Evangelism Handbook

The invitation of Jesus is a revolutionary call to fight for the heart of humanity. We are called to an unconventional war using only the weapons of faith, hope, and love. Nevertheless, this war is no less dangerous than any war ever fought. And for those of us who embrace the cause of Christ, the cost to participate in the mission of God is nothing less than everything we are and everything we have.¹

A man named Simelvise was born in 1818 into a world of dying women. In Simelvise’s day, one in six women died in childbirth. His desire to know the reason for the high death rate led him to become a physician. He discovered that these women were dying of something called “childbed fever.” He decided to find out what was causing it. Studying the way the doctors worked in his day, he discovered something that we would consider appalling. When the doctors began their shift, they often went first to the morgue to do autopsies. Because they did not understand germs and bacteria, they did not wash their hands as they moved to the maternity ward. As they delivered children, they were killing the mothers.

Simelvise began to experiment with washing his hands. He encouraged his colleagues to wash their hands in a chlorine solution. Immediately the maternal death rate dropped from one in six to one in fifty among their patients.

Many physicians remained skeptical of this simple solution. Finally, Simelvise spoke to a convention of his colleagues: “This fever is caused by decomposed material conveyed to a wound. I have shown how it could be prevented. I have proven all I have said. But while we talk, talk, talk, gentlemen, women are dying. I’m not asking you to do anything world shaking, I’m asking you only to wash. For God’s sake, wash your hands.” But they laughed him to scorn. Philip Simelvise died insane at the age of 47 with the death rattle of a thousand women ringing in his ears.²

Could it be that our Lord is saying to the church today, “You are so busy talking, talking, talking about secondary issues. While you talk, the world is dying.” We have a message whose truth is even more valuable than the news that could save a generation of mothers. We have the good news that can change lives for eternity!

Part I surveys foundational issues necessary to rescue the world from hell. The Bible serves as both our anchor and our bedrock for ministry. We must build an altar upon which the light of the gospel can burn. We dare not hold up a faint flicker in the face of the yawning darkness of our day. Instead, we must raise up a blazing inferno of biblical truth, stoked by the fuel of biblical fidelity, theological orthodoxy, and the perspective of church history.