Your Thoughts?

Ev Tips/Tools, My Thoughts/Your Thoughts

I belong to The Pocket Testament League, an organization that tries to provide Gospels of John to everyone who asks. It’s been around for a long time and they are doing a good work, but I have a problem with lesson #1 of their “Evangelism Boot Camp” of which I just subscribed. They offer some examples of testimonies that you can share with non-believers that I think are unbiblical . What do you think? I will give my reasons next week.

Here are the examples:

“Before I was a Christian, I tried to fill the void in my life by trying to accumulate money and power. Now Christ has filled that empty space in my life.”

“Before I began to follow Christ, I used alcohol and parties to cover the pain in my life. Now Christ has filled me with complete joy and peace at all times.”

“I used to have an explosive temper, getting angry at the smallest things. After I became a Christian, my life has been filled with real peace and contentment, even when things go wrong.”

Comments (0)

  1. Jessica

    Reply

    Hmmm….although the last one might be true (for ex: i never worry about the future cause Christ said today brings enough worries and i know he’s in control working for my good, and because i put a heavenly perpestive on life i never freak when things go wrong) these all make life seem like a peace of cake when you accept Christ. Which is not the case. People are going to have extremely high expectations and be heavily let down, or they are flat-out not going to believe you.
    I think it’s nice, because Christ does bring peace into your life, but it’s still LIFE. And stuff happens.

  2. Steve Sanchez

    Reply

    Excellent Jessica. Wait until next week and I’ll give you the rest of the story! And see ya at class on Tuesday for more tips.

  3. Wendy

    Reply

    Are they unbibilical in sharing what God’s done for them? No, not in my opinion. Those are part of people’s personal testimonies. They are narrow in what they are sharing however God can and does make miraculous transfomations in our lives. God makes many promises of blessings to us. He also tells us that He will discipline those He loves and that in this life there will be many troubles. Testimonies like these can inspire and encourage the non-believer and believer. What can be problemsome as far as using them to witness is that thier testimonies lack universal appeal and pure scripture which never comes up void. If you only have a short time to witness what’s most important? You should get to the ‘nitty-gritty’ of the matter: The core truths of the Triune God, His Word, who we are, what He did for us and the choice we have in response. Luke 8:11b
    “The seed is the word of God.” To share what God has done for you is not unbiblical but perhaps not as effective as sharing God’s Word. That’s how I was saved. I was asked to read some bible verses and they permeated my soul and set me on a journey back to my first love:) If you share your testimony without the word of God you’re likely to get the response, “Well, I’m glad that worked for you.” Is our faith just some ‘way’ we chose to cope with life or is it the divine truth of our existence? Perhaps we should rethink how we share our faith.

  4. Robert Perry

    Reply

    I don’t know if this is your reason, Steve, but it seems to me that these testimonies (and sigh, I’ve given one like this) fail because they deal with temporal difficulty instead of sin and repentance from sin.

    Will visit again soon….

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *