The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Panorama City, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 70-4, titled "Questions and Answers--Part 32."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. Copyright 2001 by John MacArthur Jr., All Rights Reserved.

Question

My girlfriend came by the other week and we went into a shop. As usual, we were talking about the Lord and stuff and the guy came up that owned the shop and he said, you know, “What are you talking about?” and we said, “Well, we’re talking about Jesus Christ. Do you know him?” And this gentleman was in--I guess it’s a cult called “Est”--and, I mean, it was like talking to a wall.

Well, we would talk to him and he would--this is a stained glass shop--and he’d say, “Well, that’s what you say, but touch this,” so we’d touch the stained glass. “This is real.”  So we were trying to tell him about the Word of God and that it was real. “Well, that’s what you say. The only thing that’s real is what I can touch.” I guess my question is, when you’re talking to people, trying to witness to people like that, you know, what can you do?

Answer

Well, I think the issue is always Jesus Christ. You know, let’s not talk about stained glass; let’s talk about Jesus Christ. Do you know who Jesus Christ is? Have you studied the life of Christ? You see, Jesus Christ said that every man who believes in him is bound for heaven and every man who rejects him is bound eternally for hell. Now, when He said something like that, that is pretty serious. He says He is the determiner of every man’s eternal destiny. If He’s right, if He’s right…let’s just assume He may be right: you better check into that. If He’s wrong, you ought to study it too because then you can eliminate that option.

In other words, the issue is always Jesus Christ! I don’t care who you’re talking to; you could be talking to all these cults and "isms" and "schisms" and "spasms" and all these "yogis" and it doesn’t matter what it is! And you always want to come back to Christ: who is Christ, who is Christ?

Question (continued)

But he would say, “Well, that’s what you would say.” That’s what he kept coming back with.

Answer (continued)

But still you plant the seed! The issue is Jesus Christ and the claims of Jesus Christ. See, his thing--"Est," Werner Erhard… Werner Erhar isn’t even the guy’s name; the guy’s name is, [John Paul (Jack) Rosenberg]. But he took this exotic German name and he has all these people go to these big seminars and spill their anxieties and scream at each other, stamp their feet and yell and claw and get out all their inhibitions and do whatever they want--it’s just total liberation, total freedom. Spill your guts, scream, do what you like, and then you go away and you’re supposed to have solved your problems.

So, it’s totally humanistic, totally self-centered. It isn’t even a religion in the sense that it has any particular dogma.

It is a religion in the sense that it worships man. But it doesn’t have any god, as such; man is god. So, what you want to do with someone like that is confront them with Jesus Christ. My approach to that is, “Have you read the Bible? Before you criticize the claims of Christ, you probably ought to know what they are." Put the burden of proof on him. Make him feel guilty for not doing it.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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