I was taught evangelism in seminary by a very famous theologian and by a professional evangelist. Neither was crystal clear on what a person needed to do to be saved forever.
The other day, Sam Marr, who’s been with GES since last October, showed me a magazine article on evangelism. The article was by a seminary professor who teaches a recurring course on evangelism and apologetics. In other words, he is a professional when it comes to evangelism.
This blog will focus on wrong or confusing statements about evangelism.
That magazine article is simply titled “Evangelism.” The author cites twenty-four verses—without quoting any—and gives five or six lines of explanation on how to use that text for evangelism. I’ve picked four of his explanations to consider.
John 3:16. He writes: “The presentation of the gospel must include four indispensable elements: the reality of God; human sin which separates us from God; the atoning work of Christ; and the need for faith. This most famous verse presents all four elements. Whom will you share the message of this verse with today?”i
Two of the four elements the author discusses are not actually in John 3:16. The Lord said nothing in that verse about human sin or about His atoning work.
I found it sad that the author missed two of the key elements that are in John 3:16. They are believing, Jesus, and everlasting life. He mentions faith, but not faith in Jesus, and not for everlasting life.
Acts 2:38-39. I was surprised to see this in the list. This is a favorite text for the Church of Christ, which holds to five conditions of salvation (believe, obey, confess, repent, and be baptized) and to possible loss of salvation if four of those conditions are not continuously met until death. There is a dispensational explanation. See this journal article by Lanny Thomas Tanton, a former Church of Christ evangelist.
However, the professional evangelist who wrote this article says, “Peter’s answer [to “What should we do?”] gives a beautiful invitation to repent and believe. Pray that God brings you the opportunity to share the gospel with someone this day.”ii
But the sole condition of everlasting life, as cited in John 3:16, is believing in Jesus Christ. Why does the author say that we need to believe and repent to be saved?
And why does he leave out baptism? Acts 2:38 says that baptism was, for those Jews guilty of having approved Jesus’ crucifixion, a condition for receiving the remission of sins.
Of course, they did not ask, “What should we do to be saved?” Compare Acts 16:30. They had already believed in Christ, as verse Acts 2:37 shows. They were asking what they needed to do to escape the guilt of having participated in the crucifixion of the Messiah. See Tanton’s article for more details.
1 John 5:13. The magazine author writes: “Why do we share the gospel with people? So that others may share the same hope that we have for eternal life!”iii
First John 5:13 is a much beloved verse. But John does not mention the word hope. Many have pointed out that John is not talking about a hope-so salvation, but a know-so salvation.
John wrote: “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may [continue to] know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.”iv It is clear from 1 John 2:13-28 that the readers already knew they had eternal life. But there were false teachers who were “trying to deceive” (1 John 2:26) the readers regarding “the promise that He has promised us—eternal life” (1 John 2:25). He wrote 1 John 5:9-12 so that the readers might continue to know they had eternal life and that they might “continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.”
1 John 5:13 is a great evangelistic verse. But don’t share a hope-so salvation. Share a know-so salvation.
Jonah 3:3-6. I was surprised to see this passage in the list. Jonah did not evangelize the people of Nineveh. He preached a message of judgment: “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” (Jonah 3:4).
Where is evangelism in that message?
The author of the magazine article said this about Jonah 3:3-6: “Although a flawed, reluctant evangelist, Jonah ministered in Nineveh and witnessed the conversion of the whole city.”v
The condition of everlasting life—as cited in John 3:16 and over a hundred other texts in the OT and NT—is believing in Jesus Christ. There is no indication in Jonah 3:3-6, or anywhere else in the book, that Jonah preached that message.
While unstated, I think I know why the author chose this text. The Lord Jesus cited the book of Jonah in Matt 12:41: “The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.”
If someone thinks that repentance is the condition of everlasting life—which the author of the article on evangelism does—then the Lord would indeed be saying that Jonah led millions in Nineveh to be born again. However, the condition of everlasting life is faith in Christ, not repentance. The Lord is simply saying that Israel should have repented at His preaching. Of course, if they had, then they would surely have also believed Him when He preached the saving message.
Did Jonah go on to evangelize the Ninevites after God chastised him in Chapter 4? Possibly. I like to think so. But if so, he shared the promise of everlasting life by faith in the coming Messiah.
I strongly agree that you should use John 3:16 in evangelism. But use it correctly.
I strongly disagree with using Acts 2:38 in evangelism. But you should know what it means so that if you get a question about it, you can explain why it was a discipleship verse.
Using 1 John 5:13 in evangelism is a great idea. Just explain it clearly.
Using Jonah 3:3-6 in evangelism is a bad idea. Jonah was preaching coming judgment, not the promise of everlasting life to all who believe in the coming Messiah (e.g., Gen 3:15; 15:6).
Keep grace in focus, and you will evangelize clearly.
i Timothy S. Yoder, “Evangelism,” DTS Magazine, Spring 2025, p. 48.
ii Ibid.
iii Ibid, p. 50.
iv The Majority Text includes this longer reading (the words after eternal life).
v Yoder, “Evangelism,” p. 50.
