Handling Witnessing Encounters

Have you ever found yourself witnessing to someone who seems more interested in debating than listening? Or what do you do when a person refuses to see their sin as it truly is? These are just a few of the challenges we face in sharing the gospel. If you’ve ever asked these questions, you’re not alone. The following questions and answers will guide you in approaching your witnessing encounters with wisdom and grace.

What do you do when the person you’re witnessing to tries to turn the conversation into a debate? A Catholic fellow who was very well versed in evangelical doctrine kept asking me what I believed about non-essential doctrines, and whether I knew that other evangelicals would disagree with me. If I didn’t support a particular doctrine, he tried to debate me on it, even though he didn’t believe it himself. I tried going through the Law with him, but we never got anywhere with it. We just ended up with a lengthy, friendly discussion on evangelical differences.

I would be firm with someone like this and say, “How about I give you two minutes to speak, without interruption, and then you give me two minutes.” Make sure he agrees to do this, then hold him to his word and take him through the Commandments.

What do you do when someone still doesn’t see his sin, even after I took him through the Ten Commandments? I talked to one person who was convinced that lust really wasn’t a violation of the Ten Commandments.

“Never forget that you have the sinner’s conscience on your side. It bears witness with the Law (see Romans 2:15), and of course you have the help of God Himself, who promises that the Holy Spirit will convict of sin. So plant the seed and trust that God will faithfully cause it to grow.”

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If a man rapes a woman and doesn’t think that rape is a violation of man’s law, it doesn’t change the fact that it is. Here is proof that lust is a violation of the Ten Commandments: “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery’ [Seventh Commandment]. But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:27,28). So there you have it from the highest authority on earth—the Word of the Living God. If you have the word of a king or a president, you have it on great authority. But this comes from the authority of the Word of God Himself. So, make sure that you quote the verse and don’t just refer to it. Jesus quoted the Old Testament word for word when He was tempted by the devil. God’s Word doesn’t return void. It is quick and powerful and cuts through to the marrow of a sinner’s bones, so quote it when you share the gospel.

Another way to strengthen the lust argument is to reason about it. Tell the sinner that “lust” is pornography of the mind. Ask him if he thinks child porn is okay. The odds are he will say that it’s morally wrong. That’s his moral standard. God’s standard is higher than his, and He says that lust for anyone other than your spouse is morally wrong.

Also, never forget that you have the sinner’s conscience on your side. It bears witness with the Law (see Romans 2:15), and of course you have the help of God Himself, who promises that the Holy Spirit will convict of sin. So plant the seed and trust that God will faithfully cause it to grow.

What if someone says that if God is good, then He must be all-forgiving? Someone asked me, “If God is all-forgiving and merciful, why do I need to do anything about my so-called sin? He’ll forgive everyone no matter what, so why worry about a Hell?”

God is not “all-forgiving.” He is just and holy. He will by no means clear the guilty (see Numbers 14:18), and any who are found guilty on Judgment Day will come under His terrible wrath. The “all-forgiving” god is an idol, so use the Law to reveal the holiness of God to your hearers.

Adapted From The Blue Book on Evangelism