What did Jesus mean when He told His disciples, “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven” (Matt. 10:32)?
What did Jesus mean when He declared in Matthew 18:3, “Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven”? The word translated “change” in the New International Version is “straphete,” which is normally translated “convert.”
What did the apostle Peter mean when he stood on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, preached Jesus as the risen Messiah and told the Jewish crowd to “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out” (Acts 3:19)?
Why did the apostle Paul declare “to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus” (Acts 20:21)?
Answers to those questions are key to responding to a recent indictment of evangelical Christians for practicing “bad evangelism.”
The charge was made by Antonios Kireopoulos, senior program director for faith and order and interfaith relations for the National Council of Churches. Kireopoulos was speaking at the 100th anniversary of the historic 1910 Edinburgh Missionary Conference. The event, which ended June 6, drew hundreds of participants representing 60 nations and at least 30 Christian traditions.
Kireopoulos cited the experience of the fall of the Soviet Union and the rush of evangelical Christian missionaries into Russia and Eastern European countries. He accused missionaries of “taking advantage of the weak” by trying to “make Christians from among people [who] are already Christians.”
Referencing Iraq, Kireopoulos said there have been “particularly egregious mission efforts” by evangelical Christians. He said the witness to Christ would have been stronger if missionaries had supported the local Christians. In each case, evangelical missionaries were guilty of what he called “bad evangelism.”
For Kireopoulos and others, identifying with the Christian church and being a believing Christian are synonymous. In the Roman Catholic tradition, most Orthodox traditions and even some Protestant traditions, one is born into the Christian faith at infancy.
In some parts of the world, these Christians are referred to as “cultural Christians” or “traditional Christians.” Often national citizenship is equated with membership in the national church. The two are inseparable. Baptists and other evangelical believers hold a different understanding of what it means to be a Christian.
When Jesus said it is necessary to acknowledge Him before men, it means it is necessary for individuals to acknowledge Jesus. Being a member of a Christian family cannot take the place of an individual decision to acknowledge Christ.
When Jesus said one has to “change (convert) and become as little children,” the statement pointed toward a personal decision to turn or change one’s mind.
Peter’s sermon at Pentecost (Acts 3:19) again affirms the requirement of personal action. The apostle urged people to “repent and turn to God.” That his listeners were already children of Abraham seemed to make no difference in what Peter said was required of them.
Paul made the same point. To Jews and to Greeks, he preached the same message. Both needed to repent before God. It was not religious identity that was advocated. It was personal confession (Acts 20:21).
Repentance, confession and faith — these constitute the “front door” to the gospel for those who hear and respond to the saving work of Jesus Christ.
That is why Paul wrote in Romans 10:9–10 about the necessity of confessing with the mouth that Jesus is Lord and believing in your heart that God raised Him from the dead in order to be saved.
Repentance, confession and faith cannot be done for an individual by someone else. In Acts 17:30, Paul wrote, “[God] commands all people everywhere to repent.” Repentance is something individuals must do for themselves.
At the same time, Christians recognize it is God alone who grants forgiveness (Acts 11:18). He grants it to the Jew, the Greek and all who respond to the gospel because He does not want any to perish but desires that all come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9).
Evangelical Christians (including Baptists) make up that segment of the Church known as the “Believer’s Church.” Our understanding of the Bible is that a personal and open confession of faith in Jesus Christ is a prerequisite to being a believing Christian.
So deep is this understanding that we apply it to everyone, including those most precious to us — our own family members.
As Jesus said in John 3:18, “Whoever believes in Him is not condemned but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”
The direction of the gospel message is individual accountability to believe, repent and confess.
As one has said, these are the “first duties of every sinner” and all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23).
Calling people to personal faith in Jesus Christ through repentance and confession is not “bad evangelism” as Kireopoulos charged.
It is the faithful response of believers to our Lord’s command to go and make disciples of all nations.
Hopefully the day will come when those Christian groups that focus on identity with the Church will lift up the necessity of a personal relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ.
Perhaps then Christians can stop condemning one another over their evangelism practices and celebrate the sharing of the good news that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself (2 Cor. 5:19).
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