The doctrine of witnessing

1. Definition: Witnessing is the royal family fulfilling its ministry of reconciliation. One of the full-time Christian service functions that belongs to you is the ministry of reconciliation, 2 Corinthians 5. Witnessing is the royal family communicating the gospel to the unbeliever on a personal basis. Witnessing, therefore, is personal evangelism. Witnessing functions apart from mass evangelism, apart from church evangelism or the preaching of the believer who has the gift of evangelism. This is a personal contact, personal conversation, do-it-yourself type of thing.

The threefold character of witnessing is found in 1 Thessalonians 1:4,5, the witnessing of the life, the lips, the witnessing of God the Holy Spirit.

2. The Holy Spirit is the sovereign executive of witnessing. The unbeliever is minus a human spirit, he has no frame of reference for the gospel. The gospel is spiritual phenomena and therefore it is impossible for any unbeliever to understand any portion of the gospel by his own ability in the field of perspicacity. Therefor God the Holy Spirit must act as a human spirit in order for them to understand the gospel — John 16:8-11. In these verses sin does not mean personal sin, or the fact that you are bad or that you are a sinner. The only sin that is an issue in presentation of the gospel is the rejection of Jesus Christ as saviour. Therefore verse 9 says, “Concerning sin because they do not believe on me.” Personal sin is not the issue. The second factor, “concerning righteousness because I go to the Father and you no longer see me.” In other words, Jesus Christ as a member of the human race is accepted at the right hand of the Father, everyone who believes in Him is in union with Christ, also accepted at the right hand of the Father. This is what the Holy Spirit emphasises. Finally, “concerning judgement because the ruler of this world has been judged.” The ruler of this world is Satan and Satan was judged when Jesus Christ died on the cross, rose again, ascended. The judgement of Satan is mentioned in Colossians 2:24; Hebrews 2:14. Satan has been judged and therefore since he has and is going to be cast into the lake of fire those who reject Christ as saviour will share the lake of fire with him. Again, the reason for God the Holy Spirit having to make this information real to the unbeliever is because of the statement of 1 Corinthians 2:14, “The soulish man [unbeliever] does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he is not able to obtain knowledge of the gospel because they are discerned from the source of the human spirit.” There is no way he can understand the gospel because all gospel information is discerned by the human spirit. We are born with a soul and a body but without a human spirit. We acquire the human spirit at the point of regeneration. The human spirit is the means, the frame of reference, for spiritual phenomena. Before the spiritual phenomena [Bible doctrine in any form] can enter the frame of reference in the soul it must be assimilated in the human spirit. But the unbeliever doesn’t have a human spirit, therefore the spiritual phenomena is foolishness to him, he can’t comprehend it. So whenever the gospel is presented it is God the Holy Spirit who takes what is pertinent in the presentation and makes it reality in the soul of the unbeliever so that he sees an issue, so that he understands an issue, so that he becomes aware of what the issue really is.

3. Pertinent Bible doctrine [the gospel] is always the weapon of witnessing — not salesmanship tactics, not weeping and wailing and begging, not some gimmick system or jumping through psychological hoops. Under this concept we have seven principles related to the Bible as the weapon:

a) The gospel which is in the Bible is the power of God to salvation. It is the gospel, the message, the content, that saves, not salesmanship tactics, Romans 1:16; 1 Corinthians 1:18. A true presentation of the gospel is what God the Holy Spirit uses and it is the power of God unto salvation.

b) The Bible is the absolute norm or standard for truth, 2 Peter 1:12-21.

c) The source of the gospel, therefore, is the Bible, Luke 16;28-31: 1 Corinthians 15:3,4.

d) The Bible is the mind of Christ, 1 Corinthians 2:16. So when you are witnessing you are presenting the very thinking of the Lord Jesus Christ.

e) The Bible is said to be divine power, Hebrews 4:12.

f) The Bible never returns void, Isaiah 55:11.

g) The Bible endures forever, Luke 21:33; 1 Peter 1:25.

When you put all these things together you have a weapon. And you never sit around and argue, Is the Bible the Word of God? That is ludicrous, it is beside the point.

4. The believer priest is the agent in witnessing.

a) Witnessing is the responsibility of every member of the royal family of God, Acts 1:8; Ephesians 6:15,20; 2 Timothy 4:5.

b) There are two areas in which we as believers witness: the witness of the life, 2 Corinthians 3:3; 6:3; the witness of the lips, 2 Corinthians 5:14-21; 6:2.

c) Knowledge of pertinent doctrine is necessary for effective witnessing because the believer must witness in the wisdom of the Spirit. he must make the issue clear. He must exclude human persuasiveness and human salesmanship. The believer must understand principles of Christology and soteriology. He must understand, above all, redemption, reconciliation, and propitiation. He must certainly understand imputation and justification, as well as positional sanctification. And if he is going to be lucid and clear he must understand the true issues of the last judgement. So knowledge of pertinent doctrine is very important in witnessing.

d) The believer’s ability to witness depends on five different concepts:

1. His emphasis on the gospel, especially reconciliation, Ephesians 2:14-17.

2. His correct and accurate information, 1 Corinthians 1:18; Ephesians 6:17; Hebrews 4:12.

3. He must be filled with the Spirit when he witnesses. This gives him the flexibility to do the job correctly, Acts 1:8.

4. He must have the right mental attitude — the best expression is found in Romans 1:14-16, the three “I ams.”

5. The believer must have the assurance of eternal security to be stabilised in his own witnessing, Romans 8:38,39; 1 Peter 1:4,5.

5. The witnessing of the royal priest is the extension of his ambassadorship, 2 Corinthians 5:18-20.

6. The concept of making the issue clear:

a) You must give the unbeliever pertinent salvation information. When you walk away from an unbeliever after witnessing he must have a clear understanding of the issue of the gospel. Christ is the issue; attitude toward Christ is the issue. False issues must be avoided., they muddy up the water [drinking, smoking. etc. are false issues]. There are certain things that are obnoxious to all of us but we should not get our own personal likes and dislikes tangled up with the gospel. The issue is very clearly presented by Ephesians 2:8,9.

b) Never put the cart before the horse. Do not try to get the unbeliever to live the Christian way of life before he is born again.

c) Be sure to provide gospel information on which the unbeliever can make a decision for Christ. Remember the gospel boundaries are well defined in 1 Corinthians 15:3,4. Make sure that you make an issue out of the Lord Jesus Christ and not out of people’s sins and bad habits.

d) Do not add to the gospel of grace. Grace needs no addition. Nothing is accomplished toward salvation by persuading the unbeliever to give up his sins, improve his personality and behaviour pattern, feel sorry for his sins, join the church, be baptised, or give money.

e) Do not try to force a decision for Christ. This is the Ministry of God the Holy Spirit under the doctrines of common and efficacious grace, so stay out of the way of the Holy Spirit. Do your job and get out of the way.

f) Remember that the first divine institution is free will. This includes freedom and privacy for decision. You provide gospel information but you leave the results in the hands of the Lord. The gospel must persuade the unbeliever to believe in Christ, and nothing else. Therefore avoid gimmicks which confuse the issue — emotional begging, public invitations, the raising of hands, the walking of aisles, the jumping through psychological hoops. There is no place for these in witnessing.

g) Effective witnessing depends on the ministry of God the Holy Spirit: the ministry of the Holy Spirit directed toward the believer in spirituality, Acts 1:8; 2 Corinthians 3:3; the ministry of the Holy Spirit directed toward the unbeliever in convincing, John 16:8-11; 1 Corinthians 2:14.

h) Clarity of witnessing depends on the believer understanding the judgement of human good. Human good was rejected at the cross, only sin was judged. Human good will be judged in the believer at the judgement seat of Christ, and human good will be judged in the unbeliever at the great white throne or the last judgement.

7. Summary:

a) Prerequisites for witnessing involve knowledge of pertinent doctrines related to the gospel. You must know these.

b) Effectiveness of witnessing depends upon the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.

c) responsibility for witnessing belongs to every member of the royal family of God.

d) Dynamics of witnessing depend upon the believer’s mental attitude related to his spiritual growth.

e) Clarity of witnessing depends upon the believer’s accurate understanding of the two deaths of Christ on the cross.

f) Areas of witnessing include both the life and the lips.

g) The challenge to witnessing comes from the doctrine of unlimited atonement.

i) The reward for witnessing is included in the believer’s paragraph SG³, surpassing grace. 8. The biblical pattern for witnessing is found in 1 Thessalonians chapter two.

9. The postulates of pitfalls in witnessing:

a) Avoid argumentation. You may win the debate but you won’t win the soul. Your responsibility is to disseminate information, not to argue over the validity of the information. You present it, leave the rest to the Holy Spirit.

b) Do not be sidetracked by false issues. These include such subjects as:

Is the Bible the Word of God? What about the people who have never heard?

c) Deal with the individual alone where possible. Witnessing in front of others creates false issues by producing embarrassment, loss of prestige, heckling.

d) Avoid getting into a rut, using the same approach in every case. different approaches to the subject of the gospel are necessary for different people. Your flexibility comes with your spiritual maturity.

e) Avoid the false concept that you must speak to a certain number of people every day about Jesus Christ or you are not spiritual. Witnessing is not spirituality, it is the result of the balance of residency in the soul between the filling of the Spirit and maximum doctrine.

f) Motivation for witnessing must come from doctrine resident in the soul, not human pressure, not approbation lust.

g) Avoid bragging about your experiences in witnessing. The Lord knows what you have done and that is all that is necessary.

h) Do not judge other believers for their apparent failure to witness. This is a matter between them and the Lord. Such judging and maligning only brings divine discipline on yourself. You must face that issue for yourself and no one else.

10. The analogy to witnessing — Matthew 4:19, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” A fisherman must have a desire to fish, and that is true of witnessing. You must have a desire to impart the gospel, you must love Jesus Christ, there must be some true spiritual motivation.

A fisherman goes equipped. He knows exactly what he is after and he knows what he is going to hook it with. This is important in being a fisher of men, you must be equipped with the gospel.

And they always go where the fish are located.

They keep out of sight. Never make an issue of yourself, you are not the issue, Christ is the issue.

Fishermen must be patient. When you get to the point where you are getting vibrations, cut it off!

11. The principle of prayer in witnessing is a bona fide principle — Romans 10:1.

12. Effective witnessing belongs to those in supergrace status — Proverbs 11:30.

13. There is a relationship between witnessing and doctrine resident in the soul. Human perspicacity based on high IQ is not necessary for evangelising those who have a high IQ. You have information he needs no matter how smart he is. Cognisance of the unbeliever’s religion or his philosophy is not necessary for witnessing. For example, you do not have to understand Judaism to witness to the Jews; you do not have to understyand Mahomedanism to witness to the Muslim, Mormonism to witness to a Mormon, philosophy to witness to a philosopher. What you need is doctrine in your soul. The creation of a public relations image is not s substitute for the filling of the Spirit. The believer’s consistency in the function of GAP determines both his motivation and his effectiveness.