Friends don't let freinds go to hell

Another interesting night of witnessing was had on Saturday night.

We had 5 people on the team night. Mark Maclean, Emmanuel Zeli, Rick Harman, Sarah Graham, and myself.

I went with Rick and Sarah. We ended up talking to a guy named Jeremy the entire time. Jeremy had been raised baptist. Jeremy was a church goer. Jeremy was disillusioned by the divisions he saw between different denominations. The contrasting ideas of pre-destination and free will were a stumbling block for Jeremy.

Jeremy had friends who were non-Christians. He thought the best way to reach them was to live one's life as a Christian and eventually people would want to know why you are different and why they needed God.

Although that sounds nice in theory, I've never heard a good biblical argument to justify that approach to the EXCLUSION of a verbal proclamation of the gospel. I incessantly hear this line when witnessing to people who profess to be a Christians but show an implicit disdain for the spoken gospel, which they will try to equate with "shoving religion down someone's throat."

What Jeremy speaks of is commonly (and I would say erroneously) called "friendship evangelism." The problem is the way the Bible defines "friendship evangelism" is not the way that people often definie it.

I tend to agree with Tony Minao from http://thelawmanchronicles.blogspot.com . The gist of his argument put plainly: "Friends don't let firends go to hell". I quot a portion of his post below:

Let me stated it plainly. Those who read this blog and who practice what is commonly referred to as "friendship evangelism" (which, according to how it is most commonly practiced is a contradiction of terms), and who find it unnecessary and even offensive to talk to lost people about God's wrath, judgment and the reality of hell are neither a friend nor an evangelist to sinners bound for the very place about which they are afraid to speak. If this is you, then you are merely one among the throng of professing Christians who, in the end, care more about what the lost think of you than where the lost will spend eternity. In the end, you care more about the personal benefits you derive from your friendship with the lost than you do about your lost friend. In the end, friendship evangelism is about you and not your lost friend.


Think about it, please.

The rest of the post, from which the above is quoted, is also worth the read. http://thelawmanchronicles.blogspot.com/2008/06/talk-about-hell-its-loving-thing-to-do.html

Regardless of where Jeremy Stands with the Lord, we were able to challenge and exhort him that if he is a true Christian we will fully embrace God's word as the authority that trumps all the opinions of men and live his life accordingly. I also gave him a CD with the message "Hell's best kept secret" (http://www.wayofthemaster.com/mp3/tape01.m3u) and "What does od Owe you" ( http://www.deliverancebiblechurch.com/podcast/media/2007-05-07_01_what_does_god_owe_you__(11-05-06).mp3) and encouraged him to listen to it, whcih he said he would.

Curtis and Kevaugn

It had been a while since we've gone witnessing in Deep Ellum, so Saturday night Rick Harman, Mark Maclean, Emmanuel Zeli and I made a trip down there. We met at the Maclean's house, and Sarah Graham, who is in the bible study that both Luke Maclean and I are a part of came and prayed with us (along with Mr. Maclean) before we left.

I paired up with Rick, and Mark paired up with Emmanuel. I should mention that Emmanuel will be leaving in a few short weeks with his family as they return to the Ivory Coast in Africa( where they are originally from.) His family came over here about 7 years ago and his dad just completed some sort of pastorate degree, so they are going back to their country. I'm really going to miss him when he's gone, I've gotten to know him through working with the youth group that I work with, and recently through his coming with us to Deep Ellum. It's going to be hard on him to leave, because he's leaving just as his Senior year in High School is beginning.

The first group that Rick and I engaged was a group of about 5 or 6 people. We started through the good person test, but got sidetracked on issues of the reliability of the scriptures. They had probably seen the Da Vinci code ( a total joke in itself) and so they had similar arguments against the bible, such as Jesus' supposed relationship with Mary Magdalene,as well as the typical "the bible has been corrupted and changed." My attempts to reason with them weren't very well received, a rational discussion certianly didn't ensue. Although their primary arguments were weak, they really only seemed interested in mocking the bible. I think we probably would have kept two of the guys in the group engaged, however the girls that were with them that weren't already engaged in the conversation, (except to occasionally mock) essentially convinced them to go and pulled them out of what could have eventually been a profitble time of contending for the faith.

Later on we ran into a guy named Kevaugn. I gave him the "Are you a good person" tract. (http://www.livingwaters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=256)He professed to be a Christian after I told him what the tract was, and what followed afterwards was a long and interesting conversation. He was one of those people whom it was difficult to discern where he really was at spiritually. There were several reasons for this. He freely spoke about God's influence on his life, and he knew a good number of scriptures. He said God always came through for him when people set traps for him, trying to make him stumble. I started having questions in my mind about what he really beleived when he started having underlying tones of a prosperity type message in what he was saying. There was an implicit message he seemed to be communicating that if a Christian suffers, or is slandered, etc, that this is a bad thing and something God wouldn't purposefully allow in someone's live. One question that always reveals a lot about what a "professing" christian believes about God, (and I ask this question a lot of those who say they are christians) is the question, "What would you tell someone who doesn't see a need for God's forgiveness?". I asked Kevaugn this question. His answer had little or no mention of sin, God's righteousness, judgement day, the cross, repentance or hell, so we brought up the 10 commandments, explaining that God gave us his law so that we could see ourselves and our sin in truth. I'm not sure how much this sank in with Kevaugn, but around that point in the conversation, I got side tracked by a homeless person (Perhaps the real reason we where there.) who was walking by asking for money. His name was Curtis.

Rick and Kevaugn

As I usually do with Homeless people who ask me for money, I asked him how he ended up in the situation that he was currently in. He said that he had recently got out of the "corrections facility". When I asked him what had put him in the correction facility, he mentioned some business dealing that I didn't understand, but apparently it had been illegal. I asked him whether he had family (he did, but they were all grown, and he was divorced from his wife). I then told him that we were Christians, and explained why were out here (to witness, and minister to people). I asked him if he thought he was a good person, and he said he was for the most part, so I went through the good person test with him. (http://www.goodpersontest.com/) After my presentation of 3 of the commandments, and he openly admitting he would be guitly before God if judged by the 10 commandments, he was very uncomfortale with the conversation and it was pretty obvious that he wanted to leave. He said one of the reasons he was going to leave was that I was making him feel guilty. I asked him if rather it was his conscience that was bringing up the guilt, and stated that there was nothing wrong with someone FEELING guilty before God if they ARE guilty before God. As true Christians, we know the biblical precedent is that guilt is revelaed in us through the application of God's law to our consicence, but the law will naturally drive us to the gospel and to Christ. (Galations 3:24). Also Romans 3:19 tells us that one of the functions of God's law is to demonstrate the reality that the entire world IS guilty before God. It should be no surprise then that someone who has sinned agains the creator of the universe would feel guitly when presented with the law of God. Several times Curtis indicated that he was going to leave, saying he just wanted to get a little money so he could buy something to eat and he didn't need this right now. At one point I really did think he was going to leave, but I pleaded with him not to. I told him it would be awfully sad if he left under the condemnation of the law, because I hadn't yet had the chance to share with the gospel or the good news with him. At this point he was not justifying himself, so I was convinced that he had been humbled enough by the law that he was ready for the gospel. I should also mention that during the conversation Curtis professed to be a Christian, but initially he was very uncomfortable talking about the things of God. When I finally did share the good news with him, it made a huge impact on him. The message of Christ's atoning sacrifice by taking his punishment for him seemed to strike a chord with Curtis. There was finally impact, I could see it in his eyes. I pleaded with him to repent and get right with God today, declaring that today is the day of salvation, I told him that Jesus said a man must be born again in order to see the kingdom of heaven. I asked him if I could prayer for him, and he willingly obliged. I spent several minutes in prayer asking that God would reveal himself to Curtis, and after praying gave him some money to be able to get some food. After I had finnished praying for him, he turned to me, on the verge of having tears in his eyes, and gave me a hug, and told me repeatedly "Thank you. " I could tell he wasn't just thankful for the money, but had clearly been impacted by my persistence in sharing Word of God with him. I was very encouraged.

After Curtis left I rejoined the conversation that Rick was having with Kevaugn. After about 5 minutes, we realized it was time to go meet Mark and Emmanuel back at the car. Kevaugn didn't really have anywhere he needed to go so he said he would walk back with us.

Earlier I had mentioned that when we first started talking to Kevaugn it was difficult discerning where he was at spiritually. On the walk back to the car he was talking about things that were very strange and off the wall. He claimed that he had been some sort of high profile sporting scout/recruiter, and that he had made some really major contracts, and because there was such a potential for so much money, that the goverment kept tabs on him, and then he pointed up to the sky and started talking about how they had satellites tracking him and listening to every word he said. My reaction to this was along the lines of "Oh give me a break, you're not serious are you" because up to that point he seemed to be quite articulate and with it mentally. However my skepticism didn't phase him, he kept on going talking about satellites and the goverment being interested him, as though he he really believed it. I figured I would play along, so I started sharing the law and the gospel with the "people who were listening via the satellites" so that Kevaugn would have another chance to hear it :). When we got back to the car, I gave him a little information card about my church ((http://www.rockharvest.org/ ), my cellphone number, and a CD with the following two messages on it, (which he said he would listen to ):

1. What does God owe you? http://www.deliverancebiblechurch.com/podcast/media/2007-05-07_01_what_does_god_owe_you__(11-05-06).mp3

2. Hell's Best Kep Secret
http://www.wayofthemaster.com/mp3/tape01.m3u

As we said goodbye he seemed to be more serious and had stopped talking about his "out there" theories that the goverment was watching him. I thought was a good sign. I still don't know what his deal was. Most of the conversation had been rational and logical, up until he had started going off on some very strange tangents. Pray for Kevaugn.

Kevaugn and I