Ashley Johnson, founder of Johnson Bible College, was baptized at age 20 (in 1877) by farmer-evangelist John Adcock in the French Broad River. His baptism had a life-changing impact on a kid watching from the bank, seven-year-old Adam Adcock, John’s grandson. Adam became one of Johnson’s first students and a professor at JBC.

Adam’s grandfather encouraged him to memorize Scripture, something that paid enormous dividends in his preaching. Adam referred to this in his first book, The Glorious Gospel (Standard Publishing, 1916). This God-given technique made Adam an evangelist of undeniable authority. God also touched Adam’s grandson Kenneth, who preached for half a century.

The year was 1954. I was new to First Christian Church in Washington, Indiana and the church’s minister, A. Burton Clark. An elderly gentleman asked me about an evangelist named Adcock who had died five years earlier. “Young man, are you an Adcock?” I was squeezing out a “Yes, sir,” in my newly-found teenage voice. Then another question: “Did you know Adam Adcock?” Smiling, I came back: “Yes, sir. He was my grandpa!” Placing his hand on my shoulder he said, “Son, I heard him preach. He memorized the whole Bible. Did you know that?” I did know that.

Building on the foundation laid by my grandfather, I have incorporated Scripture memorization into my preaching. All of this came into focus for me when I heard a comment made by Gary Weedman, president of Johnson Bible College, in 2007. President Weedman pointed out the value of the term “evangelist” when applied to the preacher.

Restoring the term “evangelist” is a beginning. An evangelist proclaims the gospel. When Adam wrote The Glorious Gospel in 1916, he was a proclaimer-evangelist known for memorizing Scripture. By 1916 he had memorized nearly all of the New Testament.

Memorizing internalizes the Scripture. As a result, Adam was able to preach—not simply share—the gospel. Further, memorizing Scripture allowed Adam to see the gospel as a whole, not simply as parts. It also helped him teach the gospel message and “show something of its simplicity and profundity (wisdom) and glory,” he wrote.

Leaving Johnson Bible College to put into practice this theory, evangelist Adcock proclaimed the glorious gospel of the New Testament “in the light of the blaze of the whole body of the Scriptures.” When he laid down that challenge (1916), he was evangelizing in Du Quoin, Illinois. He preached the Bible as a whole, not just a few favorite texts. For Adam, imparting the Gospel writers’ message takes place in the hearer when proclaimers preach entire chapters. By preaching from whole chapters, the evangelist could “be true to the doctrine of Jesus Christ and to the teaching of his apostles.” Why? Because preaching whole chapters is where “theory and practice clasp hands.” It’s how hearers catch the full meaning of the early Christian saints’ proclamation.

Coupling memorization and preaching from entire chapters successfully “clasped hands” for the gentleman who was quizzing me about Evangelist Adam Adcock. This man remembered hearing Adam preach from what he knew, because what he knew was internalized.

Preacher-evangelists today need to restore preaching from whole chapters and memorized Scripture as they impart our Lord’s message. Can you visualize this bedrock power making the ancient message come alive? Is there fresh value in Adam’s Spirit-led evangelization?

First-century believers were trailblazers for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Their focus was on impacting life with the gospel—a way of living life daily. Today we focus on parts of the whole, on only a few verses of that single part. Verses are good for an in-depth study, but they can’t show the first century saints’ complete thoughts.

The Bible’s writers didn’t write the gospel in chapters and verses; they were added for our benefit. Twenty-first century proclaimers must catch the original writers’ viewpoint to see the gospel as they saw it—a whole. To evangelize is to proclaim whole chapters by telling their story, not a theological thought. That’s imparting the whole ancient gospel, the story the gospel’s writers lived.

Consider the components of an apple: skin, stem, seeds, core, and meat. Focusing on the parts does not help when describing its succulent, juicy taste. We must not limit the gospel to only seeds or the skin when a person is really wanting to taste the mellow sweetness of the fruit. Evangelizing-preaching makes mouths water.

Adam, his grandfather-preacher-farmer John Adcock, and others were preaching the whole glorious gospel. Since the writers of Jesus’ time wrote without chapter divisions, we should follow their lead and help our hearers see the whole as the authors saw it and wrote it.

Why do I recall the gentleman who questioned me in Washington, Indiana, more than 50 years ago? He had no way of knowing his question would touch my life. Perhaps our meeting was a divine appointment, something that has caused me to rethink the best way to impart the early believers’ gospel message.

I’m using Evangelist Adam’s way—memorizing Scripture and covering entire chapters—to proclaim the gospel. It’s adding a powerful dimension to preaching. Resurrecting this tool allows the glorious gospel itself to work. |L