This book is written for and dedicated to those who have a heart to pursue the pleasure of God and knowledge about Him. It’s not for those who are incurious, not motivated to question or review what they have been up to till now and only want to keep doing the same thing because it is comfortable or “successful” in evangelism and church work. Nor is it for those who are happy to buy off the Internet well-packaged products from their favorite authors or publishers without sweating the heathen-to-heaven continuum.

But what if somebody wanted to know what a Bible-contextualized curriculum looks like? What would the Gospel in this broader, lifelong definition consist of?

What words would one utter on the streets or in an online chat with strangers?

What truths should people know when they ask to get baptized?

What basic beliefs should new Christians learn?

And what advanced studies should occupy the mature ones?

Or does it matter at all in any way?

Evangelical Christians all hold different approaches to this question. On the one hand, the mystical and charismatic ones would deemphasize the curriculum and exalt personal experience. Spiritual and ecstatic practices, physical and rhythmic responses to worship leaders’ stimuli, and special private revelations are exalted over anything too cerebral. In other circles, the corpus of theological learning is brought to bear through lengthy catechisms, cunningly assembled gospel tracts and visuals, and fervent exegetical messages, all richly buttressed with Bible verses with Book-Chapter-Verse references! Sometimes, free “Gideon’s Bibles” of different sizes are handed out for the recipient to figure out their own curriculum.

But here’s the challenge: does any of this resemble how the early church, under the Holy Spirit’s direction, proclaimed the Gospel? Does the Bible itself leave any clues as to what is to be taught and how? If these questions stir your heart, you’re invited to keep going!

The Systematic vs Sequential View of the Gospel

In 1966, seminary president Earl Radmacher complained in a two-part article in the Bibliotheca Sacra journal about widespread confusion in the motivation and messaging of the gospel. Titled “Contemporary Evangelism Potpourri,” the article might just as well have been “Contemporary Evangelism Popery,” for when one picks and chooses what to include or omit in a program or narrative, one ceases to reflect the original author's mind and begins to interpret, to pontificate, as it were. At best, this legitimately summarizes and paraphrases the original, but sadly, the result is often another gospel, something the Bible condemns (Galatians 1:8-9). In Part II of his work (123:161f.), Radmacher rightly criticizes the salesman and traditional evangelistic campaign methods as unbiblical, but he does not seem to have deconstructed the messaging in any greater detail or have considered it as part of a lifelong faith curriculum. So, the question remains for us: Are Christians authorized to pick and choose how to evangelize?

The answers out there are disparate. One common way among Bible-believing Christians of deciding what to teach is to follow a published Sunday school curriculum from the scores of publishers online waiting to pounce. Pastors may also resort to their seminary theology textbook, or “systematic theology.” Such a textbook would contain chapters on God (Theology Proper), Humanity (Anthropology), Salvation (Soteriology), Angels (Angelology), Last Things (Eschatology), etc. Since the Gospel most nicely fits the doctrines of Salvation, it would seem logical to grab what they view as the most critical points under Soteriology and cram them into a capsule of propositions for the next heathen to swallow. As they meet people with different needs, they’d look into their theological apothecary and pack new capsules to dispense, for questions about evil spirits and fallen angels, doubts about the Trinity, objections to the final judgment and eternal suffering, etc.

However, is this approach legitimate? Does it make sense to impose a category of Systematic Theology (soteriology, the study of salvation) on people who need salvation? Do psychiatrists explore the history and divisions of psychiatry with their patients? More fundamentally, do we have a biblical template on evangelism? The answer, as we'll see, is yes, and it is sequentially ordered according to the different stages of the audience's spiritual life regardless of their felt needs.

This sequential, segmented articulation of the Gospel seems to have support across the Word of God. In the Old Testament, the words spoken to Cain (Genesis 4) and pagan Nineveh ("Yet 40 days and Nineveh will be destroyed" by Jonah) are different from those spoken to God fearers, like Rahab and Ruth. Wisdom offered to immature royals in Proverbs contrasts with that directed at maturer audiences in Ecclesiastes and Canticle.

In the New Testament, we can, indeed, find scripts or transcripts of what was spoken to unsaved Gentiles, outright heathens, as opposed to Christians, Jews, or Samaritans. We have words to people in preparation for their baptism. We have inventories of things new Christians need to learn. We have piles of material for grownup Christians to last the rest of their lives. And not only that, we have “checks” and “exams” between each stage of spiritual status and maturity to keep things organized.

In short, we can either walk away from the biblical guidance, or we can adopt the sequential, graduated Gospel curriculum from Heathen to Heaven.

A Short Note on What’s the Gospel

Here’s a quick explanation on the use of the word “Gospel” in this book. The etymological meaning of the word is transparent enough. It is composed of two root words meaning the Good News or Good Announcement.

But usage ultimately determines meaning. Pineapples are not a cross between pine and apple trees, for instance. Theologians and even the biblical authors have used the term Gospel in different ways. One obvious meaning is a genre of writing, such as the Four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Some people have traced that genre to the Old Testament Book of Exodus with its theme of deliverance through Christ; so you see how stretchy it can get.

Gospel is also used of the message to unsaved Gentiles, as in the case of the Everlasting Gospel in Revelation 14:6, which we shall look at more closely. Suffice it to say now that the contents of that “Gospel” don not overlap much with the one in 1 Corinthians 15:1, which is the foundation of the Christian faith. It identifies the Messiah Jesus as having died for our sins according to the Scriptures, been buried, been raised on the third day, and appeared to many witnesses, including some still living in Paul’s time.

Such a Gospel is proclaimed not only to unbelieving Gentiles but also to Christians, including those in the church at Rome. In Romans 1, Paul, who calls himself an apostle set apart for the “gospel of God” “concerning his Son” (1:1, 3) says he was “eager also to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome” (1:15). These addressees of Paul's in Rome were not pagans but Christians, “loved by God [and] called to be saints” (1:7). This Gospel, quoth he, is God’s power to everyone who believes, for “The righteous by faith will live” not just at the point of conversion but empowering the believer longitudinally through life as a Christian, as Paul proceeds to show in the rest of the Book of Romans. So the Gospel, in this sense, is what is preached to Christians as well!

It is in that lifelong, whole-counsel-of-God sense we’ll be using the word Gospel (Greek Ευάγγελιον "Evangelion") unless designated as Gospel for the Heathen (what has been termed “Kerygma”), God fearers (“Catechesis”), Spiritual Babes (Milk Didache), and Spiritually Mature (Solids Didache). To streamline, we’ll largely omit those terms in parentheses.

What’s Biblical? Christlike? Spiritual?

Evangelicals all love to claim to want their works and words to be biblical, Christlike, and spiritual. But these claims ring hollow when the very scriptures they claim and proclaim are wrested for other purposes, e.g. marketing, personal safety, convenience. Verses are cobbled together to get maximum conversional bang for the buck, incur minimal hindrance to that aim or physical endangerment, and offer God a helping hand. But what constitutes legitimate use of Scripture has nothing to do with our proclivities but rather must be honest to its historical context so as to be honoring Christ and truly reliant on the Spirit.

1. The Gospel to the Heathen

Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;

And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;

And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil

Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

God's Grandeur (excerpt), Gerard Manley Hopkins

Such is the spiritual state of "untold millions still untold, untold millions still outside the fold." It’s tempting to traverse the continents and yell “Salvation full and free!” “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved!” “What’s your need? Jesus is your answer!” or any of a dozen popular opening lines. One could imagine a few of the apostles feeling the itch, as soon as their Lord ascended above the clouds, to spur on a horse to the uttermost parts of the earth to deliver their inspired messages of salvation.

And yet the command was to do nothing at all but sit tight in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit’s descent. Only when they were made to be witnesses by the Spirit were they allowed to head outdoors to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the rest of their world. Indeed, not only would we want to take note of how they moved and were moved, but also what they said to whom as the Spirit directed and enabled them.

If you had the chance to script out the gospel message to give to your heathen neighbors, people who are unbelieving Gentiles by and large, what would you write? According to a popular narrative, you should go with "God loves you and has wonderful plan for your life." Would you simply parrot the Four Spiritual Laws, or would you perhaps search the Scriptures first?

Contexts: Superstitious, Sophisticated, Supernal

Galatians 1:8-9 fires a sober warning on those who dare preach a gospel that’s different from Paul’s. Regardless of their manifest apostolic or angelic credentials, they are to be cursed. This should give pause to attempts to dress in cute pink something that’s as serious and consequential as the Gospel. A faithful rendering of the Gospel, then, should not only be orthodox in its elements but contextually congruous and fitting to its original situation.

It would seem fitting, therefore, to script our message to unsaved Gentiles according to the Bible's own record of evangelism to an analogous audience, of unsaved Gentiles. But where?

In the New Testament, three passages stand out, namely:

Acts 14:15-17
Acts 17:22-32
Revelation 14:6-7

The first passage, in Acts 14, situates the audience in Lystra, a city with scant historic and archaeological significance beyond being a rural Roman army base. Amidst the pandemonium of superstitious worship, Paul and Barnabas point out to the unsophisticated mob the transcendent Creator God to whom they owe their water-based survival and, on top of that, their recurrent times of harvest, abundance, and joy.

In contrast to the first, the second passage, Acts 17, is situated in Athens, proverbially acknowledged as the pinnacle of western if not global civilization and philosophy. The Athenians were nothing if not haute couture and sophisticated literati. Faced with the famed Stoic and Epicurean philosophers and then their bosses, the members of the Areopagus "city council," what did Paul say? With a little more leisure of time and place than in Lystra, Paul says basically the same thing but drives it to its conclusion, the ultimatum of imminent judgment and the proof thereof, the resurrection of the Judge from the dead. His gospel was good enough for the simple and savant heathen alike.

The third extended script of the gospel is unusual. Found in the Book of Revelation, it is not proclaimed by any apostle but by an angel flying in midheaven. And that gospel, declares inspired Scripture, is the Everlasting Gospel, no less, and addressed to every human being on the earth. To summarize, the Everlasting Gospel revolves around three verbs easily captured by the letters FGW:

Fear God
Glorify Him for Judgment Day is here
Worship the Creator of heaven and earth and all things therein, including fresh- and seawater

Lasting perhaps 15 seconds, the heavenly message is the shortest of the three, but the angel does not apologize for its brevity or perceived deficiency. Just hearing it is getting better than what humankind deserves in our fearless, de-glorifying, and idolatrous rebellion against the Creator.

Whether the context is superstitious, sophisticated, or supernal, the message is clear in all three passages. Because it is nicely scripted and preserved for our learning, we know what it contains and what it does not, which helps us in the preparation of an evangelistic syllabus for the heathen.

The Current Problem: Human Selection and Sequence

You don't even need words! The Wordless Book for evangelism uses color to tell the message, from creation to sin to crucifixion to heaven. Sometimes different colors are swapped in to represent faith or forgiveness. Or colored beads on a string are used instead of turning pages.

Nifty media like JT Chick comics and EvangeCube portray excerpts from the Bible with realistic pictures. Among the most popular works is Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Life, which became a bestseller not just within Christian circles but universally.

Bible text-based approaches could include Isaiah 53 and messianic birth prophecies and narratives according to the season, as well as the much-memorized Romans Road. But nothing likely comes close as a perennial favorite to Bible-loving Christians as the ubiquitous John 3:16.

Dubbed the gospel in a capsule, this most famous verse contains a message directed at an elderly Jewish sage who consulted with the Lord Jesus about salvation. It also happens, happily, to be extremely safe to mention in unfriendly quarters, for who could object to a formula of love, faith, and forgiveness? Nevertheless, Nicodemus was no village kid playing with spiders or a postmodern dude agnostic about anything but his own snide Derridaic rejoinders. No Gentile by any means, Nicodemus was a very senior, very pious member of the Jewish leadership in his city. And yet who would think twice of the context? Who wouldn't hesitate from foisting Nicodemus' John 3:16 on a village kid, Pomo dude, or any other heathen around the world when there are three passages/scripts to the heathen available?

Towards a Context-Based Syllabus

A context-based syllabus of the Gospel to unsaved Gentiles would have an eye on not just what to include about also, due to the rampant confusion already highlighted, what not to.

Looking across the three passages in Acts 14 and 17 and Revelation 14, the things to include would be the following:

The Creator God vs manmade idols and religion
His provision of freshwater and seawater to all as the basis of human life, health, and happiness
Everyone's failure to grope for, find, and worship this true God
The certainty and imminence of God's perfect judgment upon all
His command for all to repent, to "FGW" (fear, glorify, and worship) Him
Proof of all this through the historic resurrection of the man who would be judging on God's behalf

Points to exclude at this stage would form a far longer list:

The name Jesus and His title Christ/Messiah
The cross and all it represents in the vicarious atonement for human sin, forgiveness, the shame and ignominy of the crucified, the double imputation that it accomplishes, the satisfaction and propitiation it brings to the judge, etc.
God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life
Heaven and hell
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved
Call upon the name of the Lord
The Ten Commandments
Church
Worship
Blessings, health, and wealth
Prayer, or can I pray with/for you?
Pray with me this prayer, willya? Just say after me right now, "Lord Jesus …"
Bible, or the Bible says
John 3:16; Romans 6:23; 1 John 1:9; Acts 16:31; etc.
The two Evangelism Explosion questions
Are you missing or needing anything in your life? Feeling sad? Worried?
Would you like to take this survey?
Have you ever read a Bible? Can I hand you one right now? Here's a Gospel of John for you to read.
The Five Solas
And here's my personal testimony …

it's often harder to reform, rehabilitate, untangle, and unmix a situation. Yet what's wrong with going ahead to announce freely the rest of the Gospel, any part of it? Are you trying to scare the listener?

Moving On: Fear and the Holy Spirit’s Role

Evangelists are often quick to alleviate fear from their hearers, dispensing numerous Fear Not passages of Scripture as a mental analgesic. Yet what does the Everlasting Gospel first demand of the world but fear and fear itself (the F in FGW)?

While dying to utter the comforting words of Acts 16:31, evangelists routinely fail to notice the question preceding the answer in the verses immediately preceding, "What must I do to be saved?" Already saved from certain physical destruction under Roman rule, the Philippian jailer sought, with trembling, deliverance from something fiercer. And the nature of that latter threat comes in the well-memorized answer: the "Lord" (κύριος, of imperial significance) Jesus would be the object to fling onself before, not Caesar, if one would desire to be delivered spiritually and eternally. It was one thing to get saved with one's family from the life-for-life Roman punishment for prisoner escapes; it was quite another for the same household to face the perfectly just Judge of all the earth.

Fear, then, is a good and necessary thing to have as a first response for the heathen! It must come not through howling about hellfire or angry hissing from the pulpit but through God the Holy Spirit applying the faithfully enunciated script to spiritually dead hearts. As Jesus' promised, when the Holy Spirit "comes, he will prove the world wrong concerning sin and righteousness and judgment" (John 16:8 NET Bible).

Rather than running rampant through the town or staging a concert to share the answer and extract a decision, how about doing our part in getting the messaging right first, then reciting the script accurately, and letting God be God in convicting and bringing lost souls to Himself?

Study Questions

As much as you’ve committed John 3:16, The Romans Road, or the Four Spiritual Laws in an out-of-context way to memory, are you willing to commit the three extended scripts of the gospel to unsaved Gentiles to memory?
How hard would it have been for the Apostle John to have used John 3:16 or Apostle Paul the Romans Road, which neither of them did, in their evangelism? Why didn’t Mark hand out key excerpts from his Gospel as gospel tracts?
Why didn’t Paul and Silas or Barnabas not bring snacks with them to target the kids, bring a dancing bear with musicians to be all things to all men to illustrate the gospel, or build any relationships to earn the right to be heard?
What would you do if in the midst of giving forth the script of the Gospel to the heathen, your well-meaning Christian friend intrudes to give a more “effective” version of the message to elicit and catalyze an earlier decision?
How could you best prep or leave an accurate, context-compliant message to the heathen using the media available today? What do you think of the Facebook hashtags #watergospel and #水福音? Identify any hurdles and challenges.

2. The Gospel to the God-Fearer

{16} Then said Evangelist, If this be thy condition, why standest thou still? He answered, Because I know not whither to go. Then he gave him a parchment roll, and there was written within, Flee from the wrath to come. [Matt. 3.7]

{17} The man therefore read it, and looking upon Evangelist very carefully, said, Whither must I fly? Then said Evangelist, pointing with his finger over a very wide field, Do you see yonder wicket-gate? [Matt. 7:13,14] The man said, No. Then said the other, Do you see yonder shining light? [Ps. 119:105; 2 Pet. 1:19] He said, I think I do. Then said Evangelist, Keep that light in your eye, and go up directly thereto: so shalt thou see the gate; at which, when thou knockest, it shall be told thee what thou shalt do.

{18} So I saw in my dream that the man began to run.

Now, he had not run far from his own door, but his wife and children, perceiving it, began to cry after him to return; but the man put his fingers in his ears, and ran on, crying, Life! life! eternal life! [Luke 14:26] So he looked not behind him, but fled towards the middle of the plain. [Gen. 19:17]

John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress, 1678

Fright and flight! There is a category of Gentiles that are close to the Christian faith and not quite a heathen like the rest of the world. What sets them apart, as we're informed biblically, is their fear. Fear of God through divine conviction by the Holy Spirit is what motivates an unbelieving Gentile to run towards faith and baptism. It makes them forsake everything and flee and fly for their lives.

God fearers are mostly described or named in the Book of Acts. Although outwardly they may seem to lean towards Judaism, their true interest was not towards the cultural, non-messianic distinctives but rather the person and revelation of God in the Torah, the Bible. One might call this Paleo-Judaism, the faith not only of King David and Moses but also non-Jewish, Gentile Christians from Adam, Noah, and Abraham. In Romans 11, Paul's picture of the olive tree of true Christ-ianity speaks to the unity of the faith of all true believers in Christ, both Jewish and Gentile, for all time.

What did the God fearers in the New Testament, as catechumens preparing for their baptism, need to know before being baptized?

Contexts: Short but Not Too Short--The Eunuch, the Centurion, and the Jailer

The Book of Acts offer three meatier contexts from which to draw a Gospel syllabus for God fearers.

The first was an Ethiopian eunuch seated on a rumbling chariot in a rocky desert reading out loud the Old Testament, from a scroll of Isaiah (Acts 8:30). That had to be hard on his eyes, but he was intent, desperate to find the answer to an exegetical, hermeneutical question. He was neither an unbelieving Gentile nor a Jew, nor yet a follower of the Way (9:1) whom Saul the persecutor would pursue before his conversion to Paul. He was literally Half-Way! And to the Half-Ways belong a clear reading and exposition of the Scripture especially of the Messiah's, Christ's, sacrificial atoning work on the cross (Isaiah 53 cited in Acts 8):

32 … "He was led like a sheep to slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 33 In humiliation justice was taken from him. Who can describe his posterity? For his life was taken away from the earth.”

For this, the Lord sent Evangelist Philip to turn on the light to connect Old Testament prophecies with New Testament fulfilments. Today, minus the bouncy chariot, this is called intertextuality.

There must also have been a suggestion of Christian baptism in obedience of the Great Commission, or what would have promoted the Eunuch to excitedly challenge anyone to stop him from getting baptized? But there was no need for Philip the evangelist to belabor the fact of Creation, judgment Day, a turning towards God as the Ethiopian was already turning the scroll!

The second case of a God fearer is Cornelius, a centurion, who was actually called a God fearer outright: "a devout, God-fearing man, as was all his household; he did many acts of charity for the people and prayed to God regularly" (Acts 10:2).

Apostle Peter, who was divinely dispatched to meet Cornelius, opens his address by acknowledging that God's salvific "fear factor" had been satisfied in Cornelius' case, how that "in every nation the person who fears him and does what is right is welcomed before him" (Acts 10:35). Then, in addition to a recounting of the facts of Christ's Passion, death, and resurrection, Peter ties this in intertextually with personal salvation and Old Testament prophecies: "About him all the prophets testify, that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name" (10:43).

Sealed in the Apostle's presence with inaugural signs of the Holy Spirit, including the gift of speaking unlearned foreign languages to signal God's turning the focus of the Gospel from Jews to Gentiles, these God fearers were immediately baptized.

Other mentions of God fearers show up in Acts 13:50; 17:4; 17:17; 18:7. They are brief vignettes of Gentiles associated with services at various local synagogues. But one intriguing, unlikely God fearer shows up not in a Jewish synagogue but in the depths of a heathen dungeon in Macedonia.

Our third example of a God fearer is the Philippian jailer, a person unavoidably associated with one of the most cited proclamations of the Gospel: Act 16:31 NET2 … “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household.” Torn from its context, the words have festooned the sides of gospel station wagons and church signs galore for perhaps the past century. Yet, not too many have enquired if they were directed at heathens, Jews, Samaritans, Christians, or something else. One needs only back up a couple of verses to find the nature of the audience. It was after a particularly door-bustin', jailer-rousin' earthquake when the jailer wanted to commit suicide rather than face the consequences of lost prisoners:

Act 16:28-30 NET2 28 But Paul called out loudly, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here!” 29 Calling for lights, the jailer rushed in and fell down trembling at the feet of Paul and Silas. 30 Then he brought them outside and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

Interestingly, instead of seeing his trembling subside since the dreaded jailbreak had not happened, we read that he begs to know the way of deliverance in verse 30, a deliverance from something that only the next verse, 31, reveals.

The nature of that deliverance, as proclaimed in the famous verse, is neither legal nor physical but spiritual, through faith in Lord (κύριος) Jesus rather than Lord Caesar. Paul and Silas showed him Jesus as the true sovereign before whom to cast oneself. At this point, the jailer was already trembling. Earlier, Paul and Silas did not march into jail offering him an answer he had no question for. They patiently waited till the heathen had become a God fearer by the Spirit's earthshaking conviction. They waited to hear the operative question "What must I do to be saved" before launching into a baptismal class, or catechesis or catechism.

In contrast to some months- or years-long weekly classes in some churches, Paul and Silas's education of this God fearer, similar to Philip's and Peter's in their circumstances, didn't go on for much more than an hour:

Act 16:32-35 NET2 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him, along with all those who were in his house. 33 At that hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds; then he and all his family were baptized right away. 34 The jailer brought them into his house and set food before them, and he rejoiced greatly that he had come to believe in God, together with his entire household. 35 At daybreak the magistrates sent their police officers, saying, “Release those men.”

Tersely, we're told, the content was "the word of the Lord," meaning the teaching concerning this κύριος Jesus. And it was all wrapped up within "that hour of the night."

The Current Problem: Too Long and Too Short

Whereas the Gospel to the Heathen typically lasts from seconds to perhaps 15 minutes, the latter as in the full-blown declaration to the Athenian council, there's a little more content and social connection with pre-baptized Gentile God fearers. Today, this is seldom the case. All kinds of variations have replaced the nature and duration of this stage and syllabus.

On the one hand, making someone a Christian may involve nothing more than a raised hand or a walked aisle in response to the lead guitar, followed quickly with a recitation of the Sinner's Prayer with a somehow certified counselor and lots of verbal assurances of salvation. One exceptionally bad variant is the outbreak of ecstatic gibberish "tongues" and "slayings" blasphemously attributed to the Holy Spirit that accompany the conversion event in some churches. The curricular deficiency is clear on this end of the spectrum.

On the other side, other churches require some really heavy stuff. There may be long seasons of probation and programming through their published creeds and question-and-answer booklets, or catechisms, followed by a formal examination or Confirmation, before being allowed baptism. The Heidelberg Catechism, for instance, covers the Law, human misery, "Why does the creed add 'He descended to hell'?," the significance of Holy Communion, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments in great detail and with copious scripture references. The Westminster Shorter Catechism, similarly, covers much of the same ground and also ends with the Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer. In neither case does it seem likely the syllabus could done in one hour. Such a protracted process of determination never occupied the Apostles' minds as they baptized those who asked, and subsequently, any pretentious and covetous Simons were summarily exposed and excommunicated (Acts 8:20f.).

So, between the expression of fear, including that operative question of how to be saved, and that obedient act of baptism, what does the God fearer need to be told? What can an evangelist do in an hour?

Towards a Context-Based Syllabus

So what, biblically, would an hourlong "word of the Lord" to God-fearing Gentiles look like? This list assumes preparation towards a "credo-Baptist" believer's baptism:

A quick recapitulation of the Gospel to the Heathen is seen in Peter's presentation to Cornelius, Act 10:42 NET2 "He commanded us to preach to the people and to warn them that he [the said resurrected Jesus of Nazareth] is the one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead."
This same Jesus is identified by name as sovereign Lord, κύριος, and Savior to those who put their hope in Him
The fact of the Trinity, in whose name the God fearer is about to be baptized, as in: Act 10:38 NET2 "with respect to Jesus from Nazareth, that God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, because God was with him."
The historicity of Jesus' baptism, ministry, death, burial, and resurrection (Acts 10:39-41)
Christ's person and work resulting in forgiveness through faith in Him as fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies (Acts 10:43)
In the context of Isaiah 53, where the Ethiopian had the benefit of Philip's elucidation, the utter hopelessness of human effort and the utter success of Jesus' work are seen, which may be summarized in one (good) breath by the Five Solas, that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone according to the Scripture alone to the glory of God alone.

Can you cover the above within an hour? Would you be prepared to tack on 15 minutes extra should the need arise? If this grace period could be extended with the hostile enquirer, couldn't it be extended to the penitent as well?:

1Pe 3:15 NET2 But set Christ apart as Lord in your hearts and always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks about the hope you possess.

And what's foreign to this syllabus? Here are a few suggestions on what to guard against inclusion in the lesson plan:

The Ten Commandments
The Lord's Prayer
The Seven (or however many) Sacraments
Healings and gibberish "glossolalia" tongues
A systematic theology
Church history (the first part of the Orthodox Church's Catechism)
Ascetic practices, like fasting and contemplative meditation
The liturgical calendar
Book summaries of the Old and New Testaments
Community practices, the dos and don'ts of dressing, grooming, beverage, entertainment, etc.
Assignment and integration into cell/care groups
Pre-authorization for tithes and offerings
Choosing of godparents or sponsors and sending out invitations

Moving On: Baptism and the Holy Spirit’s Role

The Holy Spirit's ministry of convicting the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment does not stop at fear. Together with His other works of comfort, scripture illumination, doctrinal recall, gifting, and empowerment, the Spirit graciously convicts the catechumen, the person preparing for baptism, to follow through in obedience. His presence is clear in Acts, where the genuine gift of tongues (not the Agnes Ozman-initiated fake phenomenon rampant in churches today) accompanied baptisms to authenticate those primary conversions as well as to signal the Gospel focus shifting from the Jew to the Gentile (Isaiah 28:7-13; 1 Corinthians 14:21).

It is not the intention of this study to discuss the precise mode or officiating persons of baptisms. Suffice it to say it is necessary and initial in fulfillment of the Great Commission (Matthew 28) and completely borne out in Acts. We must not ignore it, adopt a null syllabus, or reverse its order with the latter part of the Commission, that is teaching all things Christ has commanded. Baptism must precede the detailed, lifelong teaching and feeding.

Study Questions

What churches under- or overemphasize the meaning and necessity of catechism (teachings before baptism)?
What churches under- or overemphasize the meaning and necessity of baptism?
What churches misunderstand the work of the Holy Spirit?
Why couldn’t Paul and Silas have put the jailer on probation for a few months and sent Timothy back later to check up on his faith before allowing him and his family to be baptized?
Your pastor has proposed a cantata based on Isaiah 53 for an evangelistic Good Friday service. Based on the biblical categories you have learned so far, how would you respond?

3. The Gospel to the Spiritual Babes

Despite significant advances in genetics, nutrition, and management, the proportion of lamb deaths has remained stable at 15–20% over the past four decades.

Flinn, T., Kleemann, D.O., Swinbourne, A.M. et al. Neonatal lamb mortality: major risk factors and the potential ameliorative role of melatonin. J Animal Sci Biotechnol 11, 107 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40104-020-00510-w

If one out of five lambs don't survive until they stop drinking their mothers' milk, one must wonder if the number of spiritual lambs, newly baptized Christians, is any better. In His first charge to Peter after the Resurrection, Christ challenges Peter to "tend my lambs" (John 21:15). This charge is then expanded into three charges, to include shepherding as well as the older sheep. Good shepherds are not to leave baby sheep to starve or go around feeding the wolves and the goats. But what, precisely, does one feed spiritual lambs with?

Contexts: One Body, The Jewish and Gentile Church

Christ has one flock, but they don't all come from the same stock. Those from a Jewish background received the bulk of the Old Testament revelation, with God-fearing Gentiles peering in from the outside and occasionally getting ingrafted into the Jewish community, as Ruth did. With the advent of Christ and the unveiling of the mystery of the church, Gentiles, too, are grafted in with full privileges. Two major passages address the sheep in such a uniting church.

The first passage urges longtime spiritual babies, chiefly from a Jewish background, to grow up and move on, providing a list of six items they should have nailed down and put feet to. That's in the Book of Hebrews, straddling chapters 5 and 6:

Heb 5:12-14 NET2 12 For though you should in fact be teachers by this time, you need someone to teach you the beginning elements of God’s utterances. You have gone back to needing milk, not solid food. 13 For everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced in the message of righteousness, because he is an infant. 14 But solid food is for the mature, whose perceptions are trained by practice to discern both good and evil.

Heb 6:1-3 NET2 (underlining of elementary instructions about Christ added) 1 Therefore we must progress beyond the elementary instructions about Christ and move on to maturity, not laying this foundation again: repentance from dead works and faith in God, 2 teaching about ritual washings [literally, baptisms], laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And this is what we intend to do, if God permits.

The second passage deals with new Gentiles Christians joining the churches with predominantly Jewish Christians through the apostles' missionary journeys. For these Gentiles in particular, four prohibitions are stated, which are listed on a letter described in Acts 15.

Together, the 10 points represent the positive and negative aspects of raising tender lambs towards maturity.

The Current Problem: Precepts and Practicum

Perhaps the chief problem is the lack of authority and direction in the Christian neonatal diet. Shepherds of every stripe cover the landscape. Some offer nothing more than sheer neglect. The lamb is but a baptismal or decisional statistic who said yes to Jesus, hallelujah!

Others eat lamb chops and spit the bones out. Congregation monies go toward a posh lifestyle, and lambs are milked for seed faith "investments." Greed begets greed, and all is covered over with an industry of mimicking the heathen, in music, "worship," mannerism, "creative movements," power and fire conferences, etc. The more contemplative would be enticed to find their truth within, to mentally recreate experiences of floating to another world up there, to behold scenes ineffable and beyond, to write down special revelations just for them, to perform prayer walks to exorcise their neighborhood, etc.

Others, nobler, have a "Berean" theme of getting into the Word. But where to begin? The shortest and possibly earliest gospel, Mark? Or John's Gospel, the putatively though erroneously regarded "easiest" of them all? Or Romans, to get a solid legal footing for one's faith? Or Genesis, to start at the very beginning? Or the Psalms, to start praying and breathing spiritually? Or join a Bible reading plan?

Yet others go for systematic theologies written for beginners. Or hyperdose the lambs with their favorite dietary supplement, be it potassium or zinc--you can think of the spiritual equivalent! Or have the lambs join the goats devil-may-care in mixed chapels and "worship" concerts, or join the mature sheep in heavy-going exegetical studies.

But is there not a clause about what and how to tend Jesus' lambs? What if there really was a regimen in Scripture to make the lambkins safe and strong?

Towards a Context-Based Syllabus

Between Paul's first and second missionary journeys stands the Jerusalem Council, the council with all the major leaders of the ancient church, to deal with the question of integrating Gentile converts into the church (Acts 15). Do you circumcise these lambs and teach them to behave kosher? As the Holy Spirit led them, they wrote a brief note of four prohibitions, which was published to the mission-sending church in Antioch and borne on future missions trips (Acts 16:4). Orally, they thus:

Act 15:20-21 NET2 20 " … that we should write them a letter telling them to abstain from things defiled by idols and from sexual immorality and from what has been strangled and from blood. 21 For Moses has had those who proclaim him in every town from ancient times, because he is read aloud in the synagogues every Sabbath.”

Those with a Torah background would have learnt these truths from infancy (2 Timothy 3:14-15). Moses, for instance, wrote about how God gave animal flesh for food with the proviso they abstain from blood, which represents the animal's life (Genesis 9:4). Obedience to this Noahic law signals obedience to God, who made the life and made the law. The Jerusalem Council made sure that not just the collected blood but even meat containing blood, as of strangled animals, was off limits. And these two blood-related prohibitions would rank right up there beside those against sexual sins and idolatry, things the Gentile neophytes didn't know to eschew either.

As if to reinforce it, the text thus codified was reproduced verbatim by Luke, the author of Acts:

Act 15:28-29 NET2 28 "For it seemed best to the Holy Spirit and to us not to place any greater burden on you than these necessary rules: 29 that you abstain from meat that has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what has been strangled and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from doing these things, you will do well. Farewell."

And these prohibitions would be carried and passed on to new Gentiles believers from Paul's Second Missionary Journey onward (Acts 16:4).

Besides these four prohibitions in Acts, the Book of Hebrews also lists six things belonging to baby formulas:

Heb 6:1-2 NET2 1 Therefore we must progress beyond the elementary instructions about Christ and move on to maturity, not laying this foundation again: repentance from dead works and faith in God, 2 teaching about baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. (Baptisms reinstated for NET2's ritual washings)

These teachings, coming in three pairs, are:

repentance from dead works and faith in God
teaching about baptisms, laying on of hands
resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment

The first pair focus on the spiritual birth of a Christian as they join the church. The second pair refer to life in the church. The third pair look to what's awaiting beyond this life. It's the past, the present, and the hereafter. What a longitudinal, lifelong perspective for one starting out in life. Nor is it all head knowledge either, for maturity only comes through practical life experience, when "perceptions are trained by practice to discern both good and evil" (Hebrews 5:14).

Some people regard this list as a set of Jewish religious baggage and consider the plural form of baptism, baptisms, as referring to nonbiblical ritual washings, as the NET2 translation and some scholars do. However, these baptisms could refer to both Jewish (including John the Baptist's) and Christian baptisms (see JFB). They belong among the "elementary instructions about Christ" (Hebrews 6:1) from which all Christian babes in Christ must find their succor, not the host of Christ-refusing Jewish mikvah ritual washings of the Second Temple period.

And of the laying on of hands during apostolic times, AT Robertson (RWP) lays out its variegated relevance in church leadership and ministry:

in the choice of the Seven (Acts 6:6), in the bestowal of the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:17; Acts 19:6), in separation for a special task (Acts 13:3), in ordination (1 Timothy 4:14; 1 Timothy 5:22; 2 Timothy 1:6).

So, to summarize, the 10 items for the syllabus of milk for newborns are:

Don't worship idols
Don't commit sexual immorality
Don't drink/eat blood
Don't eat the meat of strangled animals
Practice repentance from dead works
Practice faith in God
Practice baptisms correctly
Practice the laying on of hands
Practice living in view of the resurrection of the dead
Practice living in light of eternal judgment

Keep on practicing the making of choices with these 10 values in mind in all circumstances until they become ingrained and automatic. Know not to lick the latrine no matter how white and gleaming and inviting it looks. Learn to head to the latrine when nature calls. Brush your teeth. Floss first. You don't need Mom to tell you to. Just keep practicing. Grownups are babies who have correctly automated certain choices in their lives. They pull up their underwear. They clock in on time. They change the baby's diaper. They drive out at night for baby formula, cough medicine, and stuff. They sometimes take risks to rescue the perishing. They apply consistently, reflexively what they've learned. And they teach that to the next generation.

Moving On: Maturity and the Holy Spirit’s Role

The Christians in Hebrews faced the temptation to retreat and backslide under persecution. Those in Acts were told to go circumcise or else. It's foolish to paint an idyllic picture of a zero-virus environment spiritually when the reality is the opposite. The Holy Spirit's deep work is needed to survive and grow. This world is no friend to grace, as Christian sages used to warn the flock.

So in addition to the work of conviction, the Spirit gives life to the fledglings, enabling them to put syllabus truths into practice:

Gal 5:16-26 NET2 (underlining added) 16 But I say, live by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh has desires that are opposed to the Spirit, and the Spirit has desires that are opposed to the flesh, for these are in opposition to each other, so that you cannot do what you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, depravity, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish rivalries, dissensions, factions, 21 envying, murder, drunkenness, carousing, and similar things. I am warning you, as I had warned you before: Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God! 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Now those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also behave in accordance with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, being jealous of one another.

Using the literary device of inclusio, the passage opens and closes with "living by" the Holy Spirit. This the Spirit accomplishes through opposing the flesh, leading the believer, and bearing a fecundity of good fruit. Right beliefs and perseverance will lead to right practice and consistency, all by the power of the Spirit.

Study Questions

What metrics would be appropriate for assessing the practical mastery and application of each of the 10 syllabus items?
In a Christian school with more than 50% of the students from a non-Christian background, how can the Christian teacher ensure that the lambs get spiritual milk and nurture?
How would you fit prayer and Bible reading and study into the milk syllabus?
A visitor comes to your church having already finished catechism class elsewhere and is seeking baptism in your church. WIth your understanding of biblical categories thus far, what questions would you want to ask?
A long-time church member is still struggling with the basic concepts of repentance and eternal judgment and feels those ideas are too harsh. Based on your consideration of Hebrews, how would you counsel this member?

4. The Gospel to the Spiritually Mature

And when the fight is fierce, the warfare long,

steals on the ear the distant triumph song,

and hearts are brave again and arms are strong.

Alleluia! Alleluia!

William Walsham How, 1864, For All the Saints

As Christians, especially mature Christians, we must always have one ear cocked to eternity in the midst of the lifelong battle and pilgrimage. In what must be the English language's most convoluted sentence, Bishop How reminds the singer that when the distant triumph song of heaven steals on the ear, lowly hearts are brave again and weak arms are strong. Indeed, while there is business yet unfinished and battles yet unfought here, the mature saint takes on the whole armor and imbibes the whole counsel to wage battle royale as the Spirit empowers, en route to glory.

Contexts: Church Life, Leadership, and Intertextuality

Big sheep need big-sheep feeding and big-sheep shepherding, too, and not just the little lambs. These who have had hands laid on them (often metaphorically) serve sacrificially as Sunday school teachers, Awana leaders, pastors, elders, evangelists, mentors, soccer moms, deacons, you name it, without a word of recognition and, sadly, without the grown-up diet they need. They're happy for the pablum that falls off the table of the lambs, or more likely in them big and noisy modern churches, the table of goats. They're not the focus of the great marketing/recruitment campaign and so are not valued more than unpaid cogs in the church-growth machine. Like, keep paying your tithes, and see you in heaven!

Two thoughts come to mind. One, the context of the six elementary teachings about Christ in the previous chapter was about what mature sheep should be contemplating. It's worth ruffling through that solid food and learning to pick out some meaty (or strawy, for sheep) morsels to munch on. As a preview, we have seen how God fearers are introduced to the intertextuality of Old Testament fulfilments in Jesus as part of their hourlong preparation for baptism. Big sheep are going to camp on that and dig even deeper.

Two, in view of our eventual homegoing, this world not being out home and we're just a passin' through, there's a lot more in the "way beyond the blue." The half hath not been told. And that's a perspective to keep in mind as we as big sheep study the Word in the here and now.

The Current Problem: Syllabus Leakage and Lukewarmness

One of the problems with not penning or fencing sheep is the leakage and slippage that occurs. Random feeding and tending allows imbalanced diets, inadequate nutrition, wolf insurgency, and all kinds of confusion and problems to take hold. Grown-ups get it, and they get bored with the constant bombardment of shallow harangues and loud music. It's not heaven.

There's a need to pull them out and tend them properly. First, you hear the operative question and pull out the God fearers from the heathen. Then you pull aside the newly washed baby lambs from the God fearers outside to feed them good milk. Then you pick out the big strong sheep who've grown up in that fold. And you give them bigga betta butta.

For this, God gave His church certain Christians to nourish His people and make them strong:

Eph 4:11-13 NET2 11 And he himself gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, that is, to build up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God – a mature person, attaining to the measure of Christ’s full stature.

But with what syllabus should they be equipping the mature saints?

Towards a Context-Based Syllabus

As a resource to "fit us for heaven," the scriptures are inexhaustible. In 2 Timothy 3:15-17, we're told they not only make us wise unto salvation and instruct us in correct doctrine but also fully equip us "to every good work." Paul's thirteen epistles are an example of how that is done, each often opening with the doctrinal and then applying those learnings practically in the second half. They start by depicting the marvels of election and grace and move on to warn Christians to stop sleepwalking as though in the dark, to allow the Spirit and not alcohol to control our minds through hymn singing, to maintain proper relationships in the family and workplace, to fight the good fight until the Lord returns. Those are certainly exemplars of how we ought to regard and apply the tenets of our faith.

But in Hebrews 5, there is this rather enigmatic teaching about a certain priesthood in the order of King Melchizedek. Referencing Psalm 110:4, "The LORD makes this promise on oath and will not revoke it: 'You are an eternal priest after the pattern of Melchizedek,'” the Book of Hebrews identifies the "You" in that psalm as Christ. Now, this is all good spiritual nutrition, but it is not baby formula. It is meaty stuff. The lambs are still trying to wrap their heads around the Aaronic priesthood. But this Melchizedekkian hierarchy here is juicy stuff for buffer sheep to chew on.

As Abraham the super ancestor of Aaron gave tribute to Melchizedek and showed that Melchizedek was a king far superior (Genesis 14:18-20), so Jesus being the high priest in Melchizedek's lineage is way superior to any priest of Aaron's. Therefore, when Jesus suffered, wept, prayed, obeyed, and saved us as our high priest, we received a forgiveness of sins and an adoption into God's family of the highest order imaginable. It is a lot better than what the Israelites got in their religious system.

And it was right at this point the fence pops up:

Heb 5:11-14 NET2 (Underlining added) 11 On this topic we have much to say and it is difficult to explain, since you have become sluggish in hearing. 12 For though you should in fact be teachers by this time, you need someone to teach you the beginning elements of God’s utterances. You have gone back to needing milk, not solid food. 13 For everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced in the message of righteousness, because he is an infant. 14 But solid food is for the mature, whose perceptions are trained by practice to discern both good and evil.

Not for the kiddos! See the underlining: “But solid food is for the mature”? It was time for baby lambs to go back to the bottle. It was time for the spiritually mature to shift into intertextual mode and range over the whole counsel of God, accepting it all by faith and noticing and piecing together the details of God's revelation that they might share with His people.

Stage 4, for mature Christians, appropriately has the least number of limitations on what to study and how. You could go chronologically, canonically, systematically, authorially, thematically, geographically, etc, through the Scripture. You could learn Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic, and for good measure, sahidic and bohairic Coptic, Egyptian hieroglyphics, Ugaritic, and Akkadian. You could spend a summer at an archaeological dig in Palestine or a decade with New Testament manuscripts in Münster. You could go for a PhD each in the Old and New Testaments plus Theology. And you'd still have a few lifetimes worth of reading to feast on in the digital Theological Journal Library in Logos Bible. There's so much for the big boys and girls here. After telling Peter to feed His lambs, our risen Lord tells him to shepherd His mature sheep, to feed His mature sheep.

Moving On: Heaven and the Holy Spirit’s Role

When sermonic utterances fail, hymns can lift up and open the eye of faith, as in this Isaac Watts stanza:

The hill of Zion yields

A thousand sacred sweets

Before we reach the heav’nly fields,

Or walk the golden streets.

The heavenly Mount Zion has a lot more than the bunch of earthly theological opportunities and resources just mentioned. We're really just scratching the surface at the door to eternity. There's a thousand sacred sweets beyond that the scriptures hint at.

In Deuteronomy 29:29, there are still "secret things" that belong to Yahweh our God on top of the things He has already revealed for our obedience.

There will come a time when "the Son himself will be subjected to the one who subjected everything to him, so that God may be all in all" (1 Corinthians 15:28). Like the state of perfection that only Adam, Eve, and Jesus experienced, this is something none of us has ever experienced. What a different dimension and perspective it must be in that day.

In 2 Corinthians 12:4, Paul, presumably, was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things that he wasn't permitted to tell anyway. What could those things be, and why were they inexpressible and embargoed from our hearing? But there's more.

In Revelation 10:4, the Apostle John hears the speaking of the Seven Thunders in his apocalyptic vision. Before he could put pen to paper, a heavenly voice stops him, and we have never heard back. Mystery upon wonderful mystery awaits, but for now, it's for us to observe and do what is written and revealed in the Bible but to keep a mental note on that distant triumph song.

For that great day of perfection and glorification will soon dawn. Whether by Rapture or through death's dark vale, "the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive through his Spirit who lives in you" (Romans 8:11). The same Spirit who lit that spark of fear in the Gentile breast and quickened it with a beating heart will physically transform the entire mortal creature into immortality. And then, freed from the presence of sin and in communion under the light of the Lamb, we shall reign with Him and see a still grander story take off. Unspeakable.

Study Questions

How does your church prioritize the shepherding of the mature? What syllabus gaps or pushbacks do you see happening?
How would you respond to the thesis that heaven's a boring place with people sitting around on clouds and playing harps?
Your Sunday school superintendent assigns you the Melchizedek high priesthood as the topic for the 10th graders. But you know most of the kids are not baptized believers. How would you respond?
Every time a serious Bible study is suggested, there’s this dear saint in the fourth row who would snicker or guffaw out loud and heckle back, “Nah, it’s the practical that matters! Are you going to go to that Melchizedek thing again?” It’s getting uncomfortable now that you’re thinking of actually teaching Christ’s high priesthood in adult Sunday school. What’s your plan?
You’ve been asked to say a few words from the Bible at the funeral of a faithful member of your church. Does this chapter offer any leads?

Conclusion

GPS-powered navigation has transformed the way we go places. In the not-too-distant past, you had to flip fold-out or ring-bound atlases to trace a potential journey via an alphabetical index, page numbers, and grid coordinates, only to repeat the process with every wrong turn or detour. It's a little easier now on our nav apps. But imagine getting a Waze or Google Maps directions and picking and choosing to follow it in random order, keeping left, going 28 miles, then turning right at will but not according to map sequence. Imagine the disaster; just try it at home not on the streets!

So what good is it to have a longitudinal curriculum and then go back to random or manmade, marketing-based sequences? Sure, the Holy Spirit graciously overrules the consequences of human missed exits, frailties, and obstinacy. But He also emboldens and empowers His people for wise, obedient service.

Which Way Is Your Cornucopia Turned?

North American Thanksgiving displays often feature a basket of harvest fruits called a cornucopia. The eye is automatically drawn to the large open end of the basket promiscuously spilling forth a delicious assortment of delights. That's how the Gospel is presented by most modern churches. It reflects the marketing strategy. Don't worry about what's in the skinny back end of the cornucopia. Stick the most yummy stuff up front to grab the attention of newcomers and the putative "seekers." And change it up often so they must keep glancing back to drool.

But is that really how the lifelong Gospel curriculum is constructed?

What if the cornucopia were turned around so that you start with the tiny end? What if the Bible's evangelistic and missionary strategy isn't promiscuous or marketing based? What if it were that of a process server delivering a court subpoena?

There's a narrow way and a strait gate on that tip of the horned basket, which is the Gospel to the Heathen. That goes on for 15 seconds to 15 minutes, and the speaker moves on if the Spirit does not effect fear and repentance. Then moving up the horn, there's the Gospel to the God fearer, about 60 minutes in total, before water baptism. Then comes months or years of milk feeding for the growing lambs. And then, post puberty, we have this huge and colorful assortment of delights to fill the mature sheep this side of heaven, for decades perhaps. And then we leave the cornucopia behind as we are carried to our eschaton and eternity.

It starts low-key but gets bigger and brighter as you move up and out. That's the reverse-cornucopia curriculum. How would you reform your curriculum?

A Confident Curacy

Most churches and Christian schools have their Bible classes organized by students' physical age, sex, or educational attainment. Then they scrounge around for an appropriate curriculum for the mixed multitude in each class. Many new pastors have no idea where to begin. They grab the nearest straw but have no assurance if that's the right fix for the need at hand.

But if we start with a contextually appropriate curriculum by spiritual placement instead of those other criteria, we might have greater confidence on the appropriateness of content and only have to concern ourselves with pitching that already correct content at the right levels.

And best of all, we'd be trusting God the Holy Spirit and not our marketing prowess to bring in the harvest as we do His work His way. From heathen to heaven, all the way.

Crib Sheets or Checklists

Feel free to print off, distribute, and use!

Gospel for Heathen (15 seconds to 15 minutes)

Three Main Passages:

Acts 15:15-17
Acts 17:22-32
Revelation 14:6-7

Content

The Creator God vs manmade idols and religion
The inclusion of freshwater and seawater in His provision to all
Everyone's failure to grope for, find, and worship this true God
The certainty and imminence of God's perfect judgment upon all
His command for all to repent, to "FGW" (fear, glorify, and worship) Him
Proof of all this through the historic resurrection of the man who would be judging on God's behalf

Gospel for God Fearers (1 hour)

Three Major Passages

Ethiopian Eunuch, Acts 8
Cornelius, Acts 10
Philippian Jailer, Acts 16

Content

A quick recapitulation of the Gospel to the Heathen is Peter's presentation to Cornelius shows, Act 10:42
This same Jesus as sovereign Lord, κύριος, and Savior to those who put their hope in Him
The fact of the Trinity, in whose name the God fearer is about to be baptized, as in: Acts 10:38
The historicity of Jesus' baptism, ministry, death, burial, and resurrection (Acts 10:39-41)
Christ's person and work resulting in forgiveness through faith in Him as fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies (Acts 10:43)
The context of Isaiah 53, where the Ethiopian saw the utter hopelessness of human effort and the utter success of Jesus' work, which can be summarized in the Five Solas

Gospel for Spiritual Babes

Two Main Passages

Jerusalem Council Encyclical, Acts 15
Inventory of Elementary Things, Hebrews 6:1-2

Content

Don't worship idols
Don't commit sexual immorality
Don't drink/eat blood
Don't eat the meat of strangled animals
Practice repentance from dead works
Practice faith in God
Practice baptisms correctly
Practice the laying on of hands
Practice living at the prospect of the resurrection of the dead
Practice living in light of eternal judgment

Search This Blog

From Heathen to Heaven Towards a Context-Based Lifelong Curriculum of the Christian

English

Introduction

The Systematic vs Sequential View of the Gospel

A Short Note on What’s the Gospel

What’s Biblical? Christlike? Spiritual?

1. The Gospel to the Heathen

Contexts: Superstitious, Sophisticated, Supernal

The Current Problem: Human Selection and Sequence

Towards a Context-Based Syllabus

Moving On: Fear and the Holy Spirit’s Role

2. The Gospel to the God-Fearer

Contexts: Short but Not Too Short--The Eunuch, the Centurion, and the Jailer

The Current Problem: Too Long and Too Short

Towards a Context-Based Syllabus

Moving On: Baptism and the Holy Spirit’s Role

3. The Gospel to the Spiritual Babes

Contexts: One Body, The Jewish and Gentile Church

The Current Problem: Precepts and Practicum

Towards a Context-Based Syllabus

Moving On: Maturity and the Holy Spirit’s Role

4. The Gospel to the Spiritually Mature

Contexts: Church Life, Leadership, and Intertextuality

The Current Problem: Syllabus Leakage and Lukewarmness

Towards a Context-Based Syllabus

Moving On: Heaven and the Holy Spirit’s Role

Conclusion

Which Way Is Your Cornucopia Turned?

A Confident Curacy

Crib Sheets or Checklists

Gospel for Heathen (15 seconds to 15 minutes)

Gospel for God Fearers (1 hour)

Gospel for Spiritual Babes

That Longitudinal Arrow

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