False Gospels, Gnostics, Angels, and the Truth! – Southampton Outreach

It was a cold but beautifully clear day in Southampton. Despite the nice weather, the city centre was quieter than usual. While setting up, people stopped at the open-air board to take literature. At first, it was a Christian who was greatly encouraged by the work, and then non-Christians came by to take tracts. The opposition came sneaking in – a false gospel appeared in our midst.

Over at the free Bible table, a lady stopped. She took material and moved things around; she’d then take our tracts and begin to speak with people. Something wasn’t right, so I told the team to watch her. With ease, she’d have people stop to listen to her, and then she would move on to someone else. Since I was in a conversation, I sent one of the team members over to interrupt her and ensure the truth was being proclaimed. It was then that we discovered her false gospel. This lady claimed to have formerly attended an evangelical church and that she was teaching the truth. As she spoke, she admitted that her message was to tell people to be baptised if they wanted to be saved. Her message undermined the finished work of Christ and added religious deeds to the gospel. She was challenged by both me and a team member, but she was not interested in the truth. I warned her from Galatians 1:6-9 that she was on dangerous ground, but she claimed that the Holy Spirit had taught her. I told her the gospel and called on her to repent. She refused, so I directed her to leave the area and not use our material. Thankfully, she complied.

With the false teacher gone, the outreach continued. Tony Dancer preached on “Four Big Problems.” He told me he spoke with two people who listened to him preach. One of those he talked with has cancer and realised his need for God. The man took a copy of John’s Gospel and Ultimate Questions.

During this time, I spoke with a Muslim lady from Pakistan. Initially, she stopped at the literature table and expressed interest in learning about Jesus. I shared with her, and she took a copy of John’s Gospel and an Urdu edition of Ultimate Questions.

Despite being quieter, we found that many gospel conversations were taking place. As I finished with the Muslim lady, a man began to chat with me. He told me he was an angel (this would be interesting!) As we chatted, he said he was an angel, then wasn’t an angel, then he was an angel again. He also revealed that he is a practising Roman Catholic who believes in the goodness of humanity and that all people have God in them. I challenged his position from Scripture and pointed him to Jesus. This older man (or angel) told me to disregard the Bible. All I could do was plead with him to turn to Jesus, but he just scoffed and walked off saying, “What a load of rubbish!”

When it was my turn to preach, I spoke on - “Are you sure you’ll go to Heaven?” It was encouraging to see people pause to listen, but what really thrilled me was seeing all those who stopped being spoken with by team members afterwards. Open-air preaching should always be followed up by personal work, as it is in the one-to-one conversation that the gospel is personalised and driven home.

I next spoke with a young man who listened to Richard preach. He told me that he was a gnostic and spiritual. As we talked, he lamented the decline of society and how everyone does evil and nothing is good. I agreed that society is evil, so I asked him what he thought would solve the problems. He didn’t know – he hoped that people could somehow pull themselves out of the darkness. This gave me an opening for the gospel; I shared with him that we needed someone outside of our evil world to enter the darkness to rescue us. The gnostic agreed. I shared with him the good news of Jesus and encouraged him to consider Christ. The man took a copy of John’s Gospel, promising to read it.

After Richard had finished preaching, he spoke to a young man from China who had been listening. The young man said that in China there is no god or religion. He was a blank slate with no knowledge of Christianity. Richard explained the good news to him. The man seemed very interested, so he took a copy of the New Testament and Ultimate Questions.

Finishing the day, Billy from Stoke preached the gospel. Using the current Post Office scandal, he spoke about deception and lies. This gave him a good transition to the gospel.

It was an encouraging and fruitful day in Southampton. Please pray for all those who heard the good news.

SDG!

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Josh Williamson is a full-time evangelist with The Open-Air Mission. Since 1853, OAM has been sharing the good news on the streets of the United Kingdom. To stay updated about the work of the Mission, please sign up for the free quarterly magazine and monthly prayer notes.

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