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.