Divinity of Christ
For years, before working with the Turkmen I used to approach the different objections to the faith as arguments. When talking to educated people perhaps this is still helpful.
I have two main forms of outreach that I am involved in. One is street evangelism, where we run a “free Bibles” table. The other is door to door evangelism.
In the house visits, I generally visit uneducated (oral learners) Turkmen. With the first tribe I encountered, I tried to “win” them over with various arguments about the trinity, or about the death and resurrection of Christ. (Evangelism to illiterate)
I have since started to go through methodically and list each area of things in their belief system that is counter to the Gospel.
For example, Muslims generally have the belief that Jesus was only a man and that he never died on the cross. So, I needed to find Bible Stories that would counter those world views.
When I meet a new Turkmen adult, I try to have some evangecube cards I go through the brief story with them. Often times I can then give them a dvd to go along with it.
Here is a list of stories that I used to try and present the divinity of Christ in a round about way that would stick with them. For a nonliterate that would not be able to memorize Bible verses, if someone counters the divinity of Christ or argues with them, they are more likely to simply recite one of these stories.
The first story, we see that Jesus is walking on the water. We do not see him praying to preform this miracle. The way that
the artist depicts Peter looking to Christ, is well done. I like to present the story and ask “How is Jesus walking on the water?” “By whose power is He walking?” “How then is Peter walking? Look, who is he looking at? What happens when he tries his own power?”
Paralysed man lowered through roof
In this story, we see Jesus not only healing by his word, but also we see him forgiving sin. I used this story and asked them “Who can forgive sins? Could Moses forgive sins? Could David? Could Muhammad or Ali?
This is important with the Alawite. They do not have a “written religion”. Perhaps some of the more educated ones have access to books about their religion, however most Alawite I have met seem to only have their beliefs based off of stories that they have heard from family members. For them they believe that God revealed himself in the body of Ali. So, without attacking this doctrine and simply stating that Jesus was able to forgive sins, but no one else was able to … It helps attack their false belief in a roundabout way.
Other stories that are great to use, would be stories that focus on Jesus healing, and forgiving sins.
Today, I went to a family that I have been sharing with. It was nice to see him being able to share with others using these same stories. He is now going to move to Turkey, and is ready to share more with people there as well.
When we try and witness to Muslims using all sorts of clever arguments, it can make it difficult for them to be able to reuse them. Only use things that they themselves can use. It is important to realize that they will be left with only thoughts that you have given them, if they are not able to truly understand or repeat what you explained; chances are they will not be useful in bringing about true understanding of sin and need of the Saviour.
Related Posts:
Witnessing to illiterate people
Breaking into a new Muslim Community
Witnessing 101: online study of witnessing to Muslims
Downloadable books on Muslim evangelism
Filed under: evangelism