It grieves me when the person(s) I'm witnessing to reject the message of the Gospel, even after the knowledge of sin has been made known. It deeply saddens me.
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Do you begin your witnessing by telling people that they're sinful and in danger of going to Hell?It grieves me when the person(s) I'm witnessing to reject the message of the Gospel, even after the knowledge of sin has been made known. It deeply saddens me.
Do you begin your witnessing by telling people that they're sinful and in danger of going to Hell?
If so, that might be part of the problem.
No, the problem is their pride and self-righteousness.
You lead them with love.
You show them that there is a point behind the universe, a meaning to life, and that that Meaning is an omnipotent, loving God who wants desperately to be with us for the rest of eternity, and who would gladly sacrifice Himself, just as any good father would sacrifice himself for his child.
THEN you tell them what's keeping us from achieving that, and how the problem is on our end.
I think it’s more prideful to expect everyone to change their life long beliefs just because you talk to them.
Just because they don’t stop right then and there and change doesn’t mean you haven’t planted the seed. What sort of farmer expects their vegetables to grow to maturity in minutes?
It's the Holy Spirit who convicts of sin. That is the root of repentance, not a mere decision for Christ. There's the Parable of the Four Soils. Jesus taught about true and false conversions in many of His parables. I'm not aiming for a decision for Christ, maybe today or next week, but rather for repentance, godly sorrow; the realization of what their sins look like before a HOLY God and His terrible wrath that sits on their head. I want the sinner to be concerned, shook up and afraid. They need a good healthy fear of the Lord to shake them out of their complacency and sins. They need to be saved from the torments of hell. They don't need to feel comfortable. They need to be made afraid.
"Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel" (Mark 1:14-15).
Is the preaching of repentance important? Jesus thought so enough that He preached it. John the Baptist preached it (Matt. 3:1-2). The apostles were commanded to preach it: "And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem" (Luke 24:47).
It's true repentance that leads to salvation. The Bible doesn't teach us to merely love someone into salvation. "For godly sorrow produces repentance to salvation ..." (2 Corinthians 7:10).
Perhaps it can be done in some situations, while in others it cannot be done. I have seen some people's lives radically changed by such witnessing (the good soil), while I have seen the other side of the coin (the wayside, the stones, among the thorns).
But I guess you don’t care about the rocks and the thorns, if you can not even refer to them as people and won’t take the time to love them before preaching at them.
It is my love for the unsaved that compels me to speak the truth to them about God's JUSTICE, RIGHTEOUSNESS, and HOLINESS. It is my love for the unsaved that compels me to tell them that if they were to die in their sins, they WILL go to hell.
The point behind the universe, the meaning of life and the disillusion that God is only a loving God who won't punish them for their sins won't do them any good when they're in eternal torment in hell.
Why would they see their dire need for the Savior if they think they haven't sinned against a HOLY God or even deny that they've sinned against God?
There's more than one way to witness. You need to do as the Lord commands you. We are called to be a witness for Christ. You shouldn't assume that I don't care for the "rocks and thorns" as you put it. I share my faith at nearly every place I go. It is my love and concern for the unsaved (as I have said once before) that compels me "to go and preach the Gospel".
Ah, but what "Gospel" do you preach?
As far as I'm concerned, the only way to preach the Gospel is to begin with the message behind it all, and then get into the details - and that big message is indeed the Good News: "God is Love."
Oh, and please don't send people that "letter from Hell." If anything is un-Biblical, it's preaching the Gospel through scare tactics.
Oh, and please don't send people that "letter from Hell." If anything is un-Biblical, it's preaching the Gospel through scare tactics. It only serves to discredit our message.
Did I say that Hell was un-Biblical? No. I said that preaching through scare-tactics is un-Biblical.Hell isn't unbiblical. Jesus preached more about hell than He did about heaven.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7QnQW4tYF0