CHAPTER 7 Defining Evangelizing - Evangelism Unlimited

Thomas P. Johnston 261
c) The passage that he read [Matt 19:21] was more befitting of accepting monastic vows (a
Greek asceticism), rather than verbally repenting for the forgiveness of sins and verbally
placing his faith in the atoning work of Christ alone: 254
Matt 19:21 (NKJ), “Jesus said to him, ‘If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give
to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.’”
d) For Augustine, the forgiveness of his sins was not yet bestowed until baptism. 255
2) Elements related to evangelism:
a) The personification of “faith” as praying to God, “My faith prays to you, Lord, this faith
which you gave me and with which you inspired me through the Incarnation of your Son
and through the ministry of the Preacher.” 256
(1) What of the cross? Is it the incarnation that saves? Is that a part of the 1 Corinthians
15 Gospel?
(2) What of repentance for the forgiveness of sins?
b) Augustine described a God-shaped vacuum in man’s heart (cf. Eccl 3:11), 257
(1) Is this God-shaped vacuum a part of the Gospel? Where or how is it a part of the
order of salvation?
(2) Is this not a witness of God through creation, which is either awakened or deadened
through the ministry of evangelizing (cf. Acts 14:17, “yet He did not leave Himself
without a witness”)
c) Evangelism as an action of God in giving the soul a yearning for Him. 258
c) An emphasis on another person’s prayer [or goodness] in evangelism, “Yet, though he
did not believe in Christ, he did not break the hold over me of my mother’s goodness
and did not stop me believing” 259
d) A clue that the “Manicheans” did emphasize speaking the Gospel [evangelizing], “O
Truth, Truth, how inwardly even then did the marrow of my soul sigh for thee when,
frequently and in manifold ways, in numerous and vast books, [the Manicheans]
sounded out thy name though it was only a sound!” 260
e) Not surprisingly, baptism became the main message of the Great Commission for
Augustine. 261
254 “So I quickly returned to the bench where Alypius was sitting, for there I had put down the apostle’s book
when I had left there. I snatched it up, opened it, and in silence read the paragraph on which my eyes first fell: “Not in
rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof” [Rom. 13:13]. I wanted to read no further, nor did I need
to. For instantly, as the sentence ended, there was infused in my heart something like the light of full certainty and all
the gloom of doubt vanished away [Note the parallels here to the conversion of Anthony and the agentes in rebus]”
(ibid.).
255“But that faith allowed me no rest in respect of my past sins, which were not yet forgiven me through thy
baptism” (ibid., Book 9, Chap 4)
256The Confessions of St. Augustine, trans. by Rex Warner (New York: Mentor, 1963), 17.
257 “And man desires to praise thee, for he is a part of thy creation; he bears his mortality about with him and
carries the evidence of his sin and the proof that thou dost resist the proud. Still he desires to praise thee, this man who
is only a small part of thy creation. Thou hast prompted him, that he should delight to praise thee, for thou hast made us
for thyself and restless is our heart until it comes to rest in thee” (Confessions, ed. and trans. Albert C. Oulter; Book 1,
Chap 1).
258“But as for the souls that thirst after thee and who appear before thee—separated from ‘the society of the
[bitter] sea’ by reason of their different ends--thou waterest them by a secret and sweet spring, so that ‘the earth’ may
bring forth her fruit and--thou, O Lord, commanding it--our souls may bud forth in works of mercy after their kind [Gen
1:10f.]” (ibid., Book 13, Chap 17).
259Confessions, trans. by Rex Warner, 29.
260Confessions, ed. and trans. Albert C. Oulter; Book 3, Chap 6.
261 “For, by the ministry of thy holy ones, thy mysteries have made their way amid the buffeting billows of the
world, to instruct the nations in thy name, in thy Baptism” (ibid., Book 13, Chap 20).