Tell the Truth: The Whole Gospel, to the Whole Person, by Whole People
By Will Metzger

            Telling the complete truth of the gospel as a glorifying act toward God is the subject of Will Metzger's book on personal evangelism, Tell the Truth.  This book's stated purpose is to convey the whole gospel to the whole person by whole people.  Metzger was frustrated by the lack of material on biblical evangelism, that is, evangelism that does not simply look to pragmatic examples of success in evangelism, but that which looks to Scripture as the model.  Tell the Truth is the result of Metzger's search of the Scriptures to see the ways in which one should evangelize the lost.

Summary

            Metzger shapes the outline of this book around the three points stated in the subtitle.  First, Metzger focuses on the use of the whole gospel in evangelism.  This section speaks to the content of what we share in the gospel from a biblical perspective.  Metzger notices that in many gospel presentations, the content of the gospel is truncated, or even changed, to make it seem more palatable to the lost.  He argues, though, that this marring of the gospel actually serves either to cause Christ to be unattractive to some, or to cause others to have a faith based on false hope.  Therefore, one should not focus on a man-centered gospel, but on one that is God-centered.  The second section deals with the conversion of the whole person.  This section speaks largely to the nominalism that is so prevalent within evangelical Christianity.  One cannot split salvation of the whole person from the lordship of Christ that must follow, therefore there is no person who has Christ as his Savior but not as his Lord (77-78).  Salvation is of the entire person, causing that person to think and act in a different way than before they were regenerated by the Holy Spirit (78).  With the salvation of the entire person in mind, it is important to see that the Gospel does not only affect our mind, or merely our emotions, but the whole of our personhood, found in the combination of our mind, emotions, and will.  The final section of this book speaks of the people who share the gospel and encourages them to be whole people.  By the term whole people Metzger refers to someone who has attained to the first two sections of the book, who have received the whole gospel into their whole person.  This whole person, then, will take the gospel and do as was done to them, i.e., share the whole gospel.  This last section deals with methods for evangelism, in which Metzger attempts to describe different situations the evangelist might face when sharing the gospel.  He then ends the book with two appendices, one that speak to other modes of evangelism, such as preaching, literature, and gatherings of believers, as well as another that is a worksheet for improving one's witness.

Strengths

            There are many tremendous qualities to this book that should be noticed.  First, the reader should be aware of the basis for Metzger's views on evangelism.  Unlike many evangelism books and programs that are used in local churches, Metzger rests the weight of this book on the foundation of Scripture as that which one should base evangelism (36).  In following this approach, he adds much to the discussion on evangelism in that it no longer is a debate about what methodology works the best when evangelizing, but what method is most glorifying to God (26).  Therefore, one must base methodology on theology, and theology must be based on Scripture (15).  His focus on Scripture as the foundation of evangelism can be seen in his discussion on sharing the whole truth when presenting the gospel.  It is not up to the evangelist as to how much truth to share; that choice has already been dictated by Scripture (72). 

            A second beneficial quality of this book is closely related to the first point.  Since one should base our evangelism methodology on Scripture, one should then pay close attention as to what Scripture says about the role of God in the conversion of people from sin to glory.  Ultimately, the evangelist's task is not to convert a person, because that work is something only God can do through the regeneration by his Spirit (78).  The task of the evangelist is, though, to faithfully share what Scripture says is the gospel (25).  In doing so, one can glorify God even when no one is converted.  The evangelist, though, should not be satisfied when no one is converted, because it is fully expected that there will be results from the proclamation of the gospel.  If results are not forthcoming, then evaluation of the presentation may necessary to see it falls in line with Scripture (25).

            A third helpful quality of this book is Metzger's carefulness not to back away from calling for a response, while at the same time being sure not to be overly manipulative.  One should by all means attempt to speak to the emotions of nonbelievers when presenting the gospel, expecting that their hearts will be touched by the love of God, while their souls are broken by their flagrant sin before a holy and just God (93).  At the same time, though, there is a word of caution to those people who have strong personalities, or to persons who are witnessing to ones with low thresholds for manipulation (95).  We do not ever want to talk someone into a decision that they are not being led by the Spirit to make.  This kind of manipulation is easy to do with children or emotionally unstable people (95).  To evangelize in this way may be ensuring the obstructing of a real gospel decision in this person's life at a later time because they are sure that they are already converted.

Weaknesses

            As superb as this book is on the topic of personal evangelism, one negative feature is Metzger's decision to relegate the corporate aspect of evangelism to the appendix.  Granted, this book's purpose is to deal with personal evangelism, which Metzger does acknowledge (17).  He also, though, takes a paragraph to speak to the importance of the body of believers organized as the church to have a corporate witness in the world (17).  This aspect is often-overlooked in personal evangelism, and should be seen as indispensable to our methodology.  Personal witnessing is no good if there is not a congregational understanding of the body of Christ being a display of God's glory, especially with regards to evangelism.  An entire chapter could have been spent on this topic, and in keeping with the basis of this methodology, i.e., Scripture, it should have been included so as to present the "whole" truth of the gospel.

Conclusion

            Overall, Tell the Truth is one of the best books on personal evangelism to be found.  This book incorporates the substance of Scripture on the matter of the content of the gospel, with the necessity of reaching the whole of a person with that gospel, and then speaks to the paradigm of the evangelist found in Scripture (with the notable exclusion of the corporate witness of the church and its relationship to personal evangelism).  Metzger has written an exceptional book on issues related to the gospel, and it will find much helpful use in the years to come by those willing to forgo the pragmatic for the proper.

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