I have wondering for the past few weeks, that how i want to tell my friends abt the gospel, but had never really a conversation abt that. Eniweiii… that opportunity will come unexpectedly, so Paul urged us to be ready with the answers. Here’s one of my story….
Last Wednesday after Focusteam, I decided to call one of my friend. After talking abt uni life, etc, i invited him again to Thu’s mission, but he said that he has non-stop classes from 9am-6pm except an hour break at 1pm….and then i forgot how but he started to talk that Xn always associates everything in our life with the Bible, eg. when broken hearted, etc, and that he didn’t understand how Xn try to promote the gospel so eagerly, because catholics use a more conservative way. Then i explained to him that we Xn wanna see more ppl coming to Jesus, want to be in heaven together esp with our friends and family, and the only way is to believe the salvation in Jesus Christ. He argued that there’s another pathway(s) to salvation outside church, and when i asked, he didn’t know how.
I told him that I only believe in the Bible, how Josh and the other MTSers told us read the bible by ourselves, trusting the Bible only. But then he argued that everyone has different understanding, even different interpretation about the Bible. He even mentioned that Catholic and Xn separated because of different understanding. he kept emphasise how everyone couldn’t have a same understanding, eg. in a uni subject, we learn the same materials, same lecturers, same textbooks, but yet one pass and the other failed –> that’s because different understanding. I said to him that there’s only one truth, ie. the Bible, and if we trust in Jesus he’ll send us the Spirit that will lead us only to one truth.
He still didn’t believe, and keep arguing and pointed to what Peter Slezak said (he attended the Great Debate),and he used an example of a murderer that said he’s a Xn, who murders in the name of Jesus, and an atheis who is good and kind. He asked how can God save the Christian murderer, while the atheis who never do anything bad is not saved, and he didn’t see any justice there. Well…. i thought that this is exactly what we learned at MYC, that God is just and the justifier, but I didn’t know how to say that to him, and I know if I explain it that way, he won’t understand or believe anyway. So I ended up with trying to explain to him that murderer cannot be a Xn, coz Christianity is also the matter of heart, if a person confess that he’s a Christian and doesn’t show it in his lifestyle, then that person is just the same as a Pharisee and not a true Xn. and also, the bible never tell us to kill another for the sake of the bible itself. But again my friend argued that everyone has a different understanding, and that christian murderer has a different understanding of christianity. At this point I didn’t know how to answer anymore.
The conversation then changed into different religions in this world. He talked about how he respect everyone’s belief/understanding, including the other religions. Then i asked him if he believes that the other religions’ gods are the "real" God. He answered that he believe in only one "true" God. Then i asked back that if there’s only one "true" God so there can only be one true religion, and the other religions cannot be true. He said that in terms of many religions, there are "transcendentals", which are the institutions that above humanity and govern the human, and he believes that the other gods of other religions are these transcendentals. I don’t understand what transcendental means, i think it’s like an institution that connect between God and human, but he said that’s not it. I haven’t explained that Jesus is the one and only connection of God and human, because it’s pretty late at night and he said he’s tired and I didn’t want to disturb him anymore. So our conversation ended up to that point.
My friend is a smart guy, he used to be the most clever student. He also joined the debate team in his highschool, and he’s much the same as Peter Slezak, he likes to debate and he said to me that he’s ready to debate with me about Christianity even 3 hours conversation he will do, but only in a time that he’s not busy, like in holiday etc. The problem is, when I said to him that I’m trying to answer his questions, he said that he didn’t want any answer and even didn’t care about the answer. That’s make me sad most. He just doesn’t like the feeling of losing, so he argue me with all of his might and doesn’t even care about the answer!
I remember Juni said to me that sometimes non-christians do not care of the answer/our explanation abt christianity, so there’s no point of arguing with them. On the other hand, try to see their point of view by asking, "What do you think?".
To be honest, i don’t like and i’m not good at debating, but in his case, i’m trying to explain that he’s wrong, but i ended up in debate. Chenny said that we should model Archie Poulos, that we’re not debating to be the "winner", but to spread the gospel with humility. Well…. i guess that is the biggest struggle for me right now…
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