Telling the Truth: Evangelizing Postmoderns

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Zondervan, Sep 1, 2009 - Religion - 416 pages
"A pre-modern baseball umpire would have said something like this: 'There's balls, and there's strikes, and I call 'em as they are.' The modernist would have said, 'There's balls, and there's strikes, and I call 'em as I see 'em.' And the postmodernist umpire would say, 'They ain't nothing until I call 'em.'" With that humorous quote, Ravi Zacharias illustrates the challenge postmodernism poses to Christians passionate about evangelism. How do you communicate truth to a world that isn't sure what truth is--or even if truth is? How do you commend spiritual absolutes to people who insist there are none? If you've puzzled, even struggled, over such questions, the book you hold in your hands is required reading, Telling the Truth provides informed insights on the heart of the Gospel, the soul of postmodern culture, and their complex interface. This book is a compilation of thoughts and strategies from twenty-nine prominent practitioners of contemporary evangelism. Originating at a three-day conference held at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Telling the Truth draws on knowledge gained in the trenches by Ravi Zacharias, Kelly Monroe, D.A. Carson, Ajith Fernando, and other notables. It will open your eyes to how the contest for souls is fought, guerilla-style, at a multitude of fronts: relationships, the university, ethnicity, reason and emotion, the pulpit, communications . . . in short, the broad spectrum of human experience and values. You'll be challenged to discern between the unchanging Gospel and the flexible means by which we communicate it. Telling the Truth can help you lay the groundwork necessary to point biblically uninformed, postmodern men and women toward an encounter with non-negotiable truth -- an absolute revealed in the Bible that points to the reality of sin and the need for a Savior.
 

Contents

Preface
An Ancient Message through Modern Means to a Postmodern Mind 19
The Touch of Truth 30
Why Is Religious Pluralism Funand Dangerous? 47
Why Should Anyone Believe Anything at All? 93
Two Ways to Liveand Biblical Theology 102
Keeping Christ Central in Preaching 111
The Uniqueness of Jesus Christ 123
Reaching Out to Postmodern AsianAmericans 224
Faithfully Relating to Unbelievers in a Relational Age 245
The Lifestyle of the Great Commission 255
Reaching thePostChristian University 295
Ministeringing the Postmodern Academy 307
Examples of Effective Evangelism 315
AStrategy forReaching thePostmodern Generation 322
Evangelizing Postmoderns Using aMission Outpost Strategy 343

Conversion beyond Mere Religious Preference 153
Declaring Sinners Righteous Rom 321 26
2 Corinthians 51121 175
Model 1 195
Model 2 206
AfricanAmericans 214
The Gospel for a New Generation 352
The Urgency of the Gospel 371
Athens Revisited 384
Notes 399
Index 407
Copyright

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About the author (2009)

D. A. Carson is research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. He has been at Trinity since 1978. Carson came to Trinity from the faculty of Northwest Baptist Theological Seminary in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he also served for two years as academic dean. He has served as assistant pastor and pastor and has done itinerant ministry in Canada and the United Kingdom. Carson received the Bachelor of Science in chemistry from McGill University, the Master of Divinity from Central Baptist Seminary in Toronto, and the Doctor of Philosophy in New Testament from the University of Cambridge. Carson is an active guest lecturer in academic and church settings around the world. He has written or edited about sixty books. He is a founding member and currently president of The Gospel Coalition.

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