“What is the difference between these two statements?“The minimum amount of truth to the maximum amount of people”“The maximum amount of truth to the maximum amount of people”Only two words: minimum, maximum. But those words constitute a difference as great as night and day. The first statement unfortunately seems to summarize the goal of much contemporary evangelism. The second describes the historic and biblical goal in evangelism.”(Will Metzger, “Tell the Truth,” p.33) Today we live in a fast track world. Everything we do is to be done in lightning speed. There is no room for turtle speed. We need faster and faster cars, faster internet, postal services, Christmas shopping, etc. We hail, ironically, the “Hare” in the famous fairy tale as our hero and the turtle as a “dud.” We have no tolerance for the slow pace just get into the far left lane on a freeway and you will soon find out. Nevertheless, our society has been programmed to believe that faster is better! In addition to all this, is the fact that less is also considered better. What do I mean? This means that alongside the faster is the so called “less philosophy” where we want less is “better” instead of more. Today also is a day where we desire earnestly for less work, less effort, less diligence, less study, less sweat, less pain, etc. I hope you get the picture. Both of these philosophies have wreaked havoc on society. Both are active and alive in the presentation of the gospel today. The contemporary and popular church is accustomed to giving less and giving hastily the gospel of Christ. The less content the better. The few words presented the better. This is a woeful condition. The early church and church history bears out that this is not the “better” way of presenting the gospel. In fact, Scripture bears out the complete opposite. The early church preached and taught the word, they reasoned in the Scripture, they persuaded, they declared earnestly, etc. Let us be patient and present as much truth as possible. “The maximum amount of truth to the maximum amount of people,” this should be characteristic of our evangelism. We are to strive to be “mighty in the Scriptures.” Let us be faithful to the “Great Commission.”
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