The sovereignty of God in grace gives us our only hope of success in evangelism. ... Some fear that belief in the sovereign grace of God leads to the conclusion that evangelism is pointless, since God will save His elect anyway, whether they hear the gospel or not. This . . . is a false conclusion based on a false assumption. . . . So far from making evangelism pointless, the sovereignty of God in grace is the one thing that prevents evangelism from being pointless. For it creates the possibility–indeed, the certainty–that evangelism will be fruitful. Apart from it, there is not even a possibility of evangelism being fruitful. Were it not for the sovereign grace of God, evangelism would be the most futile and useless enterprise that the world has ever seen, and there would be no more complete waste of time under the sun than to preach the Christian gospel. ~ J.I. Packer,
Evangelism and the Sovereignty of GodTimmy Brister provides three key points that according to Packer, the sovereign grace of God should produce.
1. It should make us bold.
2. It should make us patient.
3. It should make us prayerful.
Read Brister's
post for details.
Technorati Tags: Calvinism, evangelism, sovereignty
2 comments:
Rick...Packer said, "This . . . is a false conclusion based on a false assumption. . . ."
What's the false conclusion and what's the false assumption. I'm a little lost on this one.
The false conclusion is "evangelism is pointless".
The false assumption is that because of "the sovereign grace of God ... [He] will save His elect ... whether they hear the gospel or not."
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