Have you ever considered that true evangelism might be more about love than fear? Prepare to have your perspective shifted as we embark on a journey to rediscover the heart of sharing the good news. We're tearing down the common narrative of using hell and sin as scare tactics and instead, embracing a message of joyous connection with Jesus Christ. Our discussion challenges traditional teachings on the fall and our supposed separation from God, inviting you into a refreshing look at scripture that centers on grace and the personhood of Jesus. This isn't your typical fire-and-brimstone conversation; it's an uplifting exploration of what it means to genuinely introduce others to a life-altering relationship with the Savior.
Feel the embrace of God's unbreakable love in this episode, where we dive deep into the profound truths of Romans 8:35-39. No power in the sky above or in the earth below can sever the bond of love that Jesus Christ has given us. We dissect the significance of this passage, emphasizing the victory and confidence it instills in believers. Our dialogue is a testament to the importance of communicating salvation through a lens of love and joy, mirroring Christ's own approach. Join us as we celebrate the victory that comes with an assurance of God's eternal love, transforming the very essence of how we view and practice evangelism.
Have you ever considered that true evangelism might be more about love than fear? Prepare to have your perspective shifted as we embark on a journey to rediscover the heart of sharing the good news. We're tearing down the common narrative of using hell and sin as scare tactics and instead, embracing a message of joyous connection with Jesus Christ. Our discussion challenges traditional teachings on the fall and our supposed separation from God, inviting you into a refreshing look at scripture that centers on grace and the personhood of Jesus. This isn't your typical fire-and-brimstone conversation; it's an uplifting exploration of what it means to genuinely introduce others to a life-altering relationship with the Savior.
Feel the embrace of God's unbreakable love in this episode, where we dive deep into the profound truths of Romans 8:35-39. No power in the sky above or in the earth below can sever the bond of love that Jesus Christ has given us. We dissect the significance of this passage, emphasizing the victory and confidence it instills in believers. Our dialogue is a testament to the importance of communicating salvation through a lens of love and joy, mirroring Christ's own approach. Join us as we celebrate the victory that comes with an assurance of God's eternal love, transforming the very essence of how we view and practice evangelism.
Speaker 1:
Welcome and greetings to you. Today. I want to build off of the discussion I had in the last episode regarding hell, damnation and eternal punishment as a method of evangelizing. Why don't we start with the objective of evangelizing? Christianitycom says that evangelism means preaching, announcing or otherwise communicating the gospel, our salvation. The diocese of Trenton states evangelization means bringing the good news of Jesus into every human situation and seeking to convert individuals and society by the divine power of the gospel itself. At its essence are the proclamation of salvation in Jesus Christ and the response of a person in faith. Alright, if the objective of evangelizing is ultimately to bring people to Jesus Christ, then why are we talking about hell at all? Evangelizing requires us to preach, announce, share, etc. The good news that's what the gospel means. So what is this good news?
Speaker 1:
The good news, or the gospel, has been the source of much debate over the centuries. I would argue in the simplest form that Jesus is the good news. The good news is not a message, it's not a story, it's not a letter, it's not scripture. The good news is the person of Jesus Christ. That's it, plain and simple. If that's the case, then evangelizing is about introducing a person to another person. Wouldn't it make more sense that if you have this great friend, this amazing friend, this one who not only is perfect in every way, but came to tell you the biggest, greatest news of all time, wouldn't it just make more sense to introduce people to this friend of yours? Why do we have to bring into the conversation anything about hell or sin or make people feel bad about themselves? When we use hell as a means by which we deliver quote unquote good news, then all we do is make people feel uncomfortable at best and at worst, make them run away completely Quite. Frankly, where is the good news in learning that you're a sinner and go into hell? Trust me, in this day and age, most people are keenly aware of the condition of their hearts and souls. Just look around addiction is on the rise. Depression is on the rise. Suicide is on the rise. We don't need to remind people of where they are. They already know it deeply. We need to remedy that by just introducing them to our friend, who can take it from there. Jesus is quite capable of handling whatever is in that person's life that needs to be addressed all on his own.
Speaker 1:
The whole Hellfire and Bromstone approach is actually based on a lie anyway. Here is the lie. We have been told in Western Christianity that when Adam and Eve ate from the tree, they weren't supposed to. Because of that, two things happened. Number one our nature changed to that of a sin nature instead of a divine nature. Number two note nowhere in Scripture does it actually say this, though. And two, that because God cannot look upon sin taking Scripture out of context God turned his back on us and we were separated from God for all eternity, unless we received Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, meaning that our destination from birth because now we're born with a sin nature is Hell unless we accept Christ.
Speaker 1:
Again, scripture says no such thing. In fact, in Genesis, right after the fall, even before God sent them out of the garden, he was talking to them, he was clothing them and continuing on. After they were ushered out of the garden for their own protection, by the way, not for punishment God was still present with them, blessing them by giving them children. God never left Adam and Eve alone, not once. God continued to show up time and time again with each generation after that, going so far as to come to earth himself and climb up on a cross and die the most horrible, wicked death there could ever be. And he did that to prove to us that we were never separated from him and never would be. And he also showed us that, as God's children, we never lost our divine nature either.
Speaker 1:
Then why do we constantly point to hell as a way to evangelize people? We need to point to Jesus. When we make hell the focus more than Jesus, then we're missing the whole point. We are saved by grace and nothing else. There is nothing that we do, including believing and saying some prayer, that makes this any more true. We are all saved by grace.
Speaker 1:
Ephesians 2, verse 8, says For by grace you have been saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not as a result of works that no one should boast. Okay, some say there, it is faith. You have to have faith in Jesus in order for grace to be given to you so that you are saved. But that's not what that verse says. That's what we've come to believe. That verse says, but that's not what it actually says.
Speaker 1:
Here's the rub. We equate faith as belief and they are not the same. Faith is not something you do. Faith, according to the book of Hebrews, is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. Therefore, faith equals assurance and conviction.
Speaker 1:
Faith in its simplest form is simply proof. When you realize not believe that you are already saved and that you didn't do anything to get it, including believe or pray, then faith shows up. Faith is there. We don't drum up faith or belief in order to get the grace to be saved. We were already saved by grace period. How that news is delivered and received is through the vehicle of faith, but the delivery and the receipt of that news is not what saves us. Grace has already done that. Faith is just how we're getting the memo.
Speaker 1:
Salvation is the gift. Salvation is the gift. Grace is the impact on our hearts as well as the emotion in which that gift is given, joyfully and cheerfully. That's what the word grace actually means. Grace is the divine influence upon the heart and its reflection in life, and the root word, the Greek word, for grace, means to be cheerful. The manner or vehicle in which that gift is received is faith, but our faith is not something we have to drum up. Faith is proof or the result of something else. It's not the genesis or initiation of something.
Speaker 1:
So how does faith come. How do we get this faith? We get it by hearing, and what we hear and who we hear it from produces this faith. Romans 10, verse 17, says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Some verse and say Christ, the word there is theos, which means a deity or divinity. So okay, the right translation is faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. But let's back up. We're going to get deep here. We always focus on the word hearing or on the word God, but we miss the main word in that verse.
Speaker 1:
If faith is produced by hearing the word of God, then what, or, better yet, who is the word? I'm about to blow some people's minds and probably piss some others off, but the word of God is not scripture. The word of God would be Jesus In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God. In Revelation 19, 13, it clearly states that Jesus is the word of God. Here's what it says. And he is clothed with a robe dipped in blood and his name is called the word of God. So if you string this all together, we have, cheerfully and joyfully, been given a gift called salvation. Faith, for that realization will be produced when Jesus, the word of God, speaks to the heart of a person and cheerfully delivers that news to them. When that heart hears that news from Jesus, it is influenced. And when that person realizes that they have been given this gift, faith is produced.
Speaker 1:
But faith is only produced when Jesus, the word of God, speaks to the person and tells them they are already saved. He has to deliver the message and they have to hear it. Do you see it? Evangelizing is not you delivering the message. Evangelizing is therefore about you delivering a person. Evangelizing is not about convincing people that there are sinners and go into hell if they don't accept Christ. But that's what we've made evangelism into. That's the message we try and deliver anymore, and it's been ineffective, and we know this because there aren't many churches that are growing in numbers. In fact, it's the opposite. People are leaving churches in droves. But listen, using hell as a message to bring people to Christ is not how saving faith is produced. It's produced by introducing Jesus to a person and them learning to hear from him directly so that he can tell them himself that they are saved and always have been, that they are his, that he has never left them nor forsook them and that no matter how far we run from him, he is always there.
Speaker 1:
I love the song by Jason Upton called Run, baby Run. Some of the words in his song are so telling. Here's a few verses you laugh and you cry and you live and you die because you don't really know who you are, all alone in this world, orphaned boy or orphaned girl, because you don't really know who you are. Run, baby run. My hands release you, baby, run, baby, run as fast as you can, run till your legs. Lead your heart to the real truth. You're my daughter, my son. Oh, baby, run, baby run, run, run, run away from me. You end up running right into me. Run, baby run.
Speaker 1:
I love that we can never escape the love of God. Romans 8-35-39 speaks to this. The verse reads who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword, but in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ, our Lord. I don't know how much more you can say beyond that. If God Himself cheerfully and joyfully delivers this news of love and salvation, literally delivers that message in the person of Jesus Christ, then how much more should our evangelization be about good news and not about scare tactics? Hope you've enjoyed this. Have a blessed day.
