Battle Log

As the team headed to Woodridge on Tuesday afternoon the sky threatened rain but thankfully none came. Despite this dreary weather, the team was on fire. Many Gospel conversations were had and hundreds of tracts were handed out.

Upon praying the team noticed that there were some Jehovah's Witnesses standing next to their stand around the corner. One member decided to head over and see if they would be willing to talk. Surprisingly, not only were they willing to talk but one of the two ladies, Val, had spoken to the team before.

The conversation lasted almost two hours. They seemed to have the desire to speak more than they desired to listen (which was a helpful observation and a good thing to ponder in how we evangelise). At three moments throughout the discussion they were silenced and left to ponder.

The first was when Val asserted that never in the Bible do we see Jesus being worshiped. "No one ever bows down and worships Jesus," she said. They were pointed to Revelation 5:11-14 and asked to read it out loud (even in their NWT).

Specifically verses 13-14,

"And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying,

“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”

And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped."

Upon reading, Elizabeth the other lady let out and audible gasp but Val declared, "It doesn't say they worshiped Jesus". Elizabeth responded, "Yes it does, read verse fourteen again". Val was silenced.

Neither of the ladies had much to say about this verse and after a few moments, it was pointed out that Jesus is being worshiped with the Father and the Bibles tells us that God never shares His glory with another. Sadly this point seemed to be brushed off as the conversation was whisked away to another topic.

Later in the conversation when asked, "How can a sinner be made right with God?" the ladies responded, "Through exercising faith in the ransom sacrifice of Jesus". It is hoped that you can see the issue with this sentence straight away. This is a trick that the Mormons, JW's and Catholics have used to essentially replaced faith with works.

If you were to read John 3:16 in the NWT (New World Translation), you would find that they have changed "believes" to "exercises faith".

The objection to this was raised by asking what the word ransom means. The ladies explained that it is the price you pay to have someone released from captivity. They were then asked, "Does the person who is captive earn their freedom?"

This was swiftly answered with, "No, of course not!"

Somehow they were blind to their inconsistency. It was asked differently, "Is it the faithfulness of the one paying the ransom or the one in captivity that releases them?"

Which was responded to quickly and clearly, "The one paying the ransom".

This time the penny dropped. "But we have to do something. We must show our faith and be obedient," Elizabeth stated.

It was pointed out that this directly contradicts what God teaches about salvation. It was shown through Ephesians 2:8-10 that it is God who prepares the good works for us, not things we come up with on our own. It was also shown, through the flow of the passage that the good works take place after receiving salvation.

Sadly again these ladies could not acknowledge God's clearly articulated Word. They were adamant that they MUST provide some sort of righteousness.

Lastly, these ladies when asked, "Who was punishing Jesus on the cross?" asserted that it was the devil. With a few questions regarding why the devil would punish sin and an explanation and quotation of the "cup of wrath" Jesus drank the ladies seemed to agree. With one final quotation of Isaiah 53's explanation that it was the "Lord who laid on Him..." and "it was the Lord's will to crush Him", they agreed.

The saddest part was that they didn't seem to understand why. The suffering of Jesus made no sense to them.

As the conversation drew to a close the Gospel's beauty was re-iterated, that it was God reconciling sinners to Himself, for His own glory and the call God gives us, to repent and believe, was left ringing in their ears.

Please be praying for Val and Elizabeth, that they would have to ponder over and over the questions they could not answer. Please be praying that this wondering leads them not to reject God altogether, rather to turn to the resurrection Lord, Jesus and to trust in Him alone for salvation.

As the afternoon was drawing to a close, another brief conversation was had, with three young men, hanging around the train station. Eddie, Utah and Teague listened to the Gospel, engage in discussion and raised a few questions. Sadly when first asked when they would believe they implied it would happen right on their death bed.

When asked why they were going to leave it, they mentioned because they wanted to keep living their own way now. It was pointed out that there was no guarantee they would ever want to turn in the future, if they didn't want to now.

Counting the cost and heeding God's command was emphasised strongly to these young men and many strong comments were made about the foolishness of rejecting God's offer of salvation. They seemed to understand.

Please be praying that these three young men, wouldn't just remember the conversation but on the basis of the discussion would turn to Jesus Christ in total surrender!

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