From Whitefield, we learned that trusting Jesus Christ shouldn’t wait but instead happen right now. 
 
Unbelievers are needy now, so should turn to Jesus now—but can they do that?

Isn’t the Bible clear that all are dead in sin and that it will take the powerful work of the Holy Spirit to revive them? When we encourage people to come to Jesus right now, are we giving up the biblical Reformed understanding of the gospel?
 
Did calling the gospel an “invitation” bring confusion? Wouldn’t some ask, are we sure this invite is for us? Should they “prepare” their hearts first, though that would slow down their response? What if the gospel is a command? Doesn’t “come unto me’ sound that way, and right away? We know that God commands everyone, regardless of their ability to obey, don’t we? (The Protestant Reformed Churches have helped us see this. WRF member Dr. William Evans has sharply defined “the gospel imperative”:https://theecclesialcalvinist.wordpress.com/2013/11/28/the-apostolic-gospel-imperative-the-extent-of-the-atonement-and-evangelism/ ).
 
Those basic doctrinal issues deserve very good answers. Otherwise today’s “evangelistic meetings” just encourage us to set aside theology and to become religious pragmatists, when whatever works is good. We must look again at the “way of salvation,” the ordo salutis, especially as we see it in Romans 8. What does it mean that something comes “before” something else? John Murray taught us to think carefully about regeneration being prior to faith. Does that mean you could be born again but not quite  yet a believer? A regenerate unbeliever? At the top of his voice he proclaimed: theological monstrosity! 
 
The sequence in our Father’s kind plan may not be the same as in our own godly experience. Consider God’s election and your faith. Yes, election comes first in his loving plan—but not in your experiential realization of it. Some have wanted to be sure of their election before they dared to trust Jesus Christ, but that’s confusing. (Knowing your election is almost the same as knowing whether you belong to Jesus, your “assurance of salvation,” and we know that confidence in assurance is a steadily growing conviction, not all there at the beginning).
 
We see this more clearly as we look at Romans 7. “Wretched man that I am,” Paul says, “I have good intentions but always end up doing the opposite.” But then he says immediately “thanks be to God!” that he goes on to unpack in Romans 8, or 8-11. “Election precedes faith” is in God’s plan but not in our experience. There election is the later comfort and encouragement that God gives us when our growth in godliness is slow or even doubtful. 
 
If that’s correct, if for us faith is there first, then how can there be confusion over vigorous evangelism, with its message that “now is the time?” We’ll still need to understand biblical election, when all those new believers will struggle with the slow growth and confusing changes in their lives, along with the rest of us.
Does believing in election influence our evangelism at all? Look at Romans 9-11 and learn that God has a gospel plan for still unbelieving Israel, and he calls us to continue to be faithful with that witness. Does that fit the other hard people out there, such as those millennials? God can turn anyone’s heart to Jesus, and that must give us evangelistic hope and energy.
 
We’ve been thinking about how the 19th century should have turned out, not the sad way it did. Many regrettable things happened:
#1: The New England disciples of the great American theologian  Jonathan Edwards tried to encourage evangelism by denying the bondage of sin and psychologizing the nature of faith. (See Joseph Haroutunian,Piety Versus Moralism). This led to the long Old School/New School division in the Presbyterian church, to some extent finally resolved by minimizing theology—if doing theology gets in the way of evangelism it must be wrong. That in turn led to the even more comprehensive disinterest in theology later, and the decline and fall of that church.
 
#2: Under the leadership of Charles Finney, Revivalism flourished. Its agenda was: use the human methods that are most effective in bringing people to Christ, so effective that when rightly employed are bound to produce impressive results. Of course we evaluate everything we do, from every point of view—but to imagine that efficient human methodology is enough to change the sinful heart is simple blasphemy. (My student Marq had been told by his leader not to pray that unbelievers would come to believe in Christ—“we don’t pray that way because we believe in free will”).
 
#3: If a major part of our calling is evangelism, and if that seems to be best done not by the church in its ordinary life but rather by an specialist evangelist, then just what is the evangelistic role of the church itself? That is a very good and necessary question. I know one sad response and one wise and challenging one. 
 
Do I misunderstand the sad one? It seems to go like this: the church is where we worship the Lord and learn to obey him, and we are thereby very blessed. Especially the preaching of the Word and the sacraments are God's plan for us, and men and women and children will usually come to Christ through that ordinary ministry of the church. I agree with all of that—but doesn’t that suggest that evangelism is an optional extra? That we are learning together obedience to God in everything else except how to reach our unbelieving friends with the gospel?
 
The wise response includes this: all of our preaching must point to Jesus Christ and his salvation, and we must help and encourage each other to be faithful witnesses to the people the Lord has placed in our lives. We desire to be faithful to Christ’s church, the church of God’s own glory and his Great Commission.
In the bigger side of the whole story, our hearts are now even more melted by understanding the Lord’s election of his people, all of us sinners and idolaters to whom the Father gave and gives his Beloved Son and the Holy Spirit. Our joy and glory and hope rest forever in his gracious electing love to us, to which we respond with our own love and worship to our supremely faithful Savior.