I have been using magic for some time now as an icebreaker when I go out to witness to people. I am an evangelist but far too often these days evangelism is known as just self-righteous people to run hold up signs and yell to everyone that they are going to hell. Heh, only the other side you see to have this new emerging truth that fails to do anything for those who are lost. They focus too much on Jesus and Christianity as more of a self-improvement model then the truth in God's message given to us in his word. Now I realize that there is probably a lot of people with a variety of different beliefs, ideologies, and religions on these forums. For those reading this post please keep in mind that this is not an attempt to evangelize or witness to this forum. This post is not intended to provoke and debate or hard feelings. This post is rather to go into a study of some of the issues that arise from both secular and Christianity community and the reactions that we receive from both when we introduce magic. I would like to also bring up the problems that we have with misconceptions and stereotypes that we have to struggle with because of the false representation seen through out the world of Christianity. I will probably be posting some scripture and information just to give those who are reading a history of something to to work with so they are not left in the dark.
The first thing I would like to start talking about is some of our challenges. We live in a day of a lot of false teachings in the world. A lot of this comes from today's televangelist ( I am not going to name any names). You can also see this new trend of what is called prosperity gospel. The prosperity gospel sounds really good but can be really dangerous. It has a general idea that the purpose of God or Jesus is to make your life better and to make you a better person, it pushes love as its campaign slogan. The fact is that they also push tithing and teach that the more money you donate the more God will bless you in life. Sure they can back some things up in the scripture but anyone can take scripture and present it out of context to support their personal view. Why is this a problem for us? Because or goal is to share truth with people, as much of the truth as possible, when we in return are trying to witness to someone who has grown up or has ever seen these type teachings they may already have a Bias against you when you start to mention Jesus. And I have to say, with the examples given to the publics eye I can't blame them. They think that it is all a fraud because they just want money and they are not that far off the truth. Another challenge is the opposite of prosperity gospel. it is a school of teaching of sinless perfection a more conservative point of view that believes that one is able to become completely perfect after repentance. Why is this dangerous? Because this thinking usually breads self-righteousness. What this does is creates a bad taste in a non-believers mouth and when you begin to share they automatically assume that you are judging them and that you think you are better then them. Finally you in the emerging Church you have lost the message of Repentance. Repentance has come somewhat of a offensive word to a lot of people. Technically all this word means is to change one's mind from one thing to another. Though you hear it as Bad Person Bad Person!.
The truth is that each denomination out there is like a religion on its own. Some a little closer to truth then others but all have their own little twist on scripture. When we are witnessing, what is important is that we share the truth in God's Message. That we are all sinners and fall short of God's righteousness. Even those who are believers, who are saved are still sinners and no better then any other man. We are all guilty of crimes against the Lord and the punishment for this is ultimately the Lake of fire. Yes this sounds scary, and a lot of people say that no real loving God would do this. The thing is is that He loves us much more then our finite minds can understand. He ultimately took our punishment for us so that we may have everlasting life. What are the requirements to this everlasting life? Simple, we believe in him and what he has done for us. God said that there is nothing we can do to earn salvation. Salvation is a free gift from him, but you have to acknowledge and accept this gift. When we accept this, When we repent ( We change our mind to believe in God) He does everything else in us. Ok, now it sounds like I am witnessing but I am not. My point of that is that you don't need to get into debates, you don't need prove yourself or fight back when you are confronted. What is important is the simple message. It is not through fear that God wants us to come to him it is through love. So be loving no matter what situation that you come across. God does not want anyone to go to Hell but he is a just God and has to enforce his own laws and word.
Ok, now what does all this have to do with the original topic? because all of these different views influence others opinions and how other receive you. Honestly very few people have ever been given the solid truth in God's words. They automatically have a Bias against you. One of the main things that I hear, both from the Christian Community and the Secular realm is, ” How Can you do magic and say you are a Christian?”. Oh, Boy. Of course when the bible speaks of Magic and wizards, warlocks and witches they are not talking about the performance artists that perform magic. This may have been true back in the day. It is believed that the Egyptian Priest used trickery and illusions to convince people of their gods. Mentalism it self has also been used for a long time. Even in these days magic is abused and used to manipulate people. Look recently at the Minister that used the Electric Touch during faith healing. My Goal here in this thread is to explorer through maybe members personal experiences both from those who use magic for witnessing and those who have been approached by evangelist , and maybe learn different approaches to some of the issues that we run into. Maybe we can even share some specialized routines to help.
****NOTE****
I know that I stated that the intent here is not to cause debate or to offend. Please stay within the topic. If you don't have any constructive insight or if you can't stay on the topic then please do not post. If you are offended by this please move on. If you assume that all evangelist are self-righteous hypocrites then please understand that there are a lot of followers of Jesus like me who have a genuine love for everyone and who is motivated by that love to share truth.
The first thing I would like to start talking about is some of our challenges. We live in a day of a lot of false teachings in the world. A lot of this comes from today's televangelist ( I am not going to name any names). You can also see this new trend of what is called prosperity gospel. The prosperity gospel sounds really good but can be really dangerous. It has a general idea that the purpose of God or Jesus is to make your life better and to make you a better person, it pushes love as its campaign slogan. The fact is that they also push tithing and teach that the more money you donate the more God will bless you in life. Sure they can back some things up in the scripture but anyone can take scripture and present it out of context to support their personal view. Why is this a problem for us? Because or goal is to share truth with people, as much of the truth as possible, when we in return are trying to witness to someone who has grown up or has ever seen these type teachings they may already have a Bias against you when you start to mention Jesus. And I have to say, with the examples given to the publics eye I can't blame them. They think that it is all a fraud because they just want money and they are not that far off the truth. Another challenge is the opposite of prosperity gospel. it is a school of teaching of sinless perfection a more conservative point of view that believes that one is able to become completely perfect after repentance. Why is this dangerous? Because this thinking usually breads self-righteousness. What this does is creates a bad taste in a non-believers mouth and when you begin to share they automatically assume that you are judging them and that you think you are better then them. Finally you in the emerging Church you have lost the message of Repentance. Repentance has come somewhat of a offensive word to a lot of people. Technically all this word means is to change one's mind from one thing to another. Though you hear it as Bad Person Bad Person!.
The truth is that each denomination out there is like a religion on its own. Some a little closer to truth then others but all have their own little twist on scripture. When we are witnessing, what is important is that we share the truth in God's Message. That we are all sinners and fall short of God's righteousness. Even those who are believers, who are saved are still sinners and no better then any other man. We are all guilty of crimes against the Lord and the punishment for this is ultimately the Lake of fire. Yes this sounds scary, and a lot of people say that no real loving God would do this. The thing is is that He loves us much more then our finite minds can understand. He ultimately took our punishment for us so that we may have everlasting life. What are the requirements to this everlasting life? Simple, we believe in him and what he has done for us. God said that there is nothing we can do to earn salvation. Salvation is a free gift from him, but you have to acknowledge and accept this gift. When we accept this, When we repent ( We change our mind to believe in God) He does everything else in us. Ok, now it sounds like I am witnessing but I am not. My point of that is that you don't need to get into debates, you don't need prove yourself or fight back when you are confronted. What is important is the simple message. It is not through fear that God wants us to come to him it is through love. So be loving no matter what situation that you come across. God does not want anyone to go to Hell but he is a just God and has to enforce his own laws and word.
Ok, now what does all this have to do with the original topic? because all of these different views influence others opinions and how other receive you. Honestly very few people have ever been given the solid truth in God's words. They automatically have a Bias against you. One of the main things that I hear, both from the Christian Community and the Secular realm is, ” How Can you do magic and say you are a Christian?”. Oh, Boy. Of course when the bible speaks of Magic and wizards, warlocks and witches they are not talking about the performance artists that perform magic. This may have been true back in the day. It is believed that the Egyptian Priest used trickery and illusions to convince people of their gods. Mentalism it self has also been used for a long time. Even in these days magic is abused and used to manipulate people. Look recently at the Minister that used the Electric Touch during faith healing. My Goal here in this thread is to explorer through maybe members personal experiences both from those who use magic for witnessing and those who have been approached by evangelist , and maybe learn different approaches to some of the issues that we run into. Maybe we can even share some specialized routines to help.
****NOTE****
I know that I stated that the intent here is not to cause debate or to offend. Please stay within the topic. If you don't have any constructive insight or if you can't stay on the topic then please do not post. If you are offended by this please move on. If you assume that all evangelist are self-righteous hypocrites then please understand that there are a lot of followers of Jesus like me who have a genuine love for everyone and who is motivated by that love to share truth.
