I was up at 5:30 A.M. to get to the storage unit early and
prepare for the outreach. It was really a blessing to get to work with Doug
Pyle again who is a missionary with Chosen People (and loves to share Isaiah 53
in Hebrew to Orthodox Jews). I had to get to the storage unit early (which is my
church’s office) to organize the materials. The outreach at Columbus Circle is
very different from our outreach at Long Island Railroad. At the LIRR we mostly
talk to locals; at Columbus Circle we get to talk to tourists from all over the
world about Jesus. I needed to gather our Bibles, books and tracts in all of
the languages for the outreach. Doug came to pick me up in his van around 8:30,
and we headed over to the parking garage to prepare for setting up the table
outreach at Columbus Circle.
It was cold, so there were not as many people out walking,
but we still had a wonderful day. We gave away tracts and Bibles and the Gospel
of John in Chinese, Romanian, Polish, Arabic and Hindi and also tried our best
to communicate the Gospel to everyone ourselves, speaking slowly if the person
did not speak fluent English.
God brought a Hindu woman over who was with a Christian who
had overheard us sharing the Gospel. The Christian brought her over and asked
me, “Will you please share with her how to be saved?” I was delighted!
I shared with her: “For
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God .” (Romans 3:23) “And the
wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus
Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23). God is calling all men everywhere to repent,
because He has fixed a day of judgment (Acts 17:30-31). We are saved by grace
and not works—we cannot earn our salvation (Ephesians 2:8-9); it is all because
of what Jesus did on the cross.
She listened as I shared the verses and asked, “But isn’t it
all the same? I feel I worship God my way, and you worship your way, and we are
both going to the same place when we die.”
I answered, “If all religions led us to the same God, there
would have been no need for Jesus to have died on the cross. He died in vain
and was a liar if He was not who He said He was. If karma could save us, there
would be no need for the blood Jesus shed on the cross to be our ‘Savior’ to
SAVE US from our sins; He died in our place. Why, if there was no need?” She
listened. I continued, “True Christianity offers you a RELATIONSHIP with God
that is not at all based on your merit, but on the sinless Lamb of God who died
in your place as a sacrifice for your sins. The only Savior is Jesus. Hinduism
does not offer you a Savior, because you are challenged to try to save
yourself. You will never be able to save yourself.” She promised to read what
we gave her about the difference between the millions of gods and goddesses in
Hinduism and Jesus. She also took a Gospel of John.
One man came up and said, “I am a liberal Christian.” I
said, “Please define that (already knowing what he meant).” He answered, “Well, I don’t believe the Bible is really true. I
mean there are some verses in the Old Testament that are just crazy.”
I said, “Well, there is something called hermeneutics, which
is the study of interpreting Scripture by taking verses in context with other
verses, etc. But, here is the heart of the matter. If the Bible is not God’s
Word, if the Bible is not true, there is no truth. If Satan can make you doubt
the veracity of the Bible, then you will live however you want and just sin as
you please. There is an old hymn called Trust
and Obey…There is nothing to ‘obey’ if the Bible is not true; no reason to sing that song if we are all just meant to do our own thing."
I continued, “The heart of the Christian message is to pick
up our cross and deny ourselves; we don’t do whatever we please but rather submit to God to the point we are called 'slaves of righteousness.' Actually, for comparison, do
you know what the creed of Satanism teaches? Satanism teaches ‘do as thou
wilt shall be the whole of the law.’ Satan told Eve that she would become a god
if she rebelled from God’s command, and Satan is still trying to peddle that
lie. It has been working since the beginning of time.
If you let your moral
conscience govern you, that also must logically bring you back to the Bible,
because there is no explanation even for the moral conscience apart from a
moral God, and there is no moral God in existence except for the holy God of
the Holy Bible.”
The man said, “Well, I can see this is not going anywhere.
Have a good day,” and he walked off. He was there to proselytize us into
liberal theology, but he quickly found he could not. Still, we prayed at the end of the day that
something I said would stay with him and that the Holy Spirit would work to draw him to Jesus and the Holy Bible as God's word and protection for his soul.
