I have little confidence that we really understand from a Bible perspective the concept of evangelism. It appears to me that in today’s world it has become little else than recruitment and enlistment. Possibly we have lost sight of the fact that Christ characterized it as a birth not a sign-up list. It is first and foremost a work that God carries on in the lives of people and we as “evangelists” really only serve as road signs and waysides along the path to conversion. Read this following portion of Scripture in the context of the conversion of souls:
1 Peter 2:9-12
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.
I have often wrestled over this word “visitation”. I am settling upon the idea that it refers to the day that God in His sovereign mercy confronts the soul with its need and there builds upon the witness that this soul has received from the light of creation, the light of the Scriptures and the light of God’s children.
The conversion of a soul is really a mysterious and wonderful work of God. I find authors such as Spurgeon marveling over it and wondering about its mysteries. It is kind of like operating a huge and powerful crane. We often have the opportunity to pull the switch, but it is God who does the heavy lifting.
