It was a little later than usual when we arrived on Mill Ave tonight. We had a WOTM Crash Course today for training people in evangelism. If anyone is interested, and you're in the Phoenix area, check out the link on the right for Getting Equipped to see when the next class will be.
Dan was already there, talking to a guy, who seemed to have some odd beliefs. I'm not sure if he's following some sort of organized religion or just making stuff up as he goes along. He was talking about the book of Enoch and different names for God and trying to sell CDs that he had made.
Tom spoke with him again later, and he ended up telling Tom that he's going to hell for calling God by the wrong name or something. The guy felt that the 66 Books of the Bible were not enough, and believed that he had more to contribute. He refused to listen to any kind of reason and didn't make a lot of sense.
Tom started some trivia questions and talked with a guy who had already spoken with Edwin and Sean on another corner. He had some tracts that they had given him, but didn't seem to have a grip on the Gospel message. Hopefully, he'll take the resources we've given him and the Lord will use them in reaching this man.
I did some trivia questions, but wasn't able to get a crowd, people would answer one, take the money and continue on their way. But later, a group of girls came back for more trivia that they heard earlier. One agreed to do the Good Person Test. She obviously had a Catholic background, as she was correcting my numbering of the Ten Commandments. Catholics divide them differently than Protestants, but both get them from the same text - Ex 20:1-17 (they are not numbered in Scripture, just listed). They'd been drinking and they left before we could finish.
I talked with a guy named Dave for a while. I had offered him a tract and he told me he didn't need it, that he was already a Christian. Since it was one of the untearable tracts, I told him that if he could tear it in half, I'd take it back. He tried tearing it and it wouldn't budge, so I asked him if he would take it with him and read it, and he said he would.
I explained that not all who call themselves Christians actually are, and he agreed with that as well. I asked if he would consider himself a good person, and after some thinking it over, he decided that he was, overall, a pretty good person,as people generally do (Prov 20:6).
I took him through the test, and he realized that, by God's standard, none of us are found good. But he claimed that his belief in Jesus would save him. I told him that Scripture says that even the demons believe, so that's not enough.
He had said that we must do the best that we can do and that Jesus does the rest, and I explained that was Mormon doctrine, that Jesus saves us "after all we can do." He'd had a Catholic background and didn't like or realize that he was holding to Mormon beliefs, so he was going to look into that. But both are works based.
Later, he said it again, and I asked him if we could reverse that, and he agreed with me that Jesus saves us and then we do good works out of gratitude, not as a means to earn our salvation. Rather, it's the evidence that we are truly saved, a new creature, born again and changed from what we were before.
Over all, I don't think we were too far off in our beliefs of salvation, and we had a pretty good conversation before he had to go. Pray that the Lord continues to work in Dave.
Soli Deo Gloria
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