Fools?

A Christian has been asking a person to join Christians in accepting and following Jesus to which the non-Christian replies:

So you believe in a man being swallowed by a fish then 3 days later vomited out to serve God.

And you believe in a talking snake and a talking donkey?

And you believe that the entire earth was covered by water and but 8 people lived through it?

Really? And you want me to agree and join you?

Just what are you smoking?

Furthermore (more from the non-Christian),

You believe that there is a God who has no beginning, is a spirit, and lives outside of space.

You believe such a Being created all the world in just 6 24-hour days?

You believe that this God is good when there is all kind of evil.  You want me to accept a God who allows babies and children to die and be slaughtered.  A God who allows floods, storms, and wars?

And you want me to love such a God?  Really?

And (continuing the berating),

You believe there was a man who died, was buried, and then came back to life?  That this man defied gravity and went up into the heavens?  That this man walked on water?  That this man could heal leprosy, blindness, and cripples?  You really expect me to believe such foolishness?

Face it, we Christians believe some pretty unbelievable things.  And we think that we are going to convince them they are wrong, that our stories are true, and that they need to join us in believing such stories and also follow Jesus?  Are we going to convince them?  I think not!

The problem:

The non-Christian loves the dark.  They love their gossip and immorality.  They love lying, cheating, and stealing – they’d do so much more if they could get away with it.  And Christianity tells them those are sin and they must give them up.  Again, can we seriously expect them to agree and reject their loves?  I think not!

Humanly speaking, evangelism is an impossible task.  It is attempting to get the lost to believe “foolish” things and to reject the things they love.  We can show and tell the good news, but the reality is they see us as simple and duped.  How will they ever be saved?

Then there is this proof:  Noah was told that the world was going to end in 120 years and given the task to do something completely weird – build a huge vessel never before seen or even conceived all the while calling people to join him.  And how’d he do?  Only 7 family members joined him!  His message was just so other-worldly and the project so strange that those around him could not embrace the message, rather they saw him as a fool.  Such is true for us.

So is our obeying and our message without hope?  No!  Because the salvation power comes from God, not our oratory skills or doings.  We are to plant and water, it is God who gives the increase.

We realize that we are weird in their eyes and our message strange and thus we are cognizant of the need of God to cause salvation.  We show and tell Jesus joyfully and obediently as His followers and know that God works to bring people to salvation.

Consider I Corinthians 1:18-25, For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.”  Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?  For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.  For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.  Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

So we labor on, showing and telling and knowing that our labors are not in vain in the Lord (I Corinthians 15:58).