<quote from Real Faith & Reason>
“Son of Man,” he said, “I’ve appointed you to be a watchman over the house of Israel. Therefore when you hear a message that comes from me, you are to warn them for me. “So when I say to a wicked person, ‘You’re about to die,’ if you don’t warn or instruct that wicked person that his behavior is wicked so he can live, that wicked person will die in his sin, but I’ll hold you responsible for his death. If you warn the wicked person, and he doesn’t repent of his wickedness or of his wicked behavior, he’ll die in his sin, but you will have saved your own life. “When a righteous man abandons his righteousness to practice unrighteousness, I’ll set a stumbling block before him. He’ll die. If you don’t warn him, he’ll die in his sin and the righteous deeds that he had practiced won’t be remembered, but you’ll be held responsible for his death. If you warn the righteous person, so that he doesn’t commit sin, then he’ll live since he had been warned. And you will have saved your life.” ~ Ezekiel 3:17-21 International Standard Version
Our expedition now leads us to Christian witness, and in this leg of our pilgrimage, we’ll shine a light on the ways that worldviews get in the way of Christian witness. Christian witness ought to shine out through every aspect of our lives. We can attend church, have an intellectual understanding of the Gospel, and have a Christian worldview, and yet fail to manifest Christ. We can even engage in many Christian activities and projects. We can take classes in soul-winning. We sometimes work hard at religion. But what’s it worth if we have no fruit showing in our lives?
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, meekness, self-control, and faith. Rather than these virtues, we sometimes see self-righteousness, empty religion, sexual sins of all kinds, impatience, anger, bitterness, envy, and many other fruits of the fleshly nature. We see the conflict since Christ is leading, teaching, and correcting us into righteousness. And righteousness leads to holiness. That is, God is purifying us from glory to glory. The fruit of the Spirit will spring forth if we truly have a relationship with Christ. If Christ is working in us in this way, those who are hungry and thirsty will see Christ in us as the fruit of the Spirit becomes obvious. The fruit of the Spirit will open doors for witnessing.
“The fruit of a righteous person is a tree of life, and a winner of souls is wise.” (Proverbs 11:30 God’s Word Translation)
One way that soul-winning is taught is to present materialistic and naturalistic evidence, which may be philosophical, scientific, historical, or legal, without any Anointing of the Holy Spirit. Generally, this form of soul-winning depends on human intellect. Without the Holy Spirit, the unbeliever sees only the fruit of the flesh in us when we’re witnessing. What follows is a war of worldviews. Consider the following from my friend, Greg Kiser:
“If we REALLY believe what God told us in Romans 1, then these people [the disbelievers] are fools. Are we afraid to talk to fools? Not at all. The Ph.D. means nothing by comparison to all the wisdom & knowledge in Christ. If all knowledge is in Him, then there is no knowledge without Him. I used to think Proverbs 26:4-5 only showed the futility of witnessing to a fool (and most commentators agree with that), but it is not that at all. Instead, it shows us how to engage them.”
“Do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you also be like him. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.”
Greg goes on to note Psalm 14:1, which also defines a fool as the one who denies God’s existence since God has so clearly shown Himself to them and holds them accountable. Greg goes on to say:
“The passage simply means we are NOT to take the worldview of the fool in order to talk to him. That’s what they want!”
Ungodly thinkers want us to drop divine revelation. They want us to interpret observation, experience, and the Bible using their axioms that come out or their worldviews. They don’t want us to consider the divine revelation in Scripture. They don’t want God directly involved whether discussing the origin of the universe, geological formations, distant starlight, sexual morality, marriage, home order, Church order, abortion, hate groups, racism, or any other topic.
However, ungodly thinkers aren’t the only ones who have problems with worldviews. Worldview problems appear to be part of the fallen human nature. Still, the situation isn’t hopeless, and we’ve already discovered part of God’s plan of deliverance, but the battle is for the mind. (2 Corinthians 10:4)
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http://RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_1_-_Scientia.pdf
