Last month, I told you how a gospel invitation at the end of a message prompted me to ask a question: When did the wheels come off the bus? How did the familiar biblical invitation to believe become an invitation to “give your life to Jesus” or “make Jesus Lord of your life”?
To investigate that question, I turned to an interesting research tool: Google’s Ngram Viewer.
If you’re unfamiliar with Ngram Viewer, it allows you to examine how frequently particular words and phrases appear in books published over a specified period. By comparing phrases across several centuries, I hoped to discover when certain expressions began to gain popularity.
I selected phrases such as “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,” “give your life to Jesus,” and “make Jesus Lord of your life.” I then generated charts covering several centuries of published material.
The charts provided an intriguing starting point for my investigation. They offered a way to explore the changing frequency of different expressions and to ask when the language of evangelical invitations began to shift.
However, the charts alone could not tell me why those changes occurred. Nor could they establish precisely when or where the shift began. To answer those questions, I needed to investigate the historical development of evangelistic practices and examine the writings and ministries of influential Bible teachers and evangelists.
That research took me much further than I initially expected. I began tracing the history of gospel invitations and examining how the language used to present the gospel developed over time.
In subsequent newsletters, I’ll share some of the people, movements, and developments I encountered along the way.
My goal isn’t to criticize individual Bible teachers. Rather, I want us to consider an important question: Are the invitations we commonly hear today communicating the same message as the invitation presented in the New Testament?
Switching subjects, I started a new podcast called Doctrinal Clarity in a Chaotic World. The first episode explores an intriguing question: Did Paul contradict Jesus? You can find links to this and future episodes on the website of Sanford Bible Church:
https://www.sanfordbiblechurch.org/podcast
Until next month!
Blessings,
Bob
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The Father’s Purposes of Love
And we know that all things work together for
good to those who love God, to those who are
the called according to His purpose. (Rom 8:28)
“Not a hair of the child of God can fall without God’s permission. Satan is but the unintentional instrument to accomplish God’s will; he can do no more than he is allowed to do. If trials come as a host against us, the Almighty is between us and them. They will but work out for us our Father’s own purposes of love.” –Miles Stanford
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