People with attitudes

by Neil T. Anderson

That's always been a puzzling verse to me. Who could be ashamed of Jesus?

When I was chair of the practical theology department at Talbot Theological Seminary, I received a call from a high school connected with the university system of California. The head of the philosophy department asked if I would be willing to debate with an atheist lawyer on the issue of school prayer. I don't really believe in legislated prayer myself, so I had to caution them, "I'm not sure how much we're going to debate on this issue. I deeply believe we ought to have freedom of religion." That was enough to debate.

When I told my wife Joanne, she said, "You've got to be an idiot. These people are professionals at this." She wouldn't even go and witness the carnage; I had to go by myself.

The whole auditorium was full. I walked up to the other fellow in the debate. He said, "I never fraternize with the enemy before a debate."

I said, "An enemy? How am I your enemy?"

He walked away. The head of the philosophy department was not a Christian, so I felt alone on the platform.

There were many people there. A man obviously not a student had been planted right in front of me. His role was to needle me, to ask me tough questions. As soon as I sat down, I motioned to him and said, "Hi!"

Joanne had asked me, "How are you going to win the argument?" I said, "I'm not going to win the argument. We're not called to win the argument. We're called to be a witness. They're giving me a public platform to share the love of Christ. The contest is this--not that I win the argument, but that I don't let patterns of the flesh take over, I don't retaliate, I just share the love of Christ."

Everything I hoped would happen that night happened. We exchanged back and forth. He had his man down there to needle me. What I didn't realize was that Campus Crusade for Christ had suspended a meeting that night and I had a whole army in the audience. They went after him. The other debater's character revealed itself. He got angry and hostile, and started calling people names. Who won the debate? I don't know. Who was a witness for what, though? There was a coffee time after. He left. I sat and mingled and talked with all kinds of people.

That's the great contest in life--to be able to speak the truth in love, without the patterns of the flesh. If what you do publicly for Christ can't be done in the fruit of the Spirit, don't do it. Otherwise, you are a witness, not of the Lord, but of your own flesh.

In 1986, a Campus Crusade for Christ chapter asked me to speak on a public university campus. They put out a flyer: "Come out and hear about demonic influences in the world."

I said if they were really going to do that, we would need to pray against demonic influence, claiming "Where two or three are gathered together, there am I in their midst" (Matthew 18:20). We agreed together that the enemy be bound.

I wondered, "Who would come to a commuter campus on a Wednesday night at 7:00?" To my surprise, the room was packed with about 250 people. I shared some stories and discussed some troubling issues. You could hear a pin drop. I gave an invitation, and many people came to Christ. I opened it up for questions, and nobody left.

I did the same at the University of Alberta, with the same kind of response. I went to a small commuter college at 11:00 on a Tuesday morning, and the auditorium was packed. I went to a university for a noon meeting on Monday, and 400 people showed up. At one university on Halloween night, 850 people came, half of them in costumes. A Satanist group was outside with robes and candles, chanting.

They weren't coming to see Neil Anderson. They didn't know who I was. They wanted to hear about demonic influences. Now, if we had said, "Come, hear about the claims of Christ", who would have been there? Three Crusade staff and ten staff friends, probably. It's amazing what's happening in our culture at this time: People want to hear about stupid demons.

I spoke to a group of 300 people. Five rows back was this large lady. It looked as if she had just parked her 18-wheel rig out front. I opened it up, shared some stories and gave an invita~tion. (I found out later that several gave their hearts to Christ.)

As soon as I was done, a man stood up in the back and said, "This guy has led you all astray. This is just a bunch of lies."

That big lady got up, turned around and said, "Listen! I was a witch and a lesbian. Everything that man said is true. That's how I lived my life until Christ took me down the Damascus Road, and I've been different ever since." God always has His people there.

Be sensitive to God's leading. He may call you to do a lot of interesting things, but the field is "white unto harvest" (John 4:35), and we'll never reach all the people who need Jesus on just Sunday afternoon. It's going to be your job, wherever you are. There's nothing that will kill this movement of God more than some~body being ashamed of Jesus. You're not ashamed of Jesus, are you? How could you be ashamed of Him?

Neil T. Anderson is founder and president of Freedom in Christ Ministries, based in La Habra, Calif. This article is reprinted, with permission, from the Aug. 20, 1997 issue of The Messenger and is based on a message Anderson preached at the 1997 annual convention of the Evangelical Mennonite Conference.

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