Fear and Trembling

This is my last post on Mark Dever’s book The Gospel and Personal Evangelism . It’s not that I can find nothing else to write about; it’s just that I don’t want to give away the whole book. Its direct and easy to understand message will make it a valuable book for those who read it. The most useful of the chapters is titled: “What Isn’t Evangelism?” The part I would most like to see my own denomination read and apply follows. “… An account of a changed life is a wonderful and inspiring thing, but it’s the gospel of Jesus Christ that explains what it’s all about and how it happened. And it’s the gospel that turns sharing a testimony into evangelism.” - Mark Dever in The Gospel and Personal Evangelism , Crossway Books: Wheaton, Illinois, 2007, p. 73. I get tired of some testimonies. Often I am left with the impression that the testifier has straightened out his life and has had no further problems since he made the decision to turn his life over to Christ. It’s as if his ‘total su...

What Is the Gospel Message? My last post on Mark Dever’s book The Gospel and Personal Evangelism expressed the requirement for a clear understanding of the gospel in order for us to be able to communicate it effectively. Dever does not leave us in the dark on his opinion. We have his short summary below. “…Here’s what I understand the good news to be: the good news is that the one and only God, who is holy, made us in his image to know him. But we sinned and cut ourselves off from him. In his great love, God became a man in Jesus, lived a perfect life, and died on the cross, thus fulfilling the law himself and taking on himself the punishment for the sins of all those who would ever turn and trust in him. He rose again from the dead, showing that God accepted Christ’s sacrifice and that God’s wrath against us had been exhausted. He now calls us to repent of our sins and to trust in Christ alone for our forgiveness. If we repent of our sin and trust in Christ, we are born agai...

This is a first of several posts on Mark Dever’s new book, The Gospel and Personal Evangelism . I found this book to be clearly written, easy to understand, and extremely helpful. He addresses several key issues with respect to evangelism’s how and why. One of the best quotes follows. “None of us ever has a complete understanding of the gospel, but we must have a clear idea of the basics of our message, and we must be clear in our expression of them. If there is a likely misunderstanding, we should address it. We should speak in such a way as to be understood. Contextualization is the big theological word for this.” – Mark Dever in The Gospel and Personal Evangelism , Crossway Books: Wheaton, Illinois, 2007, p. 63. (Emphasis his.) Emergent “Contextualization” is one of those hot-button words these days, and the idea figures greatly in debates over the emergent church conversation . It’s really not as complicated as many think; it’s just common sense. Different people from diff...