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Theology

More on Michael Brown

January 25, 2018 by Michael Coughlin

Let me preface that I post this with fear and trembling. I realize that many people will not like what they read here. I am not above correction, but please bring logical coherent ideas to the discussion. This post is an attempt to show how I can answer the question “How has Michael Brown denied our only Lord and master Jesus Christ according to Jude 1:4?”

This is not considered a comprehensive investigation into Michael Brown’s doctrines or associations. Instead I have analyzed a single post from his website which I think is of such an important nature that it at least leaves open the possibility that he is in denial of Christ as Lord.

From https://askdrbrown.org/library/it-possible-lose-your-salvation

From MB

This statement unequivocally makes man lord and not Jesus Christ. Man is sovereign and king. Jesus is just a weepy-eyed boyfriend hoping you never leave him. (I bet he hopes he doesn’t do something to make you mad!)

It also contradicts the following statements from the incarnate Lord’s mouth.

John 6:40, 44, 56-58; 3:16,36; 10:28-29

That’s just a handful of words from our Lord’s mouth in only one of the gospels that MB contradicts. So who is lord? Jesus or Michael Brown? When MB clearly follows his own teaching and not Christ’s it is clear who is boss.

Next MB quotes the passages in the Bible that speak of the glorious truth of eternal security:

Jesus says in John 10 “28 no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”

MB believes that he is “no one.” Because MB believes he can snatch himself out of the father’s hand. Also, MB does not agree that the Father is “greater than all” since in context MB believes he is greater than the father, because in the context you can see that only one greater than the Father is able to “snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” Since Jesus says in the next verse, I and the Father are One, it would appear MB is greater than Jesus. No one is greater than their Lord. So Jesus cannot be the Lord of MB.

Below MB makes two insidious claims. First, notice the red boxes. He states there is not a verse in the Bible that says we do not have a free will in Jesus. But what he omits is there is not a verse in the Bible saying we do, either. It’d be like if I said there is no verse in the Bible that says “Don’t do heroin.” It doesn’t necessarily imply the opposite is true.

Secondly, MB equivocates the idea of choices we make with free will. The fact that I make any choice does not mean I have a truly free will. Our will (as is God’s) is constrained by our nature. At this point let me pause to say Praise God that He is by nature perfect, holy, good and righteous. God does not have free will to sin or lie, for example. He is constrained by His own perfections, thanks be to God.

I include this just because it is funny. This entire post is MB’s ‘logic’ all based on the presupposition that we can forfeit our salvation. Which is all based on the unbiblical presupposition that our salvation is our free will decision in the first place. MB takes it to the degree where you start to see the effect of this false doctrine. There is nothing more hateful than lying to people about God. MB has no moral compunction about this practice, it appears.

Let me take a break from MB’s post to make a point. MB is not some new Christian in the jungle with only portions of the New Testament in his language. He is not some pew sitting farmer who works hard all week and never had access to sermon audio. Michael Brown, as he will tell you, is a super educated well-traveled, biblically literate modern man. He has access to men who’ve taught these good doctrines as well as access to historic books and documents.

Not only does he teach against sound doctrine, but he is well educated in it. By his own logic, he has used his free will choice to promote a doctrine of insecurity to God’s children. He cannot stand and be considered innocent of this. He has willfully promoted wicked prosperity preachers and claimed ignorance. If I wrote a story about a wicked person like that you would say the character isn’t believable.

And let me remind you, Matthew 7:22 says: On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

In his defense of MB here (https://www.facebook.com/prosapologian/posts/17764049290510180), James White says much the same thing: “I realize none of you know MB personally, have never met him, etc. Most of you have never cracked the binding of one of his books, listened to him debating homosexuals or rabbis, etc. and etc”

It is a list of the good works he has done in Jesus’ name. Eerily similar to the Matthew 7:22 passage.

The fact is that many people will deny Jesus Christ as Lord in other ways than flatly saying, “Jesus Christ is not my Lord.” I have demonstrated several ways already that MB has done that in this one post from his website.

Let’s continue:

Here MB uses biblical language we can all agree with “nor is our salvation dependent on our ability to stay saved.” Then he contradicts that when he writes “Be He will not keep you against your own will.”

For if you can change your will, then it is your ability to maintain that will that keeps you saved. Thus, your salvation is dependent on your ability to stay saved, in MB’s gospel. That is not good news! As John MacArthur has said, “If you could lose your salvation, you would.”

So MB employs a standard practice of deceivers. Use biblical language and say biblical things, then contradict those things in other words. So when someone says, MB promotes false teaching, he can point to the orthodox sentence embedded in the quagmire of false doctrines.

Do not be deceived by this man nor his devices! He is very cunning!

He then quotes four passages to support his doctrines. For thoroughness I will evaluate them all briefly.

Col 1:21-23 – MB wants you to believe that because the word IF is used then that means you may not continue in the true faith. This passage is a warning to false converts and an assurance to the truly regenerate. If you are a false convert you do not qualify and will not persevere and enjoy the promise of verse 22. If you are not a false convert, you will persevere and enjoy the blessings.

2 Peter 2:20–22 is a warning against false converts that they would have been better off had they never heard the gospel than that they heard of Christ, employed worldly faith for temporary benefit and then went back to their old ways. It is a description of the misery of the person who knows God mentally but not in their heart. (Think King Saul) MB wants you to believe this is a warning passage to believers about how you can lose your salvation, but he doesn’t see that this contradicts his entire premise.

MB says that we cannot outsin God’s grace, that it is only our free will choice to leave Christ that would allow us to leave. But in this passage, it is the entanglement of the sin of the world that leads people away from Christ. So which is it? Can we sin and lose our salvation or is it only our free will? This verse is only problematic, even if you allow for MB’s poor use of it.

Hebrews 2:1–3 – I don’t even get what his point is here. Either believe what we’ve heard or don’t believe it. I don’t know how much eisegesis and scripture twisting is even required to turn this into an eternal insecurity passage. I’ll give him credit for creativity with this one.

Hebrews 3:12-15 – It would seem MB wants us to believe that this letter was written and expected to be received by ONLY brothers in the Lord, some of whom would fall away from the living God. This verse is a warning to churchgoers who are not regenerate that they must work out their salvation with fear and trembling lest they go out from us, because they were not of us. MB commits the same fallacy as he did earlier though because this passage would imply you could lose your salvation due to sin, rather than free will choice, which is the only way MB explicitly states you can lose your salvation.

Frankly, it seems more likely that MB actually believes you can lose your salvation due to sin, too, even if he won’t admit it.

He doesn’t interact with passages like Romans 8:35-29 where it is clear that no creature can separate us from Christ (hint, we’re creatures) except to say he doesn’t believe those passages with his arguments.

Ultimately the question we are trying to answer is does MB deny our only master and Lord Jesus Christ, qualifying as a false teacher according to Jude 4? So far, yes, he denies many of Jesus’ statements as well as the statements made through the Holy Spirit of God. He promotes continuationism which is effectively sensuality, and, if I am correct, he has obviously slipped in unnoticed (until now, and, by many).

4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

MB then goes on to evaluate some different teachings on security.

Here is the conclusion. Can you see the irony?

  1. Gorgeous strawman. No one promotes what he is saying here. But boy does he tear it down!
  2. Ironically, this sentence describes him with his insipid free will doctrine, and he condemns himself by his own words. If I was drawing a picture, I’d draw him choking on this sentence.

Then, in a seemingly inconceivable act of self-unawareness, he quotes Phil 1:6 “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” offering a contradictory statement to everything he wrote above.

MB may be very educated. He has an air about him of scholarliness and likability. He’s charismatic and seems to know how to win friends and influence people. What he does not have is the same gospel that Paul proclaimed to the Galatians nor is revealed to us through Holy Scripture. He has every mark of a false teacher except public knowledge of hidden sin (which may or may not exist).

I have no ill will toward MB, personally. My problem is he is unqualified to teach because of the soul-damning doctrines he’ll promote (as shown above), the false teachers he is willing to partner with and the charismaticism he encourages others to employ. If there was ever a cage stage, he should be in it. If he is not a believer, then hell will be hotter for him if he is not granted repentance and faith.

Ultimately, denying Jesus Christ can take many forms. The pastor who preaches great sermons yet cheats on his wife is denying Jesus Christ as Lord. The Roman Catholic wearing a crucifix and praying in the name of Jesus and taking the eucharist is denying Jesus’ sufficiency as Lord, and MB denies Jesus’ lordship as pertains to salvation and eternal security, going so far as to, by implication, state that you can lose your salvation through your sin. He’s been marked. Avoid him. Pray for him and save others by snatching them out of the fire, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.

I am not adding to the gospel some gospel of “perfect doctrine.” I am pointing out quite simply that merely saying lots of right things about God and Jesus is not enough to affirm that someone is a brother, let alone a qualified teacher in the faith.  If you met someone who affirmed the gospel yet lived a homosexual lifestyle you would not accept their profession of faith according to 1 Cor 6:9-11 and Revelation 21:8. Included in those lists are idolaters, swindlers and liars, classifications of people which Michael Brown joyfully promotes as orthodox. If I sent a pedophile into a little girls’ bathroom, yet proclaimed to not be pedophile myself, how guilty would you consider me of that crime? In the same way, Michael Brown promotes idolatry, swindling and lying by his promotion of false teachers. Coupled with his personal promotion of bad doctrine, you must be cautious applying the label of brother to a man of such wicked deeds.

Filed Under: Theology

Thoughts on Demon Possession

December 19, 2017 by Michael Coughlin

Here’s a tweet thread you can click on and read more of if you like

Tim makes a good argument though. I've seen Hebrews 2:14-15 used to support his point. https://t.co/YHcXKKdqk6 By the way I enjoyed your interview on the @TheologyGals the other day.

— John Hooper (@MrJohnHooper) December 17, 2017

Here’s my thoughts.

1. It is hard to say what demon possession “looks like.” Judas was demon possessed and he was not frothing at the mouth or breaking strong chains. It manifested in his betrayal of the Christ. So to say we don’t see demon possession today because we don’t see the same level of crazy as some demon possessions in the Bible is not logical. Nor is it logical to say we see demon possession because someone acts a bit cray-cray. It seems in the Bible whoever confronted demons and KNEW that’s what they were dealing with was either God in the flesh or gifted by the Holy Spirit for that time.

It’s supernatural for sure. Man doesn’t have authority on his own to cast them out.
I just don’t see what purpose they’d serve today. How many people were possessed in OT?

— Tim Bates (@TimmmmBates) December 17, 2017


https://theologicaldebates.blogspot.com/2016/04/demon-possession-or-demon-obsession.html
2. Tim argues that we don’t see demon possession in the OT. But a lack of description of it doesn’t mean it didn’t occur, it just means it may not have been diagnosed. When Christ came, demons came out in flocks because they knew him. To imply demons do not possess people today because there is no one to exorcise them doesn’t follow logically. To imply people haven’t been possessed because we don’t read about it doesn’t follow logically either. Now, the point may be that we just don’t know for sure, and I’m OK with that conclusion.

3. Ultimately, whether demons possess people or influence people is a distinction with very little difference to the New Testament church as far as application goes. As we have not been tasked with identifying possession, it doesn’t make a big difference if we know someone is possessed or not, our behavior toward them is still to be one of giving the gospel to them and praying for them. Whether someone is possessed or demon-influenced or just plain crazy, I can still preach God’s Word to them and pray for them. And I agree that demons do not possess believers indwelt by the Holy Spirit, although I am not convinced that the children or spouse of a believer are automatically protected. Mark 9 has an account of a boy with a demon who’s father either was a weak believer or had to become a believer to help his son. That account either supports my previous assertion or blows it away depending on how you interpret it.

Filed Under: Theology

2017 B1G Championship Outreach Report.

December 8, 2017 by Michael Coughlin

What an exciting day God had in store for us as we ministered the gospel to the good folks at the B1G 10 Championship Game in Indianapolis, IN for the fourth time ever out of the 7 total Big 10 Championship games which have been played.

Caleb, Josh, Joe, Kenton, me & Kurtis pictured Left to Right. The six of us filled nearly 6 hours of preaching and handed out tracts to hundreds of people who need Jesus.

We had a really bad experience with the police in 2015 which prompted us to get a lawyer to assist us prior to this year’s event. So we arrived with a letter from a lawyer outlining our legal rights. Around 2:30, Kenton was approached by the police and he motioned for me to come over and talk to the officer. I tried to record the conversation which started with me giving him a letter we had from The Liberty Institute regarding free speech laws.

Have a listen to my Conversation with the Police It’s less than 6 minutes long.
http://michaelcoughlin.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/2017-12-02-Police-Encounter.mp3

The real money quote from the whole thing though was when the police officer said this.

You know what, if they come up and complain, then I’ll just tell them it’s their…their freedom of speech. That’s why we live in the United States.

It took all my energy to not shout, “Yes! That is exactly what you should be doing!” I’m so glad he came to that conclusion. May this cause you to praise our glorious God and Saviour, Jesus Christ who graciously allowed us to continue to preach and tract the crowds the rest of the day undeterred.

Kurtis calling sinners to repent and believe in Christ the Savior.

We managed to fill almost 6 hours of preaching that day. We competed with a loud music concert and even a small two man trumpet and drum band. Hundreds of people received tracts and thousands of people heard the gospel preached. We left 3 hours before game time, we could reach thousands more if we stayed in Indianapolis!

We are grateful to good brother Chris Dean who showed up with 3 pizzas and 6 water bottles for the crew. This allowed us to stay on the mission without leaving for lunch.
Kenton tracting the crowds.
You can get an idea of the layout. For perspective, we stood directly to the left as you look at this photo to preach. The city blocks off Georgia Street and the entire street for one block is a big party with a big screen TV showing other football games, a music concert and food and drink booths.

As always, we sang a couple hymns and preceded most open air sermons with prayer. Our team worked hard and enjoyed very mild weather. It was actually a little warm until the sun went behind a building. We were prepared with handwarmers!

Thanks to everyone who has helped. So many people have contributed in various ways whether it is encouragement, service, financial help or prayer. Thanks you for your faithfulness! And praise God that He is ever faithful!

http://michaelcoughlin.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/2017-12-02-Police-Encounter.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Filed Under: Love, Open Air Preaching, Theology, Witnessing Tagged With: attributes of God, Bible, Christ, church, Forgiveness, God, Gospel, Grace, humility, Open Air, people, power, prayer, preaching, programming

Illinois @ THE Ohio State University Outreach Report 2017

November 21, 2017 by Michael Coughlin

November 18, 1999: my friend Kurtis Gould was born. 18 years later, this young man’s desire on his birthday is to be on the street for a few hours preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to the lost. If you know me, you know that at 18 I was not a Christian. What I looked forward to on my 18th birthday is not even to be spoken of in polite company. Praise God for Kurtis’s faithfulness!

As this was the last home game of the season, we were all very excited to go and minster to Buckeyes fans one last time at home. What a joy it was to have 5 teens from my church, Chase, Kurt, Kenton, Alexandra and Nicholas,  with me along with Josh Smith, Joshua & Rachael Richards and the steadfast and faithful Caleb Davenport.

We began the day by singing How Deep the Father’s Love for Us and Joy to the World from my custom made, waterproof, hymnbooks. This really gets everyone in the spirit of worship and allows us to labor with great joy in Jesus Christ.

I cannot stress enough what a blessing it is to have a team of mature evangelists because it allows us to split up and cover more ground. With 10 people Saturday, including 4 preachers we were able to cover 3 corners of an intersection with tracts, and two corners with gospel preaching. It is possible that almost 50,000 people heard the gospel or encountered a tract that day.

We don’t know who the elect are, but we know that God will use means to reach them. May we be that means for some of those Christ died to save!

A few notes about the day. I have noticed a hardening of men’s hearts over the last 5 years where it seems more people act indifferently to the preaching. I am not intentionally trying to incite people, but I have found that talking about abortion seems to turn more heads than anything else. When I preach that anyone who is even pro-choice is a murderer in the eyes of God, because they give approval to those who do evil (Rom 1:32), it generates more attention than anything else.

My goal is not to fight with people, but to preach righteousness in such a way that they are convicted of sin by the Holy Spirit of God. If they are so hardened to their own sinfulness that I need to be descriptive and graphic concerning the evil of abortion they either support or combat, then I will do so. I am neither afraid to call out specific sins of our culture like sexual immorality or homosexuality, nor am I apt to focus on those pet sins. My goal is to preach to the whole man from the whole counsel of God.

There was a man who took a tract from Kenton. Alexandra and Kenton noticed that he came back and stood next to Kenton as he read it. The man eventually argued with Kenton yelling at him. Kenton gave the man the gospel, but mostly the man didn’t listen; he just spoke. Praise God for Kenton being willing to engage!

God abundantly provided for us so that I was able to take the teenagers to the game. For 4 of them it was their first Buckeyes game ever! The man I bought tickets from even gave us 6 ponchos for free (all of which we used)! It was a special treat for these faithful young people who missed the first half of every game for their favorite team because they were out evangelizing. I thought it was an appropriate ending to a season of hard work for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Here are a few pictures from the game.

Kenton, Alexandra, Kurt and me at the game.
Alexandra and a few of the boys moved to the front row after the rain emptied out The Shoe.

As this was the last Buckeyes home game, this marked our last time evangelizing Buckeyes fans…in Columbus. Because the Buckeyes won Saturday and Wisconsin beat TTUN, we now have the privilege of evangelizing Buckeyes fans once again in Indianapolis before the Big 10 Championship game, December 2! I already have 3 youth committed to going with me and over half a dozen other helpers. Pray for us to have a great day in Indianapolis, especially that we will have favor with the police as we had a problem once in the past.

Thanks to all of you who’ve read my posts, prayed and given financially to help us. Your gift to us of encouragement and help is not unnoticed by the God who sees everything. May He richly reward you for your faithfulness to His Son.

Filed Under: Love, Open Air Preaching, Prayer, Theology, Witnessing

MSU@OSU Outreach Report

November 12, 2017 by Michael Coughlin

November 11, 2017: 12 evangelists gathered at the Ohio State University to read the lost with the gospel. We preached for 2-3 hours on two corners, so there were 2 preachers going most of the time. We had no less than 8 people handing out tracts at any time. I am grateful if only one person desires to accompany me on an outreach. And I agree that it is not about numbers, but the more laborers there are the more work we can get done.

For today’s post I want to look at some photos and talk about the human strategy surrounding out evangelism.

If you look at this photo below, you can see where our people are positioned (the 6 red arrows point to our folks). In the background, on the right side of the photo, you see Dan Carr and Alayna Hoop. They are standing on either side of a walkway which is a high foot traffic area. That walkway leads back to much of the parking to the north of the Ohio Stadium.

In the foreground, you can see Elaine and Rachelle Holman standing in the wide sidewalk area in front of the preacher in the maroon sweatshirt. This areas is where all the people from the West travel across in order to get to the game. Their location is also a blessing because they get to head the Word of God preached while tracting folks.

The team.

Kurtis Gould is the one preaching and next to him is Joshua Richards. We try to always have a person near the preacher. This is not only for protection if needed, but also so there is something there to give people a Bible or help in any way that the preacher needs.

If you traveled to the right from this photo, you would begin walking across a bridge toward Ohio State. On that sidewalk, but not pictured, were Alexandra Coughlin and Kenton Gould. Anyone who slips past Rachelle, Elaine, Alayna and Dan without getting a tract will still be offered a tract as they travel down Lane Ave to the east.

Looking below, we are now across the street from the photo above. So if you imagine in this photo you are looking Northwest toward the Schottenstein Center. The photo ABOVE this one would be across the street to the right from the photo below. As you can see, Kurtis is preaching about the Way, the Truth and the Life beneath a sign that reads “The Undisputed Way.” We love this.

The Undisputed Way: Jesus Christ!

As I pointed out, it would be very hard for people to walk past the northeast corner of this intersection without encountering my team, but people could bypass that corner by coming south and then crossing the street to the left of where Kurtis is preaching in this photo. By having multiple men preaching, we are able to ensure that no matter which route people take they will hear preaching. At this corner, we preach to the people on the left (across the street) until the light changes and then we preach as they walk toward us. After the people have walked toward us and are going past us (to the right), we turn and preach to them and then we preach to the people waiting to cross from the north. While Kurt preached I passed out tracts, but down the way to the east (the direction most people walk), Nicholas Coughlin and Chase Vendley were on either side of the sidewalk tracting.

So you can see that with a team of 12 people, we were able to have 4-5 full hours of preaching, and covered both sides of a major street with tracts. If you can imagine that we could easily cover 4 corners of the stadium with teams like this, you can see how many more laborers for the gospel could be useful to the ministry! My understanding is that Ohio State games attract approximately 200,000 people: half inside the stadium and half outside. That’s 2% of the population of the state of Ohio.

Think about that. 1 person out of every 50 people in Ohio has the chance to hear the life-saving gospel of grace on gameday. Yet I doubt we reach more than 30,000. Pray for more laborers!

So you see, we are spiritual minded people. We preach the Word and we give out gospel tracts, but we also try to be wise and strategic from a material perspective. Let me give you one more example.

When we go to the game, any parking anywhere near the stadium costs 20-25 dollars. With 7 home games that really adds up! One of the things I do is drop the team off, because with a large box of tracts and other equipment it would be very hard to walk! But they would wait a very long time for me to park my car a mile away and walk back to them. It really seems like a waste of time. So I began bringing my bike. Now I can park another quarter mile away and park for free on a side street, and ride my bike to the location much quicker than walking. So we are saving $20/week and some valuable time we can use for evangelism.

I want to commend my team and tell you a little of what it took this week to be there. First of all, my team ranged in age from 13 to 56. We had at least one person who it was their first time trying contact evangelism, praise the Lord!

We arrived and were ready to start about 9am. It was less than 30 degrees outside and the wind chill factor apparently made it feel like 16 degrees. I coached my team to do smart things, but to labor for our Lord without rest or complaining. We gave everyone a couple handwarmers, too. But it is hard to hand out tracts with gloves and it’s hard to hold a Bible and preach with gloves so many of us just get cold hands. No one on my team complained. I was so grateful for their kind spirits. It was funny because at noon I called my wife and one of the things I told her was it had “really warmed up.” She told me it was 32 degrees. But compared to what we’d stood in all morning, that seemed balmy!

The thing is, lost souls were out there braving the cold weather: some of them out of love for their team, some out of idolatry, and others just for the fellowship of being with friends or family. Vendors were making money selling tickets, buckeyes, wool caps and other OSU paraphernalia. Why shouldn’t a Christian be there for his God? Why shouldn’t a Christian stand and bear those elements for the sake of the elect? As I told the team, “we’re all going to be cold, we might as well get the work done.”

After the game, we went to a local fried chicken restaurant called Raising Canes and enjoyed some time together and some hot food. Here are a couple team pictures.

Nicholas, Kenton, Chase, Alexandra & Kurtis (l to r)

I want to thank my lord Jesus Christ for a wonderful day which was largely made possible by several dear saints from my church, some of whom donate large sums of money to pay for things like our gas and our meals, and also for Peter & Alyssa Wilson who loaned me their Honda Odyssey for the day so that I could fit a full load of people in it and also my bicycle.

Rachelle, Elaine, Caleb, Alayna, Joshua & Dan (l to r)

Filed Under: Gospel, Open Air Preaching, Theology, Witnessing Tagged With: Bible, church, discipline, Forgiveness, God, Gospel, Grace, Jesus, Love, Open Air, people, power

2017 Penn State @ Ohio State Outreach Report

November 1, 2017 by Michael Coughlin

6 men were able to labor October 28 for the Lord and lost in Columbus Ohio. Caleb Davenport, Kurtis Gould, Travis Jackson and I preached while Chase Vendley and Kenton Gould handed out tracts. It was a sub-40 degree day which started out rainy. But we prayed earnestly that God would keep the rain away and He graciously answered the prayer. We drove to Ohio State at 11am with windshield wipers on, and by the time I parked my van the rain had stopped and didn’t restart. I want to publicly thank the Lord for his kindness to us that day. It was the first cold day, but that is something we are used to in Ohio. The way I see it, if fans will go to the game, I will too. Although I immediately ordered a box of 40 hand warmers when I got home for future games!

On the way there, I asked Kurtis, “Why would you to want to go evangelize in freezing rain?” He responded, “The same reason as when the weather is nice, the get the gospel out.”  <<–Praise the Lord for that faithfulness!

Here are some pictures and commentary about the day, with a special providential surprise at the end. If you click the pictures it will open larger versions of them in a new tab which you can close to return to the article. We started, as always, with the singing of gospel hymns and prayer.

Above you can see a photo of Caleb preaching with Kurtis standing by him. We like to have someone near the preacher, not only in case of an type of physical incident, but also to help if needed. For example, if a person is clearly trying to obstruct the preaching, that person can distract a person who is just causing the preacher problems. Or if the preacher decides to stop preaching to talk to someone who is responding to the gospel, that person can begin preaching. We only have a few hours to preach so we try to fill it up.

Above you can see a picture of the crowd. Basically from 2-3 hours prior to kickoff until 15 minutes before kickoff there is a constant stream of people like this. Every 5-7 minutes the crowd moves along as the police operate the stoplights.

In the below picture you can actually see Chase handing out tracts. There is a teeny tiny arrow pointing to Chase. Click to picture to see it. You can also see just to the right of the middle of the photo there is a street vendor selling knit caps. His set up for the caps is in the shape of a cross. He was mocking the gospel and shouting “Be saved…from the cold!” But in his mocking many people heard “Be saved!” and we rejoice that God may use that to cause His elect to think about their need of salvation. And we also know that this man was in earshot of several hours of preaching, and Travis made sure he received a tract. May Jesus receive the reward!

In this photo, Caleb is preaching and you can see the man on the right reading a tract he was give by Chase or Kenton. It has become rare in my experience to see people actually stop to read the tracts (although I still hope some read them just not in my sight). So I told Travis, “Why don’t you go try to talk to him?” Below you can see Travis engaging the man with the gospel. At one point the man was actually weeping. Travis has a kind heart and a peaceful spirit. Pray that this man might receive Christ or if he already has that he would maybe come back and join us in reaching others!

In the photo below this man came up while Kurtis was preaching and asked Kurtis for his favorite Scripture. As men, we can only judge outward appearance, and not hearts, but this man appeared oppositional to Kurtis in his tone and posture. When Kurtis didn’t immediately tell him his favorite passage, the man said something like “There are a lot of false prophets out here. If you’re going to do this, you need to know the Word.”

I’m protective of my team, maybe to a fault, and Kurtis is only 17 years old, so I stepped over and tried to reason with the guy. I told him that Kurtis not having a favorite scripture off the top of his head was no indicator that Kurtis is a false teacher or doesn’t know the Word of God. The man was unkind and made some more comments which could only be construed as rude, while telling us he was just trying to inspire Kurtis. It was odd, but I was bothered that the preaching was interrupted for such a strange encounter.

After a minute, Kurtis told the guy he likes Philippians. We explained to the man that although he said he was trying to help us it just didn’t come across as supportive. These are the kinds of things you encounter regularly. Questions weigh on your mind with each encounter like “Should we have just had another person start preaching and let Kurt engage the fellow?” “Should I have kept out of it and let Kurtis handle it?” “Was I kind in my responses to him or too accusatory?”

As I said earlier, I do not want the preaching to stop and even a seemingly honest question from someone can interrupt the preaching to the point where many walking by will not hear the gospel. At the same time, the soul in front of us matters also, we we try to be strategic and wise and we hope that God will grant us wisdom and discernment! Pray for us, will you?

One thing that was notable to me that day was that I did not see a particular ticket scalper who I usually see. I have been going to the same corner for years now, and I have gotten to know various vendors and scalpers. One of them I even recognized when I was at a different event where he was selling tickets and he recognized me too and hugged me. Well, I did not see him this Saturday and it actually disappointed me.

But that evening, I went to a local place called Wingstop to get my wife and I some wings. As I got out of my car, I saw that same scalper! He said hello and hugged me and I asked him where he was that day and he said he was at a different location. We chatted for a moment and I found out his name and that we have at least one mutual friend from his church. Then as I was getting ready to pick up my order, he stepped up and paid for my chicken wings. I thanked him and he said, “You bless a lot of people, so I’m blessing you right now. Keep it up.” Praise the Lord for his providential timing and the gift of chicken wings for my bride and me!

One thing you can consider is that when you watch the games, you can look at the faces of the fans and know that many of them received the gospel. As I watched fans storm onto the field after OSU’s comeback victory, all I could think was “that’s my mission field.” Pray for a harvest, dear Christian!

Finally, I uploaded this video to give people an idea of what it is like preaching. There are distractions galore: sirens, people periodically shouting, and a constantly moving crowd at sporting events.

We ought pray for preachers of righteousness that the Holy Spirit would give them wisdom and unction to preach as He would have them preach.

 

Filed Under: Theology Tagged With: apologetics, attributes of God, Bible, Grace, humility, Jesus, logic, Open Air, people, power, prayer, preaching, pride, Righteous

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