Kirk Cameron video (approach to Evangelism)

[Guest]

I see Paul's sermon on Mars Hill as an evangelistic one, though it appears that he did not get a chance to finish it, due to the heckling of the crowd, so we do not know what he may have intended to include in the latter part.

I have heard it suggested that Paul used the commandment against idolatry to bring conviction in that sermon. However, though Paul presented an argument against idolatry, I do not find him quoting or alluding to any of the commandments, nor even telling his audience that God had given any commandment about it. He argued that the representation of God with statues of wood and stone is absurd based upon the aliveness of God seen in His giving life to all creatures, His various interventions, and also supported by the works of a Greek poet. In fact, the commandments of God are the one relevant argument against idolatry that Paul did not choose to mention.

People also appeal to Jesus' conversation with the rich, young ruler to support the use of the decalogue in evangelism. However, if the citation of the ten commandments is being employed to inspire conviction of sin, it had the opposite effect on this man. When he heard the commandments, his response was, essentially, "Then I have been cool with God all my life!" He felt no conviction until Jesus gave him a command of His own (one for which there is no parallel in the Old Testament): "Go and sell all that you have, and give it to the poor...then come follow me."

I also find no allusion to the ten commandments in Jesus' dialogue with the woman at the well (John 4). Some say He alluded to the commandment against adultery, but this is quite a stretch. He made no reference to the commandments, and there is no reason to believe that the woman was committing adultery, anyway. If her multiple husbands had all divorced her, she was permitted, under the Law (Deut.24), to remarry. The fact that she was currently shacked-up with a sixth man does not put her at odds with any Old Testament commandment, so there is no way that the Law could touch her in her present situation. Jesus made no reference to the commandments, and never even laid the stigma of her sin upon her conscience in that discussion.

These are the chief examples that are supposed to show the desirability and appropriateness of the use of the decalogue in evangelism, but they do not demonstrate this at all. If they show us anything, it is that this method was not "the way of the Master"...nor the way of the apostles. That does not mean that it is a bad method, so far as methods go, but, as I said above, I do not really like canned, methodical approaches to evangelism.