The "you don't really KNOW" rhetoric.

So, I was talking to this guy at my office about politics. He really enjoys talking about it but, either I'm a little slow or he doesn't pay much attention to what he says because I don't seem to really get what he is saying half of the time. For the sake of this article (and my ego's I guess), I'll just assume that the latter is true. At a certain point in our conversation I subtly changed the subject to the Gospel of our Lord. I told him that politics is about man trying to create an utopia on earth. I assured him that it isn't going to happen on this side of eternity because of sin. I told him about Genesis 3, The Fall of man, God's punishment, the cursing of the ground and how all of us had rebelled against a Holy, Just God being therefore under His righteous Wrath and our only hope was Jesus Christ who died for sins and was raised again and all those who trust in him now are received by Him with open arms and do not have to fear death because God had overcome it for them. His eyes were jumping out of his face after this subtle change of subject. He said he had a religious background and "knew" all that stuff but showed himself to be a little puzzled by "the great exchange"(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_imputation) I told him that I couldn't fully understand how was it that God would accept one paying for the sins of another but it was the overwhelming testimony of Scripture. He then posed an objection: He said over and over that I didn't KNOW if that was true. He affirmed repeatedly that it was a matter of faith and we couldn't really KNOW if the Gospel was true.

HOW I DEALT WITH THE " YOU DON'T REALLY KNOW" OBJECTION.

As he was talking to me, I'm thinking: He is making it sound like this is a shot in the dark, just a matter of personal preference and even worse, blind faith. My forehead was throbbing! I could feel the smoke in my nostrils, good thing evangelism is Holy Spirit empowered. I agreed with him to a certain degree that I didn't KNOW it but that there was enough evidence to make me very comfortable trusting Christ and just like he does everyday I put my trust on something / somebody I didn't really KNOW. He protested: I don't do that! I went on to point out to him that he took analgesics not KNOWING what the content of the bottle was but there are enough laws and penalties enforced by the FDA for him to feel confident that his bottle of painkillers actually contains painkillers. Or the airplane he boarded the other day, he can't really know if the pilot is drunk or if there will be an engine faillure but what he knew was enough to gain his trust, therefore he boarded the plane. Likewise there is enough evidence to the truthfulness of the Gospel and he was rejecting it not because of the lack of evidence but because of the hardness of his heart. I wrapped it up telling him how I would really be unloving to him if I didn't give him the truth. He thanked me and a few minutes later he left. It's been a few days and we did talk several times after that but nothing about the Lord. I hope we talk about Christ soon and in the meantime I'll intercede for him before the throne.

May God bless you as you go out there and give them heaven.