Who is listening?

by Warwick Armstrong

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After a hard morning kicking the tyres of many unaffordable exotic vehicles at Sydney’s annual car show, Peter and I settled down for a restorative lunch at a pleasant outdoor restaurant at Darling Harbour. Peter is a staunch atheist and once again launched into atheistic evangelism mode, probably thinking I needed saving from the pit of Christian darkness. As we talked, it soon became clear that, like many who believe microbe-to-man evolution to be fact, Peter did not really know much about it—mostly just the Hollywood version. Nonetheless he ‘knew’ it was fact, and therefore, to him, it proved there is no God, nor any need of God.

And isn’t that the common problem? Because of humanistic/evolutionary indoctrination any talk of God, salvation, rising from the dead, and ultimate forgiveness is nonsense to him—and of course to countless others. He may even have been moved by part of my conversations over the years but his blind faith in evolution closed his mind to reality, leaving him comfortably secure in the belief that Christianity is not something he needs to give serious consideration to. As far as he is concerned ‘science’ has proven Christianity wrong, therefore pointless. He once said “I can see it’s good for you” as though where we spend eternity is just a personal philosophical thing.

Over a particularly nice dessert of orange cake and ice-cream he continued on about the ‘fact’ of evolution, his shield against God. Our passionate but friendly discussion continued apace throughout dessert into cappuccino time. A double shot for me! Having again shown him his belief in evolution was indefensible, I was disappointed again to see this reality had not apparently affected his faith in evolution at all. Some people are just plain stubborn (because of 2 Thessalonians 2:11, perhaps?). Might I be wasting my time even trying to win him over?

But then something really ‘out there’ happened!

A woman appeared at my shoulder asking if she and her husband could join our table! “Your conversation is fascinating!” she said. You just never know who is listening, do you? I readily invited them to join us, and as they sat down they introduced themselves as business people from rural South Australia, who were currently visiting Sydney for a conference.

Our conversation (mostly my new guests asking questions and me answering, with Peter listening) continued apace, without any sign of drawing to a close. My new table guests were ‘locked on’ to the conversation. The lady, in particular, was fascinated, saying, “I have never heard such things before.”

Amazingly, they were still unwilling to leave even when they realized they would be late for their flight home if they lingered. Instead, the lady prevailed upon her husband to telephone their airline to postpone their departure until a later flight—which happened twice!

A few days later I discovered there was a subscriber to Creation magazine living in their town. I phoned her hopeful she would (on my behalf) lend this business couple some of her precious issues of Creation magazine. Imagine my delight when she said “I know them personally, and would love to do so”!

With all the best intentions I planned to follow her up to see where this fortuitous meeting had led. However as was often the case the ‘busy-ness’ of my working life meant new tasks and challenges conspired to prevent me from doing so. But I take solace in knowing I had ‘done my bit’ in that I had been ready at the right time to both “demolish arguments” (2 Corinthians 10:4–5) and to “give an answer” (1 Peter 3:15), that there are “many parts to the body” (1 Corinthians 12:12), and in reality salvation is God’s work (John 6:44).

As per 2 Timothy 4:2, our task is to preach the word, wherever and whenever we are given the opportunity, to sow the seed in freshly tilled soil and leave the rest to God. He is willing and able to do the rest.

But there are important lessons here I think we can note.

Having debated with Peter before on creation/evolution, on many occasions, to no apparent effect, I felt it was pointless, once again to have another go, but something encouraged me to do so. Despite his dogged refusal to employ rational and logically consistent thinking I ploughed on with at least two Scriptures coursing through my mind.^1,2 I continued the conversation because Christian faith is opposed by “lofty opinions” and we are called (and privileged) to make a defence of our living reasonable faith because it is not just opinion or warm feelings but so real, that those who ignore the physical evidence for our Creator God are “without excuse” as Romans 1:20 states. As it turned out, wasn’t it good that I did, for the couple within earshot were so moved by our topic of conversation they wanted to join in! How often does such a thing happen? What better demonstration of 1 Corinthians 15:58 than this? It’s true—you just never know who might be listening to your evangelistic efforts! While my witnessing labours on Peter might seem to have been ‘wasted’, the Lord had plans which meant certain others would hear. God is good!

Of course, this does not mean we can argue anyone into the Kingdom. We can however show them that their faith in the humanistic evolutionary fable is unreasonable, i.e. is only a story fed to them almost from birth, which they have uncritically accepted. Often such conversations open minds previously closed to the Gospel by the constant barrage of humanistic/evolutionary indoctrination which is the norm in the Western world. And, it seems to me, this was exemplified by the interest shown by the couple who joined Peter and me.

And there’s another factor likely at work here too. Quite often the Gospel is explained in such a way as to leave it floating in space upon nothing. That might have been the only Gospel-teaching the South Australian couple had heard to that stage of their lives. However this is contrary to the New Testament where the need of Jesus’ death and resurrection is portrayed as the direct result of what Adam did, both defined as historical realities. For example, 1 Corinthians 15:21, 22 reads, “For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” Its historicity couldn’t be clearer. See also Romans 5:12,14. Those who discard the foundational reality of Adam do indeed preach “a different gospel” (Galatians 1:6,8,9)—one without foundation in history.

No wonder the South Aussie couple had apparently not responded to what they’d previously heard. But when they overheard my conversation with Peter, rife as it was with references to Creation, Fall and Flood, and the Bible’s accurate description of today’s world being ‘in bondage to decay’ and in need of salvation, no wonder they pricked up their ears.

Who is listening indeed?