A Humanist Rejects Jesus – Salisbury Evangelism
The clouds were low and grey as the outreach commenced in Salisbury. The weather forecast said that rain was on the way, so we decided to do as much as possible before being washed out.
Salisbury is the location I have found the hardest to evangelise. For some reason, I have always found the ground hard here, but I rejoice that the Lord is in the business of breaking up hardened ground. We look forward to the time when there will be a great harvest of souls in this ancient city.
I was the first preacher for the day; my message focused on the fact that God created us, and as such, He gets to tell us how to live. I then explained how we’ve all turned our back on God, and because of sin, we need the Saviour. It was hard going, but I noticed a couple of people listening.
Paul preached next. As he preached, some light rain began to fall, but that didn’t bother the people in the high street. Some listened as they walked by, and others took tracts from one of the team members.
Today, we had so many people on the team that the city centre was well and truly covered with gospel literature. Even on the hard ground, the seed of the gospel was going forth in written form.
We were now into the lunch hour, so I preached again. This time I spoke about the shortness of life and how we need to consider eternity. As I preached, the rain got heavier, but still, people listened. One older gentleman stood and listened to the entire message; at the end, when I asked the people, “Will you repent and trust in Christ?” He called out, “NO!” I responded by asking, “Why not?” He replied, “I don’t believe in the vicarious sacrifice of Christ.” Since Salisbury is a religious town with many theological liberals living there, I started to think that I had a liberal theologian on my hands, but I was wrong. This older man was a humanist who openly wanted to defy Jesus.
Something that stood out to me was this man had weak arguments. Whenever an answer was given, he would quickly jump to another objection. He never was keen to engage or reason about his position. He would appeal to authority by citing Richard Dawkins (often incorrectly) and then denounce Christianity. But the Lord used this man to bring others in to listen to the engagement. As I answered his questions, I kept trying to bring things back to the gospel. It was sad to see this older man, who doesn’t have long before he meets God, openly rejecting the Saviour.
Towards the end of our discussion, the humanist declared that when life is over, it is simply over. So, I asked him, “How do you know that is true?” He paused, then replied, “I am yet to meet anyone who has died and come back to life. Can you show me one person who has?” It was then the penny must have dropped, as he quickly added, “Apart from Jesus!” That was the crux of the matter; this man didn’t want to listen to Jesus. It was an issue of pride and rebellion. It was a matter of loving sin and hating the light. He was prepared to look at anyone or anything else if it wasn’t Jesus. As the man walked off into the rain, I again presented the gospel and urged everyone to consider Christ.
After the open air, I chatted with two young lads who listened to the preaching. Both teenagers had no concept of Christianity; all they believed in was doing good and you’ll go to Heaven. Since they had already listened to the preaching, I was able to take what was said and apply it directly to them. As I explained the gospel, they both said it made sense. In the end, both took copies of John’s Gospel.
It was a hard day in Salisbury, but still, we rejoice that God was at work. Please pray for the older man who rejected Jesus and for all those we met today.
SDG!