Pastor’s Ponderings on Biblical Evangelism

In order to keep me current with theological and biblical trends, I review the formatting of the Dissertations for Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, where I received my degree back in 2011. What that means is that I read the Dissertations to correct the form, not the substance—that’s up to the Project Readers, who are professors in various seminaries across North America, although I have served as a project reader for such works with Charlotte Christian College and Seminary. Most of the Dissertation end up in book form, so it’s a process that goes way back into the medieval universities.
Anyway, I doubt that you would find reading rather heavy theological studies very interesting, and admittedly, some of them help me to fall asleep at night, especially one that listed dozens of pages of Hebrew verbs. Granted, that was an important study for Hebrew scholars, of which I am not one at all, but I appreciated the countless hours that went into the work. Well,

1. The good news that God inaugurated his kingdom on earth with the coming of His Son Jesus. A new world-changing age dawned.
2. The evangelists framed Jesus’ story in the larger context of the redemptive history of God’s people: they told of Jesus’s God-pleasing life; he was crucified for sins he did not commit to secure victory over sin for those he came to save; and God raised him from the dead, accomplishing victory over death; all of this was in accordance with Old Testament Scripture.
3. A day is coming when God will judge sin, destroy evil and make all things right as he fully establishes the kingdom set in motion by Jesus.
4. Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to indwell those he saves, marking them as his, and giving them power to carry out his mission.
5. Forgiveness and salvation from God’s judgment are offered to those who repent of their sin and trust Jesus as Messiah, Savior, and Lord.
6. Those who repent and trust Jesus must identify themselves as followers of Jesus by being baptized in water in his name.
7. Those who enter into the kingdom of God also enter into his church with the expectation that they will live out their faith in community with God’s covenant people.