Encountering Other Religions - Part 2 of 2

Sorry that this post is a week late. I was in a training conference last week and some other things came up.

As God gives you opportunities to share the gospel with people of other religious backgrounds, there are some things that you should and should not do in order to give an effective witness.

Do...

1. Show respect to the person to whom you are witnessing even though you do not agree with them. You do not want to insult their beliefs or any of the important historical figures of their religion. Focus on Jesus and his substitutionary atonement for sin.
   
2. Rely on the power and presence of the Holy Spirit and not just your well crafted argument when you witness.
3. Present Christ as the exclusive way of salvation and back it up with scripture.
4. Sow seeds of the gospel. It may take a considerable amount of witnessing before this person will understand who Jesus is and willingly turn to Him. Be patient.

Don't...

1. Argue with them.
2. Assume that they are not interested in discussing their spiritual beliefs. Many people are interested if you approach them with the right attitude.
3. Approach the encounter with a "I'm going to win the argument" attitude. That will get you no where.
4. Leave leave a bad taste in their mouth. In other words, represent Christ and his kingdom.

If you have stories of witnessing encounters that you have had with people of other faiths, I would love to hear back from you. Please e-mail me at info at onlyfoundation dot org.