The Benefits Of History In Our Evangelism

I love Bigfoot and the folklore, the myths, the stories, the TV shows, the books, and even the cheesy merchandise. I do not believe that Bigfoot exists, nor that there is some tremendous North American ape. I just like the story. I am fascinated by people recounting their experiences or retelling other eyewitness accounts. Awkwardly, my fascination is often confused with actual belief. When the true believers discover this fact, they immediately attempt to convince me of his existence through pseudo-history. You may ask, “What is pseudo-history?” Pseudo-history is the attempt to purport historical claims with dubious evidence. In a sense, it is a distortion of history or a lie.  

Unfortunately, believers have earned the reputation of using pseudo-history — from the shroud of Turin to debunked archeological artifacts. Now I do not think that every person who uses pseudo-historical events, artifacts, and the like is doing so from some malice of forethought, but are well-intended believers trying to convince a non-believer of the truth. Nonetheless, using some fraudulent documents to prove your case doesn’t age well.  

As Christians, our goal is not winning arguments but displaying God's truth through thoughtful and biblical answers. We should care about the truth, even if it makes us look bad. We must remember that our God is a God of truth. But why talk about history at all? More and more, I hear people dismissing the claims of the faith on historical grounds. For example, many see the crusades as an opportunity to label Christians as “violent,” “tyrannical,” and a host of other monikers. I have heard it numerous times, “I don’t want to accept a religion that would do something like the crusades.” However, if we know how to think correctly about history and can tell the truth about the past, we may be able to lovingly defend and implore them to believe the claims of the gospel. So how should we think about the past? Use credible contemporary materials of the time and analyze history through the claims of Scripture. I believe that when we examine the past like this, we should use it in our defense of the faith; as a result, many benefits will emerge.

The first benefit is that history offers numerous examples of scriptural truth; for instance, we can see humanity’s sinfulness. Think of the holocaust; that is an example of the depravity of man. When honestly portrayed, we can point out that history will affirm the same truth found in the Scripture. This is a great benefit in our evangelism; we don’t have to hide from the past but present it honestly and point out the truth.  

The second benefit is that history can help the believer wrestle with life's biggest questions and sharpen our answers. We easily forget that people in the past were people. Past Christians struggled with the same big life questions; however, they often answered them from a different perspective, which can help us sharpen our arguments. This doesn’t mean that believers in the past were always right; everything must be evaluated through the Scripture. However, there is a benefit to multiple counselors, even if they are older and have different perspectives.  

The third benefit is that history helps us with discernment. Knowing the details of an event is often reasonably straightforward; however, analyzing why something happened is a bit of a sticky wicket. This is because any time you explore why something happens, you are not simply judging by the events but from the perspective of your worldview. With this in mind, many false claims equivocate subjective analysis with historical facts. Historically discerning believers can easily discern between analysis and historical information and rebuff the false claim. For example, forgive me for using an old example but remember the Da Vinci Code? That historical novel was filled with subjective analysis, and simply knowing the historical facts, you could see right through his argument.

The last benefit is that history gives us outstanding accounts of God's saving power. I am reminded of the story of John Newton, the man who penned the lyrics to "Amazing Grace." He was at one time a slave trader, but after hearing the gospel, he had a complete change of life, from selling enslaved people to fighting to stop the practice altogether. This is a powerful story of the power of the gospel to change lives.  

So, as I drink coffee from my Bigfoot mug and while I am wearing my Bigfoot slippers, I encourage all of us (myself included) to use history to help us defend the faith, pray for the unbeliever, talk about Jesus, and tell the truth!

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