Evangelism

We've talked about this many times before, and you've probably read, heard, or seen other people talk about it before, so this is not a new topic. In case it is though, evangelism is basically sharing the gospel with others.

I've had quite a long journey with evangelism, filled with ups, downs, and everything in between. When I was younger, my siblings and I would accompany our parents and other church members to hand out flyers to people in the area, repeating the phrase, "Jesus loves you." Some of those would lead to conversations (among the adults at least) or invitations to church, others, not so much.

These days though, especially here in the US, things are different. Religion is a hypersensitive topic, almost taboo in some circumstances, so people tend to keep their mouths shut, the general consensus being, "you do you, and I'll do me." A lot of it comes from a good place of religious tolerance, and not wanting to be insensitive or disrespectful to someone else's religion. However, that has evolved over time to give birth to religious pluralism.

Religious pluralism is basically the belief that multiple religions can be "right," and need not be mutually exclusive. An example of that would be someone who says, "I believe in God, and I believe that Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, or ancestral worship can lead you to Him." Ultimately, religious pluralism cannot be true, because many religions preach and practice mutually exclusive beliefs, not just doctrine-wise, but about core matters of salvation and eternity.

Even though we might claim to believe what the bible says about salvation and eternal life, it is easy to be influenced by pluralistic views unknowingly. That is typically made manifest in the form of passivism toward evangelism. This is what I realized about myself upon reflection.

The purpose of today's post is to challenge you, so I'll leave you with the quote that ushered in this entire train of thought. In chapter fourteen of his book, Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus, Nabeel Qureshi wrote,

"Why had other Christians never asked me this question [do you know about Jesus]? They did think I needed Jesus to go to heaven, right? Were they content with letting me go to hell, or did they not really believe their faith?"

I encourage you to really consider where you are, heart-wise for now, regarding evangelism. Do you believe you should be trying to share the gospel or are you content with the way things are? If you fall into the second category, I would highly recommend some time spent in the Word and in prayer. Ask God to remind you how good the news of the gospel is, and why you should share it with others.

Here's a link to a previous post that might be helpful: The ______ commission

Peace and love of Christ be with you all!

p.s. I highly recommend that book (Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus)!