Professor Jay Budziszewski writes in the journal First Things that: “This time will Not Be the Same.” What he means is that the current evangelization of the nonbelievers around us will not be like it was in the first few centuries of Christianity. Back then the Good News of the Gospel came as something new to those in the pagan world. This time we are proclaiming the Gospel to a neo-pagan, post-Christian people, and the message does not come as new.

He acknowledges that evangelization and re-evangelization do share many things in common. “The same Christ knocks at the door of the same human hearts, though a heart with a different history.” Of course it is that different history and background that makes the challenge before us so significant.

He says, “One thing may seem to be unchanged: Now as then, the nonbeliever hails Caesar, not Christ, as Lord. But whereas the pagan reproached Christians for doubting distinctively ancient illusions . . . the neo-pagan is more likely to reproach them for doubting distinctly modern illusions, for example the idea that technology and social engineering can devise a world in which nobody needs to be good.” He adds that the pagan was hardly deluded about being an idolater (since he had idols of wood and stone in his home). The neo-pagan is much less likely to believe he is an idolater.

Perhaps the biggest difference between the pagan and the neo-pagan is location. “In the ancient world, the people who needed to be evangelized were outside the walls of the Church, today they include thousands who are inside but who think just like those who are outside.” He concludes that the “pew is a difficult mission field. It is hard for the shepherds to bring home the sheep if they think they are already in the fold.”

The challenge for us today is significant. We must reach pagans in our world who may even be in church but are not convinced they are sinners and therefore don’t believe they need a Savior.