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“Theology must culminate in a zeal for evangelism!” “A theology which does not encourage evangelism isn’t theology, it’s a deadology!” “We cannot merely be Reformed, we must be Reformed Evangelical! [i.e. evangelistic]” – Stephen Tong, Reformed Evangelical Church of Indonesia.

What do theology and evangelism have to do with each other?  Are theologians evangelists?  Are evangelists theologians?   They should be!    Theology is evangelism and evangelism is theology.

There is a mistaken idea going round that theology doesn’t matter as long as we talk about Jesus, talk about the Gospel and tell people to believe in God.  But which God?  What Jesus?  What kind of belief?  Far too many Christians evangelise using words and concepts that people misunderstand or hear differently.

Let me give just one of many examples.  When someone says to me: ‘I don’t believe in God’, I don’t respond by immediately launching into the five theistic proofs.  I ask them, “tell me about this God you don’t believe in”.  And when they answer: “I don’t believe in a God who….” I usually respond: “Well neither do I…. now let me tell you about the God I do believe in – the God of the Bible.”

Theology matters because theology is about God, and in evangelism we are bringing people the Good News about God.

I would hope that all Christians would agree that our theology does matter in our evangelism.

Is Reformed Theology a Hindrance?

But then comes the second issue.  What about ‘Reformed’ theology?  Or as I prefer to call it, ‘biblical theology’.  Doesn’t Calvinism inhibit us from evangelism?  John Lennox certainly thinks so.  In his autobiography ‘John Lennox, My Story’ he presents the common misunderstanding of Calvinistic theology and evangelism.  He tells of a couple of Welsh students who refused to do evangelism because ‘we wouldn’t know if they were among the elect or not”.  Lennox goes on to describe this as being the theology taught by Calvin which in his view ‘withers their evangelistic zeal but also drives non-believers away from the gospel”.  He cites his own book against Calvinism, Determined to Believe, as being more necessary than ever.   John Lennox is one of my heroes – a man I greatly admire and respect.  But on this issue, he is just simply wrong; this was not the theology taught by Calvin.   He presents a caricature which like all caricatures has an element of truth in it. But is ultimately false.

This is not to deny that there have been those who have argued in such a way. For example, William Carey was told that God didn’t need him to convert the heathen in India – and some hyper-Calvinists say the same today.  But that is not Calvinistic theology, which rather encourages and emboldens us to reach out with the Good News to all.  Even in terms of Wales, the Calvinistic Methodists, following the Calvinist George Whitefield, one of the greatest evangelists of all time, give the lie to the idea that Calvinism hinders evangelism.  Lennox cites the contrast between Cambridge and Cardiff.  Yet Cambridge’s greatest evangelist, Charles Simeon, was a Calvinist. Furthermore, the notion that Lloyd-Jones and Spurgeon were not interested in evangelism is patently absurd.

However, it may be that some people argue that there are those Calvinists who are good evangelists because they ignore their theology when it comes to evangelism.  Hence the oft repeated adage “be a Calvinist on your knees and an Arminian in the pulpit’.   This is one of those neat sound bites which is demonstrably false.  I think that seems to be confusion here between temperament and theology.  The idea is that Calvinists are chilled and cool because they know God is in control, whilst Aminians are passionate and emotive because they are desperate to persuade people.  But real Calvinists are not detached. They are tied in with the glory of God, they weep over the lost as Christ did, and they fervently believe in communicating the gospel to everyone. 

Reformed Theology that Encourages Evangelism

My experience has been exactly the opposite of John Lennox’s.  Before I became ‘Reformed’ I was a student at the University of Edinburgh, running round like a headless chicken seeking whom I might convert.   But then when I came to understand the Bible’s teaching about the aovereignty of God it was like an enormous weight being lifted off my shoulders.  I did not need to convert anyone.  Because I could not convert anyone.  It is the Holy Spirit who convicts of sin, righteousness and the judgement to come (John 16:8).  Once I realised that no one could come to Jesus unless the Father draw him (John 6:44) it encouraged me to plead to the Father to do just that. The fact that the disciples did not choose Jesus, but he chose them (John 15:16) did not discourage my evangelism; it encouraged it because I believed that God had already chosen people and my job was to go out and gather them.  I believe that God has many people yet in this city (Acts 18:10) and that God’s word will never return to him empty but will always achieve the purpose for which it was sent (Isaiah 55:11).  My understanding is that with God’s help we plough, we sow and we water.   But it is God alone who gives the increase. (1 Corinthians 3:6-7)

On this whole issue I would strongly recommend that every minister, elder and potential evangelist should read J I Packers’ Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God.  Here are a couple of quotes to whet your appetite:

““The sovereignty of God in grace gives us our only hope of success in evangelism.” 

The great commission is “a commission, not only to preach, but also to pray; not only to talk to men about God, but also to talk to God about men.”

Theology that Discourages Evangelism.

As well as the hyper-Calvinism which Lennox confuses with Calvinism, there are other theologies which hinder evangelism.

Firstly, there is ‘liberal’ theology which is not really liberal at all. In both its Protestant and Catholic forms, it is a theology from the pit of Hell which teaches a false religion that is fundamentally anti-Christian.  Niebuhr’s famous quote sums it up well: “A God without wrath brought men without sin into a Kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a Cross.”   It is no Gospel at all.

I believe that Arminian theology, whilst still Christian, can be harmful in evangelism,  because it gives us the false impression that WE can persuade, convince and convert people. So we try harder and get frustrated and discouraged if it doesn’t work.  We are always looking for new ways … and can easily fall into the danger of seeking to manipulate people because we become obsessed with numbers.  How can our evangelistic campaign be successful if it doesn’t result in X numbers of people ‘giving their heart to Christ’?  Jesus tells us in John 3 that we cannot even see the kingdom of God unless we are born again.  How can we believe and trust in what we cannot see?

The trouble is that Aminians turn Jesus’s indicative (that we need to be born again), into a command, something that WE must do.  That creates all kind of problems.  We call people to repent and believe the Gospel.  We cannot command that they be born again.  Or give them a formula to do so.  This is how we end up with people who say they have been born again several times because they ‘gave their lives to Jesus’ several times.  Or those who declare that they are no longer Christians because they ‘tried that born again thing’ and it didn’t work. 

Then there is what I call formulaic theology which reduces the Gospel to a formula, a simplistic meme, a set of steps or propositions, or a course. This is not to argue against using courses but just simply to plead for us to be aware of their limitations.  Here the great commission is essential. “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:16-20)   We don’t have the right to reduce the Gospel, or to decide that we are not going to teach some issues that are in the Bible because we have decided they are not ‘gospel’ issues.  This is not to say that all issues are of ‘first importance’ or that you need to believe all of them in order to be saved, or that there is not ‘milk and meat’ … but it is to say that the Church has no right to refuse to teach what Christ teaches.

There are other theological negatives and positives that we will look at in the course of this series but for now let me share some positives about holding to a Reformed theology in evangelism.  

The Positives of Reformed Evangelism

1. We know we don’t convert people. I think of the Muslim Imam who was furious that we had a ‘mission to Muslims’ because he not unreasonably thought that we were targeting them for conversion.  When I explained that that was not the case because we could not convert anyone – we left that to God – let the God who answers by fire be God’ (1 Kings 18:24) he replied: “I agree with my brother – let God decide”.  

• We know the results are in the Lords hands. I think of C. H. Spurgeon telling the story of Rowland Hill who was challenged by an unbelieving friend on seeing a drunkard in the gutter: “Oh, isn’t that one of your converts?”.  “It must be,” came the reply,  “he is certainly not one of the Lord’s!”

• We know that nothing is impossible for God. I think of looking at almost empty churches in St Peters, Dundee and Scots Kirk, Hamilton and crying out: “Lord can these bones live?” (Ezekiel 37:3)  I had a graveyard in St Peters. I was convinced that without the Spirit of God, my preaching to living people was going to be as effective as speaking to the graves.   But there is a God who says: “I will put breath in you, and you will come to life”.  Which is why we pray, to a God who answers prayer.

• We know that we are to have a wholistic ministry. I think of attending ordination or commissioning services where the great words of Paul to Timothy about preaching the word, in season and out of season, are used (1 Timothy 4:2).  Sadly, far too often the full quote down to v. 5 is not cited: ”But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry”.  I recall one minister in Sydney telling me that he was not an evangelist.  If you are called to preach Gods Word and pastor Gods people, then you are to do the work of an evangelist.  You are leading the local church of Jesus Christ – a church that exists to evangelise, disciple and equip. 

• We are prepared to spend, take risks and sow because we know there will be a harvest. There is a wider application here for the General Assembly and the denomination as a whole.  The danger is that those in charge of the money and resources think that the money should be spent on building new barns or maintaining old ones – so that the harvest may come in. But the trouble is that no serious thought is given to sowing.   Where is the harvest going to come to fill those barns?  Where is the sowing in tears so that we may reap with joy? (Psalm 126:5) We need to spend at least as much money sowing new seed as we do protecting old structures.

Our theology should make us confident in the Gospel, because it is God’s word we have been commissioned to give.  It should drive us to prayer.  And it should make us work harder, take more risks and be more creative in our outreach, not less.  We should remember the words of Paul that Christ “is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ.  To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me”. (Colossians 1:28-29)   That’s evangelism!

– David Robertson