Operation 513: "Baptized in the Holy Spirit!"

[Willo]

[b] Saturday, 18 October, 2008 [/b]

The night was going to be a good one, and I was really excited about the prospect of witnessing to the lost tonight, however, I did have one concern, and that was the fact that we were down on preachers tonight. But, my rest is in the Sovereignty of God, and the knowledge that He will provide.

I handed out tracts on my way to King George square, and it was real encouraging to see many people reading gospel tracts and then passing them on to their friends to read also.

Once in King George we met for a time of prayer and bible reading as per usual, and then we headed up to the Queen Street Mall. We were blessed tonight to have a brother join us from Creation Ministries International, he had heard about us for some time, and after thinking about it for a bit, he decided to come out and witness with us.

At about 9:15pm, Ryan got up to preach, and almost in no time flat he had hecklers emerging from everywhere. He had Alex the Agnostic, Muslims, Atheists, Roman Catholics all opening fire at once. One Roman Catholic even began to pray to Mary in order to be forgiven of sin.

Ryan dealt with the Roman Catholic by pointing to 1 Timothy 2:5, and showing that Jesus Christ is the only mediator between God and man. Then he showed the Catholic that Mary could not mediate for him, the papist ignored Ryan and kept on crying out to Mary. This of course grew a bigger crowd, and by now the Muslims had become even more vocal, so Ryan turned his attention o addressing them, and then pointing out that in Islam there is no hope of forgiveness.

While Ryan was talking a Pentecostal man came in behind and started to say, ?He isn?t answering them, he should just say ?Jesus? to every question.? I asked him why Ryan should say that, and the man replied that ?Jesus is the answer!? I agreed with him that Jesus is the answer, however, we are commanded in Scripture (1 Peter 3:15) to answer the questions that people ask, and to give people a reason for the hope that we have.

The man didn?t buy it, and started to talk about what he termed the ?gospel? I was only half listening until he said ?Baptism is needed to be born again!? This got my attention really quickly, I asked him to explain, so he started talking about how we must be converted, baptized by water, and in the Holy Spirit in order to be born again.

I asked him to show me from Scripture, where this was taught, he couldn?t. But he just kept saying ?Baptized? over and over again. It was almost like a mantra for him, so I countered and showed him from the Bible that he was wrong. The man wouldn?t listen, and every time I tried to speak he would just start chanting ?Baptized in the Holy Spirit!?

In the end, I just said, ?it?s a waste of time trying to talk to you, you are preaching a heresy and false gospel. But your pride and love of your heretical doctrines have blinded you from the truth of Scripture!? The man laughed, and walked away saying, ?You can?t answer John 3:16!? Which was odd since John 3:16 doesn?t mention baptism, or the Holy Spirit.

It was at this stage that I noticed that Jacob was back, this was the second week that he was present. I was able to once again have a good discussion with him, and point him to the cross of Christ. He seems to be under conviction, and it appears that God is working on him.

By now it was getting late, and Ryan was still preaching. And, you guessed it the hecklers were still going hard. Some of our regular hecklers were opening up with the same old arguments, and Ryan countered them once again and told them of salvation in Jesus Christ.

At midnight, Ryan broke the Operation 513 preaching record, which was set at 2 hours 45 minutes. But, he wasn?t finished yet. At the end of the night Ryan ended up preaching for 3 hours and 2 minutes. The great thing was that he had a consistent crowd, and that the same hecklers remained for the whole time.

In all it was a good night, with many people hearing the gospel.

[i] Soli Deo Gloria! [/i]

Full report with pictures: http://www.operation513.com

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[John81]

Praise God for His Word never comes back void but will accomplish the purpose He has put forth.