FOOLISHNESS OF PREACHING, NOT FOOLISH SCREECHING

FOOLISHNESS OF PREACHING, NOT FOOLISH SCREECHING

I had the misfortune to observe and encounter a false witness today. I had actually met this person on two other occasions, neither of which was a blessing to me.

He is a guy who goes about wearing a vest with Christian symbols, Scripture references and a depiction of Jesus. Of course, there is nothing wrong with any, or all of these things, but being a witness is not simply wearing a religious billboard.

This guy does not present a loving, caring, thoughtful persona. In fact, he takes great pleasure in pointing out that he is the only real Christian in the group, and he has not really met any other Christians. He scolds the people, with whom he is speaking, and demeans them as non Christians, simply because they are not accosting people in the same way he is. (however, I am sure he would not accept anyone as rude and crude and obnoxious as himself, if he ever met such a person).

He is loud, and in your face with his brand of faith. He boastfully scorns all other Christian experiences but his own. He ridicules all church groups and assemblies of believers. He erroneously says that no one else witnesses for Jesus.

He stands in front of people, as if they are obligated to listen to him, as if he actually does have an unction from God and the true message of salvation. He sees everyone, without knowing anything about them, as being lost, as being his enemies and as being his inferiors. Then when anyone dismisses him he claims that they are resisting and rejecting Jesus and the gospel.

When he first walked up to the bench of people at the gym, he started handing out his own "gospel tracts." Again, there is nothing wrong with having your own gospel tracts or handing them to people. However, he said that it was something that we would not be familiar with, because we did not know the real gospel.

Then he started saying that over all of his years as a Christian, no one had ever witnessed to him or talked to him about Jesus. In fact, as if he had never actually encountered a Christian.

I asked him if he remembered me talking to him several days earlier. He snidely said yes, but that I had run off from him to play Pickleball. (Actually, I had been playing Pickleball and had taken a quick moment to come and greet him, while the others in our group waited for me). I quickly informed him that I had returned to be with my friends, whom I love and with whom I share the love and message of Christ. At which point I told him that he is a false witness, misrepresenting Christ, the gospel and Christians. He was not a happy camper.

He started to walk away, still spewing his ugliness, condemning me. Then it dawned on me. I had actually met this person years ago. I often carry tracts with me and I engage people in conversation, so that I might witness to them. I had done these things with him in the Mall. I had approached him several years ago, and even then he took off in a tirade. As he was exiting the gym today, I called him back from his retreat, in order to ask him if he remembered me from the Mall, those years ago. He was still spouting off and making a scene, but he did give me opportunity to tell him that I had actually witnessed to him in the Mall several years ago.

He stood there and acknowledged what I was saying was true. I then pointed out that he had said no one has ever witnessed to him, but since I had, he was a false witness and a misrepresentation of the gospel, of Christ and of Christians. Well, he stormed out, fussing and fuming.

Being a witness is not the same as being witless. The Bible says that God chooses to save the lost by the foolishness of preaching, not by foolish preaching or fools screeching.

1 Corinthians 1:21
(21) For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

Oh, Now I Understand (after musing the situation)
In all of the years I have been going to the gym, and of all the occasions that I am there, I have never seen him come into the Pball area. It just dawned on me why he did so today.

On the previous occasion that I had met him, while he was talking to a friend of mine, it was mentioned that I have a house church ministry, and he had tried to tell me that ministries don't need buildings. Since I had to leave him and rejoin my team mates, I left him with this parting word, which he did not like. While he was getting all revved up to put down typical "church" buildings, I quickly interjected and then walked away.

I said, "The advantage in a larger facility than a living room is that you can reach more people for Jesus."

He did not like that I said this to him and he did not like that I walked away from him, instead of drinking from his fount of knowledge. Then when he saw me on the Pball court, he came right to where I was and actually made comment to let me know that he was addressing me specifically. It is nice to know I left such a happy impression on him (hehehe).

It Has God To Be One Or The Other
There is another indicator that this guy targeted me (addressed in the 4th paragraph of this post), along with the fact that he came right over to where I was sitting, He wanted to make a point that there are no denominations in the Bible (which is not a proof that being part of a denominational group is wrong). Of course there were no denominations, in the current sense of the word, since the Church had not suffered an all inclusive fracture (organizational and doctrinal), as it would in the next couple of hundred years. The rising up of denominations, for the most part, was actually the result of people coming back to Bible Christianity, which had been lost in the rise of the regional church groups (Roman, Greek, Ethiopian, Egyptian).

It is true that denominations have almost (if not always) been corrupted after a period of time. Each time a new group developed, since the Reformation, it was due to a portion of Biblical truth being rediscovered (after having been hidden by self serving religious bodies, such as those mentioned above), or it was due to conflicts within those "orthodox" groups.

In recent years there has been a more concerted effort to establish local churches that are separate from denominational baggage and restrictions. This is seen in the "Inter-Denominational" and the "Non-Denominational" churches.

HERE IS THE KICKER
This false witness not only came to where I was sitting; when he attacked DENOMINATIONAL churches, he also attacked, NON-DENOMINATIONAL churches as well. When he did that, he looked at me. In our previous conversation he had asked what church I pastored. I told him that we are Non-Denominational and we meet in my home. He made a point that Non-Denominational is not in the Bible.

I am sorry folks, you either have to be denominational or non-denominational. But reasonableness was not part of his argument. All he wanted to do is attack anyone who was not like him. In fact, anyone who is not him.

I am sure that most of y'all have run into this kind of person. Do not let their negativity, their anger, their narrowness give you a bad view of true Christ, the Bible or true followers of Christ.