{"id":71599,"date":"2024-01-12T10:50:52","date_gmt":"2024-01-12T16:50:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/?p=71599"},"modified":"2024-02-08T11:29:08","modified_gmt":"2024-02-08T17:29:08","slug":"they-will-listen-evangelistic-confidence-in-a-cynical-age-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/?p=71599","title":{"rendered":"They Will Listen: Evangelistic Confidence in a Cynical Age"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Oscar Wilde once quipped, \u201cI am not at all cynical, I\u2019m only experienced\u2014that\u2019s pretty much the same thing.\u201d<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559738&quot;:120,&quot;335559739&quot;:120}\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">When it comes to personal evangelism, many Christians might say, \u201cI\u2019m not at all cynical, I\u2019m only experienced.\u201d They\u2019ve tried, and it just doesn\u2019t seem to go anywhere. Again and again, they\u2019ve sought to build relationships and share the gospel with others, only to bump up against apathy or antagonism. Soon, sharing their faith begins to seem like a waste of time.<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559738&quot;:120,&quot;335559739&quot;:120}\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Medicine for Cynical Evangelists<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559738&quot;:120,&quot;335559739&quot;:120}\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">I found a helpful antidote to the disease of cynicism. In Acts <span data-contrast=\"none\">28:28, the Apostle Paul finds himself in a moment where many would be tempted to turn cynical. He\u2019s finally made it to Rome. Now he\u2019s under house arrest<span data-contrast=\"none\"> but is given a golden opportunity to proclaim the gospel to a number of Jews visiting him. Like much of my own evangelistic preaching, the results are rather anticlimactic. \u201cAnd some were convinced by what he said, but others disbelieved\u201d (28:24).<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559738&quot;:120,&quot;335559739&quot;:120}\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">How does Paul respond?<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559738&quot;:120,&quot;335559739&quot;:120}\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Paul, the defendant, delivers a verdict. He tells them their rejection actually fulfills Isaiah\u2019s prophecy (28:25\u201327). Then he<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whatever your experience has told you about evangelism, take hope from Acts\u202f 28:28.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":876,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[793],"tags":[321],"class_list":["post-71599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9marks","tag-evangelism-gospel","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=71599"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71601,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71599\/revisions\/71601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=71599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=71599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=71599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}