Evangelism - Artistic Deconstruction
January 23, 2022 Sunday Evening Study

I used to hate the Beatles. As it happens, I am still not overly fond of them as far as classic rock goes, and I am a huge classic rock nerd. I could never understand why people were so infatuated with the Beatles - their music is simple, repetitive, and not overly engaging. They were known for being so high that they could barely record, and half of the interviews with them were so backwards and unintelligible because of their incessant drug use that there was very little there to admire.

If you really wanted to get under my skin, talk about how Ringo is one of the greatest drummers to ever live. Now, I don’t exactly listen to Ringo’s current music, but best that ever lived? I could easily come up with 100 drummers that could outplay Ringo Starr with one arm - including the drummer for Def Leppard who only had one arm. Everyone always talked about how they revolutionized music and changed everything for everyone - influencing everyone today. I thought their music was garbage, and you were not going to convince me otherwise - not when there were other bands like Pink Floyd and The Who around.

People would argue with me - they thought I was either a snob (which I am) or I was just trying to be edgy and cool by hating the band that everyone in the world loves. Yet, every time they came on the radio, I would change the station. Hate hate hated the Beatles.

One day I heard a Peter Frampton song that I absolutely loved. It was called “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” I loved it - it was amazing. Then, when I was briefly taking voice lessons as a worship leader, my teacher had me learn a song called “Yesterday” which I loved so much I told people about it. Much to my chagrin, I learned that both of these songs were written and first recorded by the Beatles. A huge crack opened in my belief system.

And that’s just the point - if someone had played those songs for me and told me they were Beatles songs, I would not have liked them, because I don’t like the Beatles. I would not have really heard the songs, and I would have missed out. I had to discover on my own that maybe I was not 100% right in my thinking, which caused me to begin listening to the deeper tracks on Beatles albums to discover that the garbage I associate them with is just the popular stuff that gets played to death. There are…I will begrudgingly admit…some great songs by the Beatles.

We spoke last week about the role of the artist - where we paint the picture of what we have been told so that a person can see the cracks or inconsistencies in their own faith story and begin to consider things they might not have otherwise. Like me, most people will need to discover for themselves if their belief system is not 100% what they thought, and real change of heart comes slowly and often stubbornly.

On a survey of college students done recently, the vast majority believe that if heaven exists, they will go there if they do good works. The basis of this belief is that if they are mostly good, generally do more good things than bad, follow the 10 Commandments for the most part, treat others well, try their hardest, and feel remorse for the bad things they do, they will reap eternal reward. A key question when confronting this belief is this: Do you believe Hitler will be in heaven? Most will say that they do not believe he will be in heaven, which means they recognize that there is a standard of which Hitler falls short, but others measure up. The follow up question then is - What is the standard that you believe you measure up to?

In Matthew 5:48 the Bible teaches us that the standard is perfection, and none of us can or will meet this standard. All of us have already failed to meet that standard. If someone claims to be a “good person” we might ask if they follow the 10 Commandments. Most, if not all will say yes, even though they will likely only be able to name 3 or 4 of them. So if we ask if they have ever lied. Cursed, or lusted in their hearts, they will have to admit that they have fallen short of their own standard of what makes a “good person.” In their faith, how many times can they miss the mark before they are no longer good?

We are going to discuss this evangelism approach as it might go with several different faith bases you may run into. These are ideas only, but should help you to get into the right frame of mind with respect to the context of their faith.

Atheist: A good, penetrating question to use when someone tells you they are an atheist is this: “If you could know the truth about religious issues (and I’m not saying right now that you could), would you want to know it?” Chances are they will not be sure how to answer this, giving you the opportunity to follow up - “The reason I ask this question is because the truth may have consequences you don’t want to hear.”

If dealing with a hard-nosed atheist - you know who I mean - you can ask “Are you absolutely certain that there is no God?” When they answer yes, we can follow up with “How can you know this if there is no absolute truth? And if there is no absolute truth, then isn’t it possible that there is a God?” If they will admit to this, which is the logical answer - something they supposedly base their belief system upon - then you have already moved them from atheism to agnosticism - from denying God’s existence to saying they are not sure if He exists. A good follow-up question would be “If you were shown compelling evidence for belief in God (even according to your own standards) would you be open to exploring further the claims of Christ?” If they say yes, then proceed with your witness. If they say no, we can ask “Is it possible, then, that the thing keeping you from a belief in God is not a lack of evidence, since you choose not to explore it?”

Muslim: Muslims believe the Bible is authentic, but has become corrupted over time. A starting question - “Do you believe what the Qur’an says?” When they answer yes, which they certainly will, ask this question: “How do you resolve this dilemma? Does not the Qur’an itself consider the previous revelations contained in ‘the book’ to be authoritative and authentic revelations from God (Sura 2:136, 4:163)?  And doesn’t the Qur’an also state that ‘None can change His word’ (Sura 6:115, 6:34, 10:64)? Then when, where, and how did the Bible get corrupted?

Other Questions: “If the Bible was preserved from the time of Jesus to Muhammad, and the manuscripts we rely on today are older than Muhammad, when could the Bible have been corrupted?”

“Why can’t we trust the Bible when it says that Jesus claimed to be God (John 10:30) and in the many examples in the New Testament where Jesus accepted worship from others?”

“How do we determine which parts of the Bible should be believed and which ones are corrupted?”

“If we believe other people or events from the ancient world with far less evidence than the actions of Christ, then why can’t we believe what the New Testament says about Jesus?”

Buddhist: “If desire is the source of all suffering, how can we desire to stop desiring?” “Does it make more sense that we try to abandon all desire, or rather that we develop the right desire as Jesus taught in Matt. 5:6?”

We can also ask Buddhists practically minded questions, such as “If you were not sure if you should follow Jesus or other great religious leaders, wouldn’t you consider this perspective? If you follow Jesus and you are wrong, you will have many other lifetimes with which to choose correctly. But if you follow another path and you are wrong, there are no second chances (Hebrews 9:27). Doesn’t reason dictate one would be wise to choose Jesus first?

Hindu: Key issues when speaking with a Hindu: need for atonement, the reality of evil, origin of karmic debt (or need for forgiveness), and the problem with a plurality of gods. An innate deep hunger for a relationship with a personal God as opposed to impersonal gods of Hinduism is also a good track to pursue.

According to Hinduism, our great sin is that we have forgotten that in some sense, we are part of God. Deepak Chopra says “In reality, we are divinity in disguise, and the gods and goddesses in embryo that are contained within us seek to be fully materialized.” Yet we can ask our Hindu friends and family “Does it make more sense that man’s sin is that he has forgotten that is in fact god, or is it more likely that man’s sin is that he has fallen short of measuring up to the standard of a Holy god?” We can strengthen this by adding “Especially since we all possess a moral compass yet don’t even measure up to our own standards of right and wrong?”

Remember, we are not disproving world religions here. We are not likely to snap anyone’s belief system completely by asking questions. However, we will begin to surface the cracks in the other person's faith which will cause them to consider, maybe even study in order to reconcile their beliefs.

I want to make an eerie comparison here. The statement I just made about the purpose here - We will begin to surface the cracks in faith which will cause them to consider, maybe even study in order to reconcile beliefs. This also exactly describes the tactic used by the enemy on us every single day. The devil works to expose and exploit cracks in our beliefs system in order to evangelize his own domain. When you consider this, it makes this stuff more serious, more precious to us. Be on watch and solidify your faith! Let’s pray.