Why Evangelicals
Think Gospel Proclamation Necessary to Long-Term Good

This paper will attempt
to tell in one page why evangelism is a necessary aspect of all Christian
help. Its thesis is that the source of the world's evil lies in the
rebellion of every human heart, not in external systems, and that Jesus
Christ came to earth to break the power of rebellion through the decisive
action of dying on a cross. This power to change is brought to men and
women who, upon hearing the good news, believe, and receive by the work
of the Holy Spirit the death and resurrection of Jesus into the core
of their being. 

At the Exodus, God,
by his own hand, and in highly dramatic fashion, delivers the Hebrew
slaves from their Egyptian slavemasters for the purpose of forming a
separated people. But within days of having heard and seen the thunderous
voice of God and his majesty in fire and smoke, the Hebrews dance before
an Egyptian god, the Golden Calf, fashioned by their own hand. Moses
names the problem which shall afflict Israelites the rest of their national
existence: the uncircumcised heart. The whole Old Testament can then
be summed up in one lesson: No matter how appetizing the carrot or painful
the stick, they can't make a man or woman good. The OT story covers
the length and breadth of every possible "development" effort -
backed by the infinite resources of God - yet all runs into the sand.
"What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in
it? When I expected it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?"
(Is 5:4). 

But history turned with
the coming of the Saviour Jesus Christ. His mission was to get to the
root of the human problem. Again there is an Exodus scene: Jesus with
his 12 disciples in the Upper Room, celebrating the Passover meal, the
known symbol of the promise of deliverance from bondage. But the slavemaster
is not Rome, or Jewish religious leaders, but the disciples' own fear,
doubt, and sin. It is that Egypt from which Jesus intends to
lead people out of. "We know that our old self was crucified with
him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that
we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been
set free from sin" (Ro 6:6-7). 

True, many evangelicals
at this point follow a false trail, and think salvation to be the deliverance
of the eternal soul from a dying body, so speeding it on to a heaven
safe from this wicked world. Yes, that sort of hope does kill interest
in doing good today. But the division Jesus himself made was not between
a mortal body and an immortal soul, but between an inner source and
its outward behaviour: "Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs
from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased
tree bears bad fruit" (Mt 7:17-18); "You blind Pharisee! First clean
the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean"
(Mt 23:26). Evangelicalism is skeptical of efforts to clean the outside
of the cup by replacing "bad systems" with "good systems", for
the amount of underlying human selfishness remains unchanged. Christ-less
humanitarian projects at best turn wicked poor people into wicked rich
people. Instead, the principal goal of evangelism is to convert the
inside of a man or woman, trusting that the new "good trees" will
indeed produce good fruit.  

We evangelicals are
therefore one with Billy Graham's strategy for the betterment of the
world:

"I am
convinced if the Church went back to its main task of proclaiming the
Gospel and getting people converted to Christ, it would have a far greater
impact on the social, moral and psychological needs of men than any
other thing it could possibly do."

Evangelicals believe
very much in loving their neighbour and helping the poor, not because
this work is a necessary balance
to gospel proclamation, but because it is the natural & normal behaviour
of a heart-circumcised, Holy Spirit-inhabited, human being. That "love
may more abound more and more" is precisely the reason we all the
more desire the preaching of the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ,
because only by the power of his death and resurrection are lives thus
transformed.