Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Mission boards and committees are deeply burdened in their search for better methods to "evangelize" non-Christian people such as Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, and agnostics or atheists. We can also include materialists and pleasure-seekers, who are everywhere.
Let's briefly review what Jesus said we should do: He said, "As you go, ... heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give" (Matt. 10:7, 8). Our ministry must include feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, providing housing for the desolate, and of course, educating the children and youth. And if it's in our power, help secure justice for the downtrodden.
And there is something else Jesus said we are to do: "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved." "Teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you" (Mark 16:15, 16; Matt. 28:19, 20).
Jesus specified what kind of "gospel" we are to proclaim in order to realize success: "'If I am lifted up from the earth, [I] will draw all peoples to Myself.' This He said, signifying by what death He would die" (John 12:32, 33).
Certainly that very successful missionary-evangelist, the apostle Paul, did not neglect the humanitarian work mentioned above; for sure, he healed the sick and cast out demons. But he understood what happened on Christ's cross, and how to tell people about it. He "determined not to know anything ... except Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (1 Cor. 2:1, 2). Hearts and intellects and souls were stirred--lastingly.
Proclaiming the cross of Christ involves much more than the use of images or pictures; the gospel grapples with the horror of hell, and makes clear how the sacrifice of Christ was and is the only answer to it. Its truth delivers the captives of hell. The proclamation of the cross is ineffective unless its truth is made clear with all its dimensions of agape--its width and length and depth and height (Eph. 3:18). The Savior of the world died the world's second death. Nothing will cut through to non-Christian hearts, except that ultimate revelation of how far the love of Christ went in saving us.
But that will be told when ... we come to Revelation 18.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: August 27, 2004.
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