Evangelicious
I must confess that I hate the word “evangelize.” It is not that it is too “churchy” of a word. Nor is it the part about evangel. Evangel is based on a Greek word for “good news.” We have Good News, and we should share the Good News.
The problem I have is the “ize” part. Evangelism sounds like something that you do to someone. “Jesus died for your sins. There, you have been officially evangelized.” That just does not sound like the New Testament picture of the growth of the church. Do not get me wrong, I am not one of those people who say be a nice person and hope someone asks you about Jesus.
I think a better way of sharing the Good News is to be evangelicious. What I mean by that is that we should be soaked in the Good News of Jesus Christ. It should influence every part of us, what we say and what we do. Imagine if we were and evangelicious church.
Imagine if we made the Good News of Jesus look so delicious in our lives that people longed for what we have. We would never have to evangelize another person again.
Dear Persons seeking truth from The Holy Scriptures,
Just some accurate knowledge about the word evangilize:
“In the Greek Septuagint, produced before the Christian era, the word “evangelize” occurs twice in the Greek text in the following passage: “I am present, as a season of beauty upon the mountains, as the feet of one preaching glad tidings of peace, as one preaching good news; for I will publish thy salvation, saying, O Sion, thy God shall reign.”* (Esaias 52:6, 7, Bagster Isaiah 52;6,7) To avail ourselves of this universal good news, the best news, we desire to identify these evangelizers and their source of news.
The ancient pagan Greeks gave their chief god Zeus (or Jupiter) the title Evangélios, meaning “Giver of good news.” (Orations [53.3] of Ælius Aristides, of the 2d century A.D.) Whatever good news Zeus ever gave the Greeks perished with him, for Zeus is no more. He proved to be a mere pagan false god, not immortal. The evangelists of the best news in this modern day of international news gathering and communication are not resorting to such a false, unreliable news source as the pagan god Zeus Evangélios. They have an everlasting news source, whose forecasts for the future have proved one hundred percent correct. He is the source of “everlasting good news,” good news that was first proclaimed thousands of years ago.”
(These two paragraphs are quoted from The Watchtower 1959 4/1 page 196 paragraphs 2,3)
There is much moreinformation in the article titles “Kingdom Missionaries, the Bringers of the Best News” and the article is based on the following scripture quoted from The New World Translation Of The Holy Scriptures.
“‘When he ascended on high he led captive a multitude; he gave gifts in men.’ And he gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as missionaries [evangelists].”—Eph. 4:8, 11, margin.
Marginal quote: Or, “missionaries.” Gr., eu‧ag‧ge‧li‧stas′; Lat., e‧van‧ge‧li′stas.
*This was the type of good news that Jesus Christ in the spirit “preached to the spirits in prison,” the spirits in Tartarus. What he preached to them was not the Gospel, the Evangel or the Good News of the Kingdom. (Astrerix added b y Randy)
Warm Christian Love,
Randy
PS ~ More information can be found at http://www.watchtower.org