Hello World!

Today I was reading my Bible, and I came across this scripture 2 Corinthians 5:20. This scripture is key to understanding one of the most important aspects of Christianity. I would like to dive in and see what this is all about!

2 Corinthians 5:20 (NIV)

We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

The title of this post is “The Problem with Evangelizing.” The title is misleading but let us continue.

What is evangelizing?

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, evangelizing is “preaching the gospel or converting to Christianity.”

It comes from the Greek word “εὐαγγέλιον” or euangelion which means gospel or good news. The prefix eu- means good, and suffix -angelion means message. 

Evangelizing is the preaching of the Gospel or Good News regarding Jesus Christ.

If this is Good News, what is “The Problem?”

Well, the problem is that people are offended by the good news. When they hear about Jesus Christ, they instantly shut their ears or close their hearts. They are not interested in hearing the good news, and they feel offended that we would even share it to them. Why would anyone feel offended by hearing the good news? The main reason is first they have to understand… why is the good news …good? 

As Christians, we believe what Romans 3:23 says is true.

Romans 3:23

For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

This scripture explains that every single human sinned and does not meet the requirement to be with God.

Now as Christians we believe this, we were and are sinners, since a sinner is someone that sinned. Sin is disobeying God’s command. Even if you sinned once in your life, you no longer meet the requirements to be with God. The Bible says it this way in the Old Testament.

Psalms 14:1-3 

And if you still believed you never sinned, just look at the ten commandments, have you every broken at least one of these commandments. If you have then you are guilty and must pay the price. And what exactly is the price of sin?

Romans 6:23a

For the wages of sin is death…

This is the bad news. Since every human has sinned, therefore every human deserves death. And death in this case is Hell, which the bible calls the lake of fire. Here is a biblical description of hell in Revelations.

Revelations 21:8

But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death

So, sinners will die and go to hell and burn forever. That is the BAD NEWS, but if we keep reading roman 6:23 we get to the good news. 

Romans 6:23

For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our lord.

You have heard of a “Get out of jail free card,” this is a “Get out of hell free card.” This is the Good News.

Romans 5:8

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

God loves his creation, and he does not want you to go to hell, so he sent his son to take our place. His son died for us and took our punishment, so we won’t have too. And how can we receive this “Get out of hell free card”?

Romans 10:9-13

 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

This is all it takes. Hebrews 11:1 says that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Jesus says in John 20:29, “Blessed are those who have not seen, yet believed.” Faith and Belief goes hand in hand.

What you read is called “Roman’s Road.” It uses the Book of Romans (which is a letter written by Apostle Paul to the Romans). Paul highlights the gospel throughout the entire book, but these snippets are used to help people understand what the Good News actually is.

If you read this far, you should have a better understanding yourself.

But again… what is the problem with evangelism? The problem is you. By rejecting this message, you are rejecting salvation. And by rejecting salvation you go to hell. Nothing you do can save yourself. You are drowning, and Jesus dove into water to save you, you saw him and rejected his help, so you continue to drown. God doesn’t send people to Hell; he lets you choose it yourself.

Some of the main reasons for rejection are as follows:

• God does not exist; therefore, the ten commandments are not really from God, which means I did not sin.
• The ten commandments were rules only for the Hebrew people, since I am not a Hebrew it does not apply to me.
• If this God is real, who’s to say that Hindu God’s are real? What about Buddhism, Bahai, Atheism, Judaism? What about Allah, I do not have to believe in Jesus to go to heaven in Islam, and don’t they worship the same God?”
• The Bible is written by man; therefore, it is all fake. (So is every other book on earth but it’s an argument)
• Science disproves the Bible, God didn’t make humans, it’s all time and chance.

There are many others, and some of them are legitimate. Christianity has not been a good representation of Jesus in human history. But one of the main causes of that is due to Satan.

Satan is the “Great Deceiver”, and he is really good at making you see lies as truth and truth as lies. He did it in the garden of Eden, and he even tried to do it on Jesus. He tempted Judas to sell his friend for 30 pieces of silver. He twisted the thoughts of religious leaders to see Jesus as a threat and not as the Son of God. He used religious leaders to kill Christians even after Jesus died. Most of the 12 apostles suffered gruesome deaths. Here is a link for that info. Satan is considered the prince of the world according to John 12:31. And 2 Corinthians 4:4 calls Satan the “God of his Age”

2 Corinthians 4:4

 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

Satan still works today blinding the minds of unbelievers through music, news, social media, video games, entertainment, family, culture, food, work, career, hobbies, disease, poverty, hardships, wars, natural disasters, etc. We see how he works when we look at what he did to Job in the book of Job chapters 1 and 2. He also works with confusing the minds of believers by twisting scripture and creating false prophets.

God works in mysterious ways, but Satan works in obvious ones. He twists scripture, he lies, he deceives, and he makes you reject God. God will put an end to Satan at the conclusion of all things by throwing him and death into the lake of fire. I just hope you do not join him there too.

Revelation 20:7-15 (NRSV)

When the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, in order to gather them for battle; they are as numerous as the sands of the sea. They marched up over the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from heaven and consumed them. And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulphur, where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

Then I saw a great white throne and the one who sat on it; the earth and the heaven fled from his presence, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Also, another book was opened, the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their works, as recorded in the books. And the sea gave up the dead that were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and all were judged according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire; and anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire

 

With love,

Ayodeji Alaketu

Bonus Content:

Too add clarity, Here Revelation 20:7-15 with my own commentary in RED.

When the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog (powerful nations against god), in order to gather them for battle; they are as numerous as the sands of the sea. They marched up over the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city (Jerusalem/Heaven). And fire came down from heaven and consumed them (Like Elijah battle against 450 prophets). And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur (HELL), where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

Then I saw a great white throne and the one who sat on it (JESUS); the earth and the heaven fled from his presence, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Also another book was opened, the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their works, as recorded in the books. And the sea gave up the dead that were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and all were judged according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire (God destroys “death” for good. Death is now tossed into Hell). This is the second death, the lake of fire; and anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire. 

My scripture that started this all was

2 Corinthians 5:20 (NIV)

We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

I implore you, on Christ’ behalf. Please be reconciled to God.

 

If you gotten this far and want to be reconciled with God that’s amazing. I would start by saying a prayer. Confess your sins to God and ask for him to help you reconcile with him. You can message me for additional help! There are also many resources out there that can help as well. But the main resource is God. If you speak with God from the bottom of your heart…he will do the rest. 🙂

Feel free to message me on Facebook or Instagram. I will start sharing that info on my posts!