“Looking through rose-colored stained glass windows, never allowing the world to come in….” (Petra).
As Christians, it’s good for us to be challenged as to what we believe because we often just accept everything we’re told by our pastor or whoever believes the same things we do. We tend to socialise only with other like-minded Christians, and we read only those books that confirm what we already believe or which make us feel good; we’re happy to live in our little Christian bubble, isolated from the world and from reality. And we don’t bring anything new into the picture that might make us feel uncomfortable, because then we may even have to think. And, to their shame, much of the literature coming from Christian publishers is superficial and vapid. It’s not until we come up against an enemy such as an atheist or mythicist who has thought about issues that we should be able to explain, or an ex-Christian skeptic who knows his way around the bible, that we come unstuck, and all that we believed without question seems to evaporate and we’re left floundering, wondering what just hit us.
Reach up!
And even many of the bible versions are being increasingly dumbed down to pander to readers with low literacy skills or ability; whereas the more literal versions have the capacity to bring these readers up to a higher level of literacy. A man I know who became a Christian about 12 years ago has great difficulty reading and concentrating. The other day, when I suggested to him that the apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonians that they “Prove all things” (1 Thess 5:20), he reacted quite strongly and said that would be impossible for him; the thought of doing any kind of research sends him spinning into anxiety. He was a poor student at school; the state curriculum was geared to allowing the pupils to write words how they sounded to them, rather than teaching them to spell; he had no education in English grammar; and he’s never read a book in his life, except for some Marvel graphic novels. And yet he is so articulate. He writes very well, often beautifully, and is very witty.
As I’ve wondered where he got this ability (part of it is natural ability, no doubt), especially as he never reads, I realised it’s because he reads the King James Bible. He was raised in a Christian family who used the KJV in their daily family devotional times, and he attends a KJV-only Baptist church; and he was also reading bits and pieces of it before his conversion. But a couple of years after he was saved he determined to read the whole KJV from cover to cover in a year. He was aware of the difficulties he would encounter on the way through, such as the books of Leviticus and Numbers, but he rightly sees them as the word of God equally with the rest of the bible. He achieved his goal and understandably was very happy in having achieved such a feat. He then did it again, and after that, yet again.
My point in recounting this story is that he could have used a “simpler” modern version, but he firmly believes that the KJV is THE word of God, and the rest are corrupt. He also insists that it is very simple to read and understand and sees no reason why he should change. Some of the bible publishers claim that the KJV has a higher difficulty level than most bibles, particularly their version, and imply that the KJV is too difficult and archaic.
However, the King James Version, more correctly, the Authorised Version, is that which was responsible for my friend’s articulateness; it raised his literacy, speech, and self-expression, to a high degree.
Ditch the rose-coloured glasses
So, we Western Christians need to get out of our “religious club”, our “Christian bubble”, and start thinking seriously about what we believe, and why. The time is coming when the Church in the West will once again suffer through persecution, and if we can’t explain and defend our faith, we may well end up denying it, especially if we encounter one who knows enough of it to confuse and deceive us.
The Christian pop group Petra have a very appropriate song about this, entitled “Rose-Colored Stained Glass Windows” here: Petra – Rose-Colored Stained Glass Windows (youtube.com)
However, we don’t all have to be scholars and theologians; it’s amazing how, by simply regularly reading the Bible itself, the heresies and wrong ideas about the bible are shown up for what they are. But if one wants a bit extra without being weighed down by scholarly books and arguments, a good study bible or one-volume bible commentary will generally be enough to familiarise us with the kind of attacks being made against Christianity, and how to reply to them. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Tim 3:16).
Know your spiritual gifts
We don’t have to “witness” to total strangers on the bus or in the shopping mall just because some people do it and pressure others to do the same. Not all have the same gifts (1 Cor 13:27-30) and thus shouldn’t be made to feel inferior just because the thought of doing such a work overwhelms or terrifies them. There are other, less intimidating but effective, ways we can tell people about Jesus. Simply making it known through general conversations with family or work colleagues that we’re Christians, for example, and living up to a biblical standard of holiness and morality, often opens the door to deeper conversations with some of them. That’s how I was saved.
Many years later and in a different work place, at Christmas and Easter I used to buy seasonal tracts and put one into the workplace in-tray of every staff member. They all knew it was me who’d put them there but nobody complained; afterwards I’d find some of the tracts in the trash bin but I persevered and did it every year. It was fun.
A good example of over-enthusiastic “witnessing” happened when I was involved with a very evangelistically-minded Arabic Christian church in Sydney, Australia. I was a mature-aged student at the Baptist theological college (I’m not Baptist, I hasten to add) and the church people were having a picnic lunch at a large suburban public park on a public holiday. All was well until I was approached by a passionate Iraqi visitor to our church who wanted me to go with her to hand out tracts to the picnicking public. I froze as soon as she asked me, but being the “resident” theological student and the only non-Arabic speaker in the congregation, I couldn’t back out. So I said, as enthusiastically as I could, “Sure. Let’s do it”. She was very pleased and co-opted a male member of the church to follow closely behind us and pray the whole time we were handing out the tracts. She gave me a handful of tracts, which were the only ones she had in English – the bulk of them were in Arabic. I was to approach the “Aussie” picnickers and she would handle the Arabic speakers. In no time I’d run out of the English tracts, so she gave me some of the Arabic ones and said to just hand them out to anyone and everyone, and God would do the rest.
While I was happy I’d helped her hand them out, the venture was a failure in what she said she wanted to achieve – i.e. bring people to Jesus – and I wonder how much of her motivation was a sincere desire to save souls; or was it something not quite so spiritual? A guilt-trip perhaps, or a desire to be noticed and praised? I’m not saying she wasn’t being sincere and doing it for the love of Jesus; I didn’t know her so I’m just speculating. But my experience of the Arabic Christians I was living amongst at the time were the most dynamic and bold Christians I’ve ever come across, so I took her as the genuine article. And I know and firmly believe that no work done for the Lord is wasted, as scripture assures us (1 Cor 15:58); but we do still need to try and be more targeted.
One way I found to be effective was when I was a tour guide in a historic church in country NSW. I collected Gideon’s New Testaments from charity shops and kept them with me when on duty. I had some great opportunities to hand them to international visitors as they passed through because, being in a church, it wasn’t out of place for me to instigate talk about God and the bible – which I did whenever I saw an opportunity. And many visitors initiated discussions about Jesus, rather than me initiating it.
I remember one of those in particular to whom I’d spoken; she was a young Japanese woman visiting Australia. As she was leaving she asked me some direct questions about the gospel and I gave her direct answers, as I always do. Then I offered her a Gideon’s New Testament. Her eyes lit up and she was so excited as she accepted it, and told me she couldn’t wait to get on the plane back to Japan so she could read it.
Another memorable occasion was when three Vietnamese young people came through (they were Buddhists, one of them told me). As they were leaving, the one who told me they were Buddhists hung back as her friends left the building, and she asked me about Jesus. She was in a hurry and worried her friends might come back, so I told her the gospel very briefly and gave her a Gideon’s NT. She was very pleased and went her way. It confirmed to me that if we make ourselves ready and willing, God will bring people to us and open the way to talk to them.
This is so much more effective and natural than approaching random strangers with a tract and “Jesus loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life” approach. I’m not saying Christians shouldn’t do it this way, especially if they feel “burdened” by the Lord to do so. But such an approach requires a special type of personality and/or spiritual gift, and those who don’t lean this way should not feel pressured to do something so radically against their natural inclinations.
However, there may be a time when even the most timid Christian will feel that Jesus is moving us to do something radical for him. At such a time we need to ask ourselves if our faith is strong enough to trust him to be with us as we obey him. If it isn’t – if we won’t or can’t do something for him which he seems to have laid on our heart – our faith is worthless and we might as well give it up.
God has only “burdened” me in this manner on a handful of occasions during my 54 years as a Christian and I’m glad I didn’t chicken out; in fact, they considerably strengthened my faith and spiritual maturity. One of the things of which I reminded myself when weighing up whether or not I would obey this “prompting” from God was the incident in the book of Esther. She had revealed to her uncle Mordecai that Haman, the Grand Vizier of the Emperor Xerxes, had persuaded him to sign a decree which would result in the murder of every single Jew in the whole of the vast Persian Empire. When Mordecai required of Esther that she go to Xerxes and intercede for the Jews, she told him how dangerous it would be for her to approach his throne without having first been invited. Mordecai replied: “Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king’s house, more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father’s house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esth 4:12-14).
There are so many creative yet simple ways one can find to tell people about Jesus in a way that is natural for each of us. If we’re vigilant and wait for the right opportunity, it will come and we can do it in a way that is more relaxed and natural, rather than button-holing a complete stranger into making a “commitment to Jesus”.
But there is no excuse for timid Christians – or lazy or indifferent ones – to stay in the comfort of their Christian bubble and ignore the plight of the lost, for those for whom Jesus died and came to save. We are his ambassadors and this is an enormous privilege.
The Early Church historian Eusebius tells us that during the persecutions by Rome, the Christians who had engaged in evangelism during their lives were the strongest and were able to maintain a faithful witness, standing firm for Jesus and the gospel even at the cost of their own lives. But those Christians who stayed in their Christian bubble and hadn’t engaged in evangelism with the world around them, were the ones who denied Jesus in order to save their own lives. Jesus warns: “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven” (Matt 10:32-33).
The Scripture quotations contained herein are from the Authorised King James Version of the Bible.