This account of the...
Illustration
Object:
This account of the great commission in this text gets us thinking about evangelism. About this topic Martin Luther wrote: "The godly rejoice when the gospel is widely spread, many come to faith, and Christ's kingdom is increased in this way" (What Luther Says, p. 959).
The noblest and greatest work and the most important service we can perform for God on earth is bringing other people, and especially those entrusted to us, to the knowledge of God by the holy gospel (Ibid., p. 958).
We need these insights badly in view of the inertia about evangelism among American Christians. Largely stoked by a sense of the relativism of all values, a U.S. News & World Report 2002 poll reported that 7 in 10 of us disapprove of seeking to convert people to Christianity. Little has changed about these attitudes in the last decade.
Some good reasons can be cited about how much we help people in bringing them to Christ. A 2011 Gallup poll found that religiously inclined people who worship frequently are happier than the population as a whole. This is not surprising if we are acquainted with the latest research on the human brain. It seems that in spiritual exercises we exercise the brain's prefrontal cortex and so receive more generous quantities of the brain chemical dopamine, which results in positive, joyful sensations (Dean Hamer, The God Gene, pp. 72ff; Daniel Amen, Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, p. 81).
If the Trinity doctrine is the focus of treatment of this text, early church theologian Gregory of Nyssa offers an intriguing image. If we think of evangelism as bringing light and fire to the world, he speaks of the three persons of the Trinity as three distinct torches, each transmitting the same light (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 5, p. 317). The three persons each bring one light to the world, but together the flame is more intense.
The noblest and greatest work and the most important service we can perform for God on earth is bringing other people, and especially those entrusted to us, to the knowledge of God by the holy gospel (Ibid., p. 958).
We need these insights badly in view of the inertia about evangelism among American Christians. Largely stoked by a sense of the relativism of all values, a U.S. News & World Report 2002 poll reported that 7 in 10 of us disapprove of seeking to convert people to Christianity. Little has changed about these attitudes in the last decade.
Some good reasons can be cited about how much we help people in bringing them to Christ. A 2011 Gallup poll found that religiously inclined people who worship frequently are happier than the population as a whole. This is not surprising if we are acquainted with the latest research on the human brain. It seems that in spiritual exercises we exercise the brain's prefrontal cortex and so receive more generous quantities of the brain chemical dopamine, which results in positive, joyful sensations (Dean Hamer, The God Gene, pp. 72ff; Daniel Amen, Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, p. 81).
If the Trinity doctrine is the focus of treatment of this text, early church theologian Gregory of Nyssa offers an intriguing image. If we think of evangelism as bringing light and fire to the world, he speaks of the three persons of the Trinity as three distinct torches, each transmitting the same light (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 5, p. 317). The three persons each bring one light to the world, but together the flame is more intense.
