Continuing the discussion from How does believing the Gospel save us?:
I can relate.
Same here. I think it helps to ask, what specifically are you questioning?
I mean, theologically, I agree with it. Hereās how it goes as best I understand:
- Admit youāre a sinner
- Believe Jesus died and rose again for your sins
- Confess Jesus as your Lord and Savior
Hereās whatās difficult about it, for me. It was presented as THE ONE TRUE AND ABSOLUTE GOSPEL.
However, I now see that it is a contextualized version of the gospel.
Looking at it from a distance, itās obvious. Instead of presenting everything in the Bible, three sentences were pulled out. Right away, thatās an editorial decision.
Then, the gospel was arranged in an āABCā structure - thatās a contextualization to English, a culture that values simplicity, and a pragmatic orientation to communicating information.
It makes a lot of assumptionsā¦ for instance, that I know what it means to be a sinner. That I have some belief in āGod.ā That I want forgiveness.
But what if the starting point to connect with someone is what God says about how they were made in his image?
Then, thatās the new āAā:
- Acknowledge that you were made by God with excellence, joy, and purpose.
Thatās Biblical, too, right?
And, depending on who Iām talking to, it might be a better place to start the conversation.
For me, evangelism comes out of an immersion in the Bible, a prayerful concern for people around me, and simply being a good friend, and having honest, genuine conversations. It isnāt a sales pitch tweaked to increase my conversion ratio.
I want to emphasize that I think the āABCā presentation is Biblical. But what Iām trying to get at is that it is just one of many āBiblicalā ways to tell the story of who God is and what God is doing.