Evangelism and Postmodern Thought

EVANGELISM AND POSTMODERN APOLOGETICS

There is the need for a new word to be spoken with force into the life of the church today that articulately states the case for sound, strong evangelistic efforts that need to be implemented by the church.  To give in to the spirit of the age, which advances the notion that relativistic tolerance should be the norm, is to expose the strength of the Christian faith to the emasculating power of culture relativism.  Neutrality in language fields that carry an implication of militant commands invokes serious consideration for adaptation among apologeticists today.  The message of the Son of man has always carried within itself an inherent focus that casts the message as a pariah when contrasted with systems that seek the least common denominator of accessibility.  Divergent views consistently find a loggerhead antithesis in light of the high demands of Gospel singularity.

The message of Christ, which advocates only one viable way for relationship to be entertained between God and man, sees truth through the lens of objectivity. Transitory positions of truth that view truth as an unobtainable surd need to acquiesce to God’s mandate to humanity, which declares that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life needs to be embraced over the exertion of self-will and self-direction. To do less will leave the pursuit of meaning to flounder and find oppositional resistance among the many who view the demands of Messiah as unreasonable.  Compromising posits of basic relational truth need to be non-negotiable that can never be taken off the table when we seek God.

Sometimes these unrelenting considerations are dismissed with ambivalent chevalier disregard, at other junctures the rejection of Christianity can be met with disdaining disgust over the irreducible conditions of Christ.  When attempts to mitigate these factors places the messengers, not the message, in the cerebral vortex of ineffective negation, a palatable and poignant problem emerges, which reduces the actual imaging of the living Christ to be seen within us as a people and individually. This reduction is problematic, as we are supposed to become living biblical expressions that dwell in a lost and dying world. To do less is to reduce the church to a non-impacting essence of insignificance. 

This cannot be a tolerable response to the transient realities of ‘The Message’ that is meant to communicate the heart of God to fallen humanity, or of the conveyers of this vocative expression as presented by Jesus initially. To do so would make ready an allowance that would by necessity create a matrix for a strategic victory to be actualized by those who are aligned against the kingdom of God as strategic enemies who have set themselves against the church. 

Although the desires to achieve universal acceptance are propositions that should be forthrightly pursued, to leave the truth that Jesus taught us to follow and proclaim on the altar of acceptability demeans the sacrifice of Christ and the brutality of the cross. In order for the greater impacting effect of the Gospels Word to be unleashed in the torrential discussion of belief systems of religious persuasions that are espoused in the world religions and philosophies, churchmen need to be conviction oriented in their belief system.  Redemptive graces efficacious presence thrives in the suite of conflict.  Simply because those who express discomfort with the force of the message of Jesus, concerning unswerving loyalty to His prevailing Word, find a need to neutralize the Christian message through irrelevant mutation, doesn’t mean those who exist in the body of Christ must submit to these voices of mild persuasion.    

God has gifted the church with a blessing that is immeasurable in value.  Out of gratitude and respect for this newfound condition, springs the emancipating message of liberty from sins debilitating grip by those who find themselves in the pervasive grasp of the Masters love.  The responsibility of the churchmen is now as it always has been. The task that is before us is to create efficient new ways that allow this message to be contextualized into a cultural expression that is both understandable and receivable in its irretraceable dominance. That which has been revealed through the revelation of Christ and Holy Spirits deliberate inclusion is the key that unlocks the lives that have fallen victim to sins deadly embrace.