Theological Ramblings

Exegesis is coming. I promise. It’s just not quite yet. I have about four drafts on this thing that I’m still working on. I’m going to be doing Ephesians in small-medium chunks, and that’s weighty stuff! I have one where I’m going to do 1 Timothy 3:16-17. And so on, so if you’re holding your breath waiting for some exegesis, keep holding. It’s coming. It’s just not quite ready.

I still have more philosophy things I wanted to get to. I have a draft in here entitled “Why” where I’m going to discuss that very question. Why do anything? What matters? In that e-mail I’ll probably answer the question that has been hanging over everyone’s heads since my last post: How can I be a Calvinist and yet place so much emphasis on choice? So hold on it’s coming!

I first wanted to talk about Evangelism. It’s a subject that comes up with regular frequency at church, and drives me absolutely batty because of the way Fundamental Evangelicals do evangelism. It boggles my mind when I see this happening.

Here’s what I mean. It seems to me that Fundamental Evangelicals are only worried about numbers. Because of the doctrine of security, and because of the freeness of salvation (two Truths I will hold until I die) Fundamental Evangelicals (or for the sake of my fingers FE’s from now on) place a high emphasis on getting people saved… and that’s it. Does anyone else see this? Anytime an Independent Fundamental Baptist Church (IFBC) has a ‘revival’ meeting, the focus is 99% Get Saved, .25% Get Baptized, .25% Read your Bible, .25% Evangelize, and .25% Go to Church.

This creates a church that is a mile wide and an inch deep. We spend all our time making new converts that we spend about .1% of our time developing our ‘new converts’ into true disciples! There’s no emphasis on sanctification - if it is it’s in the form of “Don’t do ____” and usually one of the ‘dirty dozen’ will be inserted into the blank.

When will the church get back to living in community, where our #1 purpose is to glorify God, and the way we do this is by loving/serving each other and then telling people why we do it (because Jesus died for us). Evangelism should be the result of our community life, not the purpose. Our purpose should be to glorify Christ! Check out this amazing passage that shows this Truth: Colossians 1:13-20 says

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities–all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Here Paul talks about all the glorious things Christ has done - not the least of which being His death and resurrection that purchased our justification. But notice verse 18, where he says, ’so that in everything there might be more people saved’, right? NO! He doesn’t say that. He says ’so that in everything, He might be preeminent’. Christ died and rose again, defeating the powers of sin death and darkness not just so we could be saved - that’s just part of the whole thing. He died and rose again to save us SO THAT He would be exalted - the Supreme One - glorified over all else! This was all done for His glory! Do you see it?

This should be the force that drives everything we do as believers - individually and in community. We ought to love one another for His glory. We ought to serve one another for His glory. And we ought to Evangelize for His glory! (aside) This is why Calvinism does not destroy Evangelism, rather it enhances it. Anyone who suggests that Calvinism destroys Evangelism has a skewed view of Evangelism. I do grant that there are some who use Calvinism as an excuse for laziness, but there are those who use security as an excuse for license - it doesn’t make it incorrect! Under Calvinism, Evangelism is no longer driven by filling quotas and notching belts. Now Evangelism can be freely done simply to please God and expound His glory.

This also ought to provide a new tone to our Evangelistic messages. Those who see Evangelism as simply a method expanding our numbers will always preach the same four points in a sermon:

• God loves you
• You’re a sinner and deserve Hell
• Jesus died for you
• You can accept Him by faith by ‘asking Him into your heart’ (whatever that means) and you can go to Heaven.

Now, these are all true, but there’s a major problem with this sermon! The only motivation someone could have to respond to this sermon is self interest. I don’t want to go to Hell, I want to go to Heaven. Yet this is constantly the kind of appeal FE’s make in Evangelism. They make the ‘You don’t want to be on the losing team do you? Then join the winning team!’. For the person listening, there’s no difference than just changing your membership. This is why I spent 19 years in IFBC’s and never accepted Christ. I didn’t want to go to Hell, so I tried to be a member of the team that was going to Heaven. I said a prayer, but only did it because I wanted to go to Heaven. I didn’t understand sin b/c it was never explained to me that way!

A better form of evangelism is to simply proclaim Christ in His glory! Through doing so we can tell of His magnificence; we can tell of our sin; and we can tell the story of how He died for us. But there’s a very different tone. No longer are we desperately trying to coerce someone, please anyone to just come forward or raise your hand or something! Rather anytime we proclaim the glory of Christ we are evangelizing!!!

And really, any time we preach a sermon (and almost every sermon ought to be exegetical) we proclaim Christ crucified, not because we get to the end of a sermon that has nothing to do with Christ and tack it on at the end, but because every single passage in the Bible ought to be interpreted based on how it relates to the cross, because Christ crucified, dead and risen is the point of the entire book! The Bible as a whole is rooted in this thesis and every single passage points to it. So exegesis out to look like this:

• Step 1: Observations (What does the passage say?)
• Step 2: Interpretation (Where’s Christ in this passage?)
• Step 3: Application (What do I do with this?)

So what’s the application? What am I proposing we do? I’m saying that we should stop putting so much emphasis on trying to ‘get people saved’ and instead focus on:

• Engaging in progressive sanctification as we strive to become like Jesus
• Sharpen each other as iron sharpens iron in our intellect and devotion to Christ through discipleship, prayer and accountability.
• Living and loving each other in community through service
• Proclaiming the glory of Christ
• Displaying Christ’s compassion and love to all
• Being ready with an answer for the hope that we have: Christ’s resurrection.

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