Last time I shared with you some of the beliefs of a sweet little old lady I met in an airport who was a spiritist, i.e. someone who communicated with spirits. I questioned her on how she knew about spiritual truths, and her knowledge was based on her own relativistic opinion rather than the objective authority of Jesus Christ as revealed to us in Scripture. She mentioned a couple times about “the light of Christ” and its importance in discerning spiritual truth, but she could not explain this concept as anything more than just recognizing that Jesus was some really enlightened spiritual guy. Her view of Jesus was a typical New Age one – that Jesus realized His divinity and showed us how we could all become like God. When I responded that her view of Jesus differs from what is given to us in the Bible, she quickly pointed out that the Bible has been altered many times over the centuries and it cannot be trusted. When I told her about the solid textual evidence of the Bible’s authenticity and how we can be sure that what we have today is what the authors really wrote in the first century, she fell back on her relativistic “inner knowing” that told her the Bible was wrong.
As our boarding time was approaching I sensed a pause in our conversation and an opportunity to share the Gospel. I asked her why Jesus came to Earth. In line with what she already shared, she said that Jesus came to show us how to be spiritual people and to show us the way to God. I then asked if she would let me share what the Bible said about Jesus’ mission and she quietly nodded her head. I told her about mankind’s sin, his rebellion against God, the punishment we all deserve in Hell for our rebellion, that Jesus came and purposefully died in our stead and took our punishment upon himself on the cross, that He rose from the dead and ascended to the right hand of God, and that eternal life in heaven is promised to all who give their life to Him.
She sat there silent for a few seconds and then got up to use the restroom. I was so nervous that I was shaking – I had never done anything like that before! I have always been pretty shy about sharing the Gospel because I don’t like offending people. I didn’t know if she was going to come back or if she was going to avoid me from here on out. So, after I used the restroom I returned to see her sitting back in her old seat with my former seat still vacant. “What the hay,” I thought, “why not try sitting back down by her?” To my surprise she did not get up and walk away, but instead continued with our previous small talk. She then shared a few more of her spiritual encounters before we began to board. I never talked to her again after that, and she did not make eye contact as I passed her on the plane. Please keep praying for her, that she will be protected from the Evil One and that her eyes will be opened to the Truth.
Please understand that I am not trying to sound as if I am some great evangelist or that this was easy. In hindsight there are a lot of things that I should have said or could have said better. One example is that I wish I would have asked her to test the spirits – try reading the gospel of John out loud and see if the spirits try to stop her. I would expect them to be quite unhappy about her reading the Truth.
I suppose it will always be the case that we could have said more in these situations. We just have to remember that it is the Holy Spirit who draws the heart and not our eloquence or persuasive arguments. Paul boasted that he knew nothing apart from Christ crucified (1 Corinthians 2:1-2). Apologist Greg Koukl likes to say that his goal is not to win converts in these situations; rather, he wants to leave a stone in their shoe – leave them with something to think about that makes them question what they believe. I hope to see this sweet little old lady in heaven someday, as I hope to see all of you, too.
Until next time,
Chad
Monday, March 21, 2011
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Conversations with a Spiritist - Part I
Wow! During my last business trip my final connection home was held up in Denver due to flight delays. While I sat at the gate catching up on email an elderly lady sat down one chair away from me. We began to talk about the towns in Kansas we both were familiar with and about some of the places she has lived over the years. When she mentioned that her daughter sees the angel of death, I started paying more attention. Then she began talking about how she interacts with spirits and about the vast unseen spiritual world. It was then that I realized I had better shut off my computer and seriously engage this sweet little old lady about the truth.
It would take hours to unpack everything she talked about – things ranging from reincarnation to the lost city of Atlantis. There are a few main things that I focused on, however, and I would like to share them with you in this blog and in the next. First, I asked her how she knew if the spirits she communicates with are good. She admitted to the existence of evil spirits (which I will hereafter refer to as demons), but she was quite confident in her ability to discern between the two. Her means of discernment was based solely on how she felt inside. “You just know on the inside when something is true, when they are good spirits,” she said repeatedly. I challenged her on this subjective view of spiritual truth. I told her that Jesus Christ, as the risen Son of God, is the only one with the authority to speak on such matters. One should only rely on His objective teaching of spiritual truths instead of our personal subjective judgment. Since Satan masquerades as an angel of light, you cannot be sure if you truly are speaking to an angel or demon. Scripture alone contains the proper teaching on the spiritual world, and our limited, sin-influenced personal feelings can easily be deceived and manipulated by demons.
Another belief she had was that all religions serve the same god. This was a softball and an easy one to refute. I asked her why God would contradict Himself – why would He say Jesus is His Son and not His Son at the same time? Christianity (Jesus is God’s Son) and Islam (Jesus is not God’s Son) cannot both be true (this is the logical law of noncontradiction). This stumped her until she pulled out the “true for me, true for you” card. She promptly used a rose as an example – that she could believe it is a wonderful flower but I could hate it because I was allergic to it. Yes, I agreed that this was an illustration of the subjective quality of liking something, but regarding an objective truth such as color, could the rose be both red and yellow at the same time? The rose would either be red or not red – it could not be both, regardless of how much we each believed both to be true. This also seemed to stump her as well.
In my next blog I will share about her view of Christ and her response to the Gospel. I was reminded after this encounter that our command as Christians is not to win arguments but to win souls. There were a lot of things that I could have countered, but I tried to focus on such elemental beliefs as knowledge and truth during the short time we had together. Please pray for this dear old lady, that she would be delivered from Satan’s deception and be brought into the love and truth of Jesus Christ.
It would take hours to unpack everything she talked about – things ranging from reincarnation to the lost city of Atlantis. There are a few main things that I focused on, however, and I would like to share them with you in this blog and in the next. First, I asked her how she knew if the spirits she communicates with are good. She admitted to the existence of evil spirits (which I will hereafter refer to as demons), but she was quite confident in her ability to discern between the two. Her means of discernment was based solely on how she felt inside. “You just know on the inside when something is true, when they are good spirits,” she said repeatedly. I challenged her on this subjective view of spiritual truth. I told her that Jesus Christ, as the risen Son of God, is the only one with the authority to speak on such matters. One should only rely on His objective teaching of spiritual truths instead of our personal subjective judgment. Since Satan masquerades as an angel of light, you cannot be sure if you truly are speaking to an angel or demon. Scripture alone contains the proper teaching on the spiritual world, and our limited, sin-influenced personal feelings can easily be deceived and manipulated by demons.
Another belief she had was that all religions serve the same god. This was a softball and an easy one to refute. I asked her why God would contradict Himself – why would He say Jesus is His Son and not His Son at the same time? Christianity (Jesus is God’s Son) and Islam (Jesus is not God’s Son) cannot both be true (this is the logical law of noncontradiction). This stumped her until she pulled out the “true for me, true for you” card. She promptly used a rose as an example – that she could believe it is a wonderful flower but I could hate it because I was allergic to it. Yes, I agreed that this was an illustration of the subjective quality of liking something, but regarding an objective truth such as color, could the rose be both red and yellow at the same time? The rose would either be red or not red – it could not be both, regardless of how much we each believed both to be true. This also seemed to stump her as well.
In my next blog I will share about her view of Christ and her response to the Gospel. I was reminded after this encounter that our command as Christians is not to win arguments but to win souls. There were a lot of things that I could have countered, but I tried to focus on such elemental beliefs as knowledge and truth during the short time we had together. Please pray for this dear old lady, that she would be delivered from Satan’s deception and be brought into the love and truth of Jesus Christ.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Sorry for the Silence
I want to apologize to you all for my long silence in this blog. Thank you to everyone who has spent their valuable time visiting this site -- I am humbled and I greatly appreciate your interest. I have been very busy with work lately, and consequently much of my free time has been spent with my wonderful wife. She is truly a God-send and I am very thankful that we have each other in this life. I love her very much!
I must confess that I grew somewhat discouraged knowing that not many people were reading this blog. The recent upsurge in views, however, has been refreshing and I am excited to share with you some things that have been on my mind. I would also like to answer any questions you may have regarding Christ, apologetics, or theology. I don't know it all by any means, but there are plenty of resources out there that we can find the answers together.
As always, to God be the glory. Until next time,
Chad
I must confess that I grew somewhat discouraged knowing that not many people were reading this blog. The recent upsurge in views, however, has been refreshing and I am excited to share with you some things that have been on my mind. I would also like to answer any questions you may have regarding Christ, apologetics, or theology. I don't know it all by any means, but there are plenty of resources out there that we can find the answers together.
As always, to God be the glory. Until next time,
Chad
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