- Over the past few weeks we’ve been examining some of the flawed views on apologetics and evangelism that are sometimes embraced within the church. Today we are going to look at one final position we call the Defeatist approach.
- Sadly, there are some Christians today who have simply given up in attempting to reach the world with the Gospel.
- A common viewpoint with those who hold this position is that the state of our culture and world today is so bad that none of our efforts will change anything.
- Furthermore, many justify this position by declaring that we are obviously living in the last days and Jesus told us the world would just keep getting worse as we moved closer to his return.
- The problem with this Defeatist approach however, is that while it may be true that we are living in the last days, we cannot know this for sure. Jesus also told us that no man knows the day or hour of his return (Mt. 24:36).
- Therefore, since we don’t know the Lord’s timing, we must continue to be faithful in carrying out his final instructions to the Church given in the Great Commission (Mt. 28:18-20).
- The Lord has never rescinded the Great Commission. Therefore, regardless of the extent of the cultural decay around us, it is biblically unjustifiable for any Christian to abandon our duty to continue to work for the advancement of the Gospel in our world today.
For more information on reaching today’s culture with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, please check out Jason Carlson’s newly released CD series, Answering the Challenges of a Post-Christian Culture, available in our online store.