GTCC Outreach Report 4-16-2010

Today, the weather was great and the witnessing was intense at GTCC. We witnessed from 11:00 a.m. till 2:00 p.m. and the conversations ranged from a drug dealer justifying his sin to interacting with two Sunni Muslims.

The Drug Dealer

The first group I approached had an outspoken young man who asked questions that ranged from "Why do churches take so many offerings?" to "What does God think of me if I'm selling drugs to support my family when I can't find a job?" Since several students in the group noted that they attended Word of Faith Churches, I launched into a brief critique of that view, demonstrated from Scripture how it was wrong, and then explained the true gospel to those who were listening. The outspoken young man mentioned earlier said that he sold weed to pay the bills and put food on the table. He said that he was unable to find a job; I told him that that doesn't justify his sin. I said, "Man, you can find a job if you really want to" and at that point an older student stepped forward and said, "I've been looking for a job and I have been unemployed for over a year" and then the younger man admitted that he did have some type of regular work. I then said, "Look, the fact that you can't find a job is irrelevant; it still doesn't justify your sin. You can't justify your sin of selling drugs anymore than I can justify killing my toddler because she is an economic burden on my family!" He then walked off for a second saying that the comparison isn't the same and I said, "I didn't say that the sin was the same, I noted that the justification for it was no different than yours." He then said, "I need to think about this." Indeed he did.

Two Sunni Muslim Women

The next long interaction I had was with two Muslim young ladies. They were wearing "hijab" (head coverings) and after introducing myself to them and confirming that they were Muslim, I asked them, "Please explain to me who Isa is according to Islam." They gave the standard Muslim answer (i.e., a great prophet but not God, not to be worshiped, etc.). I then pulled out my Qu'ran, read Surah 5:116 and then asked them, "According to Surah 5:116, Mohammed believed that Christians worshiped Mary as part of the Trinity. Are you aware that the New Testament (NT) says that there is only One God revealed in three separate, eternal persons, namely the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit?" The more outspoken of the two said that she understood this, but then quickly said that the modern NT was corrupted such that it couldn't be trusted and that the Qu'ran preserved the truth. I then asked her if she had any evidence of any such textual corruption to back up her assertion and she admitted that she could not name any. She then noted, in good Muslim fashion that the Qu'ran is completely pure from the standpoint of textual transmission. I then told her she was wrong and backed up my assertion by referring to this palimpsest manuscript bookmarked on my iPhone that clearly demonstrates textual variation in existing ancient manuscripts of the Qu'ran. Both women adamantly refused to even consider this evidence and the least outspoken of the two said, "If Allah allowed the Qu'ran to be corrupted, then we have no basis for knowing what Allah said to the prophet Muhammed." I then said, "It is a fact that all ancient handwritten manuscripts have textual variations in them, whether Caesar's Gallic Wars, the NT, or the Qu'ran." They stood adamant in their refusal to consider such evidence. I told them that I was not afraid of the textual variations found in the manuscript tradition of the NT because my faith encourages close examination and scrutiny of all the existing manuscript evidence of the NT, whereas their faith does not. I asked them "What kind of faith would prevent and/or strongly discourage people from looking at variant readings in the existing ancient manuscripts of their Scriptures?" I told them that if what they were believing was the truth, they should not be frightened to study the variant readings in their ancient manuscripts. However, at this point I think they had already shut me out because I suggested that the manuscript history of the Qu'ran demonstrates textual variation.

A Strange and Somewhat Annoying Twist

After a while, a handful of people gathered around listening to my conversation with these young Muslim women. Strangely enough, one young black man walked up and stood right beside us, listening for quite some time before saying anything. Of course, it was quite awkward for this fellow to simply come up and stand so close to us and so I turned and said, "Sir, did you have something to say?" And then it was if a floodgate opened. This man (who was not a Muslim) came to the defense of the Muslim women by using Rodney King theology basically saying, "Look, we all worship the same god, so why can't we come together to help each other." At this point, I attempted to make it exceedingly clear that we do not worship the same deity, for the differences between the Muslim unitarian conception of God and the Christian trinitarian one can never be reconciled as they are mutually exclusive. I attempted to clearly note that they cannot both be true by virtue of their competing and contradictory nature and attributes and hence by logical deduction, one was true, one was false, or they both were false. At this point the Muslim women strongly disagreed with my denial that we worship the same deity (thus showing that they were at least theologically moderate Muslims) and the non-Muslim agreed with them, thus triangulating me. Once I tried to respond, all three started steamrolling me. They had all done this individually and I kindly asked them to stop and even shamed the young non-Muslim once, but to no avail. I quietly stood there until they finished and then said, "It is obvious that you are not interested in having a respectful dialogue as you have interrupted me three times when I have tried to respond to a question you have asked me; thank you for your time." I then gathered my belongings and we all went our separate ways.

An Unusual but Welcomed Response

As I was walking away, the non-Muslim man walked over to me and offered a genuine apology for his rude interruptions. I was then able to take another hour to explain in some detail who the One True God is, what the gospel of Christ is, and then reiterate the fact that he is a hell bound idolater should he continue in an unrepentant state. Our discussion thereafter was charitable and I was able to discuss the epistemological problems with his cultural and religious relativism, strong subjectivism, and pluralism; showing that if he was consistent with his own presuppositions, he really couldn't know anything. He seemed to appreciate what I was saying, asked for a ministry card and said he wanted to talk more via telephone, and I gave him a fist pump and we parted ways.

The rest of the conversations I had for the day were fairly short lived. Several students seemed completely uninterested in hearing the gospel and even I asked some students, "Does anything I've said concern you? Does it bother you that you'll have to face God on the day of judgment with your sins?" If they said, "Nope, not a bit!" I said, "Thanks for your time, if you have any questions, you can contact me via the information on the back of the card I gave you." Sometimes its best to shake the dust off your feet and move on.

Conclusion

Sometimes I get a meager sense of what it must have been like for the apostle Paul to walk about the ancient city of Athens and have his spirit stirred within him because he was surrounded by idolatry. People are just as much idolaters now as they were then, its just that they are more sophisticated in their idolatry. As John Calvin said, the heart of man is an incessant idol factory. He couldn't have said it better, for men always construct a deity of their liking to suit their own wandering desires. Until Christ sets them free, their are willing and voluntary slaves to such passions. May God find our efforts useful at showing His power in us and by making His great name known among the nations; starting with our own little Jerusalems.