Theocentric Evangelism: Discovering God's Prior Work in Bringing People to Himself — Part 2

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IV. “He Has Also Set Eternity in the Hearts of Men” (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

He has made everything beautiful
in its time. He has also set eternity in
the hearts of men; yet they cannot
fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

I previously understood Ecclesiastes 3:11 to mean that God had given man an eternal soul. That may well be. From interactions with our Chinese friends, I have an additional understanding of how God may have set eternity in our hearts. In our conversations, we often detect questions that are not always spoken. Perhaps some may have difficulty framing the questions such as, “Where do I come from?” “Where will I go after death?” A third is usually verbalised: “What is the purpose of life?”

One passage we introduce to our Chinese seekers is Acts 17:24-30. Invariably, they would stop at this passage and seek further understanding of God as their creator and benefactor. The focal point of their attention is Acts 17:26—

From one man he made every
nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; he determined
the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.
 

An almost audible “Ah-hah” resonates in their hearts as they grasp their identity as someone God has created. Now they have a satisfying answer to the question “Where do I come from?” In addition, the Adamic ancestry of humanity makes a lot of sense to them, despite being taught Darwinism in school. After all if the Chinese respect and worship ancestors, wouldn’t they like to know their first ancestor?

ZX has been a believer for about three months at this point of writing. Recently I was helping him to prepare his testimony, a brief version for his upcoming baptism and a more comprehensive one for sharing Christ with his friends. He talked about his earlier years when he used to think about life after death.

According to his Marxist education, he would then become nothing. Then he said that finally, he stopped thinking about the issue because he could not imagine being forever non-existent. You needed to be there to hear the pain of that struggle and to see the pain on his face at the horrible thought of being non-existent after death.

At a farewell party for ZJ who was going back permanently to East Asia, I asked him what sort of thoughts he might have had of God before he became a Christian. His answer was not surprising. As a little boy, he enjoyed the rural scenery and reflected as he looked at the endless rolling hills, he often thought of what lay far beyond the horizon and what worlds existed beyond this life. Those imponderables were answered when he arrived in Singapore and within a month of our meeting, he readily put his faith in Christ.

I can well identify. As a child, one of my duties was to massage my grandmother’s tired muscles at the end of the day. Massaging is not an intellectual activity so after a while my mind would wander. I used to look up into the pitch-black sky with the starry hosts and wonder about eternal realities. What lay beyond the skies? Who created all these? Where would I go after I die? Thus began a quiet quest for life’s meaning. The answers came when I heard about Jesus as a teenager.


V. “God Did This So That Men Would Seek Him” (Acts 17:27)

God did this so that men would
seek him and perhaps reach out
for him and find him, though he is
not far from each of us.

Following their realisation that God created them (from Acts 17:26) many of our friends walk into another astounding discovery—that God has been good to them. From Acts 17:26b & 27, they realise God’s divine sovereignty in guiding their lives to the very present moment.

So here we were, two of us sitting in an air-conditioned cafeteria, Bibles open. It was nothing unusual for me, though I am thankful for the air-conditioning bringing respite from the ninety percent humidity outside. But for my friend, it represented a different universe. He was 1,500 miles away from home, enjoying a full scholarship, working in well-equipped laboratories and excited about life after his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD).

The situation was overwhelming, considering that not long ago, he was pessimistic about life and life’s opportunities, competing with hordes of other talented people for the scholarship he had won. To him, the experience of people like KJ (See Case #4 from Part 1) is not odd. Many have expressed to us this sense of gratefulness but who do they thank for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity? “Why me?” some have asked. When our friends read Acts 17:26,27 we have an opportunity to talk about God’s goodness and sovereignty in leading people to himself.

Common grace may be a little underrated when we have so “Christianized” God to the extent that He only blesses us. We don’t imagine Him very involved in the rest of mankind. We forget that the Lord is good to all (Psalm 145:9). Paraphrasing the Apostle Paul, Is God the God of Christians only? Is He not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, he is.

The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.

— Psalm 145:9 

VI. Theocentric Evangelism

Theocentric evangelism focuses on God’s prior work. It is not anthropo-centered (labourer-dependent). It is not about technique or methodology, though knowing some will help; neither is it about the skill of a labourer.

Theocentric evangelism, then, is sharing Christ with the conviction that God has already started working in the lives of individuals or groups long before we meet them. If practised, this principle means that somewhere in the process of evangelism, I should discern how God had already intervened in the person’s life and carry on from there. One does not start with a blank slate.

I bounced ideas from this article off several colleagues who minister among the mainstream religions in Asia. The response was very positive—the article struck a responsive chord among them. Some even responded with similar stories of God’s miraculous intervention in the lives of the people they were reaching. I wish I could tell some of their stories but those stories are theirs to tell.


VII. A Personal Postscript

Evangelism gains meaning as we seek to engage people and enter their lives as they allow us. For example where before I would expect people to just listen to (and hopefully understand) my memorized Gospel presentation, I now seek to listen a lot more.

In the first moments of introduction, I silently pray to discern which life issues the Lord may be speaking about to this person in front of me. Through this, I aim to connect with their unspoken questions like “What is the meaning of life?” or “Who is the mysterious power behind my life circumstances?” We have found that though people may be busy and can only grant a quick lunch hour with us, once we connect, we can be in conversation for hours at a time. It is satisfying to engage people with the gospel in this way instead of being a gospel salesman, asking for thirty minutes to give my gospel spiel.

Evangelism for us is not just sharing Bible truths in a vacuum. It is also seeing events, aspirations and circumstances of people in light of God’s providential design and intervention. The Gospel becomes relevant in the warp and woof of the fabric of life.

This discovery has profoundly impacted our little network of co-labourers. Evangelism has never been so exciting. It is one thing to be excited about seeing fruit in evangelism. It is another to see how fruit has come about through God’s intervention.

A sense of anticipation and excitement prevails as we ponder what we will discover of God’s handiwork in the fabric of the lives of those we’ll meet. We marvel and stand in awe of the Sovereign LORD at work in the lives of his creatures to draw them to Himself.


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QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER EXPLORATION

4. How can people with the gift of evangelism relate this principle to their ministry?

5. Are there similar passages in the Bible that might relate to this principle? E.g . Acts 17:2-30


This article was first published as “Theocentric Evangelism: Discovering God’s Prior Work in Bringing People to Himself” in The Evangelical Missions Quarterly Jan 2005 Vol 41, No 1 . Written by Wong Kim Tok