The Essentiality of the Resurrection!

Yes, Jesus Christ arose! So many of us yawn at these words, but if we would only stop a few minutes to ponder their importance, we would become wide-eyed with interest! Yesterday I FINALLY got to use my "The Resurrection Theories" banner on a college campus here - Fluminense Federal University (UFF). I hung my banner from a tree branch about 30 meters from the student cafeteria exit. Immediately 5 guys walked over, and three stayed to read my banner - a kind of flow chart - while I covered each theory with a large Post It note (I wanted to create curiosity :). I then began to explain, removing the Post It notes one by one, the various theories surrounding the resurrection while using my banner as my outline.

I only had 45 minutes for my debut (due to my need to be at our weekly meeting on campus), but I was able to clearly explain to four students why the theory of the resurrection of Jesus offers the best explanation for the facts surrounding what actually happened on the third day after His death! Each went away not only with a greater appreciation for the biblical account, but also with a clearer understanding of why Jesus died in the first place and the significance of the resurrection: "...if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins" (1 Cor. 15:17). And last, but not least, each heard how they could apply the sacrifice of Christ to their lives via repentance and faith! One of the three original guys - an Engineering student - asked for my e-mail after, while the fourth student came over after the other three left when he heard me say, "Do you realize that the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ proves how much you deserve hell?!"

This Philosophy student was heading across campus to class, but made it a point to come back and talk to me. He confided in me that he was raised in a Protestant home - which is somewhat unusual in this predominantly Catholic country - but had abandoned his upbringing because he didn't agree with Christianity's view of God and hell. After spending some time explaining the reasonableness of hell (i.e., just punishment for sin, which is the transgression of the Law) and the Bible's teaching on it (which comes mostly from, of all people, Jesus!), I told him that if he didn't repent of his sins and place his faith/trust in Jesus as his Lord and Savior before dying, he would justly experience that which he believes does not exist. I told him that it really doesn't matter whether we believe something or not; if something exists, our belief or unbelief in it makes no difference. "Your problem," I said, "is that you've created a god in your mind that does not exist. Your 'god' would never send a person to eternal punishment. And you're right! Your 'god' would never do that because he doesn't exist!" He admitted to me that Jesus was cool, so I pointed out that practically all of our understanding of hell comes from Jesus own words. In other words, so much for sweet little "namby-pamby" Jesus, right? He had to get to class, so I encouraged him to continue thinking about the things we talked about, gave him an evangelistic tract and recommended our evangelistic website, www.EveryStudent.com (in Portuguese: www.SuaEscolha.com).

This was the start of what I hope will become at least a 3-day-a-week effort to expound apologetic material open air on the campuses here in order to then clearly explain the students' need for the gospel, not to mention clearly explain the gospel itself!

However, doing this kind of open air "speaking" - at UFF at least - will mean needing to get closer to the students! Thirty meters away has a way of not drawing much attention. I discovered that it wasn't my banner that drew those initial three Engineering students; it was the fact that they were going with three other friends to the grassy area just behind where I had set up shop. So, I hunted around the Center of Niterói after our weekly meeting for a self-standing banner holder. I found one, bought it and tried it out in front of the main bus terminal. WOW! What a difference a visual aid makes! As I stood next to my banner speaking via my bullhorn, people started stopping to read, watch and listen! And when one or two people stop, generally a small crowd will gather. And when a small crowd gathers, a larger one usually will stop. That's what happened yesterday afternoon!

I "spoke" and preached for two hours, drawing crowds of up to 25 people at a time.  The wind made things a little difficult at times, but I estimate that 75 people stopped to listen to all or part of what I had to say. Hundreds more "got an earful" as they passed! Now we'll see what the impact will be on the campuses as I try my new "toys" (i.e., my banner and holder) out on the campuses of Rio de Janeiro after next week. Why after next week? Because, due to two holidays, most universities will only be holding classes next Wednesday. This month we're having several holidays on either Tuesdays or Thursdays, which generally means no classes also on Mondays and Fridays! It's kind of crazy, but that's how things work here. It's nice when we want to have a ministry retreat, however! And it gives us as a family the opportunity to "get away" for a long weekend once in a while.

Lifestyle/Friendship Evangelism's Interpretation of Romans 1:16

There is (and has been) a lot of talk about "friendship evangelism" and "lifestyle evangelism" these days. In actuality, this debate has reappeared after a 20-year break.  Back in the mid-80's several books sparked the debate over which approach was more biblical: the "aggressive/initiative evangelism" approach of groups like Campus Crusade for Christ or the "friendship/lifestyle/relational evangelism" approach of groups like Intervarsity Christian Fellowship. Having been on the staff of CCC since 1980, I think it's pretty obvious which side of the debate I came down on back then.  Fortunately a CCC regional director by the name of Mark McCloskey wrote his excellent book, Tell it Often, Tell it Well - http://www.greatcom.org/resources/tell_it_often_tell_it_well/default.htm - which was a biblical defense of initiative evangelism - and which also maintained the relational approach as a valid option, but certainly not the only valid option (Most of the authors advocating friendship evangelism - Rebecca Manley Pippert, Joseph Aldrich, Jim Peterson, etc. - weren't so kind toward the other approach, however.)

What I find interesting - and even worrisome - is the trend in several organizations traditionally in the initiative evangelism camp to switch sides! They say that, due to the fact that we are in a post-modern world, it's the relational/friendship approach that is mainly needed. Really? Sure, absolute truth is not in vogue today, but declaring truth will always be necessary! In fact, if you take into consideration the culture of the day when Peter and Paul preached, the gospel message as outlined in 1 Cor. 15:1-4 would have been considered totally irrelevant. Imagine preaching a crucified Messiah to the Jews! End of story. Yet 3,000 converted as a result of Peter's confrontational preaching at Pentecost. Imagine the scandal of preaching about the "Lord of lords and King of kings, who died a criminal death (i.e., on a cross) and came back to life . . . to the Greek philosophers of Athens! But Acts 17:34 tells us that some men believed. And Paul makes the bold claim in Romans 1:16 that it is not our methods, our techniques or our relationships that are the power of God unto salvation. No, it's the gospel - the simple preaching of the gospel.

We see people converting right and left in the Book of Acts as a result of the bold preaching of the scandalous cross, the incredible (read: "hard to believe") resurrection . . . for the forgiveness of sins! In fact, we practically only see the gospel spreading via initiative evangelism. At best you can find only one evangelistic encounter that could be construed as falling in the friendship evangelism camp in the Book of Acts.

So, we evangelicals must be careful to be biblical about our evangelism. Is there a place for the friendship evangelism approach? Of course! Is it to become the main approach in our evangelism? I don't see how in light of the clear commands of Mark 16:15 ("Go therefore and preach the gospel to every creature."). However, it is common to hear proponents of "friendship" and "lifestyle" evangelism making claims that their approach is the only valid approach in evangelism. Those of us who are more confrontational in our approach are the objects of ridicule, scorn and jokes in many Christian circles. That's too bad.  

Frankly, I'm happy with any method as long as the basic content remains intact. But that is another point of contention because, in an effort to "not offend" or scare off the non-Christian, content unfortunately is sacrificed at times. Recently I read an evangelistic tool that was used during Rio de Janeiro's famous Carnival, and was frankly appalled. The tool focused on becoming a Christian in order to not have to wear masks (which is common at Carnival) and to experience genuine happiness (something sought after at the event). The only mention of sin and sin's consequences appeared in the sinner's prayer at the end, and even that was weak! Those who participated proudly broadcasted the results: Over 500 converted at Carnival! Did they really? If anyone converted - and I'm sure some did - it was not due to the content of that evangelistic tool, but in spite of it!

Okay, getting back to differing philosophies of evangelism, it appears we Christians will buy into anything that gets us off the hook of boldly sharing our faith with others. We put conditions on with whom we can share (those we've befriended, albeit deceptively), on how much time we've spent with that person and on what we can legitimately say to him or her. As I see it, we've basically taken God out of the picture with these man-centered emphases. If I must become a friend of someone or meet some physical/emotional need of someone in order to "earn the right to be heard," I have essentially take a sovereign God out of the equation! I am basically saying that I have the power to get that person saved! Hogwash!

Romans 1:16 paints a very different picture: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek."

The "lifestyle" and "friendship" evangelists - if you can even call them "evangelists" - must have a very different version of Romans 1:16 in their bibles!  Maybe we should call their version the LFEV (Lifestyle/Friendship Evangelism Version). I found this in a commentary on www.defendingcontending.com and thought it expressed very well the issue at hand:

Romans 1:16 (LFEV): I am ashamed of the gospel. But I’m such a neat guy, that if they really want to hear the gospel, they won’t be offended at the news that they’re sinners bound for hell because when they start to get mad, they’ll remember what a good guy I am, and who could be mad at me? My coolness is the power of God unto salvation.

I'd like to tweak the above version a bit to reflect even more accurately what I have seen regarding the content of these "evangelists," based on my experience in evangelism for over 35 years:

I am ashamed of the gospel. But if I’m such a neat guy and really try to be relevant, my non-Christian friends will want to hear what I have to say, especially if I contextualize my message by leaving out such offensive words like "sin" and "hell" when I eventually - it may take a few months or even years - get around to talking about spiritual matters with them. My coolness is the power of God unto salvation.

Okay, I think I've made my point. Oh, how we need to get biblical again about our evangelism! I recently watched a video on YouTube by the author of I'm OK -- You're Not: The Message We're Sending Unbelievers And Why We Should Stop, and the author - John Shore - actually claims that it is unloving to obey the Great Commission! Did you get that? According to the author, we violate the Great Commandment of loving our neighbor as ourselves (I thought the Great Commandment of Mark 12: 30-31 was actually composed of two commands, the first being that we must love God with all of our hearts, souls, minds and strength.) when we seek to convert them to Christianity. How? When we obey the Great Commission by telling them we're right and they're wrong, we're being unloving and actually scaring them off! But I picked up a straw man argument in the videos - 

(You can see Part 2 of this message by searching the title of this video on YouTube.) regarding our purpose in obeying the Great Commission. Is our purpose really "to convert" people, or to preach the gospel? Conversion is a supernatural work of God. We can only provide the information that God uses to convict a person of his sin, his lack of righteousness vs. God's perfect righteousness and the coming judgment. I ask, therefore, which is more loving? Giving a person the information he or she needs so that the Holy Spirit can work on him or her, or withholding it in the interest of obeying the Great Commandment - or one half of it, at least? You see, we certainly will not be loving God with all our hearts, souls, minds and strength if we don't obey Him, right? Jesus made this very clear: "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments" (John 14:15). And, as I see it, we won't be loving the other person either. If you knowingly let a person die in their sins and don't tell them how to solve their sin problem, you aren't being loving! You are being hateful - all in the interest of "saving face!" What a lie from the pit of hell - and what's worse is that it is being spread by some so-called "Christian" authors! 

ANGOLA!

(I request your patience.  I have not figured out how to upload my project pictures in the desired order yet.  I hope to have them uploaded in the next couple of days.  Thanks!)

Stripping Self Righteousness

Last Monday - March 9 - I tried to find a campus in Niterói (Rio de Janeiro) whose students were heading out for lunch so that I could preach to them. Since I am not allowed to preach on campus as a Campus Crusade for Christ staff member (Open air preaching on campus is considered too controversial to have CCC's name associated with it.), I'm trying to find ways to impact this important audience - using a tool that stirs up their consciences - without "breaking the letter of the law." In fact, I recently preached two days on the main campus of Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg, South Africa without breaking the letter - nor the spirit, for that matter - of the law. How? Since I was technically "on vacation," I didn't preach on CCC's time; and because I didn't emphasize which mission agency I was with (so as not to cause problems for the Campus Crusade ministry on that campus), I see no problem with the preaching we (a Brazilian missionary pastor preached with me) did at this South African university. On the contrary, I'd estimate that 1,200 students were exposed to all or part of our message in just 4 hours on campus!  

Anyway, back to Rio (actually Niterói, which is across the bay from Rio and is where I live), I drove by a couple of the large, private universities in town, but the foot traffic was slow. Since I was in a "preaching mood," I decided to preach in front of a mall that is strategically situated between the ferry landing and the bus terminal. To my surprise, there were a number of in-coming freshmen from UFF (Fluminense Federal University - the main public university in town) begging for change from passersby. This is part of their initiation, something this former frat guy knows very well. In addition to begging, each student is dressed in a ridiculous manner (e.g., underwear becomes "outerwear"), while any exposed body parts are painted. I always refuse to give $ because I know the destiny of it - to buy beer for the upperclassmen! When I used this excuse on one guy, he denied it. He said that they were going to use the money for some noble cause. I said, "Yeah, right! And that's why you're all painted up like every other freshman who is collecting money for beer!" He didn't have a comeback to that one - liar!

Since I was, at this point, preaching, I started telling those painted freshmen who approached me for a donation that I was a Christian pastor and that helping buy beer so that students can get drunk goes totally against what I was preaching. When I used this on one girl, she said, "I'm a Christian too, and I never thought about it. You are right!" I told her to check out Campus Crusade on campus, which she said she had already decided to do after receiving her "Freshman Survival Kit" from us the previous week. So, without deliberately going after students, God providentially gave me students to preach to while preaching in front of the Bay Market Mall!

While I was preaching a guy with an ice cream cone in his hand stopped to listen. He interrupted me with a question and, since it was already almost time to leave, I answered his question and got into a conversation with him that almost lasted an hour. Alexandre told me that he had been raised in a Christian home, but had drifted away from the Lord recently. I tried to use God's Law on him - to show him his need for a Savior - but I never met such a "slippery" person! He seemed to have an answer for everything. And every time I hit too close to home for his liking, he would try to justify himself by implying I was guilty of the same things. I told him that I was only trying to show him his situation before God, but that he, like the rich, young ruler, thought he was guiltless. I decided to use Jesus' strategy, trying to prove to him that he was not putting God first in his life, but he again deflected the implications. 

He told me that he had been living with a woman and had a child with her, but she had kicked him out. I took advantage of his admission to fornication, but he came back with "But we were involved in a church, both accepted Christ and were baptized!" I asked, "What kind of church would baptize a couple living in sin?" Then I asked, "What do you mean by 'accepting Christ?'" He said "accepting Christ" meant "choosing to follow Christ and live according to His Word." Now, at face value, that may sound right. However, did you notice that there was no mention of repentance of sin - including the sin of fornication - and that this guy had turned Christianity into just another religion, which promises "salvation" based on good works?

When I started to point that out, we were interrupted by a "begging" freshman and Alexandre took the opportunity to walk off. I told him, "Please read that tract I gave you."

Oh well. What can one do? The truth hurts sometime - to the point of making the person being convicted flee. But at least Alexander went away knowing that at least one Christian wasn't snowed by his "conversion!" Hopefully - prayerfully - he will not be able to sleep until he humbles himself, repents of his sins and places his trust in the blood of Christ to save him - vs. in his own "righteousness!"

Theological Implications on Evangelism

With the risk of being called an alarmist, I think that there is a lot more tied into our theology than one might think. An example would be one popular evangelical organization's emphasis on what is called "connecting with the lost" in evangelism. Now, if you're into God's sovereignty big time - like I am - you don't worry so much about the connection issue because God's going to get those we're witnessing to one way or the other if He wants them. That doesn't mean we ignore the concept, but it takes the pressure off the "evangelist" regarding who's responsible for the gospel being understood. On the other hand, if you follow a more man-centered theology, then how the person tries to share the gospel has everything to do with the non-Christian's understanding and appreciation of it. In some Christians circles here in Brazil such an emphasis exists. But what do you expect? Arminianism rules pretty much across the board here. The main reason given? We're told that the culture has changed, so our methods must change. Sounds good, doesn't it? But what do you do with the scriptural commands to preach the gospel? People are still in rebellion against God, are facing eternal condemnation and are thus in need of a Savior. How we communicate that may change, but it does need to be communicated verbally - in spoken or written form - to them: "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ" (Rom. 10:17 - NASB).

This is my main concern with some methods that, in the interest of not offending, leave out key elements of a biblical gospel presentation of the gospel. Christians who have bought into a more man-centered theology will often back away from key gospel elements in the hope of stringing the person along until they are able to handle the "hard words of Jesus." Talking about "bait and switch!"

Evangelist, are you armed? Really?

I know I am guilty of getting so active that I don't take time to pray. I guess I am saying that I really do not believe in the importance of this weapon of spiritual warfare. But a weapon it is! The following challenge was sent to my by the folks at www.crossreach.net:

Holy praying men touch God. Very few of God’s people pray anymore. We’re too busy working for Jesus to talk to Him. You see Christ come into the shadows standing outside the office door and He says “Man of God, can I have an hour please?” “Not now Lord, I’ve got a counselling session, I’ve got to try save a marriage.” Again the Spirit calls “Man of God may I have an hour with you?” “Not now Lord, I’m meeting with my architect and building committee for Your new church. We’ll be busy till midnight.” Again the Lord calls “What about tomorrow, may I have even one day with you now?” “Not now Lord, I have no time, I’m leaving for South Africa for a missions conference. Very soon Lord, not just now. Souls are dying, I’m needed in Africa.

We have time to visit, to build, to travel, for vacation, to attend meetings, for recreation, reading, counselling, visitation, but no time to pray. You know, I’m weary of hearing people say “This is such a busy, fast-paced generation we don’t have time to pray today.” No, it’s not a lack of time it’s a lack of desire. You’ll make time for what you really want to do. Look at those Christian brothers on the racquet ball court. Sweating, concentration, [sic] spend hours and hours on the racquet ball court. [sic] Next you see he’s got a coke in hand, he’s got sandwiches; [sic] say’s he’s going to watch three hours of cowboy time. And these are the men who tell me they have no time to pray. And here’s this dear lady, she spend her time at Tupperware. She’s got [sic] baby showers going. Tomorrow she goes shopping, in the afternoon she’s got her, see what’s going to happen tomorrow on TV. And she tells me she has no time to pray. And look at the young people, in America. Wasting their time playing Pac-Man, Galaxy War, goofing off, bored, restless, looking for action. No time to pray.

Oh God, somehow, get this generation on its knees. Break it. Not just the Lord’s Prayer, but a Holy Ghost communion. You say you have not time to pray, yet the very Son of God who has the care of all the multiplied universes, He has the time to pray for you. He takes the time to intercede before the Throne of God. He prays, you say you have not time, He does.
We’ll go anywhere, we’ll do anything His name, but we will not pray. We’ll sing in a choir, but we won’t pray. We’ll visit the sick and the prisoners, but we won’t pray. We will counsel the hurt and needy, we’ll stay up all night to comfort a friend, we won’t pray. We’ll fight corruption, but we won’t pray. We’ll crusade for morality, but we won’t pray. We’ll stand up against nuclear armaments, but we won’t pray. We can sit here for two hours praising God, but we won’t go home and pray. We’ll attend crusades and seminars, go from meeting to meeting, lift our hands and sing and shout and praise the Lord, but we don’t pray.
Prayer’s not just a bunch of words running out of our mouth. It’s not just a bunch of words. I’m so sick and tired of people just saying words. No wonder the devil’s sapping the spiritual strength of this generation, because prayer’s a bloody battleground. Prayer is a bloody battleground.

I believe that the devil will throw hell at any man who says I’m going to pray and seek the face of God. The devil’s not afraid of power hungry saints, but he trembles at the sound of a praying saint!

(David Wilkerson)

Adventures in Evangelism

Wow! I can't believe it's been 45 days since my last post! Oh well - here goes! Better late than never. 

I am committing myself to posting on, at least, a biweekly basis in the future. My goal is to do weekly updates, but I will commit in the beginning to - at least - biweekly ones. A good friend and supporter of ours commented recently on a frivolous e-mail I sent out to all of our ministry partners (financial supporters) and e-letter recipients . . . that he would much prefer to get ministry news from us rather than seemingly irrelevant e-mails. As the recent presidential election approached, he had also asked to not receive any more e-mails questioning the moral qualifications and standards of one of the candidates (Guess who!) in the interest of receiving more ministry info. Although I like to influence people - in a positive way, of course - via what I consider to be relevant e-mails, I have heard his "cry" and will give more attention to his request via weekly and biweekly posts, based on e-mails I will send out to my list.

You know, when you haven't made a commitment to update people regularly on how God is using you, several things can (and in my case, do) happen. First, you forget the details. At an age when, as my mother calls them, "senior moments" are becoming more and more frequent, I realize I cannot afford not to record what has happened as close to the events as possible. Of course, it helps to have a wife with a tremendous capacity to remember details, but I need to tell her those details first for her to be able to remember them, right? But, the safest route is to write them down.

Another result of not updating people regularly, thus forcing one to record those updates regularly, is that an opportunity is lost to bless regularly the people who most deserve to know what's going on: those who have made a commitment to invest regularly in your ministry.

One more thing that happens as a result of not updating people regularly on your ministry is that you forget what God has done! As I read the Old and New Testaments, I see narrative texts. Why has God chosen to not just give us commands and leave it at that? I believe it is because these accounts are meant to be a perpetual reminder of how He worked in and through His people. They served as a reminder to those in and through whom He had worked, not to mention to future generations. These accounts are more than simple stories. They were put there to motivate us to continue in our faithfulness to a miracle-working God!

Okay, so enough introduction. Let's get down to business. Let's talk about Adventures in Evangelism! Amen!

Campus Evangelism

Several encounters come to mind as I reflect back on my campus evangelism over this past semester. In this post I will highlight only one, saving the others for future posts - assuming my memory won't fail me!

Each week I meet individually - outside of our group times, of course - with at least eight of the nine guys I'm discipling, representing 3 different universities here in the Greater Rio de Janeiro area. One of those guys is Eric, a third-year Law School student at one of Brazil's most prestigious Law Schools (note: One can enter Law School right out of high school here, as in most other countries around the world. The same goes for Med School!). Eric also uses Ray Comfort's The Evidence Bible, and I've noticed its influence on him when we're sharing our faith together.

On this particular occasion, we got talking to two freshmen - a guy and a girl. It turned out the girl was from out of state and had a Protestant church upbringing. A girl involved in our ministry by the name of Francine "just happened" to come by, so we introduced her to the freshman and I believe they are meeting regularly for bible study/discipleship now.

The guy was a whole other story! He proudly stated that he was a Spiritist (Brazil is the largest Spiritist nation in the world. Spiritism promotes reincarnation, self-redemption, good works and contact with the spirits of dead relatives.). He took issue with the Christian assertion that a a loving God would send people to hell who had never had a chance to come to Jesus. I assured him that God would never send anyone to hell for not having heard of Jesus. He would send them to hell because they had sinned and broken His laws. He tried to argue his point more, but seemed somewhat satisfied when I told him about the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20), that God has sent his followers into all the world to preach the gospel. Then I tried to "turn the tables" on him and told him that we were not just concerned about those who had never heard of Christ, but we were concerned about his soul too. He smiled and said we needn't worry about him, that he was "okay." I asked, "Really?" He tried to justify himself, affirming that God was a loving, forgiving God. 

I reminded him that his wishful thinking regarding Jesus - that He only emphasized love and forgiveness - was not based on the Gospel accounts. I told him that the Gospels only mention God's love for humanity in 6 verses, while mentioning His wrath, coming judgement, hell and condemnation in 163 verses! In other words, this latter subject is apparently of great concern to God. It should be to us as well. In fact, the Book of Acts, which gives us various examples of the Early Church's first evangelistic sermons, does not mention God's love once! It's something worth thinking about.

Upon seeing that he had no biblical basis for his erroneous view of God, the student began to take issue with the trustworthiness of the New Testament. When I pointed out to him that his motivation for questioning the veracity of the Bible was rooted in his desire to flee its implications, he returned to his earlier argument about his view of Jesus being different and that he just couldn't accept another view. As he left for class, I reminded him that if his view was wrong, he was going to pay dearly for all eternity. He flashed a nervous smile over his shoulder and entered his classroom. 

Now, some might say I had totally blown it! Think about it! I didn't try to convince him that Jesus offered, as one well-known pastor promises, "Your Best Life Now!" I didn't "close the sale" by trying to get him to "invite Jesus into his heart" at the end of our conversation! I didn't emphasize God's love! Oops!

What I did do was try to plough up the rocky soil of his heart in order to sow the seed of the gospel. As a preacher/friend of mine by the name of Michael Venyah puts it:

Remember James 4:6: “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble”. If you needed to build a garden for starving people, in a place where the ground was concrete, gently working the ground would do no good; you would need to use a backhoe and a jackhammer and exert force in order to break up the hard ground. But to plant the garden in soft soil, you wouldn’t need a backhoe and jackhammer, just a spade, seed and water, which you could use gently. The Holy Ghost preached hard through me because, as the hearts of all the sinners listening were hardened through their choice to stay in sin, He was resisting them. But, after being cut to the heart by the hard Holy Ghost preaching, when that young man chose to humble himself, the Spirit of God presented grace.

So, sometimes we need to be confrontational even in our personal evangelism. God wants His truth to penetrate hearts, but those hearts need to be softened by means of God's ordained tool: His Law - and the consequences of breaking it. This is the biblical way, not to mention the way of evangelists throughout the centuries. Somehow the Church decided to try to improve on God's way in the 20th Century, only emphasizing God's love vs. God's holiness and justice. What we see today is something like 80%+ of Americans claiming to be born-again Christians! There is no way! This is the product of what Ray Comfort calls modern evangelism. May we return to our roots, the roots of biblical evangelism! Amen!