Charleston So vs UGA – Evangelism

This was it! The last home football game for the University of Georgia in 2021. 

On this day Scott, Hud, Rich, and I comprised the evangelistic team at the stadium. There was a good crowd but appeared to be a little off from previous games. Maybe it was the cooler weather or the fact that there was absolutely no way it wasn’t going to be a blowout, but it was definitely smaller. Another observation Scott made was the number of folks there with normal street clothes on. Typically almost everyone is dressed in their UGA garb but at this game that wasn’t the case.

Scott led us off as the others passed out Gospel tracts. The most memorable event of the day happened as Scott was preaching. A little boy stopped and asked Scott a question and Scott was able to encourage the young man. Nothing is more precious than when a child stops to take interest in eternal matters, as this little man did.

After Scott, Rich preached a wonderful apologetics message, challenging the fans to reason out historical events to see that Jesus is God, that He did come in the flesh, was crucified, and rose from the dead, proving He was who He said he was. I was blessed to close out the day. I began in Genesis explaining how the Creation narrative was the simple and best answer to the question, where did we come from?

Hundreds were exposed to the Gospel, as we closed out yet another football season of evangelism. Doesn’t seem like that could be possible. I’m not sure why the season felt like it went by so fast. Maybe it’s because I am getting older, or maybe it’s just the way the home games fell this year. Either way, that game wrapped up our 13th football season at Sanford Stadium in Athens. I pray God gives us 13 more!

Until All Hear!

She said, “I would rather a child be executed than me be raped”

Why are they doing that at a Bulldog game?

Why are they doing that at a Bulldog game?

I heard a man say that as Mike was preaching outside Sanford Stadium today.

Everyone reading this probably knows the answer to that, so I will not elaborate. It was just funny, from my perspective. I was thinking, “Why aren’t more people out doing this?” 

We arrived and began preaching about 2 hours prior to kick-off, with Mike leading us off as I distributed Gospel Tracts. I did not count the number of tracts that went out but I probably gave away 40-50. I wasn’t being real aggressive with them but was just holding them out, greeting people, while letting them take them if they wanted to. There were several people that went out of their way to come over and get one. One of my favorite things that happened today was seeing this young guy stop and read the Gospel Tract I had given him.

As Mike was preaching, a man and another person, who appeared to be his son, came up to me and thanked us for being there and told me to tell Mike he appreciated his preaching and said he was praying for us. The man said he had been giving out tracts and asked me if he could have a few of mine. I gave him a stack and he immediately walked across the street and began giving them away. 

As I was preaching a man walked over to Mike and said, “I’m witnessing by taking this tract from you.” Not sure that is witnessing but at least he was making the effort to do something. At least he didn’t come over and tell us we were doing it wrong. 🙂  

We had a good day with hundreds, maybe thousands hearing the Gospel. Many got snippets as they walked by but as it grew closer to game time the crowd backed up at the gate and we had a captive audience, which allowed us to preach to them a more complete Gospel message. 

The Lord truly blessed us today! May He be glorified through our efforts and we pray many come to know Him!

Until All Hear!

Alex

SFOI 1000

The Souls of College and Clayton-Athens, GA

Some People Have Sincere Questions, Some Just Want You to Shut Up

Forcing a Secular Worldview Into Scripture

What happens when a Christian goes to college and is taught something that contradicts Scripture? As Christians we should base our worldview on the Bible, right? Well, it seems that more often than not, Christians who are taught something as fact, even if it contradicts the bible, will take that teaching as truth and begin to either question the Bible or attempt to force the teaching into the Scripture.

To push back against something that is taught as fact (science) because it contradicts God’s word gets you labeled as ignorant or one who does not believe in science. Many of us do not know how to respond to that. We have this information that we are told is a scientific fact on one hand and the Bible on the other, and they seem to contradict. If the “science” seems to contradict the Scripture people tend to accept the “science” as fact instead of questioning it. After all, the scientific method of hypothesis, experiment, observation, repeat is a pretty solid approach to discovery. 

This creates a dilemma for the Christian. They believe the Bible is true but are also told some information as scientific truth. Where do they go from here? They don’t want to look like they are uneducated or weird so they attempt to reconcile this “science” with the Bible. Since the two typically cannot be reconciled, the Christian oftentimes, maybe without realizing it, proceeds to conform/interpret Scripture based on the so-called scientific facts. In other words, they begin to conform their worldview to the information they are taught. If the Bible is the inerrant infallible word of the Creator of the Universe, why would we think the ideas of man trumps it? 

The problem is, not all things that are called scientific are based on scientific research. Sure there is research, but the conclusions drawn may be based on bad research or incorrect interpretations. Even worse assumptions and giant leaps are made to land on conclusions that have absolutely no basis in true science. 

As an example, a friend and I had a conversation with a young man who said he was a Christian and was a self-proclaimed theistic evolutionist (the belief that God used evolution in the creative process). Some of his objections to a literal 6 day Creation were as follows.

1. The Hebrew word for “day” can mean a span of time so the Bible does mean a literal 24 hour day, in Genesis Chapter 1.
2. When Cain was banished, after murdering his brother, he found a city full of people that had to have existed before Adam and Eve.
3. Carbon dating has proven the Earth is millions of years old, not just thousands.

Each of these objections are unnecessary attempts at forcing evolution into the Creation narrative in Genesis.

Objection 1 

The Hebrew word for “day” is “yom”, which can mean either a single 24 hour day, or a longer period of time. When yom is referring to a longer period of time, that longer period of time will be defined. Let’s look at an example.

Genesis 1:3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night.So the evening and the morning were the first day.

If “yom” was stated without defining the period of time it was referring to, we could assume the meaning sas One 24 hour day. However, in the example above, we see it is actually defined as the “evening and the morning were the first day(yom).” There is clear gramatical evidence that Genesis is speaking on one 24 hour day. We see this pattern continue throughout the Creation narrative.

“…the evening and the morning were the second day.”  Gen. 1:8

“…the evening and the morning were the third day.” Gen. 1:13

“…the evening and the morning were the fourth day.” Gen. 1:19

“…the evening and the morning were the fifth day.” Gen. 1:23

“…the evening and the morning were the sixth day.” Gen. 1:31

As confirmation, as if any was needed, we can look at Exodus 20 10-11, when God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses.

• Exodus 20:8-11
• “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.”

“Yom” is the word that was translated into “day” here as well. If we force the word in Genesis 1 to mean a long period of time, maybe we should do it here as well. If so, it would read, “Six millions of years you shall labor” or “Six very long periods of time”, but this isn’t the most interesting point to see here. In this text God is actually speaking about the creation process and here He calls those days in Genesis, Days, as in one 24 hour day. Even if a case could be made that “yom” in Genesis could mean millions of years, it would be very difficult to reconcile that with Exodus 20. 

Objection 2

This objection is based on a false statement. The Bible does NOT say Cain went out and found a city full of people. Let’s read it. We will pick up where God confronted Cain about the presence of his brother and Cain claimed not to know. Be sure to pay close attention beginning at verse 16.

Genesis 4:10-22

And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground. 11 So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.” 13 And Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear! 14 Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; I shall be hidden from Your face; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me.” 15 And the Lord said to him, “Therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him. 16 Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden. 17 And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. And he built a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son—Enoch. 18 To Enoch was born Irad; and Irad begot Mehujael, and Mehujael begot Methushael, and Methushael begot Lamech. 19 Then Lamech took for himself two wives: the name of one was Adah, and the name of the second was Zillah. 20 And Adah bore Jabal. He was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. 21 His brother’s name was Jubal. He was the father of all those who play the harp and flute. 22 And as for Zillah, she also bore Tubal-Cain, an instructor of every craftsman in bronze and iron. And the sister of Tubal-Cain was Naamah.

You will notice that the narrative says nothing about Cain finding an inhabited city. What it says is that Can dwelt in the land of Nod and he “knew” his wife, NOT that he found a wife. The Bible continues and says that he “built” a city, not found a city.

Conclusion: Cain took his wife with him to nod and he built a city where there was no other city.

There is another objection that will sometimes arise. If Genesis is true, then Cain married his sister which contradicts the prohibition of incest. God did not give the command to not marry close relations until later. See Leviticus 18:7-18. In the beginning, Cain marrying his sister would not have been a violation of God’s command. In fact, God commanded them to fill the earth when there were only 2 humans, so it was God’s plan for sisters and brothers to marry, for a time. It sounds gross to us now but it was perfectly normal in the beginning.

Objection 3

I am not a scientist but it doesn’t take a PhD to see that there are some basic problems with this, as far as being evidence to refute the six days of creation.

1. It is assumed that carbon 14 has always deteriorated at the same rate
2. It isn’t accurate beyond around 50,000 years, not millions and yet there has been Carbon 14 found on fossils that are supposed to be millions of years old.

Check out this video for some expert comments.

https://answersingenesis.org/geology/carbon-14/

Let us all be thinkers and not simply robots regurgitating what the world tells us to believe. There is absolutely no need to force the secular view of evolution into the Bible. Molecules to man evolution has no scientific basis and the Bible does not contradict true science.

Until All Hear!

Alex

Pray for Babies and Souls!

I was off work this week so I decided to join some brothers in their ministry at Planned Parenthood in Lawrenceville, GA on Tuesday and then at the Planned Parenthood in East Atlanta on Wednesday.

Although this was not my first time to be at the murder mill in Lawrenceville, it was my first time at the mill in Atlanta. In Lawrenceville you will see young women going into Planned Parenthood. Some for the RU-486 and some for other services like birth control. Even if they are not there to kill their baby, doing business supports this horrendous organization keeps the monster fed. 

In Atlanta, it was a bit different. There were some counter-protesters, if you will. One guy brought a generator and a pretty large sound system out to try and drown out the preaching with music and a young woman exclaiming, “We support ALL women!”. Others would follow the guys with signs around and try to cover them up with umbrellas and pro-baby murder signs.  

They were singing and dancing, in celebration of a place of death, while they should have been mourning and crying out to God for forgiveness. It was a real sad display of the wickedness in the human heart. It is hard to believe people can not only be indifferent but actually celebrate the murder of babies. I wonder, if they were killing puppies, would these people have the same level of enthusiasm and celebration. 

They all heard the Gospel multiple times on Wednesday, so I am glad they were there. Please pray for these poor blind people. Pray that God will open their eyes to see and their ears to hear!

Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. 2 Cor. 5:20

Until All Hear!

Preaching Outside Sanford Stadium 9.14.19

The Intolerant Tolerant

You see it more and more. People who claim to be open-minded and tolerant of everyone are some of the most intolerant people you will ever meet. They may boast of being accepting of all religious views, for example, but will quickly attempt to shut down the Christian view that Jesus is the only way to be reconciled to God. Can a person really be accepting of all religions, outright reject the claims of Christ and still claim He is one way of many? I recently met a young lady who thought so.

When she was told that Jesus said He was the ONLY way to get to the father, (Be reconciled to God), She went ballistic. She had just said that she respected all religions, but immediately rejected the very words of Christ.  The only assumption that could be made is that she considered Jesus to be a liar, right? Not so fast. She refused to say He was a liar but would not accept what He said, insisting that He was one way, but not the only way.

When she asked about Jews and Muslims and was told that anyone regardless of religion that did not repent and trust Christ would go to hell, she declared us to be islamophobic, anti-semitic and threatened to call the police. Now that may sound ridiculous, and in a logical world it would be, but it actually shed some light on how a person can:

1. Claim to respect a religion.
2. Claim what the Leader of that religion said is false.
3. Refuse to call Him a liar.

In her worldview, no opinion is valid, but her own, yet she claims all opinions are valid. As long as you do not disagree with her, she is tolerant of you and your view. The moment you disagree, she becomes very intolerant of you and your view, even to the point of saying you are ignorant and have a phobia problem. The reality is, and many do not seem to operate in reality, she was accusing others of the thing she was guilty of.

This self-proclaimed tolerant person is only tolerant of her worldview, rejecting all others, even God’s. To say Jesus was telling a falsehood would make her own tolerance claim false. If she acknowledged Jesus’ claim was true, she would refute her own claim that all religions are valid. She can’t have it both ways, but she claims she can.