Witnessing Turns Ugly

There are limited places to share the Good News with strangers in my small hometown. But the streets of downtown afford a friend and me many opportunities to talk about our faith as people have to stand on the sidewalk outside the bars to smoke. One recent summer weekend outing was more memorable than most.

The weekend before, a guy exiting an establishment handed us an advertisement for the bar’s first annual wet T-shirt contest inside the bar the following Saturday. To the best of my knowledge, no similar event had taken place in this town, and certainly not in the last two years I’d been witnessing downtown. I felt very strongly that if the business owners downtown were stepping up their level of wickedness, we Christians should do something.

I spoke to my pastor about getting some people together to go downtown that evening to witness or sing worship songs. He said he wanted to help, and he made some phone calls. I found out at the last hour, however, that he wasn’t available and no one else was willing to help. By that time, I couldn’t even get my friend on the phone. I decided I had to go alone—with the 8-foot-tall cross we often take downtown to help lure people into talking about the gospel.

Because I knew I didn’t have any backup, I thought it would be wisest to stand with the cross in front of the place quietly and wait for God to bring people to me. Several people did talk to me. I had two very heartbreaking conversations with some people who said they were Christians. One was a woman who planned to enter the contest, and the other was an older man who was serving as a contest judge. Reasoning with them about the Bible was like talking to a brick wall.

I’d been standing there for more than an hour when a man, about 60 years old, came over from across the street. We’d never met before, and he introduced himself with a threat: Either I would move on—or he’d knock me into the gutter. I calmly told him I was standing on a public sidewalk and tried to ignore him, hoping he would realize I wouldn’t be moved, and walk away. I was wrong. Before I could react, he hit me above the left eye with his wooden cane. While the pain wasn’t great, a goose egg appeared almost immediately. I pulled out my phone to call the police. The guy tried to knock the phone out of my hand. Thankfully, some other people got him under control, and I called 911.

When the police arrived, they asked me some questions and then arrested the man, who was still sitting on a nearby bench. After the police left, I returned to my place on the sidewalk and the once-calm group seemed to turn against me. Soon, my friend showed up, and we decided to move on to the next bar. As soon as we left, we heard cheering as the contest, which was supposed to start at 7 p.m., started at about 8:30.

The police recommended the guy be charged with 2nd degree assault (two to eight years in the state penitentiary); the district attorney called me and said they were lowering the charges to 3rd degree assault (up to two years in the county jail). That’s fine with me—all I got was a goose egg (which later turned into a black eye). I also found out that his name is Melvin.

The cross, a rich symbol of God’s grace and mercy, seems to be offensive to many. I’ve asked myself why people like Melvin care what I think, and why they bother to ridicule me or my faith. While I know that many of these individuals are under alcohol’s influence, I firmly believe the Holy Spirit’s power is at work, convicting of sin and prompting people to think about their eternal future and examine the Bible.

I struggle with whether my decision that night to witness alone downtown was wise. But I do believe God’s power was at work that evening, and I hope He will use my efforts to plant seeds that lead to salvation in the hearts of Melvin and the others with whom my path crossed that night.

My First Time Open-Air Preaching

When my friend and I go downtown to witness, we usually talk to people hanging around the bars. Occasionally, there is a little rock concert that attracts 100-200 teen-agers. We enjoy when this happens, because we get to talk to some new people. We stopped at the first bar and talked to a guy for a little while. As we left, we noticed that there was a concert, and a bunch of kids hanging out on the sidewalk. My friend asked if I wanted to open-air preach, and I hesitantly agreed. I’ve never open-air preached before.

We passed out a few tracts, and my friend gestured at me to start preaching.

I said something like,

“In John 3, Jesus said unless you are born again, you will not see the kingdom of God. What that means is that we are born dead in our sins, and we must be reborn. You can test yourself to see if you were born dead in your sins by looking at the Ten Commandments. The ninth commandment is you shall not lie. If you’ve ever told a lie, you’re a liar. If you’ve ever stolen something, you’ve broken the 8th commandment, and you’re a thief. Jesus said that if you’ve ever looked at a woman with lust, you’ve committed adultery with her in your heart. If you’re guilty of any of those, you’re going to be guilty on Judgment Day, and you’ll deserve hell.

But Jesus paid the penalty for our sins. If you repent, meaning that you turn from your sin, and put your faith in Jesus, your sins will be forgiven, and you’ll be born again.”

The whole thing barely took 2 minutes, and then my friend started preaching. Part of me wishes I had a recording of it so that I could know what I did wrong. I know I left parts out that I wish I would have included, like the part about Jesus rising from the dead. The other part of me is glad there is no recording, because I’m sure I stumbled over the words, and my public speaking leaves much to be desired, and it’s probably better not to have a permanent record of my poor quality speech.

We stayed there for at least another hour, and had several great conversations. One kid told me he didn’t believe in heaven and hell, and just thinks that you just cease to exist when you die. By the end of the conversation, he seemed to believe everything I told him, but wanted to wait until his death bed to repent. I tried to point out some shortcomings with that plan, but he seemed set on his plan. However, he agreed to read the Bible, and think about our conversation.

In spite of the lack of quality in my proclamation, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16). While we can debate how effective my attempt at open-air preaching was, I think the Bible makes it clear that it’s the message of the gospel that saves, not the coolness of the person delivering it.

If anyone wishes to disagree with me on this point, they will be joining many other Christians in pointing out how my evangelism is being done wrong—other Christians like the 17 year old kid with a Mohawk, who smokes pot and gets drunk, a kid with a 1 inch diameter hole in his ear lobe and doesn’t know whether he’s born again, and a band member who said the most vile things to a young girl who professed to be a lesbian.

Fireproof: A Great Movie

I was able to see Fireproof yesterday (you can check out a preview on that site), as my wife works for a Christian organization, and the movie makers are hoping to get recommendations. They definitely get my recommendation. In fact, I can’t recommend it highly enough. It’s a great movie, and it even has a solid gospel presentation. I shudder to think how different the world would be if we could replace all of the filth coming out of Hollywood with movies that glorify God.

The movie comes out in September, and I encourage everyone to see it. 

Did John the Baptist Go to Heaven?

Jehovah’s Witnesses have serious problems with their doctrines concerning being born again. They say that only 144,000 good Jehovah’s Witnesses are born again. The others aren’t born again, and they will not go to heaven, but to paradise on earth. The thing about that is we were all born dead in our sin (Ephesians 2:1, 5) and we must be born again to come to life. If Jehovah’s Witnesses aren’t born again, they are still dead in their sins, and they will go to neither heaven nor paradise on earth. I wrote a tract about this, and you can take a look at it here: A Choice For Life.

After making this concept into a Youtube video, and talking about it on this blog, a JW finally responded to it, and we’ve been having an e-mail conversation. It turns out to be a very deep subject. On the surface it’s a pretty convincing argument against their doctrine, but as you dig deeper it becomes even more convincing. I’m grateful this guy is taking the time to write to me; he’s the only one who has even attempted to respond.

His main objections are:

1. Old Testament people weren’t born again, but weren’t dead in their sin, so we have the same hope as them.
2. Matthew 11:11 says John the Baptist isn’t going to heaven.
3. The verses talking about passing from death to life (such as Ephesians 2:1, 5) aren’t talking about being born again. Therefore, JWs can have life without being born again.

Were Old Testament People Born Again?
This is an interesting topic, and I would say they were not born again during their lives. When they died, they went to Abraham’s Bosom to await the Messiah and being born again. We know they are born again today, and in heaven. We know they are in heaven, because Matthew 8:11 says Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are in the kingdom of heaven. Luke 13:28 says those three and all of the prophets are in the kingdom of God. Since they are in heaven, they must be born again (John 3:3). Those two verses (Matthew 8:11 and Luke 13:28) seem very valuable in doing away with their whole concept of 144,000 people in heaven.

John the Baptist and Matthew 11:11
What does Jesus mean when he says whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John the Baptist (Matthew 11:11)? This verse doesn’t say anywhere that when John the Baptist dies he’s not going to heaven or Abraham’s bosom. It just means that those of us who proclaim the New Covenant are better off than those who proclaimed the Old Covenant (Hebrews 7:22-24).

Is passing from death to life the same as being born again?
What does born again mean other than being reborn because we were born dead in our sins? If passing from death to life makes the 144,000 born again, why doesn’t it make everyone else born again? If Jehovah’s Witnesses want to claim to be alive without being born again, I think it goes against the meaning of the analogy of being born again, and it doesn’t matter anyway, because Ephesians 2:6 says, that anyone who has passed from death to life is going to heaven (and must therefore be born again).

So while they’ve managed to muddy the waters on another straightforward concept, there is no way out of the tangled web they’ve woven for themselves. By their own admission they aren’t born again. Only God can convince them that they are dead in their sins and headed for hell.

For a fantastic opportunity to witness to Jehovah’s Witnesses, check out their 2008 convention schedule.  One of the reasons they think they are in the true church is because they think they are the only ones who are out witnessing. You can help refute that idea for possibly hundreds of them by showing up at a convention and passing out tracts.

New Blog

I’ve been invited to take part in a new blog called, “Defending. Contending. ” I’ll probably be posting there more often than here.

Planetary Evolution Miracles

Evolutionists believe that in the Big Bang theory: Nothing exploded, creating everything. The dust resulting from the explosion coalesced into bigger and bigger chunks, eventually becoming the sun, planets, and moons. This process resulted in very hot planets, which are cooling to this day. According to evolutionists, the universe is about 15 billion years old. Is it a foregone conclusion that the planets of our solar system came about in this way?

Mercury
Mercury is so dense that it is thought to have an iron core occupying ¾ of its diameter. This density conflicts with the evolutionary model of slow formation and gradual cooling. How do evolutionists explain this? An evolutionary miracle! The planet was struck by a large object that removed all of the less dense material.

Saturn
If Saturn were billions of years old, it wouldn’t have rings. Furthermore, the rings are thought to be made of particles that are coated with reflective ice. The ice wouldn’t take too long to accumulate dust, and the rings would be much darker than we see them. These factors are thought to limit the age of Saturn’s rings to 100 million years (about 1/150th of the suspected age of the universe). How do evolutionists explain this? An evolutionary miracle! Saturn used to have a moon that was struck by a large object, shattering the moon, and creating the rings.

Mars
Evolutionary scientists believe that at one point Mars’ atmospheric pressure must have been 1 to 5 bars. The pressure now is .008 bars. This means the atmosphere used to be much thicker. How do evolutionists explain this? An evolutionary miracle! The planet was struck by a large object that blew the atmosphere away.

Uranus
Uranus’ axis of rotation is offset 90° from the other planets; it appears to rotate on its side. The magnetic field on Uranus is tilted and offset from the center of the planet, relative to Uranus’ axis. This is contrary to the evolutionary models. How do evolutionists explain this? An evolutionary miracle! The planet was struck by a large object, knocking it off kilter.

Venus
While Uranus’ axis is tilted 90°, Venus’ axis is tilted 180°, and it rotates the opposite direction of the other planets. The law of conservation of angular momentum would indicate that the Big Bang would cause all planets to rotate in the same direction, but this isn’t the case with Venus. How do evolutionists explain this? An evolutionary miracle! The planet was struck by a large object, causing it to rotate in the opposite direction.

The planets we see today disprove the evolutionary model. When a theory of the planets’ beginnings is proved wrong time and again, it’s not scientific to stick dogmatically to that model, invoking miracles to explain the model’s veracity. The scientific thing to do is to throw out the Big Bang, and move on to a different theory.

Happy Atheist’s Day!

“The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God” (Psalm 14:1, KJV).

A Great Fisher of Men

In Matthew 4:18–20, Jesus commanded Peter to drop everything and follow Him—when the Almighty Creator of the universe commands, obedience is the only option—and He would make him a fisher of men. Peter did obey Jesus, and he became a great fisher of men. He didn’t just stay in the upper room and pray for people to get saved, he didn’t just start a church and invite people to come, and he certainly didn’t take his wife to Rome and become the first pope. He went out on the street and preached the gospel.

In Acts 2, Peter went to downtown Jerusalem and open-air preached that Jesus had risen from the dead. On that day, 3,000 people were born again. He wasn’t the invited speaker; he just stood up and preached the gospel. Another divine appointment is described in Acts 10. Peter went to Cornelius and his family to explain the gospel. While he was still speaking, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they were saved.

Were these people saved because they had a long-term friendship with Peter? Did they see how much Christians loved each other, and they wanted to be a part of it? I don’t think so. They realized they were sinners deserving of hell, and the Good News was really good news to them. They understood that they desperately needed their sins to be forgiven. They repented and put their faith in Jesus.

The Bible tells us what brings people to salvation:

• Godly sorrow (2 Corinthians 7:10).
• God’s kindness (Romans 2:4).
• The law (Galatians 3:24).
• The gospel (Romans 1:16).
• The message of the cross (1 Corinthians 1:18 )
• The LORD (2 Samuel 22:3).
• The Holy Scriptures (2 Timothy 3:15).
• The grace of God (Titus 2:11).

The coolness of Christians isn’t anywhere on the list. God saves people when they hear the gospel. If there’s someone we want to get saved, our main task is to make sure they understand what the Bible says about the punishment they deserve, and what God has done to save them.

The Invisible and Impossible 1914 Return

As a part of their doctrine, Jehovah’s Witnesses believe Jesus returned—invisibly—in 1914. They base this on a prophetic dream of Nebuchadnezzar, which Daniel interpreted in Daniel 4. Nebuchadnezzar dreamed that a huge tree was chopped down, and was passed over for “seven times” (verse 16).

The JW who I talked with the other day on my porch left me the booklet What Does the Bible Really Teach? If a JW offers you a copy, take it. If it didn’t have a false gospel in it, it would be funny to read; I’ve seen atheists twist Scripture much more convincingly than these guys. This book explained how the Watch Tower interprets this prophecy to arrive at the date of October 1914.

The tree of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, they say, represents human government. They skip over to Revelation 12, and say that seven times means that this government lasts 2,520 days or years (whichever suits your false doctrine better) before Jesus returns. If you take the time of Jerusalem’s destruction, when “God’s rulers” stopped reigning (which they say is 607 B.C.), and add 2,520 years, you arrive at 1914. It’s clear that Jesus returned in 1914. Only a wicked heathen who will be cut down at Armageddon could disagree.

However, upon a closer look, this “theology” has multiple issues. Later in Daniel 4, the prophet Daniel interprets the dream, and explains what the tree is. Verse 22 says the tree is Nebuchadnezzar—not wicked human government in general. This prophecy was explained and fulfilled in Nebuchadnezzar’s life in the very same chapter. The seven times were seven years that passed during Nebuchadnezzar’s life (verses 32–34).

Second, the date given for Jerusalem’s destruction is generally agreed to be 586 or 587 B.C., not 607 B.C. as the Watch Tower states. The JWs are the only ones who use that date. I don’t think that they can claim that historians changed the dates in a big conspiracy against them. (I really don’t think the Watch Tower is on many scholars’ radar.). This is just one more issue that illustrates how confused the Watch Tower is.

Finally, the Bible says Jesus won’t return invisibly. The JW theory is a fulfillment of what Jesus prophesied in Matthew 24:23–27: “At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect—if that were possible. See, I have told you ahead of time. So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the desert,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.”

Revelation 1:7 says, “Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be! Amen.”

Matthew 26:64 says, “Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

Either the Bible is right, or the Watch Tower is. I choose to believe the Bible—and I pray that many Jehovah’s Witnesses do, too.

Jehovah’s Witnesses Come Knocking

I’ve been intent on trying out a couple of new apologetics on Jehovah’s Witnesses, and lo and behold a couple knocked on my door on Saturday. It was definitely the friendliest conversation I’ve ever had with a JW. While I’m sure I have matured in my witnessing abilities, the guy seemed to be especially good humored.

My sister, a Christian, has been approached to have a theological discussion with a JW friend of her husband’s family, and she was reluctant to agree, but I urged her to agree so I could attend. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the guy who was on my doorstep on Saturday was that friend. (We live in a small town.)

He was very talkative, but I got a chance to ask him about John 12:40–41. I recently learned that this passage completely blows the Watchtower teaching that Jesus is not God out of the water. (See my previous post for an explanation.) The guy didn’t really have an answer. He said the Bible has many illustrations in it and changed the subject. I don’t think he was prepared to answer this objection. I didn’t press him on it, because I know he would never admit that it bothered him. I can only hope and pray that he goes home and does an in-depth study with his wife.

We went on to discuss why he believes Jesus returned invisibly to earth in 1914, and why Protestant churches are so terribly divided. I admit that even though I knew JWs believed Jesus returned in 1914, I didn’t know how to refute it, so that’s something I will have to study for his next visit. As far as how divided Christianity is, I told him that while it may appear that it is divided, all born-again Christians agree on certain principles, and we’re free to go to different churches if we disagree on how long the pastor should talk, what kind of music should be played, or whether we should speak in tongues.

I also asked him whether he’s born again, and he said that since he hopes only to spend eternity on earth rather than heaven, he doesn’t need to be born again. I explained to him that he was born dead in his sins, and he agreed. I said that if he’s not born again, he’s still dead in his sins, and he disagreed, but couldn’t explain any further and, again, changed the subject. I tried to press him a little bit on this, and said that he’s either dead or alive, and that I’m really not aware of any in between on the matter. He said he thought there was an in between, but he just said we could talk about it next time. We looked up a couple verses:

• “Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Rom. 8:14).
• “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God” (1 John 5:1).

He assured me that he is led by the Spirit, and he believes Jesus is the Christ, but he said that “everyone” was not to be taken literally because of the context. (Ironically, context is what blows many of the JW proof texts out of the water.) I just told him that he’ll have to assure himself of the context.

We talked for more than an hour. At the end of our conversation, I took his invitation to the Kingdom Hall and a fairly thick booklet, “What Does the Bible Really Teach?” I’ve heard taking what JWs offer makes them less inclined to remove you from their list of homes to visit. I certainly didn’t want to close the door on an opportunity to share the truth. After he gave me the literature, I asked if he’d take something of mine. I told him it’s mostly just a list of verses on a ½ sheet of paper. At first, he said he couldn’t take it, but then he agreed. I gave him one of the tracts I recently wrote; I jotted down John 12:40–41 on the bottom of it.

Please pray for Gary and his wife. We parted as friends. He asked when he could come back, and I expect that he will return. I have a few things to study, and I hope that he’ll study the things I presented to him.