An Agnostic Philosopher meets a Christian – Salisbury Evangelism

The day was grey, and rain was threatening as we made our way to the High Street in Salisbury; in the heart of this ancient city, we would proclaim the everlasting gospel. Despite being in the city centre, things were rather quiet. A few people darted from shop to shop, while others walked by on their way to some important destination known only to them.

At around 11:30am, we set up the open-air board and began to preach. Paul from The Open-Air Mission was the first preacher for the day. He began his message by asking, “What has gone wrong?” Throughout his sermon, Paul related how the world is the way it is because of sin, and then he proclaimed the only solution – Jesus Christ. As he preached, a man in a motorised wheelchair listened. At the end of the sermon, when Paul offered copies of John’s Gospel, this man indicated he wanted a copy. Paul was then able to speak to him one to one.

Since only Paul and I would be preaching today, we thought it best to spend time handing out tracts and trying to get into personal witnessing conversations. I was able to hand out numerous tracts, but no matter how hard I tried people weren’t interested in stopping to talk. After distributing tracts for about twenty minutes, it came time for me to preach.

I wasn’t overly sure what to preach today, so I pulled out my “Way to Heaven” message and began to share the gospel. One man stood against the building listening, and a few others listened to a few sentences, but then they walked off. It was hard ground today – but still, there were the ones and twos who would listen. Towards the end of my message, a man with a big bushy beard, and a small facemask with gingerbread men on it, stopped to listen. When it came time for me to offer copies of John’s Gospel, he took one.

After my message was concluded, I began to engage this man in conversation. He told me straight up that he is a committed agnostic, and nothing I said would ever convert him. I assured him that I didn’t have any power to convert, but I do work for One who does have that power. The man told me his name was Zen, and that he is a student of philosophy; he also said he respected all religions, and he liked to debate. It was clear Zen was interested in chatting, so we began to discuss philosophy and the nature of truth. Zen was very polite and would listen whenever I made a point. Constantly our conversation kept coming back to the question, “What is truth, and can we know it?” For Zen, he believed truth came from the goodness of humanity and the consensus of the people. I countered by asking, “What is the standard used to determine good, and if the consensus of the people was ever wrong?”

I was able to share the gospel with Zen several times, but every time I mentioned it, he would say, “If I convert, my whole life will come crashing down. My whole centre of being and worldview would be destroyed.” I told him he was right, his worldview would be destroyed, but the error must be knocked down so the truth can be built in its place. Our conversation ended with Zen thanking me for talking, but that wasn’t the last we saw of him, as later in the day he stopped to listen to Paul preach.

Due to a busker, we needed to move our preaching location further down the high street. When we had set up again, Paul once again preached the gospel. This time he used lessons from the Titanic as an object lesson for the gospel. When he finished preaching, I then spoke on “Hope for a Broken World.” It was still quiet, and the ground hard, but as I preached a man in a motorised wheelchair stopped to listen; it was the same man as earlier in the day. Paul once again shared the gospel with him, and the man left with several tracts and gospel CDs.

Despite the hard ground the gospel advances. Please pray for all those we encountered today.

SDG!