The Conversion of an Evolutionist: Conclusion – Sanctify the Lord in Your Hearts (Plus bonus material)
Priorities in Presenting the Faith: an apologetic of evangelism (Part 5)
We began with Dr. Whitcomb’s testimony of salvation and early witnessing efforts. From there Dr. Whitcomb spoke of obstacles to evangelism, the fallen nature of man and the opposition of Satan. In Part 3 Dr. Whitcomb made the point that evangelism that effective evangelism must always draw the attention of the lost to God’s word. Saving power is in the Word. That is where witness can succeed. Part 4 argues that the sinner already knows intuitively that there is a God to whom he must answer, so the attempt to deviate from the authority of Scripture to the authority of evidences distracts from the message. Put the Word before the sinner, and let it preach. (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)
Dr. Whitcomb concluded Part 4 with these paragraphs:
Furthermore, the words that follow Peter’s command to “be ready always to give an answer” are highly significant. This defense is to be made with “meekness and fear” (cf. Colossians 4:6) and with “a good conscience; that … they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.”
Note carefully that these conditions have nothing to do with rationalistic debate, for a basic assumption underlying such debate is that a correct answer is effective regardless of the presence or absence of meekness, reverence or godliness in the one giving the answer. But in a spiritual witness to the truth of God, these factors are absolutely vital.
He concludes the article:
It is clear from this passage, then, that no spiritually effective answers can be given to unregenerate people by Christians concerning the hope that is in them until they have learned to sanctify the Lord God in their own hearts. But what does that really mean?
The term sanctify in this context presupposes that Christians are themselves sanctified or holy — set apart for God.
In the immediate context, then, Peter is saying that the believer must confess his inability to convert men by mere human reasonings, and recognize God’s unique and sovereign ability to do the converting. He must learn to pray that the God Who knows the hearts of all men and Who knows how to penetrate those hearts with His own Word will present His Word, by His Spirit, to the hearers, and be glorified by the results.
During the 1944 Ardennes campaign in Belgium, better known as the Battle of the Bulge, the writer served as a “fire direction computer” in a US field artillery battalion. It was his job to sit with two other men in a basement behind the front lines and to telephone directions to the artillerymen who handled the twelve 105mm guns.
The really dangerous job was entrusted to the forward observer, usually a lieutenant. He had to position himself in a high place near enough to the front lines to see enemy tanks approaching.
When the tanks came into view, a potential crisis emerged. He could either panic or he could follow strict instructions. If he panicked and fled to the rear, the tanks would proceed unchallenged, and the battle might be lost, including the forward observer. Or, he might rush toward the tanks and start firing on them himself. That would also prove disastrous to him, and to his military unit.
There was, however, a third alternative. That would be to “sanctify” the field artillery in his heart! In other words, he could follow instructions and phone the “fire direction center,” giving them the number, size, location and apparent speed and direction of movement of the enemy tanks, confessing thereby his inability to handle them in his own strength, and the ability of the field artillery to do the job which he could not do.
It hardly seems necessary to explain that once the artillery had located these tanks, they were in desperate danger. As dozens of armour-piercing shells whistled over the head of the forward observer and penetrated the tanks one by one, exploding inside, he was giving his greatest apologetic to the challenge that confronted him.
As God’s “forward observers” in Satan’s world of demons and fallen men, Christians must learn to call upon their Lord. No other system has ever really worked nor ever shall.
What, then, is the “answer” that each of us must be prepared to give to everyone who asks us to give an account for the hope that is in us? The answer must be basically God’s Word, not our own word. God’s thoughts are vastly higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:9), and His words penetrate far deeper into men’s hearts than our words.
In every sincere soul-winning effort, the believer soon discovers- that his own words are dead, inactive and dull.
But — “the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).
It was Christ the Lord Who set the apologetic example for all believers when He thrice defeated Satan with accurate, appropriate quotations from the Word of God, and with the formula — “It is written” (Matthew 4:1-11). In His great confrontation with unbelieving Pharisees in John 8:12-59, our Lord appealed constantly to basic spiritual realities, such as the witness of His Father (John 8:14, 26, 28, 29, 38, 42, 49, 54), rather than to sign-miracles. It is noteworthy that “as he spake these words, many believed on him” (v. 30).
Do modem Christians sometimes feel that they have, because of archaeological, historical, scientific, and other discoveries that shed light on the Scriptures, a superior apologetic, to that of our Lord and His apostles, and of the early church?
If so, they have not really sanctified the Lord God in their hearts and their answers to lost men can bring neither conviction nor conversion in the biblical sense of those terms. God’s work must be done in God’s way if it is to receive God’s approval (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:10-15).
(Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)
Dr. John Whitcomb is well known as a theologian and apologist. Among his many books are The World that Perished and The Genesis Flood (with Dr. Henry Morris). This series of articles is reproduced with permission.
You can contact Dr. Whitcomb via his website at: www.whitcombministries.org
Listen to Dr. Whitcomb’s sermons: www.sermonaudio.com/sermonsspeaker.asp
Full pdf of this article (Parts 1 through 5).
Bonus: Dr. Whitcomb addressing the winter board meeting of the Foundations Baptist Fellowship International, February 13, 2018, Indianapolis, IN. Dr. Whitcomb is 94, still a blessing, speaking to us without notes. One momentary lapse of memory interrupted his message to us, but that was no matter. The grace of God in his life was evident to us all.
https://s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/whitcomb2018wbm/180213.FBFI_WBM.Whitcomb.mp4