Ask the Pastor with J.D. Greear How Do I Tell Someone of Another Religion They’re Wrong?
Jul 31, 2023
13:51
This week, Pastor J.D. answers the question, “How do I tell someone of another religion they’re wrong?”
Show Notes:
- Great question. This can be one of the hardest parts of evangelism. If someone doesn’t have a religion, it can seem easier to tell them about Christianity and why it’s the only way to heaven. …But if someone is a devout follower of another religion, that can be more difficult.
- Well, first of all, there was a season in my life when every conversation I had was with a believer of another religion — that’s when I spent two years as a missionary in South East Asia which is a very heavily Muslim country.
- The role of relationship: You earn the right to be heard.
- Being a missionary is like paying down a mortgage.
- The longer you do it, you’re watching that balance shift from mainly interest to when you’re starting to pay down principle.
- You have to be willing to put in the time.
- You have to tell them the truth:
- Paul reasoned with people often proving to them that Jesus had to be the Christ so there is a role for truth telling even without the context of relationship.
- In Acts 20, Paul told Ephesians elders he was free from their blood because he had fully represented the word of God.
- The third thought is something I learned as a missionary: Look for the places in their religion that points to Jesus and show that.
- There was a very popular book that came out in the 70s called Peace Child. It’s about a missionary family, the Richardsons, who were going to minister to an unreached tribe that was pretty brutal…
- They idealized treachery, they were murderers, even cannibals.
- The Richardsons were living there and having real trouble communicating the gospel, until one day, right before a war, reps from the other tribe came and offered a “peace child” (one from each grows up in the other)
- And the Richardsons realized that this “peace child” concept was a redemptive analogy that they could use to communicate the gospel to the Sawi people.
- Finally, this goes without saying, but prayer.
- Never talk to people about God more than you talk to God about them.
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