Jesus designated the message that He wants His followers to declare to all people in all places. He said to preach the gospel (Mark 16:15). Jesus has all authority, and He calls all men to submit to what He commands (Matthew 28:18-20). That settles it.
The gospel is what saves souls (Romans 1:16), not our opinions or speaking ability. When we teach a lost person, the Bible always must be the main focus.
There are evangelistic tools available in the English language that we can use in person-to- person studies. One tool is DVD’s/videos. In the 1950’s, Jule Miller produced “Visualized Bible Study” in five lessons. They now are available on one DVD; available, but extremely expensive.
A more-recent DVD is “Searching for Truth” by World Video Bible School, with John Moore doing the teaching. It consists of six lessons, done in a very appealing manner and quite inexpensive. In my opinion, it has a number of advantages over the Jule Miller lessons. It is in DVD format and also can be viewed online [https://searchingfortruth.org].
Using such DVD’s/videos is convenient because they already do the teaching. I strongly advise that you watch them with your prospect instead of just giving them a copy to watch on their own.
A second type of teaching tool is the use of pre-printed lessons, often using one piece of paper in tri-fold style or a small booklet. One of the earliest tools of this sort was Ivan Stewart’s Open Bible Study (OBS). Another series is the Search for Truth lessons by Fishers of Men. A similar one is Back to the Bible by Bobby Bates. A fourth, less-well-known set of lessons is my “What about ____?” series.
Such lessons are convenient because someone has prepared the materials for you. They follow a series of numbered questions, so using them is not difficult. Each of them involves reading a Bible verse or verses and answering questions based on the Bible text. This style of teaching (1) keeps the emphasis on the Bible, (2) causes the prospect to see the Bible’s answer, and (3) calls on the prospect to write down the Bible answer, which helps him see and remember it. I would caution you against “jumping into” a first lesson about the two covenants or salvation if you have not shown that the Bible is the word of God and Jesus is God’s Son. What I mean is, you may have to do some work before you are able to start using some of these tools.
Lost people need the gospel. English-speaking saints have access to a Bible and teaching tools. Use them to teach “the words of eternal life” (John 6:68)!
— Roger D. Campbell
