Certainly as Christians we know we
have the truth that these people so desperately need. But we
have to look at it from the perspective of a non-believer.
If a Buddhist came up to one of us and told us that the
secret to inner peace according to the teachings of Buddha
was prayer and meditation, would we suddenly start praying
and meditating?
It isn’t the product that is bad.
There is nothing wrong with inner peace and most people
would want it. Likewise, there is nothing wrong with heaven
and most people should want to go there. The problem is, we
don’t believe the teachings of Buddha so we don’t believe
his teachings hold the key to inner peace. So it is with
non-believers. If they don’t believe the Bible, they won’t
believe it holds the key to salvation.
So how do we counteract this? We need to bring about
understanding. Proverbs 9:10 tells us that “The fear of the
Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy
One is understanding.” They have no fear of God and no
knowledge of him. We must educate them, but not by
lecturing. We must answer their questions.
There must be a reason that a person
doesn’t believe in God. It may be because they believe in
evolution and therefore see no need for God. It may be
because of a tragedy that they do not understand how God (if
he existed) could allow to happen. Your first job is to
determine what questions a person may have about God that
prevents them from putting their trust in Him. Your next job
is to be able to answer those questions.
This doesn’t mean that you are going
to have every answer. You aren’t required to. You do need to
be humble and willing to ask someone or research the answer.
In Appendix B I have provided the most commonly asked
questions that evangelists encounter. I highly recommend
that you look at them and even write out the answers for
them. Not only will it help you when you encounter questions
like these, it will also strengthen your own faith.
Next Section -
Digging Out Rocks
