"Oh I dont share the gospel with many people, I do what St Francis of Assisi said “Preach the gospel at all times; when necessary, use words”

how many times have you heard this? I hear people say it on a weekly basis, because I know a lot of people that believe they can fulfil the great commission without using words. 

  Its supposedly a quote from St Francis of Assisi.  I hear it because its a common question for me to ask my fellow Christians "who did you share your faith with recently?" many Christians get very uncomfortable with this question.  Its common for me to hear, "well I just try to live a good life and wait for questions", to which I will follow up with "when is the last time you were asked questions because of the good life you are living?"  Many Christians think that we are not all evangelists, and unless we feel called or are gifted in evangelism we don't have to share our faith.  Many people think of this quote and think they can just live the gospel at their workplace or social groups.

 When dealing with this quote that people take on as a philosophy of their life it completely goes against scripture. I really appreciate what Ray Comfort said regarding this supposed quote from St Francis that it is comparable to saying“feed the hungry – if necessary, use food.”  its an insane idea that if our goal is to feed children that we just become friends with them instead.  Also if our goal in life is to follow the great commission and make disciples of all nations and we don't share the content of the gospel, that is just as wrong.  Jesus said in Matthew 28:19-20  '¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”  Seems pretty clear to me.

I really feel that this quote of “Preach the gospel at all times; when necessary, use words” just supports postmodernism, that people believe words have no meaning.  Well if that is true why not throw out the Bible?  We are a people that believe the word of God does have meaning, and that our words do have meaning.  To fall into this postmodernism is to deny the truth of the word of God.

All you have to do is look at the book of Acts and see if your life would make any sense in that book.  Paul used powerful words, Peter used powerful words, so did Stephen.  Would it make sense if there was then this other character who never used works but just lived a good life and waited for people to ask him why he lived that way?  Lets see what Paul says in Romans 10:14: "How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?"

  This is a Christian myth, and its sad to see it so prevalent today in my culture.  Many people who are not Christian live amazingly kind and giving and beautiful lives.  So whats different between Christians and them?  The difference is that Jesus has the words of life and we should share them with people.

Your words are needed to preach the Gospel, so please forget this silliness about living a good life and waiting for questions and using this quote by St Francis to justify it.

Jesus did say its harder for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God....but did you know he was talking about the needlegate?"

  I was at a small group recently and we were talking about the doctrine of salvation.  One fellow was saying that riches were particularly a tough thing for him to deal with in his life.  That it was tough for him not to pursue wealth and to live for his own desires rather than God's.  We all shared how pursuing wealth was tough for us not to seek after. 

One guy brought up the verse in Matthew 19:24  "Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."  we all spoke about this verse for a while until one guy said, "Yes Jesus did say that but did you know that he was talking about a gate called the needle gate that after dark that is how you had to enter.  your camel would have to get down on its knees to enter the city.  So what Jesus was saying was rich people can get in no problem as long as they are on their knees."

While I appreciated the guys message, he was continuing a myth in christian culture and its completely untrue.  Also it is doctrinally false! 

First there simply was no needle gate or needles eye in Jerusalem at this time.  Simply it is false historically, it is propagated among people in the church all the time, i have heard it personally many times.

Secondly its 100% wrong doctrinally.  Jesus is very clear in Matthew 19:26 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”  so the idea that a camel could actually squeeze through a needle gate on its own is possible. not impossible!

This is called eisegesis, it is people reading their own meaning into the text.  The plain meaning of the text is that this is an impossible image...it would be shocking to hear.  To tell people that Jesus was actually referring to the needle gate is plain false and it changes the teaching to mean that with hard work you can squeeze into the kingdom of heaven

"why would you go want to go to church? Haven't you heard of Bill Maher?"

  this past Sunday morning I was honoured with the opportunity to preach about Colossians 3:1-11 at church.  While I was a few blocks away from church I decided to pop into Starbucks and have a coffee and review my notes.  There was a guy sitting in one of the big comfy chairs and had his jacket covering the chair next to him.  I asked if I could sit next to him and he relied yes as long as wasn't going to be speaking on the phone.  I said "I wont be on the phone but I will be mumbling a bit because I'm going to speaking at church this morning and need to review my notes."  He laughed out loud and very loudly said "why would you want to go to church? Haven't you heard of Bill Maher?" 

I replied yes, and that it is a regular thing for me to watch his movie "religulous" with people and talk about how easy it is to refute his claims in the movie.  The man then said "well Bill has shown that God doesn't exist because there is no evidence for him and he has shown that church is a big sham." 

I said the reason that I go to church is closely connected to what I was talking about that morning which was that I believe we can know that Jesus Christ rose from the dead.

I then said "well as a Christian I search for truth in history, evidence, science and reason.  I respect your opinion, but I don't search for truth in the claims of a stand up comic, I would rather study the work of scholars.  So lets talk about evidence for God, but first what kind of evidence would you be looking for?  Because it has been my experience that if I start speaking about scientific evidence people sometimes then switch the category and say they want legal evidence.  So what should we speak about?"

He then got up and said "I'm leaving, I don't want to get into this with you"  I then said "I'm sorry to hear that, but my church is right down the street I hope you will come join us."  But the man left and I kept and eye out for him while I was speaking but didn't see him.

So, there isn't really any apologetic teaching in this blog here except to show that most people don't have arguments against god.  Most people just have a reason that they have an idea they have latched onto but have never really explored and looked into.  I think this is also true for some Christians.  But as Christians, we are all called to be apologists and and "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect" 1Peter 3:15 

Also I would highly recommend you to watch Bill Maher's movie Religulous and see if you could answer his objections if he were to meet you and ask you questions about your faith.  Would you be ready to give an answer when asked about the reason for the hope you have?  Would your answer be blind faith? or would you have solid ground to stand on?