AN EXCERPT FROM True Evangelism

EVANGELISM has been part of Dallas Theological Seminary’s identity from the very beginning. Founding president Lewis Sperry Chafer brought experience in evangelism from all over the country when he launched the seminary. Thirteen years before the seminary opened its doors to the first cohort of students, Chafer wrote True Evangelism, in which he considered evangelism as the work of all Christians, a work empowered not by strategy but by the Holy Spirit at work in the world. In this excerpt from chapter 3, Chafer draws readers’ focus back to the core of evangelism: Dependence on the Spirit as we share the good news of salvation.

The fact that the Word of God, in the hands of the Spirit, is living and operative is the only warrant for any appeal to the unsaved; and is a warning as well that the message, to be effective, must be in accord with the whole truth of God, that it may be used by the Spirit. It is a conspicuous fact that every successful soul-winner has been a fearless defender of every essential doctrine of the Scriptures.

The skill of the evangelist or the pastor who would do the work of an evangelist, is seen in the ability to present the limited body of redemptive truth repeatedly, yet with freshness and variety.

The evangelist is limited to that evangel which unfolds the cure of sin and the way of life by the substitutionary death of the Cross, since that is the only message which the Spirit can use, as His Sword in unveiling those eyes which are blinded to that particular truth. How helpless, then, in true soul-saving operation with God, is that person who has a heart of unbelief toward the blood of the Cross, or whose message has been beguiled away from the way of life by Christ Jesus, to an appeal for morality, or religious ceremonials, which are the result of human energy and expediencies!

Jesus has commanded His own that are in the world to preach the Gospel of redemptive truth to every creature: yet their preaching is of no avail, save as it is accompanied with the convincing and illuminating work of the Spirit.

Check out Chafer’s book True Evangelism.
https://b.link/q/i2jzsdmv

About the Contributors

Lewis Sperry Chafer

The capstone of Lewis Sperry Chafer’s life as a musician, evangelist, and Bible conference speaker—in addition to founding and teaching theology at DTS—was the publication of his eight-volume Systematic Theology, the last of his books. Dr. Chafer’s presence was a blessing and benediction to his students. He served as the first president of DTS from 1924 to 1952.