Please
forgive me for the delay in answering your letter. I wanted to answer it
carefully and I appreciate your patience with me. I will begin by including the
text of your letter in italics here followed by my response.
I have a great
deal of respect for you, as one of the most helpful messages in recent times
has been the "39 Years..." message.
Like you, I have
examined much of what I believe and have kept most of it because I find most of
it to be Biblical. There are four areas
in which I think teaching I've received is rather weak (without much Scriptural
support) - in no particular order, they are (1) total ban on alcohol (2) multiple pastors (3) tithing and (4) soul-winning.
I am writing
about #4; allow me to say that by the grace of God I have never drunk any
alcohol and I have no desire to. I think the Bible clearly indicates that it is
very dangerous. I am not looking for an
excuse to drink.
Likewise with
#3, I believe that the NT teaches that every Christian should give as the Holy
Spirit leads him; that may be 10% for many, and 25% or 50% for others. I have
always at least tithed, and am not trying to get out of the obligation to
support my church.
With all of
these, I think the standard arguments used by the IFB preachers I've heard are
pretty weak.
But I'm writing
to ask for thoughts regarding soul-winning.
It seems to me that the so-called "Great Commission" was given
to the church as a whole, and not to individuals. (Most churches I've been a part of do not
allow any member to baptize - part 2, reserving that for the church, and also
don't let every Christian teach - part 3.
So, I fail to see why the "Great Commission" part 1 is supposed
to apply to everyone. I worked at a bank
in my youth. Not everyone was a teller, out in front of people; some worked
behind the scenes in the bookkeeping department; others made decisions about
loans; others filed checks. Not everyone had the same job, even though we were
all part of the same bank. This seems,
to me, to more of the model of the New Testament church.
Furthermore,
when I read the New Testament, I find
lots of passages where Paul is encouraging Timothy and Titus to tell people to
live godly and love one another, etc... but "soul-winning" is
strangely absent from ALL of these commands.
I find examples - Paul says something like "woe is ME if I preach
not the gospel", but he doesn't say "woe is YOU if YOU preach not the
gospel"
So, I would
welcome your thoughts on this subject... I am also a very shy person, so this
going door-to-door among strangers, interrupting their time at home (as it
seems to me), and insisting that I have answers for them (as I think I appear
to them) has always been very hard for me.
On top of that, my unsaved parents were dead-set against us selling
anything door-to-door during school fund raisers - they insisted that no one
wanted the junk stuff we were selling, and only purchased it out of kindness,
and they were completely unwilling to reciprocate, so they were against us
going out.
Your replies
have generally been reasoned and not hysterical, so I wanted to seek your
input, if you have the time.
I
commend you wholeheartedly for your desire to discover the why behind what is
preached and taught. I greatly wish more people had that same desire.
Now,
in relation to the specifics of what you asked…
It
seems to me that your position here is that the Great Commission (GC) applies
to the Church corporately but not to the Christian individually. My position
both agrees and disagrees. I believe the GC applies to the Church corporately
but also to the Christian individually. IOW, to be perfectly clear, I believe
that every Christian has a mandate/command given to him by Christ to witness to
the lost.
Here
are my reasons…
1)
The GC was given to the Church but the Church is composed of individuals.
Matthew
28:19–20
19
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
20
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I
am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
If
this is the case why then do not all individuals teach and all individuals
baptize? First, I also think all individuals should teach. That does not mean I
think every individual is capable of teaching in a class setting/format. Such
are limited to those with the gift of teaching (teachers are a gift to the
church, Eph 4.11) in my view. But even those without the gift of teaching to
groups are still supposed to be teaching – in a mentoring capacity one on one,
their children, etc. Every Christian ought to be teaching somebody something
about Christianity. Second, I also think all Christians could baptize. Yes, I
realize that puts me out of step with many of my brethren but I don't see
anything in Scripture that limits baptisms to ordained clergy. If you were a
member of my church and you won someone to Christ and you wanted to baptize him
I would let you. Additionally, the 'lo I am with you always' is not just
corporate; it is corporately personal, to coin a phrase. It applies not just to
the Church generically but to each person in it – just like the rest of the GC.
Ergo, I think I am being consistent when I say that the first of the three
parts of the GC also applies to the individual.
2)
The GC is explicitly connected with the gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church;
that gift is not just corporate but extremely personal.
Acts 1:8–9
8
But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye
shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in
Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
9
And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a
cloud received him out of their sight.
One
of the primary reasons the Holy Spirit was given was to enable God's people to
witness. If I, as a child of God, want the multiplicity of great blessings that
come with a personally indwelling Holy Spirit then I also must take the
corresponding responsibilities that come with it – to live holy (Romans 8) and
to witness (Acts 1).
3)
There is no indication in the New Testament that personal evangelism is a gift
only given to a few.
I
can't give you a verse for this one. Which is the point. There are many
different gifts mentioned in the epistles. Soul winning is most definitely not
on any of those lists. If it is, as you basically maintain, something that only
some people in the church are gifted to do then why isn't it on those lists
anywhere?
4)
Personal evangelism was modeled by Jesus and He is the example for every
believer.
Matthew
4:19
19
And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
Is
there anything Jesus did that you and I aren't supposed to do? In a sense the
answer is yes – we are not supposed to do the things specifically associated
with His first advent such as miracles, be crucified, etc. But I don't think
any right minded person would argue that the personal witnessing He did was
mission specific. It was normative. It was designed not only to win the person
to whom He was talking but also to be an example to those who followed Him.
5)
The GC is implied to every individual in the command of Luke 19.
Luke
19:10–13
10
For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
11
And as they heard these things, he added and spake a parable, because he was
nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should
immediately appear.
12
He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself
a kingdom, and to return.
13
And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto
them, Occupy till I come.
The
context of each servant receiving the pound and the command to occupy is one of
witnessing. 'Occupy' literally means to go into business. My business, whatever
else it may be as a human being, is God's business and God's business in this
context is the salvation of humanity. That task and instruction is committed to
all of His servants.
6)
Fulfilling the GC is in no wise dependent on whether it will bother or harass
or offend the lost.
Luke
2:49
49
And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be
about my Father’s business?
One
of the statements I make often in preaching is that every word in the Bible is
there on purpose. That word 'business' here directly links this passage to the
one in Luke 19. Jesus knew His parents would take offense to how He chose to
serve the Lord; He did it anyway. We see that pattern all through the Scripture
from one end to the other. Does that mean we ought to be careless about causing
offense to the lost while trying to win them? Certainly not. But it does mean
that I do not allow a misplaced concern about pestering, harassing, interrupting,
or bothering the lost man to keep me from trying to witness to him.
7)
Fulfilling the GC is in no wise dependent on my personality.
Luke
14:18
18
And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I
have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have
me excused.
I
realize God created every one of us different. I realize witnessing is easier
for some people than others. So is being kind but all of us are supposed to be
kind. So is being cheerful but all of us are supposed to be cheerful. So is
being patient but all of us are supposed to be patient. So is controlling our
temper but all of us are supposed to control our temper. To take any other
approach is to offer a justification for any number of people disregard any
number of commands simply because they find them difficult to fulfill. I
understand shy people have a harder time witnessing that outgoing people.
Witness anyway. An excuse is the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie. A retiring
personality is an excuse not to witness rather than a reason.
8)
Lastly and most importantly, Paul most emphatically did not say 'I' (referring
only to himself) am supposed to preach the Gospel; he said 'we' are supposed to
preach the Gospel.
This
is really key to my whole response to you. Paul did not just personally
witness; he also laid on every Christian the same personal responsibility. And
he did so repeatedly in a plain context in relation to witnessing.
2 Corinthians
5:6–20
6
Therefore we are always confident, knowing
that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:
7
(For we walk by faith, not by sight:)
8
We are confident, I say, and willing rather
to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
9
Wherefore we labour, that, whether present
or absent, we may be accepted of him.
10
For we must all
appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every
one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath
done, whether it be good or bad.
11
Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we
persuade men; but we are made manifest unto
God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.
…
17
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a
new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
18
And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us
to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the
ministry of reconciliation;
19
To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not
imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
20
Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as
though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye
reconciled to God.
You
believe in the personal comfort of the 'we' in verse six. You believe in the
personal instruction of the 'we' in verse seven. You believe in the personal
comfort of the 'we' in verse eight. Etc. etc. Then you must believe in the
personal command of the 'we' in verse eleven, eighteen, nineteen, and twenty.
You cannot pick and choose in this chapter. 'We', 'us', 'all', 'every one',
'any man', clearly and repeatedly refer to every single Christian.
Allow
me one more word in closing. I do not believe the Bible teaches that you have
to walk up to a stranger's door on Saturday morning at 11 AM and witness to
him. I do that and I encourage my church people to do that for a large number
of very good reasons but I do not believe that is a specific command. But you
do have to personally be active in witnessing to the lost. That is most clear
in the Word of God. The GC is not just a corporate responsibility. It is a
personal command given to every single Christian.
Respectfully,
Tom
Brennan
Anybody who has never gone soul winning should try it at least a few times. It’s not nearly as scary as people think it is. If you’ve ever tried sharing the gospel with unbelieving family or friends, I can tell you that sharing Jesus with strangers is 100 times easier. Because they don’t know you they can’t point out your hypocrisies. Because you go out two at a time, they rarely try to argue with you. And best of all, because you can’t truly love a stranger with all your heart, there’s not much pain for you on their behalf if they reject the gospel.
ReplyDeleteI'm on try #6 of posting a response to this. I did "try it" several times - I thought I would have a mental breakdown from the combination of despair and anger that filled me. (This was a Hyles-type church)
DeleteI'm getting ready to leave about 6:30 to be there at 7pm. First, we had a "sales" talk about how to be good salesmen. (It was identical to the talks I had at my sales job). It seemed needless and took up time.
Then, we were partnered up (I went with a staff member). It was memorable that at places that didn't have time for us, he would have a nasty comment about how they were living in sin.
When the "gospel" was given, it certainly seemed to be more about getting people to say THE PRAYER. God's holiness was was not mentioned. Being a sinner was reduced to "we all make mistakes".
The lying that we did to prospects bothered me:
(a) The "Can I take a few minutes and show you what the Bible says about going to heaven?" - few minutes -- hah! more like 15-30 minutes. No wonder people would rather slam doors in our face than deal with liars like us.
(b) The lie that we don't want to take people away from their church - we were taught, basically, that anyone not going to our church is probably not saved. If we got someone to say THE PRAYER, it was ALL about getting them to come to OUR church.
(c) If they came to our church, at the invitation, we were supposed to say that WE wanted to go to the front and ask them to go with us. Then we would present them as saved during the week, trapping them at the front.
How we treated prospects bothered me... When someone did say THE PRAYER, we began to treat them like irresponsible children:
1-We were supposed to call them Saturday and remind them to come Sunday.
2-We were supposed to call them Sun morning to wake them up.
3-We were supposed to pick them up; we didn't want them to drive as they might leave the service before we could work on them to come forward.
The frustration between "I cannot make myself treat others like this!" and the anger over "This cannot be God's method" made me ill.
Bill O Edacity
I meant to add that I would get home from this fiasco about 9pm to 9:30 pm... having spent an evening that seemed to me wasted. We could get people to say prayers at home once in a while, but the people that came to church and started growing in Christ were very few and far between.
DeleteB Edacity
May I humbly ask... What in the world does your experience have to do with the validity of a personal responsibility to fulfill the Great Commission?
DeleteI think that is rather perceptive. I do gently disagree with one thing. I believe it is possible to grow to the place where you have the ability to love a stranger with all your heart. I don't think I'm there by any means, but I do think it is possible. Of course, even then there will not be the same history/relationship as there would be with, say, your own mother or father. The urgency you feel to see them trust Christ and the pain you experience if you don't I think will always be greater than with a stranger. But that doesn't mean you can't love a stranger.
ReplyDelete