Is Evangelism Good?
Evangelism has come to be frowned upon in many modern Western Christian circles of late. Some see it as intolerant to try to make others adopt one’s own religion. Since Christianity is a “Western religion,” trying to make the whole world adopt Christianity seems to many to be a form of oppressive Western imperialism. Looking back in history, we can see many examples of Christians forcing people to convert to Christianity, sometimes at the point of a sword. Given these intolerant, imperialistic connotations of “evangelism,” many would rather just forget the whole enterprise.
Coupled with this, there has been a growing belief among modern Western Christians that people outside the Church can be saved. Isn’t it arrogant, they ask, to think that your religion is perfectly right and everyone else’s is wrong? If people can be good and can be saved without putting faith in Jesus and becoming part of the Church, then it seems like there is not much value in trying to get people to convert to Christianity. In fact, many people see evangelism as a negative thing because its misguided, narrow mission of “saving souls” distracts us from the really important task of making the world a better place and establishing justice in society. For all these reasons, many people see evangelism not as a moral responsibility but as a positively unethical enterprise.
None of these criticisms of the practice of evangelism, however, are sound. There is nothing “intolerant” about trying to persuade others to accept one’s own beliefs as true. Christianity is not a “Western religion”; it is a Jewish religion that originally thrived in the Middle East and North Africa, and today is thriving and expanding in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, and East Asia. Forced “conversions” are an unfortunate part of Church history, but they do nothing to discredit attempts to make genuine converts through persuasion today.
As politically incorrect as it might be, Scripture is very clear that salvation comes through faith in Christ alone (John 14:6, Acts 4:12). Believing this has nothing to do with thinking that Christians are better than non-Christians, or even that the Christian “religion” is better than non-Christian religions; it has to do with believing that Jesus truly is Lord of the whole world, and that He alone is the Way, the Truthy, and the Life, above all human ideologies, doctrines, and religions. It may be possible for people to narrowly focus on “saving souls” to the point that they neglect other vitally important moral responsibilities. But this does not mean that we should neglect the importance of evangelism as part of a holistic Christian ethic. Evangelism is a good, valuable, and necessary task.
Evangelism and Ethics
The moral discourse of our surrounding culture makes a separation between “religion” and morality. From this perspective, a “religious” conversion to Christianity might possibly lead someone to act in a more moral manner, but trying to convert people from another religion to the Christian religion cannot be considered a morally praiseworthy act in and of itself. From the perspective of Christian theological ethics, however, we should certainly consider evangelism as a moral responsibility.
After His resurrection, our Lord commanded His followers to “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” (Matt 28:19-20). In other words, Jesus commanded His followers to evangelize the entire world. Our Lord has commanded us to do this, and so we have a moral responsibility to obey.
Imagine that someone is starving to death, and you know where they can find food, but you refrain from telling them about it. Wouldn’t this be immoral? Imagine that someone is dying of an illness, and you know where they can find medicine to cure it, but you refrain from telling them about it. Wouldn’t this be immoral? Now, imagine that someone is headed down a path that leads to eternal death, and you know where they can instead find eternal life, but you refrain from telling them about it. Wouldn’t this be extremely immoral?
For Christians to accept the Good News of Jesus and receive the gift of eternal life through Him, but refuse to share this Good News with the rest of the world, is positively immoral. If we really love other people and want what is best for them, then we must certainly tell them the Good News and attempt to persuade them to become participants in God’s Kingdom, heirs of eternal life. Doing so is at least as great a moral responsibility as curing diseases and ending world hunger.
People often debate the question of whether we should focus on evangelism or on doing good things to make the world a better place. The apostles would have been extremely puzzled by such a question. In the New Testament, evangelism and good works are not two separate, contrasting tasks. Rather, they are inextricably interconnected as part of the one holistic Christian ethic of advancing God’s Kingdom in and through the Church.
Jesus’s Great Commission, we should note, is not to make converts who theoretically believe certain theological ideas are true; it is to make disciples who will be baptized into the Church, where they will be taught to live a new way of life in obedience to the Lordship of Jesus. The moral task of the Church, then, is not just to “save souls” and leave the world as it is. Nor is it to do good things to try to make the world a better place in the abstract, not caring if people fail to explicitly acknowledge Jesus as Lord. The moral task of the Church is to invite all people everywhere to become participants in God’s New Creation by believing the Gospel and becoming part of the holy community of Jesus’s disciples, where they will live transformed lives that will help to make the world a better place. To ask whether evangelism or good works are more important, then, is a misguided question. Evangelism itself is a good work, an integral part of the holistic moral task of the Church.
Almost everyone has seen examples of bad evangelism: shallow, simplistic, even theologically erroneous presentations of the Gospel; crude, clumsy attempts to scare people into believing through threat of Hellfire; or obnoxiously aggressive proselytizing techniques. But we should not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Instead, we must strive to practice evangelism in an ethical manner. First, this means actually knowing what we’re talking about when we tell people what the Gospel of Jesus Christ is. Second, this means evangelizing with an attitude of genuine love for the lost people we are trying to reach. Third, it means having the virtues of wisdom and prudence as we discern how best to meet people where they are and present the Gospel to them in terms they can understand. “Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity,” writes the apostle Paul. “Let your conversation always be full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone” (Col 4:5-6). The urgency of our task of making disciples does not mean that we must constantly harass and nag unbelieving people around us with an invitation to believe the Gospel which they are not yet ready to accept. We should preach the Gospel to every person as far as we are able, but we must use wisdom in discerning how, when, and where it is best to do so.
“Preach the Gospel at all times; when necessary, use words” is a famous quote often (falsely) attributed to St. Francis of Assisi. There is an important truth communicated by this quote. The Gospel should not just be mere words which we say we believe; instead, we should show by our actions how the Gospel of Jesus Christ has transformed us and led us into a wonderful new way of life. But at the same time, actions without explicit verbal proclamation of the Gospel are not enough. Good works without verbal Gospel proclamation will only succeed in making people say, “Wow, they’re a really nice person.” If we want people to come to faith in Christ, we must explicitly tell them about Him. This responsibility to evangelize is an important and integral part of Christian ethics.
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