(Not so) Good Friday?

23 CommentsGuest E-vangies, Open Air, PERSECUTED!

Carol Nicholson is a member of our evangelism team who is very bold in her witness. She sent me this report about a very scary encounter she had on Good Friday.

Yesterday was the worst persecution I have suffered for the Gospel since my salvation. Olga, another sister, and I went to the Redondo Beach Pier holding up a 6 foot cross with the words  “Are you ready?” written on it. What better time than Good Friday to pick up our cross and go explain the meaning of it?

As I was preaching and getting ready to read about the empty tomb and resurrection, a man came from behind me, grabbed the microphone from my hand, then yelled to the crowd blasphemous words, insults, mockery—all while denying God, even calling me a devil. Then he wrestled with me, trying to yank the bible from my hands. Since he could not, he started calling the police and 911, saying that he lived in the condos up the hill behind us, and we were disturbing his peace. He appeared to be under the influence of drugs.

I had a chance to read about the resurrection, but by then he was joined by an angry woman— twice as furious—and between the two of them, they went back and forth between Olga and I, cursing us and claiming that they were devils.

By this time, there was a large gathering, with 3 people videotaping the whole scene. The man grabbed my bag of Gospel tracts and threw it down to the lower level of the pier, all the while cursing at the top of his lungs. The once complacent diners on the lower level were now all listening intently and heard the full Gospel. Many of the bystanders were Christians, and they rebuked our attackers until they finally left.  A large group of Christians then came upstairs where we were, brought me my bag, and gave us words of encouragement to persevere in the work of the Lord.

We thank God for once again rescuing us and using us for His glory. I told the crowd that the Truth is offensive to those who are perishing but power for salvation; that’s why the devil gets angry when it is preached. The devil did not win. Instead he proves that God’s prophesies are true.

God is giving us more power and courage to go to the Santa Monica Pier today—with the cross once more—to preach on the resurrection! Our heart sings “If we perish, we perish.” Glory to God.

Comments (23)

  1. dede

    Reply

    carol,

    this post was extremely encouraging for me today. thank you Lord for protecting carol and olga.

    don’t forget to pray up…especially Ephesians 6 (Armor of God section). please make sure you put on this armor before going out of the house.

  2. ExPatMatt

    Reply

    I’m not sure that it’s persecution when you get accosted by someone who’s off their head on drugs.

    Very sorry to hear about this all the same.

  3. Paul Latour

    Reply

    May God bless you, keep you and strengthen you, Carol, through this frightening ordeal! Your willingness to go out again despite what you have been through is proof of the power of God in those whose lives are dedicated and in service to Him AND that you are blessed with the courage of Esther!

    Press on, sister, we’re praying for you!

    Paul & Kim

  4. WayneDawg

    Reply

    I took my “Are You Ready” cross to a well traveled part of town on Good Friday and was mostly greeted with honks of approval, lots of waves and thumbs up.

    One young couple, who were stopped by a red light, yelled at me and told me I was a fool and then laughed as they drove by me real slow.

    That was my only heckler ~

    Praise God that the man and woman who attacked Carol did nothing but give more courage and power to an already bold witness for the Lord!!

    Keep up the good work in the Lord Carol!!!

  5. perdita

    Reply

    That’s horrible! I hope you and your friends are okay now. But – that wasn’t the devil; there is no devil. It was some jerk on drugs. (That doesn’t make it less horrible.)

  6. robert moss

    Reply

    Rejoice you share in the same afflictions the disciples and the early church faced 2000 years ago. I would recommend always take a man with you if possible if not, as many Godly women of the Word. I go out by myself 99% of the time except for the first Friday of the month when one other guy from church goes with me. I always pray for God to protect me since I am by myself and Jesus. I got shoved off the sidewalk one time and in oncoming traffic. I get harassed by paid parking attendants, rent-a-cops, wiccians, Buddhists, feminists, druggies, pro abortionists, Marxists, Socialists, Communists, Unitarians, so-called Christians(religious pharisees and Sadducees).
    I count it all for the glory of God, I always pray before and after I go. I pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit to empower me. I give God the wheel and he takes me where he desires.

  7. BathTub

    Reply

    You left out the bit where these crazy people who claimed to be devils apparently identified themselves as Atheists. Atheist Devils presumably.

  8. ExPatMatt

    Reply

    Robert,

    How do you spot a Marxist? Is it the mustache that gives them away?

    Cheers,

  9. SeedSowerJoy

    Reply

    Bathtub,

    As a Christian, Carol reported the event as it happened. Is it really necessary to try to stir things up with your comment that she “left out the bit where these crazy people “apparently identified themselves as Athesists.” No one else-Atheist or Christian- seems to have inferred this. Must it always be about “us”(Christians) vs. “them” (non-belivers)?

  10. Carol Nicholson

    Reply

    A soldier for Christ cannot always wait for a buddy to go on duty. I have been accused of not following the normal pattern of Jesus sending the disciples out in two”s. However, Phillip was sent from the bustling city, where he was preaching to huge crowds, and performing miracles, to go to the lonely desert for one man- the eunich. Just imagine, the Gospel spread to Africa, because Philip was willing to do the unusual.

    We must be willing to hear, and yield to the Holy Spirit, whenever He calls. One Saturday night last year, at the pier once again, after preaching, and passing out tracts for a couple hours, I stopped by the water’s edge to rest and enjoy the sounds of the waves. I was approached by a strange man from the back. He said “Are you alone”? I replied, ‘I am never alone. I always take Jesus with me. Do you know him”?

    I immediately chaged the direction of the conversation, told him about heaven and hell-stressing the horror of hell, as I sensed he was up to no good that night. The fear of God came upon him, before you know it, he was praying for forgiveness, and he asked Jesus into his life. I was amazed at how he was humbled. I then prayed for him, all the while with my eyes open, and at a safe distance, just in case—.
    God is faithful, and keeps His promises! Alleluia!

  11. BathTub

    Reply

    Robert has magical mind reading powers. I’ve asked him to explain them before but he’s keeping his psychic powers to himself.

  12. perdita

    Reply

    The Unitarians I know are all so huggy and kubaya – that’s like being harassed by a litter of kittens.

  13. BathTub

    Reply

    SeedSowerJoy you are wrong. Carol said quite explicitly “We got viciously attacked by two athiests”. The Us Vs. Them was hers.

    I am always interested in these Christians like Carol and Robert who have psychic powers.

  15. perdita

    Reply

    We got viciously attacked by two athiests-but many got to hear the Gospel.
    Carol Nicholson on What’s so good about Good Friday?

    Wow. Thanks, Carol. Nice brush you use to paint athiests. As I said before, it’s horrible you were attacked, but it’s insulting to assume they were anything other than two (possibly high) jerks.

  16. Nohm

    Reply

    SeedSowerJoy,

    For clarification, BathTub and perdita are talking about this comment here, found in the “What’s so good about Good Friday?” article on this same site, a few days before this “(Not so) Good Friday” article here.

  17. Nohm

    Reply

    SeedSowerJoy,

    Talking about “[i]s it really necessary to try to stir things up”, please see Steve’s latest post here where he wrote:

    “In light of Carol’s persecution by some demonized atheists on Good Friday…”

    So… yeah.

  18. Steve Sanchez

    Reply

    Nohm, I changed it to “crazies” instead.

    Here’s her original statement:

    “As I was preaching and getting ready to read about the empty tomb and resurrection, a man came from behind me, grabbed the microphone from my hand, then yelled to the crowd blasphemous words, insults, mockery—all while denying God…”.

    Remember though, Carol did describe them as God deniers, so the word “atheist” would apply, don’t you think? Is that unreasonable? But, because I don’t want to offend you unnecessarily, I changed it.

  19. ExPatMatt

    Reply

    Steve,

    No true atheist would ever act that way. They must have been Christians in disguise.

  21. perdita

    Reply

    … Carol did describe them as God deniers, so the word “atheist” would apply, don’t you think? …

    Not necessarily. Perhaps they were atheists, or perhaps they were theists, but not believers in your God. Or theists, but not believers in Jesus as God. Or, they could have been pantheists or deists. For that matter, they may actually consider themselves Christians and Carol a false convert. My guess, and I may be way off, is that they were very angry and were using words they thought would hurt Carol the most.

  22. Nohm

    Reply

    To put it lightly, I question Carol’s description, as I’ve seen that description (i.e., “denying God” or “God deniers”) referring to anything from Muslims to Scientologists to deists to anti-theists.

    So, without being there, I have no idea whether or not they were atheists, and I don’t consider Carol to be a reliable source.

    Back when I was an evangelist, there were multiple times that a friend and I would come back from talking about the gospel to non-believers, and the friend would (hopefully unintentionally) make the story bigger and more “persecutey” than what actually happened.

    To be clear, that’s not to say that I necessarily think that she was lying. It’s completely possible that this is simply how she remembers the situation, even if the situation didn’t go down like that.

    On the other hand, she might have exaggerated the event, like you did with “seeing Satan” in that post a few months back. It’s just been my experience that evangelists tend to add a little extra “persecution” to stories where none actually existed.

    The point that I was really trying to make, was one to SeedSowerJoy, by showing evidence that we (BathTub, ExPatMatt, and myself) were absolutely not the first people to make it into an “us vs. them” discussion.

    Of course I think that what this man and this woman did to Carol was rude, insensitive, and simply stupid, regardless of whether or not they were atheists. Fortunately, atheism isn’t a moral code or anything like that; secular humanism is. And I think it’s obvious that these people weren’t (hehehe) TRUE SECULAR HUMANISTS. (hee!)

  23. Carol Nicholson

    Reply

    So, this is what happened a the Santa Monica Pier, the day following our not so Good Friday. T’was a small army of 4, two of us taking turns open air preaching, while one person holding our 6ft cross, and 2 passing out tracts. Thousands of people, many from Europe, and all over the world. I suppose the huge cross, and preaching was quite an enigma to the foreigners, for many stopped, to videotape, and take pictures. They also got Gospel tracts to take home. Who knows how God will use it all as they share with their friends and families at home.

    The crowd for the most part were well behaved, except for one lady, who claimed to be a Christian. She felt we were disrupting her business, so she reported us to the police. Reminds me of the man who chased Jesus away after He cast out the legion of demons from the man, then cast them into his pigs, causing him to lose money.

    Praise God, the 4 cops who showed up were nice, and did not stop us. The Lord gave us victory once more. We even had 2 decisions for Christ! How encouraging. Glory be to God!

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