Colson: Making the case for Jesus By Parker T. Williamson The Presbyterian Layman Volume 33, Number 4 Posted August 4, 2000 Williamson and Colson aboard the MTS Arcadia. ATHENS – What do Charles W. Colson and the Apostle Paul have in common? Both men went to prison. Each was turned upside down by an encounter with Jesus Christ. And each has devoted his life to confronting secular culture with the gospel. Colson is hot on Paul’s trail these days, for as he studies the apostle’s strategy for winning the Hellenistic world, he sees a plan that will work for Christians today. No time for withdrawal Evangelicals have often been ineffective in engaging the culture, says Colson. In fact, many choose to withdraw from culture rather than confront it. But Colson reminds fellow Christians that the Great Commission calls us to go into the world. Isolationism is not an option. Engaging the culture requires strategic planning, says Colson. It is not enough for Christians to quote the Bible or tell people that they have met Jesus. From secularists, an appeal like “the Bible says” brings a “so what?” response. Nor do secularists universalize an individual’s experience: “You had an encounter with Christ? That’s fine for you, but I haven’t, so it doesn’t mean anything to me.” Christians must come out of themselves, says Colson. Effective apologetics begins where the people are. Paul’s strategy “When Paul spoke in the Synagogue,” says Colson, “he argued from Scripture that Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of Jewish prophecy. His appeal to Biblical authority was effective in a culture that was rooted in the Old Testament. But when Paul entered the Athenian marketplace he employed an entirely different approach. There Paul quoted Greek poets and philosophers, hammering away at the inability of pagan worldviews to answer life’s basic questions.” Paul’s arguments were thoroughly Biblical, says Colson, but he used instruments other than the Bible to make his case. We live in a post-Christian era whose presuppositions parallel Paul’s pre-Christian environment, says Colson. “Americans no longer rely on Judeo-Christian truths as the basis of their public philosophy or moral consensus. We are faced, not with a theistic culture but a naturalistic one, and we must engage it on its own terms.” Engaging the culture Apologetics begins with a sharp edge, argues Colson; it must lay bare the inadequacies of the popular worldview. That worldview’s impact on our cultural institutions – family, sexual norms, business practices, politics, law, even the institutionalized church – has proved devastating. Showing that this ideology cannot deliver what it promises is a necessary precursor to evangelism. Evangelicals sometimes ask Colson why they can’t just share the simple gospel. “The answer,” he replies, “is that God calls us to love people enough to go where they are – not only physically, but also conceptually. We are called to reach out to them in their own language.” That implies that we do our homework, learn the ideas that control our culture, and engage them for the sake of the gospel. How now shall we live? In his worldwide travels on behalf of Prison Fellowship, Colson has learned that many Christians need help in challenging their culture. This realization led him and co-author Nancy Pearcy to publish How Now Shall We Live, a basic primer in Christian apologetics. Using the key doctrines of creation, fall, salvation and restoration, Colson and Pearcy show their readers how to rebut the counterfeit claims of a secular culture, and how to make their case for the gospel.

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