In an article Dr. Greg Bahnsen wrote:
The Christian’s final standard, the inspired word of God, teaches us that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7). If the apologist treats the starting point of knowledge as something other than reverence for God, then unconditional submission to the unsurpassed greatness of God’s wisdom at the end of his argumentation does not really make sense. There would always be something greater than God’s wisdom – namely, the supposed wisdom of one’s own chosen, intellectual starting point. The word of God would necessarily (logically, if not personally) remain subordinate to that autonomous, final standard.
Ludwig Wittgenstein confessed that a devastating incongruity lay at the heart of his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. If he was correct in his eventual conclusion, then the premises used to reach that conclusion were actually meaningless: “anyone who understands me eventually recognizes [my propositions] as nonsensical, when he has used them – as steps – to climb up beyond them. (He must, so to speak, throw away the ladder after he has climbed up by it)” (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1961 [1921], section 6.54, p. 151).
In similar fashion, Evangelicals sometimes utilize an autonomous apologetic method which does not assume the authority of Christ, treating it like a ladder to climb up to acceptance of Christ’s claims, only then to “throw the ladder away” since Christ is now seen as having an ultimate authority which conflicts with that autonomous method. Their method is used to reach a conclusion which is incompatible with what their method assumed – the self-sufficient authority of man’s reasoning.
I agree with Dr. Bahnsen. Our starting point in evangelism must be the authority of God’s Word. Simply put, you should ask a person whom you are witnessing to, “Do you believe that the Bible is true?” If they say “yes” then you can continue to share with them the gospel. If they say “no” then you can continue but know that they are already in disbelief of everything you are saying. Considering Romans 10:17, it is very possible that one of the first evidences that the Holy Spirit is working within a person’s heart is that they believe that God’s Word is true. And if the Holy Spirit is not working in a person’s heart then no amount of evangelism, no strategy of apologetics will bring that person to faith in Christ.
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Jason Robertson is a husband and a father and a pastor. He is dedicated to leading and equipping his the Church with God’s word and biblical theology for life ministry, using a combination of pastoral, church planting and evangelism experience. He holds a Master of Divinity from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He is experienced in church planting, evangelism, missions, and the training of pastors and Bible teachers.
Jason has been preaching the gospel since 1985, serving the first ten years of ministry as a Southern Baptist itinerant evangelist out of Milldale Baptist Church in Zachary, LA which ordained him in 1993. He has preached in hundreds of churches in over 30 States and 4 countries. He planted churches in Siberia, Russia in the summers of 1993 and 1994. He founded Murrieta Valley Church in California, which he planted in cooperation with the SBC NAMB in 2001. He also teaches ministry students at California Baptist University.
You can hear his sermons and read his manuscripts on sermonaudio.com. Just follow the link to "sermons" at the top of this page.
I see evangelism as simply giving people the quickening Word of God. Boldly. Unashamedly. As a shock to the system. It is the Word of God and the Spirit that regenerates, when regeneration happens. The first thing is to actually proclaim the actual Word of God. Plant the seed. What kind of soil is falls on is not our consideration. We can water, we can cultivate, if we still have some access to the individual beyond the initial planting, but only God can make the seed grow.
FANTASTIC!