Severe consequences of sin include:
1). Spiritual death - Because of sin, all unsaved men will someday be forever separated from God in the lake of fire. This is referred to the second death in Matt. 7:23, 25:41, Rev.2:11;20:6,14;21:8
2). Physical death - The Lord created the first man with the possibility for living forever (Gen.2:9) but Adam sinned and had to die physically as a consequence of his sin. This physical death separated his soul from his body. The body returns to the dust, but his soul lives for ever.
3). Sin dulls man’s understanding - Acts 28:27 says, "Go to this people and say, You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving."
4). Sin distorts man’s perceptions and separates him from communion with God - Eph. 4:18 says, They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts."
5). Sin confuses man’s guidance systems - Isa. 53:6 says, "All we like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way."
6). Sin defiles man’s speech - Rom. 3:13,14 says, "Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness."
7). Sin deceives man’s intentions - Jer.17:9 says, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it.?"
8). Sin stifles our discernment , growth, and creativity - Heb. 5:12-14, "In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food."
9). Sin makes us spiritually dyslexic - I Cor. 2:14 says, "The man without the Spirit of God does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned."
10). Sin dooms our soul - Ezek. 18:4 says, "For every living soul belongs to me, the father as well as the son - both alike belong to me. The soul who sins is the one who will die."
Case Study - One of the Jos E.C.W.A. Seminary students used both the art and science of evangelism in planting a church at Dare in Plateau State this year. When I asked him how he did it, he basically explained what he thought I wanted to hear - the scientific methods of evangelism. But, when I went to observe him with the people I learned that the real secret to his success was in the art of his evangelism. Pastor Rabo had established a wonderful rapport with the people and their leaders through contextual relationship building. Then he spontaneously would burst in a song about Jesus in the language of the people, Gbagi. This so mesmerized the people that they forgot all about their natural defenses and soaked up nearly everything Pastor Rabo was singing about. Almost mysteriously everyone joined in the singing of the songs about the gospel with faces that lit the night. Their entire hearts, souls, minds, emotions, and senses were completely engaged in the processes of receiving the gospel of Jesus Christ. This simple art form of communicating the gospel through vernacular choruses showed more insight into the culture through a respected art form than all of the scientific processes he had learned in a year in seminary. Pastor Rabo could not explain the scientific processes of how he evangelized a people across cultures, but he could show me how in a masterful display of the art of cross cultural evangelism.
Sin should be communicated in clear metaphorical language that can be understood by the concrete-relational way of thinking. David Hesselgrave defines the concrete-relational perception in Communicating Christ Cross-Culturally on p. 223 as,
"People who attempt to discover truth in such a way that life and reality are seen pictorially in terms of the active emotional relationships present in a concrete situation."
Hesselgrave advocates five techniques to communicate to the concrete relationalists:
a). "The evangelist should familiarize himself with the mythological or visionary or philosophical nature of most of the sacred corpses of the false religious systems of the people you are trying to evangelize. He should put aside the abstract forms of Christian theology and review those events which and through God has disclosed Himself and His truth."
b). "Use Old Testament types, parables, and symbolic acts of the prophets, the recounting and interpretation of dreams and visions, the rituals and festivals of worship, the aphorisms of the wisdom literature, the parable of Christ etc. An evangelist should be able to use metaphors, similes and symbolic language like proverbs to communicate the essentials of the gospel in concrete expressions that the people can relate their known to the unknown."
It is for this reason that a cross-cultural evangelist in Africa should explain sin as follows:
1. Sin is unclean like pigs - 2 Pet. 2:22 says, "Of them the proverbs are true: "A dog returns to its vomit", and "A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud."
2. Sin brutally consumes and devours like a lion - Psa. 22:13 says, "Roaring lions tearing their prey open their mouths wide against me."
3. Sin is influenced by the devil acting as a THIEF who seeks to steal, kill, slaughter, and destroy - John 10:10 says, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy."
4. Sin is fierce like a WOLF - John 10:12 says, "The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it."
5. Sin is unclean and diseased like a WILD DOG - Prov.26:11 says, "As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly."
6. Sin is cunning like a FOX - Luke 13:32 says, "Herod wants to kill you. Jesus replied, "Go tell that fox, I will drive out demons and heal people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal."
7. Sin is destructive like LOCUSTS - Joel 2:25 says, I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten; the great locust and the young locust... my great army that I sent among you."
8. Sin is poisonous, like a VIPER - Psa. 140:3 says, "They make their tongues as sharp as a serpent’s; the poison of vipers is on their lips."
9. Sin is like CANCER as it destroys from within - James 4:1,2 says, "What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want."
10. Sin is stubborn and dull like a MULE - Job 11:11, 12 says, "Surely he recognizes deceitful men; and when he sees evil does he not take note? But a witless man can no more become wise than a wild donkey’s colt can be born a man."
The effects of sin include:
1. A loss of light and fellowship with God - I John 1:6 says, "If we claim to have fellowship with him but walk in darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth."
2. A loss of peace - I John 3:4-10 says, "He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning."
3. A loss of love and identity with God - I John 2:15,16 says, "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world."
4. A loss of fellowship with Christians and purification - I John 1:7 says, "But, if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin."
5. A loss of confidence and answers to prayer - I John 3:19-22 says, "Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from Him what we ask because we obey his commands and do what pleases Him."
6. A possible loss of even physical life - I Cor. 5:5 says, "Hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord."
7. A possible physical illness or weakness - I Cor. 11:30 says, "For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep."
8. A loss of joy and motivation - Psa. 51:12 says, "Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me."
c). However, since the gospel is not sin centered but Christ centered we want to return our emphasis to the primary aspects of evangelism for Africans. The message we speak should be directed toward lifting people out of the need to be delivered from their state of danger in being controlled by the kingdom of Satan. Most Africans are terribly afraid of coming under a strong influence of the spirits of the underworld. To them we must present salvation as a act of God’s POWER to deliver them from the domain of Satan, transferring them into the kingdom of God through Christ with all of its accompanying protective blessings. This transfer takes place only when an individual places his faith in Christ as substitutionary payment for his personal sins. By stressing the primary aspects of salvation we are able to bring to the surface numerous secondary, and tertiary issues, needs, problems, and concerns.
d). We should be careful of trying to overcontextualize the gospel. Many people prefer to spend a great deal of time, effort, and research on the contextualizing of the message to make it relevant to the people. While this is vital, we must realize the nature of the gospel to convict, clarify, and work supernatural changes in the heart of the recipients. The gospel is still the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes. There is an inherent cross-cultural element to the gospel that speaks to the heart of everyman which cannot be underestimated. God’s love is so compelling it acts like a magnet in the conscience of everyone who responds to His wooing. All the while the Spirit is creating a sense of inescapable guilt, shame, or eternal disgrace in the heart of the African man or woman. The Spirit aims at the lack of belief in Christ. The Spirit wants everyone to realize that the heart of the problem lies in an attitude of active rebellion, indifference, or ascribing power to the wrong gods. When speaking of the gospel to an African audience one must not forget the greatest need is always rooted in the forgiveness of sin through Christ. Many of the other felt needs, problems, and oppression are surface symptoms of the root cause - forgiveness through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
e). We should be careful of undercontextualizing the gospel. Last year several missionary anthropologists came from a Bible College where they had just been dismissed over this issue. It seems that the President of their conservative school felt that their classes on evangelism contained too much emphasis on anthropological tools of contextualization. He felt that we should put more emphasis on the ministry of the Spirit of God to illuminate the truth to the people. He so strongly believed in the sovereignty of God in matters of communicating the gospel that he rejected too much of man’s interference in the cross-cultural process. The President contended that the gospel has transcultural capacities not requiring any of the social sciences to facilitate its communication. He quickly hired teachers to replace the missionary anthropologists who believed that "evangelism ministries are caught not taught." Issues of relevance, identification, and effectiveness are not incidental issues, but are essential for maximizing the ministry of the gospel. Paul, the apostle said in I Cor. 9:19-23, "Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews... to the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by ALL POSSIBLE MEANS I MIGHT SAVE SOME." Paul probably would have had twenty books, tapes, and films out on contextualization if he were alive today! Paul knew that people, cultures, and communication is always changing demanding modifications to stay abreast. Proverbs 24:3,4 in the living Bible says it best, "Any enterprise is built by wise planning, becomes strong through common sense and profits wonderfully by keeping abreast of the facts!" Many people remain outside the kingdom of God not because they are hostile to the gospel, but because its message is alien to their way of thinking.
In communicating the gospel to Africans we are to constantly be looking for common ground where the message takes on relevance, appropriateness, and solutions to the real problems people face daily. Nearly every weekend our seminary students take evangelistic films throughout Nigeria. Somehow, our students have been able to use these films to locate the common ground which speaks to the hearts of thousands. Without fail, the devil creates so many obstacles along the way that everyone in the village recognizes the power encounter between the forces of darkness and the powers of light. One evening a juju priest came forward placing a curse on the evangelist. Suddenly, the speaker lost his voice and fell to the earth paralyzed. The crowd shuddered as the elders took the evangelist into the church to claim God’s anointed blessings and protection on the man. The 2,000 people waited outside wondering if the powers of God would be mightier than the powers of the juju priest’s gods. After three hours, the evangelist emerged stronger in conviction and voice than he had ever been. Immediately, he stood up and shouted, "In the name of Jesus Christ, I command all evil spirits to depart from this place!" The juju priest and his companions ran for their lives as the crowd watched snakes attack them. The people then watched as the evangelist explained the power of God to release them from the clutches of sin, oppression, and judgment in hell fire for eternity. Nearly, everyone in the crowd accepted Christ that night. They wanted to embrace the greater power to overcome all forms of evil. For the last eight years we have averaged more than 40,000 viewers and 4,000 converts through this common ground ministry.
f). Be careful of offering certain benefits of salvation over the primary benefits of forgiveness of personal sin. It is all right to display the wonderful blessings that one will receive after salvation, but they must come through the encounter with Christ at the cross. Trying to be too accommodative may actually confuse Africans thinking. Be careful you are not striping the gospel of its power or diluting it medicinal potency. For example, once we saw an entire village respond to the gospel. Later we learned that the chief had told them to comply with whatever we said. He thought that this was a prerequisite condition to getting a new well dug outside his palace. We must communicate the meanings and the full implications of the gospel.
g). Africans realize their need for atoning sacrifices. Demonstrate how Christ’s sacrifice is superior to all others. Throughout African Traditional Religions there are numerous sacrifices that are utilized for a wide array of conditions. Sacrifices can be for reconciliation between a villager and a chief; sacrifices can be offered to the ancestors to appease their anger; sacrifices can be given to assure safe delivery during pregnancies; sacrifices can be given to the gods of soil for good fertility and abundance of harvest. Sacrifices are to a large degree utilitarian and pragmatic in nature.
Hebrews 10:11,12 explains how the sacrifice question present an opportunity for the gospel with Africans when the writer says, "Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God...because by one sacrifice he has made perfect for ever those who are being made holy... Then he adds: Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more. And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin."
h). Africans need evangelists who can use their own language to communicate the gospel in understandable terms. Paul borrowed word pictures from the culture of his day: from the courtroom (Justification), the marketplace (redemption), domestic life (adoption), and even from pagan practices of their religions (propitiation) says McCloskey on page 38 of his insightful book Tell it Often, Tell it Well.
i). Africans appreciate the legitimate warnings of impending judgment. Jonathan Edwards once said, "The warnings of God’s word are more fitted to obtain the ends of awakening sinners, and bringing them to repentance, than the rising of one from the dead to warn them." The Works of President Edwards volume 4 page 330. Africans take warnings as the norm for their societies. When an evangelist warns them of the consequences of sin, Africans are ready to apply the remedy needed to avoid judgment. Perhaps, it is like Jesus said, "Unless you become like a little child you will not enter the kingdom of heaven." Most children quickly respond to warnings when they will not to any other motivation. For example, when we show films like The Burning Hell to Africans, most people are genuinely appreciative of the fact that we warned them of the terrible consequences of rejecting Christ as Savior. They are responsive rather than offended by the admonishment that unless they repent they will all perish and be lost for eternity in the fires of hell. Without fail, Africans always have shown their appreciation for our presentations by giving us huge amounts of yams, grain, and chickens for coming to warn them of the results of failing to receive Christ as their Savior.
j). Most Africans prefer to learn and understand the full implications of the gospel in groups. In Western contexts, people are only free to raise doubts, questions, and real needs in the privacy of a personal conversation. However, Africans often prefer the company of trusted companions when they are discussing the implications of an important issue like the gospel. Persuasive conversation is not so much a dialogue as it is a network of communication between trusted colleagues, family members, and trusted friends. This always mystified me when ever we sent our students out for evangelism. They always preferred going in groups and speaking to groups. They felt that this manner facilitated the sharing of the gospel far more than if we stressed personal dialogue presentations. In a context dependent culture, people are often more receptive to the communication that more closely reflects the reality they trust. For this reason we usually do evangelism with groups of twenty or more when we enter a village initially. We go throughout the village inviting the chief, the elders, and all important people first. Then we circulate through the community in groups of 3-5 who are dressed appropriately for contextual credibility. We begin our service with group singing, continue with group drama presentation, have group special music, give group testimonies, and have group counselling following the film. Finally, we encourage the local Pastor to lead the converts through group follow-up sessions for greater facility in bringing more people into the process of body life qualitative and quantitative growth of the church.
k). Africans respond to the Elisha approach to ministry - demonstrations of power for good over evil. In 2 Kings 2:13-25 Elisha needed confirmation of God’s hand on him. In several short sequences we see Elisha take Elijah’s cloak, strike the water and divide the waters of the Jordan and walk over to the other side. All of this to demonstrate that he now possessed Elijah’s power as he asked the people a rhetorical question, "Where now is the Lord, the God of Elijah?" To which the company of the prophets said, "The spirit of Elijah is resting on Elisha." They then bowed to the ground before Elisha. Next, he healed the poisonous waters and allowed the land to once again become productive giving credit to the Lord for purifying the water and restoring the land to productivity.
Finally, when several young men scorned Elisha for continuing Elijah preaching against the royal apostasy they called him, "You baldhead!" Immediately he placed a curse on them from the Lord and two bears slaughtered 43 youths. All of these portrayals of the prophet are highly respected by Africans. The entire incident served warning that the judgment of God would come on the entire nation if they persisted in disobedience and apostasy. Elisha made it abundantly clear that God would bless those who obeyed him by believing in his word, but he would curse those who failed to do the same. These personifications of God’s power through the prophet fit the concrete relational perception of one power source versus another power source. An evangelist needs to assume a similar posture in presenting Christ as a greater power over forces of evil.
l). An evangelist needs to understand the Africans’ view of the spirit world from a religious and philosophic perspective to be effective. Most African societies are regulated through the hierarchy of the spirit world in beliefs and practices. Whenever someone wants to discover the true ethos of an African culture, one should begin with the ways the spirit world affect the hopes, fears, and practices of the people.
Africans intermingle the spiritual world constantly with the physical world, and have forces that are co-dependent on one another. This excluded middle ground of the spirits, demons, ancestors, and supernatural beings is largely ignored by most Western writers. However, Africans see spiritual personifications in the sun, moon, animals, trees, wind, and circumstances etc. Many African tribes have a hierarchy of gods that determine the kinds of worship and respect afforded them. The Yoruba have one thousand and seven hundred divinities (orisa). These deities see their equivalent leaders in social-political circles. Although Orisa-nla is the supreme divinity for some Yorubas and acts as God’s earthly deputy in creative and executive functions, there are other gods like Orunmila who represents God’s omniscience and knowledge. A wise evangelist will present the one true God as Paul did to the Athenians in Acts 17. He will acknowledge these gods, but lead the people to the knowledge of God they are yet to know.
m). An evangelist to Africans will learn the art of going through respected mediators. Most Africans are accustomed to going through mediators in order to get what they need. They have conditioned trust when they are working through credible intercessors. This is not only true in the communication with the spirit world, but the human realm as well. Most African traditional religions have an entire hierarchy of gods that must be gone through who act as mediators to the supreme God.
Evangelists should learn to use mediators for communicating the gospel through more effective language, cognitive, motivational, social, and spiritual channels of power. For example, whenever we take our seminary students to a village for film evangelism we work through three main mediators. First, we work through the student who is familiar with the culture of that area. Second, we work through the local Pastor (If there is one) who establishes the necessary contacts for a successful outreach endeavor.
Thirdly, we try to work through the local chief who may or not be receptive to the idea of evangelism in his village. In the event that the chief is not hospitable we consult the local police authorities who can provide a measure of credibility as the mediator of governmental law. Mediators are a part of the conscious and sub-conscious way of corporate and individual thinking for most African societies. Most evangelists will learn that you either use mediators for your work or they will work against you.
n). Use the African concept of libations as analogies for the gospel. In many African societies God controls them and sometimes sends messengers to see that His will is done correctly. These messenger spirits are mostly neutral, but some are good and others are evil. Many of my African students have mentioned that their church members report seeing spirits in their dreams, in the night, and along rivers.
Many Africans are diligent to present libations of beer, milk, water, fowl, grain, or bits of food to the living dead. Failure to adequately compensate the spirits may lead to spirit possession of some kind. Some diviners and traditional doctors use these beliefs to get diagnostic instructions from the spirits about future, present, or past events.
Evangelists can use these practices and beliefs in libations of the people to draw analogies to living sacrifices talked about by Paul in Romans 12:1. This is to be contrasted with the supreme offering by Christ for sins of the whole world. Whereas the libations of most Africans are external, the sacrifices acceptable to God are broken and a contrite attitude. Nevertheless, outward symbols of our inward submissive hearts are far more important to the African than the Western man. The African wants to see proof and offer proofs of his inward beliefs.
o). Africans are fond of their guardian spirits that may be benevolent and malicious. While some ancestral spirits may be helpful others in contrast can punish bad deeds and be responsible for many misfortunes. Mbiti, in his book African Religions and Philosophy on p. 86, tells about a man who died leaving instructions for his wife not to sell a certain piece of ground in 1962. However, she decided that the family needed the money so she sold the plot in spite of the vigorous warnings from family members. The purchaser was even warned about the impending curse over the land. When the new owner built a new home on the land tragic things began to happen. People inside the home were mysteriously hit by flying object. Boiling water would spill over dousing out the fire. When the local Pastor was called in, he was hit by invisible clubs so severely that he ran away. Police were ushered into the house, but were quickly pelted by stones chasing them back to their headquarters. Eventually, the owner of the house had to move out of the home. Finally, the wife returned to the house where peace reigned once again. Most Africans believe this came as a result of the dead man’s spiritual powers.
Evangelists can use incidents like this to reinforce the horrible strangehold that the devil and his demons hold over many non-christians and carnal believers. Only through the blood of Jesus Christ and the power of His word can people be protected from such evil forces. Evangelists can go with the full assurance that the battle is the Lords and He will defeat all the powers of the evil one through our faith, purity of life, and courageous stance. All of this may mean a showdown with the forces of evil that may last days, weeks, or even months. But, the promises from our Lord are infallible!
p). Look for ways the people maintain harmony and analogize it with God’s reconciliation with man. Allan Tippett, the late great missiologist tells of a lesson he learned about one tribal priest’s processes of keeping harmony in his village. He explained, "We have a special sacred place called ’The stone of reconciliation’. When two members of the community fight they are brought before the stone to make a sacrifice to the tribal deity. This sacrifice requests forgiveness for disrupting the tribal cohesion and registers their desire for reconciliation with each other." (Tippett, p. 138-139, Crucial Issues in Missions Today) Throughout Africa people groups have special ceremonies to reconcile two groups with one another. These can serve as bridges for analogizing the great reconciliation sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the sins of every human being if they are willing to receive Him as their Savior by faith.
