He was selling his literature to peddle ‘Lord Krishna’ just a few feet up from where I was giving our Bibles, books and sermons away about Jesus.
He took a look at the table and said, “What you are doing is such lovely work.” I replied, “You all don’t believe in hell, so how can you think my work is lovely?” He said, “Oh, our founder would have thought you were doing great work.” I said, “Your founder would have thought I’m crazy! If there is no such thing as hell, Jesus had no reason to die, and we have no reason to be saved.” He thought about that for a few seconds and agreed simply, “No, we don’t believe in hell.”
I asked, “Tell me about how you all get saved in Hare Krishna.” He said, “Well, it is hard to explain.” I said, “Right. Part of it is getting up every morning at 2 A.M. or 3 A.M. to meditate. This is required, right? And how many times have you chanted today? Hundreds of times maybe, and you are probably not done chanting for the night, right?” He said, “I do have more chanting to do tonight.” He explained that he does get up every morning to meditate very early. I said, “And with all of this, do you have assurance of salvation?” He answered, “No.” I said, “I’m sure of mine, 100%, and Jesus doesn’t make me do any of that. You all can’t even have sex without your spouse except for procreation without chanting about a hundred times, can you? Making love in marriage for pleasure is wrong in Hare Krishna, because there is no pleasure without a cost, right?” I paused, and he did not deny anything I said. I asked, “Why do you want to live like that? Who would ever want such a life? What is the point?” He agreed I was right about the chanting, and it is considered a sin to have sex in marriage except for the purpose of having children. I shook my head like I could not understand something so crazy.
I then asked, “Why do you think Jesus has an empty grave? Why is His tomb empty, even though Romans guarded the tomb after His death, if He did not resurrect?” The man could not answer. I asked, “Do you realize how opposed the spirit of Hare Krishna is to the Spirit of Jesus? They are in total and complete opposition.” He looked like he did not understand and as if he had never heard of such a thing. I said, “There are spirits involved in Hare Krishna that absolutely hate the Spirit of Jesus.” I asked, “You don’t believe in Satan, do you?” He said, “Oh, no, we don’t believe in any negativity.” I asked, “So, do you believe good is the same thing as evil? Do you think we can have both a dry and wet day at the same time? It defies logic.”
I walked back over to my table to grab some materials for him, including a CD on “Transcendental Meditation” by Walter Martin and “The Riddle of Reincarnation,” which tackle these subjects from a biblical perspective. I also grabbed some testimonies of former Buddhists for him to read, stories of devout Buddhist monks who have come to believe in Jesus as Savior. I told him that not all spirits of light are benign. I said, “The Bible says that Satan parades himself as an angel of light, the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 11:14. There is such a thing as a dark light. Jesus defeated Satan at the cross; because of His resurrection, we have a living Savior who is our only hope for defeating Satan on a daily basis. Jesus said, ‘I am the way the truth and the life, and no man comes to the Father except by Me.’” I also quoted him Romans 3:23 and 6:23. He said he enjoyed speaking with me and took all of my materials. I saw him reading them, sitting down on a park bench to the side. He came back to take a Bible.
Another guy came over and spotted the CD by Walter Martin on “psychic phenomena.” He asked, “Are you a psychic?” As nicely as I could respond, I answered with a smile, “No, but I am possessed.” He laughed and said, “That is a good one.” Pointing at me, he said, “That’s good. You got me there.” Then he seriously asked, “What do you mean?” I said, “I am possessed by the Holy Spirit. Jesus has made His home in my heart through the Holy Spirit, because the Bible says that God now dwells in a temple not made with hands. No other spirit can have me.” He took CDs on “Psychic Phenomena”, “Zen Buddhism” and “Tools of the Occult.”
I got to share with one person how to be saved in detail, closing our conversation with 2 Corinthians 5:21: “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
It was such a brutally hot day! There was a special event going on with teens, and the leader let Patricia Guidrey, a ministry leader from First Bapt. Atlanta, tell the whole group some of her testimony and what it means to know Jesus as Savior, leaving them with materials.
"The Bible's Big Picture" continues to be a favorite by Bill Perkins and Compass International. This man promised to play it for his church to see!
We make CDs copies available of the interview of Jan Markell's radio program "Understanding the Times" on The Shack. It is great for Christians and non-Christians, as they quote excerpts from The Shack to show reasons as to why the book presents another Jesus (as a 'black Madonna') and another "Papa" discovered when the man in the story spends time in "the shack."
We gave away all of our CDs on Zen Buddhism and Transcendental Meditation by Dr. Walter Martin for the day.
After Death...what then? Is a great little book to offer people what the Bible has to say about heaven and hell; it is great for Seventh Day Adventists (since many don't believe in hell), Jehovah's Witnesses, and any New Ager who believes in reincarnation. We keep that book beside CDs by Dr. Walter Martin explaining "The Riddle of Reincarnation" from a biblical perspective, as he tackles demonic activity, even pertaining to children seeing apparitions from "the dead."
New Testaments have been donated for free--LTW did not even have to pay shipping--for our outreach locations. (We normally order KJV or NKJV, but we were thankful for this donation of ESV New Testaments.) We put tracts from "True Way Tracts" in the Bibles, and gave away many tracts on Heaven by Randy Alcorn and An Autobiography of a Yogi--a small booklet of a testimony of a former Hindu coming to faith in Jesus-- for New Agers who approach the table.
The Hare Krishnas are attempting to change their image, I was told by this Hare Krishna man dressed in the Polo shirt. We had a great conversation, and I saw him off to the side reading all of the materials I gave him, after we discussed the vast difference in the spirit of Hare Krishna and the Holy Spirit. He was selling their literature right up from our table where we offered resources for free about Jesus.
Here is Patricia Guidrey, my friend from First Bapt. Atlanta, discussing the Bible and what it means to be saved--in the heat she never stopped. I sure do thank God for the way she so obviously loves others with zeal to share the Gospel. She even had trouble getting to Little Five Points, but she did not give up. She is a blessing to know.
In addition to speaking with one man who was heavily into occult spirituality and took several CDs from the table, very open, and Patricia witnessing to folks away from the table AND my meaningful talk with the Hare Krishna selling his literature right across from our table, I had the pleasure of speaking with a girl who was so open that it was like she appreciated and believed everything I said. She had been trying to do yoga meditations, but "it was not working," she explained. I told her it was good that she was not able to focus on the "third eye" and "emptying out the mind," and I explained that the Bible forbids such occult meditations, because it opens a person to demons. (We went over Deut. 17, 18, 1 Corinthians 11:4, 14; and 1 Corinthians 10:20-21. ) We then began to talk about reincarnation, and I showed her some verses about how demons even know better --they know their Day of Judgment is coming, and there is no such thing as reincarnation! (Matthew 8:28). She asked me about kids seeing apparitions from "the dead", and we discussed how dabbling in the occult, even with family members' of the children, have an impact on such things. She took everything I offered with enthusiasm, and I knew it would have been worth the whole effort of setting up on such a hot day, just to get to speak with this girl.John and Lee Rosser, from First Bapt. Atlanta, also came to work with us after all the photos had been taken. They continued to speak with people after Patricia and I left. The Lord really used Patricia, and for 3 hours straight, she spoke with people in the neighborhood about Jesus. Here is a synopsis from John and Lee Rosser, on how God used them in evangelism after Patricia and I left, as they walked around the neighborhood:
We spoke to one girl who was a practicing Buddhist and had large crystals wrapped around her neck. Her dad was a Christian and was studying intelligent design and a big fan of Ravi Zacharias. So she had heard some of the arguments for a "theistic Creator" from her father. She had a hard time believing in a hell if it is true that God is love. We had a chance to give her a more complete picture of God including his holiness and justice and the need for an atonement. We left her on good terms and she said that she would ponder the things we shared.
