CHAPTER 7 Defining Evangelizing - Evangelism Unlimited

Thomas P. Johnston 299
“As a result of such ‘self-criticism and repentance,’ some reforms should take place in order to
ensure a healthier approach to the issue of conversion. Some concrete suggestions include:
discouraging and rejecting ‘unethical means’, avoiding taking advantage of ‘vulnerable’ people like
children and disabled persons, and doing humanitarian work ‘without any ulterior motives’.
“The report, issued by the 27 participants from Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Jewish and
Yoruba religious backgrounds, recognizes that ‘many differences and disagreements’ remained
among them, but nonetheless a ‘convergent understanding of the several aspects of the issue of
religious conversion’ developed.” 439
2007 World Evangelical Alliance’s general secretary Rev. Dr Geoff Tunnicliffe gave full approval
of the WEA’s involvement in the further development of the 2006 “code of conduct to guide
activities seeking converts to Christianity” [above] with the Vatican and the WCC to be
finalized by 2010. 440
Since, it seems, that the WEA has approved this measure, severely limitations may be
enacted against the evangelism activities of WEA member churches, such as in France,
where an anti-sect law is now on the books (as of 31 May 2000). France chose to define
“sectarian” as being congregational, and not being a member of either the Roman Catholic
church, the French Protestant Federation, or the French Evangelical Alliance. The “face off”
is now for 2010, perhaps with implementation to follow!
May the Lord protect us in our New Testament evangelism as we fulfill His Great Commission!
Conclusions on Historical Terminology:
Evangelism has been discussed and fiercely debated throughout the history of the churches. Its
seeming lack of attention in many “church history” classes is likely due to its omission in the history
books, and due to the fact that most evangelists and evangelistic movements were extirpated by the
Roman Catholic church. Later, among liberalizing Protestants, evangelism was shunned because it
was viewed as “fanaticism,” and among ecumenical Christians, evangelism was condemned as
proselytizing. Simultaneously, bringing up past issues like the hundreds of thousands of Second
Millennium martyrdoms in Western Europe at the hand of Rome (prior to the Enlightenment) in
“church history” classes is deemed an unnecessary digging up of the “weaknesses of the past” 441
[ignoring or covering up the past is quite novel if one is to learn from the past], and one must
remember that supposedly “both sides were to blame.” 442
439 “Vatican/WCC study on conversion affirms freedom of religion, warns about ‘obsession of converting
others’” available from: http://www.oikoumene.org/en/news/news-management/all-news-english/display-singleenglish-news/browse/25/article/1634/vaticanwcc-study-on-conv.html;
accessed 2 Nov 2007; Internet.
440 “Christian code of conduct on religious conversion wins broader backing”; available from:
http://www.oikoumene.org/en/news/news-management/eng/a/article/1634/christian-code-of-conduct.html; accessed: 24
Sept 2009; internet.
441 See John Paul II, Tertio Millennio Adviente (14 Nov 1994), which speaks in very general terms of the
weaknesses of the past: “She [the Church] cannot cross the threshold of the new millennium without encouraging her
children to purify themselves, through repentance, of past errors and instances of infidelity, inconsistency and slowness
to act. Acknowledging the weaknesses of the past is an act of honesty and courage which helps us to strengthen our
faith, which alerts us to face today's temptations and challenges, and prepares us to meet them. 34. Among the sins
which require a greater commitment to repentance and conversion should certainly be counted those which have been
detrimental to the unity willed by God for his people. In the course of the 1,000 years now drawing to a close, even
more than in the first millennium, ecclesial communion has been painfully wounded, a fact ‘for which, at times, men of
both sides were to blame.’” (op. cit., par. 33-34).
442 Some would say here, “After all, didn’t Calvin have his Servetus?” [note the last sentence in the prior
footnote from a Papal encyclical] Servetus was executed under the command of Geneva’s town council for his denial of
the Trinity, a capital crime all over Catholic Europe at the time. However, according to Crespin’s martyrology (Geneva,
1570), there were 12 martyred Huguenots in France at the hand of Rome’s clergy in 1553, that same year Servetus was
executed (M. Dymonet martyred for heresy in Lyon; L. de Marsac, and his cousin, and E. Gravot burned at the stake for
heresy in Lyon; S. Laloé martyred in Dijon, his executer, J. Sylvestre, was converted as a result; D. Peloquin burned at
the stake in Ville-franche; N. Nail arrested with Bibles from Geneva burned over a fire in Paris; A. Magne burned alive
in Paris; G. Neel burned at the stake in Evreux; E. le Roy and P. Denocheau executed in Chartres; P. Serre burned at the
stake in Toulouse), the year before, 1552, there were eight martyred by Rome’s clergy for the Gospel in France (The
Lausanne five: M. Alba, P. Escrivain, B. Seguin, C. Favre and P. Navihère, arrested on their third day in Lyon,