Is The Gideons engaging in evangelism when it distributes the Bible to grade 5 students?
Yes—and no. Yes, it is placing the Bible (the Word of God) into the hands of boys and girls with the hope that it will be opened and read so that their lives can be transformed. Very often, even though they may not fully understand it at that age, they will hang onto it for many years and draw hope from it later in life. However, giving New Testaments to students is also placing a well known “text book” into their hands—a book that teaches a great deal about morality and about early church history. The New Testament is the most reliable ancient document. Its textual integrity is more certain than that of Plato’s writings or Homer’s Iliad—books that are willingly accepted in school systems.
