that says, “You must and you must do it now!”
So the Holy Spirit authenticates the message of the evangelist to the human heart. And for that reason, if for no other, the evangelist must be filled with the Holy Spirit as he preaches. We must believe that the mind of the non-Christian can easily hear and even comprehend the facts of the gospel, but only the Spirit of God can make it real to their heart of hearts. We may depend on it as a certainty that where there is not the Holy Spirit speaking, there is no authentic conversion. So that, an evangelist could preach the best evangelistic sermon ever preached, but without the aid of the Holy Spirit not only would God have nothing to do with it, but people would walk away totally unmoved in their souls or even worse, respond without understanding or sincerity.
One person who was authentically brought to Christ had absolutely no pendulum-like back swing; rather, the very opposite, “I found that I was not only converted, but I was invaded.” That, in my mind, is an expression of an authentic conversion as a result of biblically balanced evangelism.
Dr. Leighton Ford warned about evangelistic preaching that is 90% appeal and 10% truth, and he said this is seriously out of the New Testament proportion for evangelistic preaching. He declared, “Through the avenues of intellect, conscience, emotion, we seek to reach the central citadel where a man will in his total personality say yes to the yes of God in Christ.”
So what shall we say? We must do evangelism with a view of clearly calling people to Christ. We call the whole person to Christ, and exactly like Jesus we will never lower the demand while we increase the pressure! And we must, we forever must, as we invite people to Christ, maintain this biblical pattern—which is, while we call people to Christ, we do so in the Holy Spirit’s power! Always, we shall remember as we do the work of the evangelist, we call people not to a pathetic beggar but to a reigning Lord—and His name is Jesus Christ!
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