Operation 513 - Agnostics and Atheists

[Willo]

Saturday, 6 September, 2008

The first week of spring had arrived, but you couldn?t have told it based on how cold it was in the Queen Street Mall. As we arrived we were hit by a icy blast of wind, and this maintained throughout the night.

One thing that immediately stood out to our attention was the fact, that the city was near on deserted, which was a major swing from the week previous, when there was hardly space to walk up the mall.

As normal we spent some time in prayer, and reading the Bible as a team in King George Square, before we started the night of ministry. We were a little disappointed as the week previous it was reported to us that Alex the agnostic would not be able to attend due to ?other? commitments. So we prayed that God would raise up other people who would be interested in talking about the things of God.
Once 9pm rolled around we made our way into the mall, and began to set up. It was decided that Andre would be the first preacher for the night. While we were setting up we noticed a major problem (in a good way), and that is we are just about out of Bibles for the Bible table. This is a major blessing, as it means that hundreds of Bibles have been handed out over a period of months. It is such a blessing seeing people walk away with the Word of God in their hands. Hopefully, by reading it God will grant them eternal life.

Andre got up first and began to expound on the beauty of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is good watching Andre preach, as he has come along way over the past few months. His voice is developing so he is becoming a louder preacher, and also he is getting much better at engaging with hecklers.

The man that heckled Andre was a man that had been present for the past few weeks, I have spoken to him for some time a few weeks back. While he is a nice enough man, and believes in the Bible, his theology has been twisted and warped by the cults. Much of what he says is common with the teachings of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society (Jehovah?s Witnesses). While Andre was dealing with this man, I looked up and saw that our ?Preacher Seeking Missile? (Alex the Agnostic) was inbound, this was a bit of a surprise considering we believed he wasn?t going to be there tonight.

Based on how drunk Alex was, I presume he didn?t expect to be there either, but as he came up he said something about his apprentice not being able to make it. This I found rather cool, as if the local agnostic has to have an apprentice in order to take on the Christians, then it shows that we are doing our job right. Also, Alex is more than welcome to bring as many people as he wants out onto the streets, as that means we get to preach the gospel all the more.

Alex began by talking to Andrew and I, by saying ?I could unleash on you, and destroy your beliefs!? To which both Hsusy and I replied that he could go ahead and try, but Christianity will never be destroyed. It was then that he ?unleashed? and began to make his argument for why Christianity was wrong. His whole argument was built on the fact that he mis-understood Christianity. For he stated that we don?t need Jesus since Christ didn?t give us any new moral teaching except that which was already common to human thought. We countered by pointing out that Christ is eternal, that He is God in flesh, and all good morality flows from God. This caused Alex to go into a rant about Jesus being God.

By now Ralph was up preaching, and while he was preaching a man wearing a ?Queen? T-shirt approached me, and stated that us Christians were wrong as there was no God, and that was a scientific fact. Since, I am interested in science I asked, what exactly in science proved that God did not exist. His answer was ?We can?t find him in the universe!? This led me into explaining how God created everything, so He is a being outside of the confines of the universe. The man then asked for ?material evidence for this immaterial God? to which I pointed out that you cannot provide material evidence for something that is immaterial. The man became a bit antsy, and started to say ?Ha! You Christians can?t answer!? This was a very stupid argument that he was making, as I had just answered, the problem was he didn?t like the answer. So after he bragged about winning for a few seconds, he then went and started to talk to some of the other guys.

At this stage of the night Alex was raging drunk, and his arguments were even weaker than when he is sober. This was evidenced by the fact that the vast majority of what he said centred around hurling drunken abuse at the preachers. Tonight was interesting watching Alex as in one breath he says ?You can have you beliefs, that?s fine!? Then in the next breath he is trying to destroy our beliefs. Then he would say something like ?your belief is true for you.? Then start ranting about how wrong we were.

I think the only reason Alex comes back week in and week out, is because he knows that there is a God, and he knows that He must give an account to Him one day for all his sins. But, because Alex loves his sins, he will keep trying to suppress the truth.

?For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.? - Romans 1:18-21 (ESV)

The rest of the night was spent with Andrew Hsu preaching, and then finally we had David Strachan get up and for the first time ever he shared Scripture in public. Something which Alex loved, and tried to stop. But, when Alex was challenged by both myself, and Ralph to discuss his objections he refused to dialogue, he only wanted to stop Dave reading the Bible.

It was a good but quiet night!

Soli Deo Gloria!

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

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