Bad News Bearers
Daniel Propson on Evangelizing the Decent, Deserving & Lost
Ask a dozen of your countrymen, “Do you believe in Jesus?” and few will say “No.” Evangelism is not what it used to be; the good news, for better or worse, precedes us. “What would Jesus do?” is an alarmingly unthreatening question to the average Western individual. Twice as alarmingly, it has become a basically secular question.
The secularized common man can answer a slew of catechetical questions in a satisfactory way. Is there a God? No doubt. Does God love you? Duh. Should you love your neighbor? Of course. Is prayer a good and effective practice? Well, yeah.
They know (whether or not they follow them) all the basics of the faith, except two: the internal reality of sin, and the external reality of the devil. These are not insignificant details. Sin is the chasm between man and his goodness, and the devil is king of that chasm.
The Good News of Depravity
Though many of us talk of a “personal” Jesus, we have forgotten that his enemy is just as personal, and is just as keen on being our “friend.” We have lost sight of what holy men and women have known for centuries: that we are in a battle, and that (to our shame) we frequently fight for the wrong side.
We are bound to sin, of course, but true Christians often find this bondage too obvious even to mention, and secular Christians don’t see what the big deal is. For them, sin is a familiar: a dear and seemingly obedient creature, a little rough around the edges, whom one doesn’t like to show to company. (It is dear because they protect themselves from its ugliness; it is obedient because they have never asked it to go away). These people know they have a tether around their neck, but they think of it as a chosen—and therefore unbinding—constraint.
The dominant opinion seems to be that evil is undeniably real, and that evil is external. Bin Laden is evil; Dylan Harris and Eric Klebold were evil. Me? I’ve got problems, sure, who doesn’t, but I’m a pretty good guy—good enough, anyway.
If the Evil One has a plan for our lives (and I gather he does), that statement must figure prominently in it. As long as we consider ourselves decent, we will consider ourselves deserving.
The first step in freeing a man from his chains is informing him that he is bound by them. This is not a matter of telling him to “be good.” He cannot be good unless he knows Jesus. The advice to “be good” is neither good news nor bad news, but, in the face of our fallen nature, it is horribly depressing.
Thus, the wise evangelist emphasizes his own disentitlement: that he is not good enough, that he has broken faith with his God, that he is inconceivably grateful to be forgiven. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians: “And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling” (1 Cor. 2:1–3).
Daniel Propson is an English teacher at Lincoln High School in Ypsilanti, Michigan. He and his wife attend St. Aloysius Catholic Church in Detroit, and are members of the Word of Life community in Ann Arbor. They live with their two young children in midtown Detroit.
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