Evangelism consists of the following beliefs (Wikipedia; “Evangelistic”):
- · Salvation by grace alone.
- · By faith in Jesus’s atonement.
- · The centrality of the conversion or "born again" experience in receiving salvation.
- · The authority of the Bible as God's revelation to humanity.
- ·
And spreading the Christian message.
Salvation by grace alone. Especially moderns, none were there to assist God in the sacrifice of His only Son. God did that Himself. Even the centurions who drove the nails and the soldier who pierced His side were not part of the sacrifice; they were merely doing their jobs, and even Pilate was only ruling according to Roman Law. He washed his hands of Mosaic Law.
Not even the High Priests nor Judas helped with the sacrifice. Their very purpose for thousands of years was for that day; God “groomed” them for that day. The only being that was responsible had died a few hours before. Judas had previously hung himself and Satan fled.
Satan did not sacrifice Jesus, but ironically, God sacrificed Satan. When the Holy Ghost was given up from Jesus, He escorted the Unholy Ghost of Judas to Hell, and at the same time, the flesh of Judas was nowhere near Calvary. Judas was buried in Gehenna. Gehenna is a burning garbage pit. It is not Hell, but Gehenna was that day, the gateway to Hell!
Therefore, salvation is by grace alone, but God made the sacrifice on behalf of all mankind. [i] If you are “whosoever” then God Himself died for you.
Evangelistic is also having faith in Jesus’s atonement. The Flesh and Spirit of God is the “reparation” for both your flesh and soul., “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom 6:23). Somebody paid the wages that all mankind “owes.” Those debts cannot be worked-off. The greatest work ever done was God sacrificing Himself. So hard, that He agonized and sweated as if the sweat were drops of blood. [ii]
The work that Jesus did was by the sweat of His Face… God’s very Face. Where have you heard that before?
Now this is so important: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” *Gen 3:19). The curse was a blessing! Adam would do hard work until he died, then it would end. Why “bread”? Adam would try to work off the curse, but in futility. Death, for him and his kind, is gain” because to live is Christ. [iii]
Striving to make bread would be ergonomically impossible because God is the Maker of the grain. God would provide the grain for the bread, but all the while, Adam would think that he was the husbandman, but he was a mere “baker” of the grain that Jesus would provide.
Jesus is the “Bread of Life”, not Adam nor anyone else! Jesus said, “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). Even though Adam found grace (the coat of skin [iv]) he would still try to work off the “wages” that he owed God. When Jesus sweated, it was the sweat of Adam’s kind that should have.
“Atonement” was Jesus in agony sweating to pay off the wages of all of Adam’s kind. Adam was redeemed that day as he is said to be buried beneath Calvary. Adam did nothing to pay the wage that he owed for the first sin, and neither did his kind do anything! Jesus paid it all! Jesus paid it all in full!
What else? Faith in the atonement! Ask anyone, What is faith? And they will say, A gift from God. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” (Ephes 2:8). Now read it again. Is faith the gift or is it grace that is found? Well, “Noah found grace”, [v] Abraham “found grace”, [vi] Jacob “found grace”, [vii] Joseph “found grace”, [viii] Moses “found grace”, [ix] and Joshua and the Hebrews “found grace”. [x] After entering the Holy Land, Gideon “found grace”, [xi] Ruth “found grace”, [xii] and David “found grace”. [xiii]
Nowhere did anyone find faith; they found grace and faith was the outcome! Hence, “faith” is not the gift, but grace. Of course, “grace” is unmerited favor from God and others. The gift is grace!
“Faith” is the utilization of the gift. Each person that found grace passed the grace on to others. Faith is ergonomically using the gift of grace. It is grace that is not of yourselves, but faith is! Christians did not die on the Holy Cross but must have faith that Jesus did and for their own corrupted flesh.
Is faith work? Yes, but physically work is “ergon” in the Greek whereas cognition is “katergazomai”. Yes, one must “work out” their salvation by considering what God has done and taking His Name (Jesus) as the Way, the Truth, and the Life. [xiv] Christians must work out their faith, but ergonomically. It is more ergonomic to work smart than to work hard. It is more ergonomic to believe Jesus did all the work and that you did nothing. Like Peter and the rest of the apostles did nothing graceful to save Jesus, neither did any other Christian.
Whereas Agrippa was “almost persuaded,” Christians must be fully persuaded. All anyone needs to do is to never take the death of Jesus in vain. Perhaps that was the intent of the “Fifth Saying” of Jesus — to not take His death in vain” as if you are the “god’ that paid the wages of sin!
Most evangelicals believe that faith is the gift, but faith is the mental work of which James wrote. It is easy work without sweat. Hence, the most ergonomic work that anyone can do is to work smartly… to consider Jesus and become persuaded, just as Paul, reasoned in the synagogue and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks to become Christians.
Persuasion precedes faith. “Belief” is not just persuaded that Jesus exists, but that as His Name says, “Yahweh preserves.”
The verb “preservation” is keeping until the time of consumption. That would be until the “day of salvation” for Jesus said, “I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (Cor 6:2). That day is in the future, so “salvation” is the right meaning for soteria. On the other hand, “now” is present tense, so “soteria” there is rightly translated not as “salvation” but “safety” or “preservation”.
“Succoured” in that passage is “brought aid to” (Strong’s Dictionary) and the “aid” is preservation. Until the day of salvation, God has preserved Christians. As anyone knows, preserves cannot have corruption, so God shields the vessel (the soul) from corruption, and only corruption that seeps in can break the seal, as any canner knows!
The next notion of evangelistic is, the centrality of the conversion or "born again" experience in receiving salvation. It should be obvious that “born again” is the central issue to evangelicals. That comes from Jesus who said, “Marvel not; ye must be born again” *John 3:7).
Then Jesus uses trust in and confidence of the Hebrews as the example of that. [xv] Christians in the time of Moses and Jesus, must see the Serpent as dead. Now, the labor of rebirth is much more ergonomic: We need only look back and see that that is exactly what happened on the Holy Cross — Judas is dead and the Serpent as dead!
Can you understand that Jesus vicariously killed Satan? Do you trust that Jesus remains alive, but Satan was yielded impotent?
When Jesus died, Adam’s kind was preserved from sin. No longer would it be their nature to sin, as it was not Adam’s, but sin can still permeate the strong seal of impurities that build up inside the vessel. Indeed, for those with great faith, preservation is more ergonomic. Faith is the work of Christians that maintains the seal, the whole armor of God, so to speak.
Ask about any Christian: What does it mean to be “born again”? Even Nicodemus, who read scripture and believed, did not know what that meant. Most who claim Jesus, claim to be “saved” but all the while they may have missed the “rebirthing” process. They failed to labor in their spiritual birth, and hence their rebirth was merely belief in Jesus and without trust. Many claim to belong to Christ, but their hearts remain on themselves because they have not been born again.
Even preachers no longer preach on rebirth. It is the only “must be” that pertains to salvation, but few preach on “born again” in these turbulent times. Rather, it is, “You need to get saved.”
That sounds like it is something that you do! What is it that God does? He rebirths you. It is His Labor of Love that gives new life. Evangelism is that centrality — born again — and it continues, the experience in receiving salvation.
Salvation is experiential. It is something that God gives to you for free, but Christians experience it. It is “grace found” just as with all the patriarchs. It is the protection that God provides while those who trust walk on turbulent water or treacherous ground.
Once one is born again, they remain safe until the next tribulation, but their confidence in Jesus must remain for further preservation. The Way to Jesus is to walk toward Him until the Day of Salvation. That is when “gain” is begotten by death. The corruptible flesh must die for the new person to be glorified (saved) and the vessel saved along with its contents.
Evangelism is almost dead because they are as Nicodemus. They study the Word but have no idea its meaning. The death of evangelism is killing God; not the Real God but the notion that God is real. How can He save if nobody finds grace, and if nobody is born again?
The next precept of evangelistic is, the authority of the Bible as God's revelation to humanity. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Tim 3:16-17).
Hardly anyone believes that scripture is the inspired Word of God. They claim they do, but what do they do? They ignore the “sayings” of Jesus. That refers to what is called, “The Ten Commandments.” Many break them continually as if they count for faith no more! They are not “commandments” in reality, but “The Ten Prescriptions for Eternal Health.” They are the ergonomic “medicines” that are taken. None are “ergon” and only three are katergazomai.
Several are non-works and just three are thoughts, or easy, ergonomic work. Yet even the list of easy things remains too difficult to mess with. They all have become “vanity” just as for Solomon!
God revealed His “Will” to Adam’s kind. It is His Will be done and not any others. The problem is that it is our will that we do, and God’s Will is taken in vain. God revealed through His Word the conditions of Hs Will. In His Will, “whosoever” should receive eternal life in Paradise, [xvi] but most are unworthy heirs of God because even if they find grace, they hide it well, just as in the Parable of the Pounds. That cheapens grace; it is given to work the faith to greater faith than when you first believed! Few believe in working the faith! That is non-ergonomic for them! And they neglect the inspiration that is available.
The last tenet of evangelistic is spreading the Christian message. That is “The Great Commission” after finding grace. That is what Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Ruth and David did. That is what Solomon ceased doing.
Christians today do not even trust God for safety! Even with masks, most skip Church wherein God inspires. They fail to walk the Way to “see” Jesus because they trust the liars in government over God’s Authority over sin and death.
Not only that, but now they trust man-made vaccines that can effect their God-given DNA over natural God-given immunity. In God We Trust is not even the motto of Christians any longer. As socialism is spread, it is in Marx they trust. They trust a dead man over the Living God!
Preachers have reduced spreading the gospel. Either they shut down service in favor of the things of the world, or they spread false gospels!
What is the point? That evangelism is dying a slow death and that the precepts of a Living, Saving, Loving God is dying with it.
Only a Great Revival and a New Great Awakening will awaken sleeping Christians from their casket that they think is only a bed: “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation (or for most, damnation) nearer than when we believed” (Rom 13:11).
(picture credit: William Blake, "Brazen Serpent on Pole")
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