Traditionally, the gospel has been conceived, almost exclusively, as a proclamation. When we think of evangelizing and preaching, we think of speaking. When we think of missionary work, we think of renting venues and gathering people to speak to them. The gospel has become solely about “speaking.” Therefore, with this article, I aim to challenge this approach.

Today’s Christian must understand that the gospel is based on facts, and without them, there simply is no gospel. And concerning facts, not only those that occurred in the 1st century, but also those that occurred in subsequent centuries and up to the present day.

That is why God calls His people to be witnesses. When do witnesses become necessary? When there is an event or a fact that needs to be clarified or confirmed. Wherever there is controversy, there is a need for witnesses to confirm what the fact was.

Thus, around the gospel, there is a great controversy, which reached its peak during Jesus’s public ministry and has extended to our days. In this controversy, we find three sides:

1. The declared enemies of the Messiah Jesus.
2. Those who accept and understand the salvific ministry and holiness He brings.
3. Those who distort the facts about Jesus’s ministry and person.

This controversy is complex. On one hand, when enemies attack Jesus directly, His friends defend Him, but among these friends, there are those who try to defend Him in their own way or justify their inconsistent actions, distorting aspects directly related to Jesus’s identity and nature, and describing a ministry that never existed, thus distorting the true message. So in the midst of this complex controversy, the Lord calls His witnesses to convey His reality to the rest of humanity.

Parallel to this, there is a very important question: Who qualifies as witnesses? It is known that not everyone can be a witness; there is a specific profile for this. The answer to this question is what truly challenges the declarative concept of the gospel. Because in any court of law worldwide, anyone can come and proclaim their story or version of events, but only a witness who bases their proclamation on real facts becomes valid.

Therefore, in the global and historical arena, where there is controversy surrounding the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, those who come out to proclaim without a foundation in facts are not valid. Only those who are qualified to present the facts based on their lived experience are approved by God as witnesses.

It’s not about a title like Church, pastor, preacher, missionary, or apostle, but about being authorized as a witness to the facts. That’s what truly matters. Therefore, training or preparing for evangelism does not depend on words or taught methods. Evangelism is about presenting a foundation of facts and speaking about them accurately.

In Acts 1:8, the Lord mentions that these witnesses should “receive power.” For this, He uses the Greek word ἔσεσθέ (eseszthe), which means to testify not because one wishes to do so, but because one is compelled to do so. In a context of historical controversy, they would inevitably go out to testify driven by God’s work in them.

Something similar happens with the word “Jesus Christ,” which has become so commonplace in Christian jargon that it has lost its meaning. This word is a contraction of Jesus the Christ, which in turn comes from the Hebrew phrase Yeshua HaMashiaj (Jesus the Messiah). Without entering into a semantic debate, what is meant is more about its significance than its pronunciation: “The historical figure called Yeshua is the Messiah awaited through the ages.”

In the 1st century, mentioning this phrase defined much of the controversy, placing the person either among enemies or friends. Due to the way this phrase has gradually lost its essence until today, we can understand how the adversary has subtly changed it to destabilize the side of friends. Those in the third group, the distorters, find in this lapse a means to transmit ambiguity about the facts and the person of Jesus.

However, the duty of witnesses is to unearth everything the adversary has buried. Yet, despite outlining the characteristics of a witness, a question arises: Is this sufficient?

Many will repeat like audio players about the facts and person of Jesus without being completely sure if this is correct. Many go through discipleship courses like DICDAC, attend seminars, and earn doctorates, yet they are only repeating what others tell them. They combat erroneous doctrines and concepts simply because they started on another side, but they do not truly know the factual basis of the doctrines they defend.

A witness cannot speak about a fact they have heard but not lived. The text in Acts 1:8 speaks of “power,” referring to the impact of that power producing real facts in anyone’s life. Thus, there is a unification of proclamation with demonstration. Therefore, when proclamation is based on demonstration, proclamation gains power, and the gospel acquires an expansive and invincible character.

Author: Dr. Liber Aguiar.