Five Question Evangelism

Who? Who? What? What? What?

Every single human being should be asked to answer these five questions. Most of us who are now Christians had to wrestle with each of these questions in one way or another in our time of spiritual transformation. Perhaps, then, it would be wise for us to make use of them as we witness to others who are not Christians.

Different well-known methods have been used in the past half-century or so. There is the time-tested Romans Road method, using specific verses from Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. Campus Crusade for Christ has used the Four Spiritual Laws method. Ray Comfort of LivingWaters.com and YouTube “fame” uses what he calls The Way of the Master.

I first heard of the Five Questions method through Todd Friel, another Christian guy on YouTube. He said that every good Gospel presentation should include those five questions listed at the opening. Since I am not the best at memorization—or am lazy about memorization—it took me two days just to remember the five questions!

Now some Christians are gifted to evangelize (Ephesians 4:11) and when we see these folks do their work, we know they have that gift. As for the rest of us, we are still given the responsibility to be disciple makers (Matthew 28:19-20) and witnesses for Christ, not only with our lives (1 Peter 2:12), but also with our words (Romans 10:14; 1 Peter 3:15; 2 Corinthians 5:11, etc.).

The very idea scares many of us: “I’m shy.” “I’m an introvert.” “I have anxiety.” “I’m not good at this.” “I don’t know what to say.” So, I hope this will help. Remember, not everyone is called to stand on a street corner and preach the Gospel. But there are family, friends, and coworkers who need to hear the good news; so, prayerfully consider the following method.

Question 1: WHO is God?

These are the words I think will be helpful: Creator. Sustainer. King. Holy. Judge.

Here is a verse in support of each one of those words. (You might want to commit them to memory or mark/tab in your Bible.)

Creator: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).

Sustainer: “He is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else” (Acts 17:25). Also check out Matthew 5:45 and Job 41:11.

King: “His kingdom is an eternal kingdom; his dominion endures from generation to generation” (Daniel 4:3). Consider also Romans 1:20.  

Holy: “Be holy as I am holy” (Leviticus 11:45).

Judge: “God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:14). See also Genesis 18:25.

LAW: Because God is all of these things, God gave the Law and the Commandments (Exodus 20; Deuteronomy 5). They are for our benefit and the benefit of society, an instruction manual for us on how to live and how not to live in His world. (Consider Psalm 119.)  

 Question 2: WHO are you? (for others) or WHO are we? (when self-examining).

With God as the Creator, we are the Created. With God as Sustainer, we are Dependent. Since God is King, we are Subjects. Since He is Holy—uh oh—we are Unholy (Sinful, Lawbreakers). And since God is the Judge… we stand Guilty or Condemned.

God created the world perfect, beautiful, sinless. Shalom (peace, wholeness) reigned. Sin broke shalom and the way things should be. Our ever-present sin continues to contribute to this unhappy, friction-filled world. It is a desecration of God’s world. It often goes against the created order. It is harmful to harmony, harms self, harms others. It is vandalism and spitting in God’s face.

As Creatures we have sinned: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

As Dependents we have sinned: “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him” (Romans 1:21).

As Subjects we have sinned: “A son honors his father, and a slave his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?” says the Lord Almighty (Malachi 1:6).

We are Unholy. “Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you” (Isaiah 59:2). See also Ephesians 4:18-19 and Colossians 1:21.

We stand Condemned, “filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, are faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them” (Romans 1:29-32). See also 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 and Ephesians 2:1-3.

“This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19).

Here I am reminded of something written by Cornelius Van Til:

“The point is this. Not believing in God [or ignoring Him], we have seen, you do not think yourself to be God's creature. And not believing in God you do not think the universe has been created by God. That is to say, you think of yourself and of the world as just being there. Now if you actually are God's creature, then your present attitude is very unfair to Him. In that case it is even an insult to Him. And having insulted God, His displeasure rests upon you. God and you are not on 'speaking terms'. And you have very good reasons for trying to prove that He does not exist. If He does exist, He will punish you for your disregard of Him. 

“You are therefore wearing colored glasses. And this determines everything you say about the facts and reasons for not believing in Him. You have as it were entered upon God's estate and have had your picnics and... parties there without asking His permission. You have taken the grapes of God's vineyard without paying Him any rent and you have insulted His representatives who asked you for it” (from pages 11-12 of Why I Believe in God).

LAW: God’s Law is a mirror to show us our sin (Romans 3:20). God’s Holy Spirit convicts us of sin (John 16:8).

Question 3: WHAT should God do with us?

A holy God and Judge should rightly condemn and sentence us.

Justly Judged: “Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).

Certainly Condemned: “Whoever believes in [Jesus] is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” (John 3:18).

Rightfully under Wrath: “But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed” (Romans 2:5).

Sure to be Sentenced: “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels….’ Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life” (Matthew 25:41, 46). “Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15).

But herein is Hope: “In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:30-31).

By LAW, we stand condemned. Romans 3:23 again.

Question 4: WHAT has God done for us?

Hope is what Christmas and Easter are all about: In Jesus Christ, God has Loved. Rescued. Ransomed. Redeemed. Promised.

 Loved: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

Rescued: “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:6-8).

Ransomed: “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).

Redeemed: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10).

Promised: Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:25-26). “For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:40).

Law fulfilled! Jesus Christ stood in our place. The Son became a human being (Philippians 2:6-11). He was the perfect subject, or Servant, to the Father (Isaiah 52:13). He lived the holy, sinless, life we should have lived (Hebrews 4:15). He died the death we deserved, condemned in our place. He then rose from the dead, both fulfilling the former promises and giving us hope that His new promises would also come true!

Question 5: WHAT should be our response?

Confess or Admit: “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).

Believe, which means Trust: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved…” (Acts 16:31). God has made promises through His Son. Do you trust Him and believe Him?

Repent: “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord” (Acts 3:19).

Follow: “I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds” (Acts 26:20).

Praise. Worship. Be Thankful and Grateful. Tell others!

I End with Alliteration

I leave you with a few more important verses you might want to remember, each word or opening phrase contains a “W” sound:

Wages: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

One way: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

No one else: “Salvation is found in no-one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Witnesses: “All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name” (Acts 10:43). “We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eye-witnesses” (2 Peter 1:16).

Now what? “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him” (John 3:36).

Steve Drain