2 of 7

Getting to know Professor Sack meant straining my neat theological categories past the breaking point. He seemed clearly (fatally?) liberal on many crucial questions. But he said so many of the right things as well about the gospel. And I thought liberals were all pseudo-Christians who trusted in their own good works to earn God's favor. How could he offer answers on both sides of the great gulf fixed between authentic Christianity and liberalism?

And then the vocational question emerged. How should I treat Professor Sack? Yes, of course I should treat him primarily as my instructor. But he is also a fellow human being who needs salvation, as we all do. Should I pray for him? Should I pray with him? Is he saved, or not, or what?

Professor Sack remained a conundrum to me right through my studies at Chicago. I have since read further work of his on the history of Christian thought with great profit. But what of his soul? What of his destiny?

It was dealing with him and his apparently incoherent ideas (they were not, of course, incoherent to him!) that compelled me, more than anything else in my life, to reconsider the paradigm of conversion and mission I had inherited.

In that paradigm, everyone needed to have a conversion experience. That experience must result in both orthodox conviction and holiness of life. The Christian's task toward his neighbor began with ascertaining whether the neighbor was a Christian. If he was not, one tried to evangelize him and walk with him to the point of conversion. If he crossed over to authentic faith, or was already a Christian, then one's responsibility was to help him understand correct doctrine and live a correct life.

Clearly much depended on discerning the spiritual state of one's neighbor. In my case, I needed to figure out whether Professor Sack was truly a Christian. And I realized that his views were not lining up nicely on my grid. The readings, so to speak, were ambiguous.

So I propose instead a new way of looking at conversion that entails a new way of looking at the Christian mission to one's neighbor. In this new model—at least, new for me, although it in fact is deeply rooted in Christian History—apologetics can find a more appropriate place.

In the old model, apologetics could easily become a form of intellectual browbeating. It was warfare waged on behalf of the neighbor's soul by mowing down his resistance and presenting the gospel with irresistible argument in hopes that he would relent and believe. If he was already a Christian, however, then apologetics took an entirely different tack: It became simply a part of Christian education to confirm his faith and help him evangelize others.

So let us consider now what is, in fact, the goal of the Christian mission. And let us begin by distinguishing it from alternatives.

Our task is not to persuade someone of the superiority of the Christian religion per se. The central goal of Christian mission lies well beyond getting someone to change one religion for another. (Several reasons could be adduced for this, but the most crucial and obvious is simply that no one will be saved merely by practicing a religion, even Christianity.)

Our missionary goal, furthermore, is not just to introduce someone to Christ. Real evangelism, so much evangelical teaching has asserted, lies in bringing people to the point of actual encounter with Jesus. Now, such introductions can well be made, of course, and it is a glorious privilege when God brings such an occasion to pass in one's life. But we must see that making such introductions is only part of the Christian mission.

next page... |  2 of 7

share this page

February 2003, Vol. 47, No. 2