Truth About the Holy Gospel

¶ … truth about the holy gospel and the glorifying acts towards God is a topic that is often broached but seldom lucidly explained. In the book "Tell the Truth" by Will Metzger, he writes a personal book of evangelism and how to tell the truth of the gospels. In its title, Metzger clearly states his goal for this book, which is to create a book that explains the "whole gospel to the whole person by whole people." In his introduction, Metzger explains that he came to write this book because evangelism has begun to rely on traditional pragmatic examinations of its success rather than looking at the scriptures as the model for evangelism. This book therefore is a closer look at scripture to examine how an individual should evangelize to others. This following review will look at the work of Metzger through a chapter by chapter analysis as well as an overview of the entirety of the book.

Metzger splits his book into three main parts that are all subtitled. His first part is called "The Whole Gospel."

This section is comprised of three additional chapters; the first is "What is witnessing." The goal of this chapter is to examine closely how witnessing is occurring and how it should occur. Witnessing or administering to the lost, is a practice in which we evangelize to the lost through scripture and the gospel. Witnessing is to share the experiences that one has of redemption and the finding of God with others so that they may also have this experience (29). However, Metzger notes that witnessing is not the same as speaking from the gospel, as every individual's private experiences with God varies, the gospel is His own message to us and should be represented holistically. Therefore, our role within the scheme of helping the lost is to provide them with both our own experiences, and to allow them to understand God's words and principles through the gospels. He clearly creates delineation from witnessing and the holy words of the gospel.

However, Metzger argues in the following chapter, "The Gospel Reduced," that in most presentations of the gospel, the gospel itself is often shortened or filtered in order to make it easier to understand and to digest by the lost. It is as if we are "shrinking" the gospel to fit within the parameters of the acceptable and thus creating an attractive "package" for the lost (38). In effect, Metzger believes that we are not fulfilling the intended purpose of the gospel. In practice, if we continue with providing a watered down version of the gospel, then we will in effect never be able to truly represent Christ and at the same time provide false hope for the lost. When we use a shrunken version of the gospels, what are doing is creating a "me-centered" conversion, where the focus is on the individual and his/her own interpretations of the gospel (45). When in reality, we must have a "God-centered" evangelical experience in order to show the lost that the world is not ours but God's. Therefore, we must stay adherent to the gospel and not attempt to create our own interpretations.

In the final chapter of this section entitled "The Gospel Recovered," he creates a succinct five point system to convey the gospel in an effective but not shrunken manner. At the same time he articulates how to create an effective synergy with the lost and help them bridge the existing barriers between the gospels and truly understanding.

In the next section, "To the Whole Person," Metzger argues that conversion must deal with the "whole person." In the first chapter "Professors but not Possessors," Metzger articulates on the nominalism that many perceive as rampant within evangelical Christianity. In many evangelical practices, Metzger perceives a split between Christ as our Lord and Christ as our Savior. He argues that this split is only a partial response of the gospel, which means that it is only a partial understanding and conversion of one's spirit to view Christ. The problem with this split is that it creates a misunderstanding of the Gospels and at the same time misrepresents what Christ should be in our lives (89).

In the next chapter entitled, "The Whole Gospel of the Mind" He argues that no person can see Christ as his savior, but not as his Lord (96). Therefore for us to seek salvation we must focus on the whole person, and that it must influence an individual to fulfill his promise to God and act in a manner that is accorded through the Gospel. Therefore they should act significantly differently after they have been taken in by the Holy Spirit (97). Therefore this chapter focuses on how our mind must accept God and that we must accept salvation in our mind.

This however is not enough, Metzger argues in his next chapter "The Whole Gospel to the Emotions" that we must similarly accept salvation and see the gospel through our emotions. We must "feel" our regeneration through the Holy Spirit and allow the validation of our salvation occur through our emotions as well as our mind to fully integrate with the Gospel and our redemption.

In the culmination of this section, "The Whole Gospel to the Will," Metzger finishes his argument about salvation by stating that the salvation of the entire person and the Gospel itself cannot only affect our mind or only our emotions, but also that it is a reflection of our Will. In the end it is the combination of all three of these elements that truly changes us on an internal level and makes us elevate Christ and follow in his footsteps. If all three of these qualities are complete, then we can carry out the will of God through accurate conversion (108).

The last section of this book is entitled "Offered by Whole People." This section deals with the actual people who share the gospels with the lost and encourages them to be "whole people." The primary purpose of this section is to explore the many situations that an individual will face while attempting to speak the whole gospel. When an individual becomes a "whole person" than they can accurately speak the bible to others. Thus, in the section "Ordinary Christians can witness," what Metzger articulates is that if one has followed the pattern he drew out in the first two sections to become a whole person, and then he or she can be just as affective at witnessing as anyone else, because they are preaching the whole gospel, and not a shrunken version of it. When dealing with the specifics of evangelism, Metzger explains that many different scenarios may appear that witnesses need to know how to face and answer effectively.

In the final chapter "How to communicate personally" he explains the meticulous detail of how to confront specific situations. Different situations require different methods to explaining the whole gospel. The key is to create conversation with intended directions so that one can gear an individual towards the direct words of the gospel. Metzger explains that the best way to enrich witnessing is to turn towards God's words and to rely on the Holy Gospels to allow the lost to begin the process of conversion to the Whole Person. He further gives advice on different scenarios such as those who are clearly uninterested. Metzger recommends that one performs witnessing with a combination of both personal evangelism through the use of the gospels.

The book ends with two appendix for personal reference. The first appendix is a summary and his interpretation of other methods for evangelism. These methods include preaching, biblical literature, and gatherings with other believers. The second appendix is a worksheet that Metzger made to help individuals improve their own witness.

Overall this book has many more strengths than weaknesses. Metzger provides a simple and articulate look at his own brand of evangelism. While most traditional evangelism that takes place within local areas involves the use of evangelical books and local programs, this book is based on the foundation of the Scripture. Thus, he changes the context of the evangelism debate by changing the mode of debate from the pragmatic methodology of what best works with conversion, to the context of what will glorify Christ to the most. He creates a very simple but rigid method to examine evangelism based on gospel and not on the "man-centered" conversion method. Another key strength of this book is that it focuses on how the scriptures articulates the best methods to convert the lost from sin to salvation. Therefore he makes the point that an individual can only lead the lost to the Scriptures, but that conversion only occurs from God. As an evangelist our goal should be to share the Scripture with others as accurately as we can. This both creates a distinctive role for us, and at the same time creates limitations on what we should be doing and how we should act, both compelling clarities that are rarely defined in many other evangelic books.