The Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky in his Complete Letters (1868-1871) wrote:
If someone proved to me that Christ is outside the truth and that in reality the truth were outside of Christ, then I should prefer to remain with Christ rather than with the truth.
Just know that if you remain with Christ, you also remain with the truth. Jesus said, “I am the truth” (John 14:6). That quote though makes it sound like something other than the truth is the main factor leading to saving faith. Others might echo the sentiment of Dostoyevsky, especially when one considers their methodology.
Three Categories
I will divide into three categories of argument or evidence for or vindication of the gospel message unto salvation. This answers, why should I believe the gospel?
Listening to professing conversion testimonies through my whole life, I heard different reasons for someone receiving the gospel. When I listen to apologists talk alone or in conversations with skeptics, I have heard them give varied reasons people will receive the gospel. People state epistemic, moral, and aesthetic arguments, evidence, or vindication. Thought leaders express these three, ranking them for their impact. People include them in their testimonies or salvation stories.
Epistemic
An epistemic presentation or epistemic preaching gives knowledge or information, makes intellectual arguments, trying to persuade the mind of a skeptic or lost person. This would include exegesis of scripture, using the Bible for elucidation of and authority for truth. It connects everything to history and will even show the compatibility of the scriptural account with history, science, archaeology, everything in the real world.
Moral
A moral presentation or preaching relies on the goodness of someone in the life of the skeptic or lost person. The moral quality of a friend, acquaintance, co-worker, or family member impacts him or her to the degree that they acquiesce to that influence. A person with a wrecked life sees this as the only way out. Maybe he sees it as the path away from drugs, obesity, alcohol or other harmful addictions. Perhaps he witnesses the quality and diligence of the efforts of a co-worker, making a moral impression upon him.
Aesthetic
An aesthetic presentation or preaching relies on the beauty or emotional effects of a personal testimony, a moving story, a fearful threat or warning, or just well-told, expressive anecdotes. It also may be the feeling of community or comradery of a group of individuals, how they get along, show friendship and solidarity, and experience satisfaction in all that.
Compelling Argument
Skeptics
Many skeptics would say that Christianity or the Bible doesn’t present compelling epistemic argument to persuade them. It does not provide enough knowledge to give up their present life to follow Jesus Christ. It is harder to believe that a man rose from the dead than to believe that men lied and said he rose from the dead, when he really didn’t. Even if they don’t possess great reasons for not believing the gospel account, they don’t have enough good ones either.
I heard one skeptic, still a skeptic though, report a frightening dream. He was on an airplane. The plane was crashing and in a semi-conscious state, he prayed to God for deliverance. When he woke up, it shook him. In his heart of hearts, despite his skepticism, he acknowledged the innate instinct or impulse to look to God for salvation.
Dostoyevsky
The profession of Dostoyevsky relates to either a moral or aesthetic urge or compulsion. Online Britannica gives some context to his quote that began this article:
In 1847 Dostoyevsky began to participate in the Petrashevsky Circle, a group of intellectuals who discussed utopian socialism. He eventually joined a related, secret group devoted to revolution and illegal propaganda. It appears that Dostoyevsky did not sympathize (as others did) with egalitarian communism and terrorism but was motivated by his strong disapproval of serfdom. On April 23, 1849, he and the other members of the Petrashevsky Circle were arrested.
Dostoyevsky spent eight months in prison until, on December 22, the prisoners were led without warning to the Semyonovsky Square. There a sentence of death by firing squad was pronounced, last rites were offered, and three prisoners were led out to be shot first. At the last possible moment, the guns were lowered and a messenger arrived with the information that the tsar had deigned to spare their lives. The mock-execution ceremony was in fact part of the punishment. One of the prisoners went permanently insane on the spot; another went on to write Crime and Punishment.
Dostoyevsky passed several minutes in the full conviction that he was about to die, and in his novels characters repeatedly imagine the state of mind of a man approaching execution. The hero of The Idiot, Prince Myshkin, offers several extended descriptions of this sort, which readers knew carried special authority because the author of the novel had gone through the terrible experience. The mock execution led Dostoyevsky to appreciate the very process of life as an incomparable gift and, in contrast to the prevailing determinist and materialist thinking of the intelligentsia, to value freedom, integrity, and individual responsibility all the more strongly.
1 Corinthians 1: Greek External Evidence and Jewish Experiences
I expressed here in other articles that men offer their reasons for not believing for which Paul accounts in 1 Corinthians 1. He says, Greeks seek after wisdom, Jews seek after signs. You could say that Greeks want intellectual arguments, something akin to their arguments in the Greek city states. They want external evidence.
Jews seek after signs. They tended in that day toward wanting further experiential proof. Something needed to move them in a personal way to prove reality. Even after the ten plagues in Egypt, most of the Jews still balked at listening to Moses and following what He said, that God told him to say. Scripture indicates that experience is not a basis of faith.
Faith Comes By Hearing the Word of God
The Bible provides the authority for what men need for salvation. In a simple way, it’s Romans 10:17: “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” God will use the testimony of others, what they say and do. He might use a bad dream, smiting someone in his inner consciousness. God moves people with overwhelming beauty.
Hebrews 11:6 says that a person requires believing that God is a rewarder. Along these lines, Romans 2:4 says the goodness of God leads someone to repentance. Someone won’t receive Christ unless he thinks he’s better off with Christ as the Captain of his life.
Scripture does more than an epistemic presentation or preaching. It targets the mind, no doubt, but it reaches further than that. It affects the rebellion of a person in His will. Romans 1 says men know God (Rom 1:19). They suppress the truth though (1:18, hold the truth in unrighteousness). Their perverse natures rebel.
I believe scripture indicates in many places that the rebellion relates to human will or pride. People want their own way. They will choose their own way against their own self-interest. Men make choices that doom them, which they make so that they can stay in charge.
The Reach of Scripture
Jesus starts the sermon on the mount with, “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (Matthew 5:3). A person must understand his own spiritual poverty, that he is not the master of his own fate. He can’t even get what he really wants on his own. He doesn’t have anything to get there. That humility doesn’t just occur. God works in a person through His Word.
When Hebrews 4:12 says that the Word of God is powerful to divide soul and spirit, that goes further than the mind. The soul includes emotion and will. God works in an epistemic, moral, and aesthetic way, all three. However, it must start with the mind. Someone must believe the gospel is true. God sanctifies through the truth.
Even with the moving of personal testimony and some stirring of emotions, everyone must receive the truth, which starts with the mind. For a person to believe, he must understand the gospel. More occurs through the gospel than just the intellectual, but that must occur.
Today I see the emotional or experiential calls for salvation as the biggest problem in evangelicalism. Evangelicals think more about what people will like or how they feel. They do not want to tell the whole truth, because people won’t like it. God saves people through the truth, not by leaving out the hard parts. Jesus never did that. Let’s do what Jesus did and then all of His apostles.
Cohesion
Agreement
The moral and the aesthetic must agree with the epistemic, but salvation centers on the epistemic. All the events of the gospel happened. Jesus is Savior. He is Lord. It doesn’t matter how you feel about it.
Moral and aesthetic presentation must cohere with the truth. You cannot separate truth from goodness and beauty. People get their view of God very often if not the most often from the aesthetic. If the aesthetic contradicts the epistemic, someone will get the wrong God. He will imagine a different God than presented by scripture. This keeps him from salvation. Even if he receives this god, it isn’t God.
Effect
A good moral example alone doesn’t save someone, but a bad one can hinder or repel salvation though. This includes a lascivious lifestyle presented as a product of the grace of God. Furthermore, regarding aesthetics, someone gets a wrong understanding of God from false worship music. He associates God with lust and worldliness. The right music doesn’t save, but wrong music, false worship, hinders or repels salvation.
The moral and aesthetic are important, but we must focus on the epistemic. Give the whole plan of salvation. Target the understanding. Don’t attempt to persuade with emotions and experiences. Use your stories to illuminate the truth to persuade in the mind. Scripture and the Holy Spirit will take care of the rest.
Good thoughts. I have heard it said a few times that a person’s salvation testimony is their greatest witnessing tool. I always wonder how that would be better than the gospel.
In regards to the title, I’ve been really trying to think through repentance and its place in the gospel. I’ve read your explanation of it to the lost (they have to turn from going the way they are going). I have a question about the ability of a lost man to turn from his way or be willing to be saved. Since repentance is a command, is it something that a man can willfully do on his own? Can a man just decide that he doesn’t want to live a life of sin anymore and turn away from it? I know that Christ and the apostles and prophets commanded repentance and many did not repent. Do you think repentance is the “hard part” of the gospel? I know you say true belief includes repentance (which I agree with). Do you think repentance is the sticking point for most in America today or is it that they cannot trust Christ? When Jesus said men won’t believe because “they love darkness rather than light” was He saying they won’t repent?
I always tell people they need to believe on Christ, but I usually tell them the reason they may not believe is because they love their sinful way too much, but what can they do about it? I think of some children that come to our church sometimes who are in a terrible situation (divorced parents, vile mom, drunkard dad) and I don’t know what to say to them other than keep preaching the gospel to them, but I don’t see how they’ll ever be able to repent. It’s a foreign concept to them.
Just rambling a little. Thanks
Hi David,
Thanks for commenting. Acts 11:18 says that repentance is granted unto life. So repentance, like faith, is a gift, not a work. The hard part is the part that people don’t like, which relates to self. People want what they want and salvation does not jive with that. Leaving that out misrepresents salvation.
Those little children who are in wrecked homes, I relate to that. Those are tough situations. We just got to a new place to work and there are many broken homes in the neighborhood. I am going to try to spend time with these children and help them. When I do, I will talk to them about points of the gospel. If I don’t, I don’t see things turning out very well for them. It would be better if they didn’t have those types of homes, but we’ve got to start where they are. Or don’t try to do anything at all, which shouldn’t be the option.
David,
You have to keep in mind that the gospel is simple enough for a child to understand it. Therefore repentance must be understandable. You can give children the gospel without using a big word like repentance. If you thoroughly explain sin, the consequences of their sin, and the love of Jesus, who wants to save them if they believe on him, they already understand repentance. They will understand that Jesus won’t want them to love sin and therefore their hearts desire after hearing the gospel will want to please him.
Jesus said a child can believe and they don’t have to have a doctoral degree to do so. Obviously it might take a lot more than one Sunday School time to understand it, but if we keep the simplicity of the gospel in our mind it will help us strike the balance.
Just some thoughts.
John
How can I get email updates about new posts that you write?
Hello John!
Why tell the children to believe? Why use a big word like “believe”? It is almost as big as “repentance.” Maybe we should leave that big word out, too. After all, if they can repent without being told to repent, they can also believe without being told to believe. “Resurrection” is a big word as well. We should leave it out when explaining the gospel. Children can understand that Christ rose from the dead without being told about it.
Telling children they need to surrender to Christ as their King is crucial in explaining the gospel. Whether you use the word “repent”–as they did all the time in the Bible–or if you follow another method than what they followed in the Bible, you had better not leave out the idea of repentance, or you are going to get a lot of false professions, as you will find out, to your sorrow, in a decade or two decades, unless the Rapture comes first.
Hi KJB,
Do you believe a child can be saved?
Were there instances in the Bible where the word repent is not used in a gospel presentation? If so, maybe it’s possible to give the gospel without using the word while of course making sure the concept is there. Your assertion in the second paragraph about everybody using the word repent is not accurate and you are suggesting I use a false biblical method.
I don’t think your unnecessary sarcasm to inaccurately portray what I was saying fits with 1 Cor. 13. I was not minimizing repentance as you are suggesting. I clearly stated there has to be the repentance to be saved.
Your response is a great way to shut down communication with brethren rather than continue communication. There is a way to say things that doesn’t shut down someone else and give them an excuse to reject what you are saying based on your attitude.
Take care!
John
Dear John,
Yes, of course a child can be saved.
There are instances where “believe” is not used in gospel presentation and instances where “repent” is not used.
Maybe you didn’t mean it this way, but when you said:
If you thoroughly explain sin, the consequences of their sin, and the love of Jesus, who wants to save them if they believe on him, they already understand repentance.
This was an insufficient and unbiblical definition of repentance. Repentance emphatically does not mean only that one understands he is a sinner, his sin is bad, and he is on his way to hell, and he must believe in the loving Jesus. It involves surrender to Christ as Lord or King. Giving up being in charge and wanting Jesus to be your King is not that hard to understand, but however hard it is or is not, we trust the Spirit to illuminate the exposited Word to the spiritually blind.
If you just forgot to include that, but you really understand just how crucial it is, please pardon my sharpness. If it was a deliberate omission, then please consider how you preach the gospel, as confusion on the gospel means people screaming in hell eternally.
Thank you.
Brother Brandenburg,
Thank you for the encouragement.
Brother John,
I understand what you are saying. I have three children and my goal is that they truly understand the full gospel that they might trust Christ and be born again. My desire is the same with other children and all people for that matter. I want people to be born again by the Spirit of God through faith in Christ. I don’t want to remove the simplicity that is in Christ and I have tried to refine my understanding of the gospel so I can effectively help others understand it to the best of my ability, including children.
Brother Ross,
I realize it’s easy to talk from behind a keyboard, but I wanted to let you know that the tone of your comment is off putting. You won the argument and you are right (although I think you read a little more into John’s comment than I saw unless you know something about him that I don’t), but I think the belittling speech is unhelpful and uncharitable. I don’t know why you felt it necessary to speak that way. This isn’t the first time your comment has come across this way to me and I’m just letting you know that it’s shaping my view of you as arrogant and unkind. I want to “believe all things” that you are humble and kind, but sometimes your comments seem to lack grace. And really, I’m not a softy. I love the prophets and Matthew 23.
Dear Bro David,
Thanks for the comment.
Maybe John did not really mean it, but there is a growing segment of IFB people, such as those associated with Falls Baptist Church and Baptist College of Ministry in Menomonee Falls, WI, who believe the dangerous lie that as long as one shows that sin is bad, that it means people are going to hell, and then positively presents belief while totally omitting surrender to Christ, then one has explained “repentance.” This is a dangerous error that will leave far more than one person in hell forever, although if it was only one person it would deserve being warned about.
I hope I am not arrogant and unkind, but if you think I am, you certainly can say so.
Thanks.
Bro Ross
I didn’t say I thought you were arrogant and unkind. I said some of your commenting here, specifically your comment on this post, gives the impression that you are or at least can at times be arrogant and unkind (which I can as well). If John meant what you said he meant, there would still be a better way to meekly “instruct those that oppose themselves” than your comment. Again, I don’t know John or any previous interactions you and he may have had. I realize from behind a keyboard it’s easy to say anything, but I wouldn’t want people to let me get used to speaking to others the way you spoke to him.
To discuss the point at hand I do have a question. Since the Bible doesn’t use the word surrender, do you think that telling a man he must surrender to be saved could cause confusion about trusting Christ? I thought much about the phrase you said, “Telling children they need to surrender to Christ as their King is crucial.” Would you say to children, “If you want to be saved you must surrender to Christ as your King”? Personally, I think that phrase goes too far past the gospel messages preached in the Bible. I believe surrender is part of repentance, but it seems to me that we must preach repent and believe and allow the Word of God to do its work. I believe we should preach that Christ is King and all men must surrender to Him as King that men might be convicted that they have not done so. However, for me (who am not at all the Hyles/Sword/etc. type) the issue comes into what exactly we “require” for salvation. Maybe you could clarify how the phrase “surrender to Christ as king” would fit into a gospel presentation, since it’s not a phrase we see preached in Scripture.
This sort of goes back to my original question on this thread. I fear that in trying to explain repentance, I might actually add to the gospel message. Is that something you’ve considered? In other words, do we, in trying to do the Holy Spirit’s job go too far by including the “fruits” of repentance in the repentance itself?
Do all of you check this site often or is there some way to follow this site or have it email you when there are new posts?
Bee,
I don’t know the tech to be followed. I think it’s easy, but I don’t know what it is. Maybe a reader could tell us how we can bulk inform people of a new post. Let us look into it.