“It’s not that people haven’t heard the Gospel. Rather, it’s that they’ve heard it in shorthand. They’ve settled for insufficient explanations of inexhaustible truths. They’ve embraced a canon that is simply a hodge-podge of catchphrases, moral stories, and isolated teachings. And then we send them on mission trips, or door-to-door?”

God spoke.

In Genesis 1, He spoke when there were none to hear; the Creator used words as His instrument in creation.

Now, presumably, He could have just waved His hand.

Or He might have blinked. Or simply “thought” things into existence.

But instead, God spoke into the void, declaring His intent in ways that have reverberated since. He gave voice to the good pleasures of His heart. And the heavens and the earth, light and day, and so much more resulted.

He did this all with words. Clearly, words, and what they convey, matter.

Centuries later, Jesus relied on God’s words in contending against Satan.

Specifically, He declared that man does not live by bread alone, but “by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”  What does this imply? Well, among other things, that man’s survival does not hinge on things found in the created realm, but upon his relationship to the Creator, and what the Creator has said. Our life hinges less on “things” that God has made, than upon His manifest self-revelation.

And, for you and I, that self-revelation is articulated most readily in Scripture.

But what if we don’t read it?

What if we go through life unknowing or indifferent to His Word?

These concerns are not academic. Ignorance of the Bible is rampant, even among professing believers. Multitudes of those called to live, and be sustained, by God’s Word are starving.

Now, such ignorance comes easy. Naturally, even. Fallen men and women are in no hurry to dive headlong into the “double-edged sword” of Scripture (Heb. 4:12).

However, what happens when this ignorance (or illiteracy) permeates our ministry?

A couple of years ago, a traveling evangelist stopped by our church while I was preparing for Sunday’s worship. 

The man and I talked for a while, and I was greatly impressed by his zeal. He had sacrificed a lot in order to take the Gospel to folks throughout our region– his faith was (and is) an encouragement to me.

In visiting our church, the man hoped we might promote an event he had coming up. Not being familiar with his ministry, I asked a few questions. Among them was:

“What is your understanding of justification?”

The man thought for a moment. He looked down.

“Well, doesn’t justification mean ‘just-as-if’ I’d never sinned?”

From his tone, he knew that he’d fallen short. I don’t think he expected to be asked about his theology. Curious, I asked some related questions. The results were similar.

Ultimately, we returned to justification, because a right understanding of the Gospel hinges on this word. Many heresies incorporate or involve mistaken components thereof. And so we talked about the inadequacy of the “just as if” catchphrase. Quickly, he recognized the distinction. He agreed that the Gospel is not about sins magically “erased,” but “paid for.”

Now, charitably, I think this man “knew” the right answer, but was unable to express it.

In other words, what we had was a failure to communicate.

It’s not that people haven’t heard the Gospel. However, they’ve probably heard the shorthand version. They’ve probably heard (and settled) for soundbytes. Increasingly, the contents of Scripture have been reduced to a hodge-podge of catchphrases, moral stories, and isolated teachings.

Proper context, or a systematic understanding of Scripture, have gone missing.

Further, the individual words, the vocabulary of Scripture, are poorly understood.

Words like “justification” are rich in meaning; a right understanding of words like holiness, propitiation, and redemption are not simply “facts to remember” but are the pillars of our hope! You don’t have to be a theologian in order to explain the terms that frame or give wings to our belief. And to evangelize, it’s a must.

Now, does one need to do so perfectly? No. But competently? Yes!

I wonder, how can we expect sinners to respond to the Gospel if we (collectively) fail to articulate it?

How can we expect evangelism, church planting, and revivals to bear fruit if the tree is broadly ignorant?

Simply put, we can’t. 

We can talk revival til we’re blue in the face, we can have conferences and parades right down main street, but if we cannot properly articulate what we believe into a world that is dying, then what good is any of it?

Paul said that faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word (Romans 10:17).

If this is so, then the accuracy with which we convey that Word matters.

Toby B. Holt is a Teaching Elder in the Presbyterian Church in America.