During my 4 years of university life, I was an active member of a Korean Campus ministry group, which placed great emphasis on evangelism using the Four Spiritual Laws booklet. It helped to share the gospel message and even lead many to accept Jesus as their Saviour. However, to go one step further, I feel it would be even better if we can engage in deep conversations with unbelievers and provide answers to any questions they may have about the gospel message.
Meeting unbelievers is a premise of evangelism. So, when give out gospel tracts and we meet a person who initially refuses, we should consider it normal and try to engage them in conversation. There are two types of people who reject the gospel. If a person displays a cold attitude, we should deliver the core gospel message that ‘God loves you so much that He gave His only Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for you and if you believe in Him, you will be forgiven and be a child of God’. Afterwards, we need to walk away and entrust the person to another evangelist in the future.
On the other hand, there are many others who show a negative reaction initially because they don’t know much about Jesus Christ or have a misunderstanding about Christianity. First and foremost, we need to have a compassionate heart and a humble and respectful attitude. We can then share our own salvation testimony or appeal to God’s heartfelt love towards us, demonstrated by the giving of His only Son to die in our place. We will find that a surprising number of people are open and willing to engage in meaningful conversations. This is why evangelism requires a merciful heart towards other souls. To these types of people, we need to ‘defend and confirm the gospel’, just as Paul did (Philippians 1:7). I will briefly introduce four topics which come up frequently whilst sharing the gospel to unbelievers.
1. “I am an atheist/agnostic.” Atheism is also another type of belief. A belief that God does not exist. A person cannot claim that they know everything, so isn’t it possible that there is some knowledge or revelation about God that they do not yet know? God has revealed Himself through Israel and His only Son, Jesus Christ.
2. “I’m currently happy in life and don’t need religion.” Similar to how a happy single person can be happier by meeting a loving spouse or how an orphan can find greater happiness when they meet their real parents, one can be happier by meeting God.
3. “I have another religion / All religions are the same / I’m fine to live a good life and by loving others.” You can share your own salvation testimony, such as saying that you also believed in another religion, or that you had been going to church since childhood without knowing what Christianity was, but came to know and truly believe in Jesus. All other religions and moral teachings emphasise good works. However, Christianity is different. I came to realise how weak I was and how I was unable to love, even my own family. Human beings do not need a teacher or prophet with great teachings, but a saviour who came to save us from our weakness and died for our sins.
4. “Religion causes violence and other problems.” We must acknowledge that there were wars in the past caused by religion, including Christianity. We even see this in the Old Testament, where God’s chosen people, Israel, uses warfare. However, we have to distinguish the church from Jesus and consider the two separately. Moreover, if we look back at history, atheism has caused more violence and deaths than Christianity (e.g. communism, Hitler).
