Responses to our mailouts

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And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, Ephesians 4.11

#churchleadership #Evangelism #faith #Israel #jesus #jesuschrist #Messiah #salvation

https://lightforthelastdays.co.uk/articles/christians-issues/responses-to-our-mailouts/
Transcript
00:00As you know, we give out lots of leaflets and booklets
00:02and all that kind of stuff.
00:03And sometimes you wonder whether anybody reads it.
00:07But we've had quite a few people sort of writing in and responding,
00:11which is encouraging.
00:13Just read you a couple of, well, one response.
00:17Having just moved property, I was reading with interest
00:19your journal, which was in a pile of mail.
00:22While I'm not Christian, I am Jewish, I
00:24have to say it was a real pleasure reading your July
00:27journal.
00:28We are indeed living in crazy times,
00:30and your pamphlet reassured me that there
00:32are some good people out there with a good and decent value
00:35system.
00:37That's positive.
00:38I have one or two negative ones.
00:40A lady wrote to me, a long email,
00:43disagreeing with what I said.
00:45And I'll just read you some of the things I said to her.
00:48I said, thank you for your email.
00:50Permit me to give a brief response to some of your issues.
00:53You say, I'm sure you're aware that there
00:54are many gods and many religions in this world.
00:57You probably believe that yours is the only right one.
01:00Can you not see how illogical this is?
01:04I wrote back, it's not illogical to believe
01:06there's one way to God through Jesus Christ,
01:08though of course I understand that most people in the world
01:10do not agree with this proposition.
01:13Logically, there are three possibilities on this issue.
01:16One, all gods are equal, and therefore
01:18there's truth in all religions, and all religions
01:20may lead you to God.
01:21Two, there's no God, and therefore no religion
01:23is giving you the truth.
01:24Three, there's one God, and one way to know God,
01:28therefore one religion is giving you the truth,
01:31and the rest are not.
01:33Number one on this list does present some logical problems,
01:35because different religions say radically different things
01:38about God, which conflict with each other.
01:41For example, Hinduism, there are many gods.
01:43Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, there's one God.
01:46Judaism, the Messiah has yet to come.
01:48Jesus is not the Messiah.
01:49Christianity, the Messiah has come
01:51in the person of Jesus Christ.
01:53Islam and Judaism, God is one and indivisible.
01:57Christianity, God is three persons in one,
01:59Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
02:01Islam, Jesus is the last prophet
02:03before the final prophet, Muhammad.
02:05Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God,
02:07the final revelation of God to humanity.
02:10I could go on with more examples.
02:13Number two, no God, leaves us with some questions.
02:16While we can't prove the existence of God,
02:18there is evidence for his existence.
02:20These concern the origins of the universe.
02:23Questions of the purpose of life,
02:25the existence of good and evil,
02:26and the fact that all cultures
02:27have some idea of a higher being.
02:30French philosopher Pascal spoke
02:32of the God-shaped space within us.
02:36Many people have difficulty believing in God
02:37because of their life experiences
02:39or observation of hypocrisy and supposed followers of God,
02:42but in the end, what we believe or don't believe about God
02:45does not affect his existence,
02:47which is outside of time and space,
02:49and yet which has an influence
02:50on what happens in time and space.
02:53Number three is a claim that the Bible makes for itself,
02:57i.e. that there's one way to God.
02:59The Old Testament speaks of one God,
03:01the creator of all things,
03:03who gave his moral law, the Ten Commandments at Sinai,
03:06and who's contrasted with the idols of the nations.
03:09These are called vain and the product of human invention.
03:12By contrast, the knowledge of the God of Bible
03:14is given by revelation to his prophets.
03:17In the New Testament, Jesus is revealed
03:19as the one way to God, the sole mediator
03:21between God and humanity,
03:22through his sacrifice for the sin of the world at the cross
03:25and his resurrection from the dead.
03:29You say this is based on a very old book full of legends,
03:32but to be honest, that's your opinion.
03:34There's evidence that these things
03:35really happened in time and space
03:37when God moved in supernatural ways on the Earth.
03:40When the Lord Jesus came to the Earth
03:42as Son of God and Son of Man,
03:43he had the power to do miracles,
03:44as recorded in the Gospels.
03:46The greatest miracle was the resurrection
03:48after he paid the price for the sin of the world
03:50through his death at the cross.
03:52After return to heaven, he sent the Holy Spirit
03:54to empower the true church to continue the work on Earth
03:57as he does to this day.
03:59The Gospel claims to have the solution
04:01to the issue which the whole human race faces,
04:04faced at the time of Jesus and continues to face today.
04:07This is the sin nature of humanity,
04:09which causes us to go against God's moral law,
04:11to do things which are bad, which spoil our world
04:14and bring misery to people.
04:17True faith does not promote war and strife,
04:18but love and peace through Jesus Christ.
04:21Whether believe him or not,
04:22according to biblical prophecy, he will return,
04:24not this time as a suffering Messiah
04:26to pay the price of our sins,
04:27but as the reigning King Messiah
04:29with all the power of God to judge the world
04:31in righteousness according to how we responded
04:34to the Gospel message.
04:36That's why we take our message out to the world.
04:38Of course, we respect your right to reject it,
04:40and if you'd like to throw our magazine in the bin,
04:42that's your privilege,
04:43but we're pleased to receive your comments
04:45on our magazine.
04:46If you'd like to discuss this further,
04:48we'd be happy to do so.
04:50Best wishes, Tony Pierce.
04:51She did write back to me, wasn't convinced,
04:54but at least we've got a dialogue going.
04:56And we need to pray that people will take notice
05:00in these days because basically they've got
05:02all these ideas, you know, that all roads lead to God
05:04and that it's a war, made-up story.
05:07There's plenty of evidence when you look into it
05:09that there's only one way to God, through Jesus Christ,
05:11and it's not a made-up story.
05:13It's the revealed word of God given to us
05:15by the Holy Spirit, revealed to the prophets,
05:18and fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ,
05:19who is the Messiah, who has come
05:21and is coming back again soon.
05:23Praise the Lord.