"Jesus and Muhammad have visited me!" - Redcliffe Outreach

It was a beautiful spring day as we joined forces with the Operation 513 evangelism team in Redcliffe. Due to the perfect weather the waterfront was rather busy; the cafes were full, and people were walking around enjoying another day that God had provided.

At 11am, we set up the Answers Missions outreach table, and began to hand out gospel leaflets. Before too long people were stopping to browse at the literature on the table, and to ask questions.

One gentleman wearing a political t-shirt stopped to chat. He was a professing Christian, and he expressed concern about the direction the West was heading. We had a good chat about the decline of society, and where the origins for such a collapse began. He quickly pointed to Charles Darwin as one of the biggest enemies of Western civilisation, and said he wished so many people hadn’t embraced his worldview. Of course, we are not out on the streets to merely swap stories of defeat and retreat, we are there to go on the advance, so it was good to talk to him about the solution to the problems, and how our culture needs to return to the Bible. I was able to give the man a copy of the Social Issues Pocket Guide, and I encouraged him to be committed to the Word of God in all areas of life. He shook my hand, thanked me for the chat, then left saying he felt quite encouraged.

Shortly after this discussion, a man came by to asking, “What Bible translation are you giving away? Do you use the King James Version?” I mentioned to him that I do use the KJV as a reading Bible, and that seemed to make him happy. He then said that even though he reads the Bible he is very confused, and had many questions. I asked him if he could share those questions with me as I may be able to help.

The first question he raised was about the age of the earth. He said that according to the Bible, the world is only 2000 years old. I answered his objection by saying that the Bible says it is about 6000 years old, not 2000 years. The man replied by saying, “I just can’t accept that, as science says otherwise.” His objection was built upon a faulty assumption of what science is, so I spent some time explaining what science is and isn’t.

This is when things got really weird. The man said that he couldn’t believe what we were saying, as Jesus had visited him in a dream and took him to Heaven. While in Heaven, this man claims Jesus revealed all the truth to him, and that ‘truth’ was that the Bible cannot be trusted. He also said that Muhammad had also visited him. I asked the man to explain further; he replied by saying, “Jesus and Muhammad have visited me!”

I countered by quoting 2 Corinthians 11:14-15, explaining that Satan appears as an angel of light to deceive people. I stressed to this man that he had been taken captive by error. The man disagreed, saying that Jesus had told him to keep the commandments to be saved, and that Satan would never tell him to keep the law. This gave me an opening to explain the gospel of grace, and how salvation is not by law-keeping, but rather it is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

Again, the man disagreed. He said that he kept the Law of God perfectly; so I asked, “Have you ever told a lie?” The man’s face changed colour, he quickly said, “I only keep the law of Jesus. He said love your neighbour. That’s the law I keep.” Again I asked, “So, have you ever told a lie?” This time the man said he had, so I followed up by saying, “Is lying to your neighbour a loving thing?”

The man seemed a bit stunned at this, so I began to list a few more Commandments. I then took him to Galatians 3:10, and showed him that the attempt to keep the law to be saved places a person under a curse. I then explained how Jesus became a curse for sinners by dying and rising again.

At this the man took off his sunglasses, stared me in the eyes and said, “I curse you in Jesus’ name! You will burn in hell!” Then he stormed off.

It is heart-breaking to see a man caught in deception. May the Lord Jesus reveal the truth to him.

Throughout the day we were able to chat to numerous people about the gospel, answer their questions with apologetics, and encourage many Christians. Please pray that many would be saved in Redcliffe.

SDG!

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