Witnessing to Christians!??!

I know you may be thinking the title must be a typo. I wish it was. So, why would we need to witness and share the gospel with Christians? Don't they already know the gospel, hence the title "Christians"? Sadly because of the modern presentation of the gospel in today's churches, a large majority of Christians have never heard the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I have personally witnessed to many professed "Christians" who walked an aisle or "accepted Jesus into their heart" or repeated a prayer that a well meaning Pastor or evangelist had them repeat and the person deemed themselves "saved" or "Christian".  It is a sad consequence of modern evangelism methods that measure their effectiveness by how many people said the prayer or filled out the commitment card. It is so frustrating when I hear these types of messages especially from the pulpit and I have heard my fair share of them. I to was a false conversion due to these kinds of methods and if I would have past into eternity after that I would without a doubt be in hell right now. That is not only sobering for me, but should be for church leaders, pastors, and evangelists out there. The truth of scripture can be a jagged pill to swallow for the unregenerate, but we must speak the truth in love and if they reject it then so be it. All I can do is again speak the truth, urge them to repent and believe the gospel, pray for them and let the Holy Spirit do His work. Its not up to me. That should be very freeing message for the person witnessing. We are to be obedient to the command of Jesus to preach the Gospel to every creature and that's it. The rest is up to God.

So, how do we approach a witnessing conversation when the person says "Oh, I am already a Christian."  Well, as Tony Miano puts it, that is code for "preach the Gospel to me." So how do we "feel them out" to see if they know the true Gospel and have been born again? One of the most effective ways I have found is to give them the 3 minutes to live scenario. If you do not know what that is, I have put some examples and resources at the bottom of this post. Basically you ask the "Christian" to kind of role play with you. They are the Christian and you are their friend the unbeliever. You, the unbeliever, have a knife stuck in your back and only have three minutes to live and are afraid to die. What would you, as the Christian, say to me? Here is where you will get their understanding of the Gospel. You are likely to get all kind of answers. I did this recently with our youth group for the first session of the Way of the Master Basic Training Course. They were all sitting around a table talking and I screamed from behind a partition and came crawling out with a (fake) knife sticking out of my back. I told them I was bleeding out and only had three minutes to live, please tell me how to be saved. I got a lot of blank stares, pray a prayer, or just ask Jesus into my heart. And that is likely what you will hear as well.

And a great way to witness to this Christian is after they have told you what they would say to someone dying without Jesus Christ, you reverse roles. Now you are the Christian and they are the unbeliever about to die. Then you take them through the law and the Gospel. Ask them if they noticed the difference between what they said and what you said. From there I would inquire if they have ever repented of their sins and placed their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Have they been born again? (John 3:3) 

You are likely to get a lot of opposition from these professed Christians, who grew up in the church and know how to speak "Christianese". But do not let that distract you from getting to the Gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16). 

As a side note, the 3 minutes to live scenario is also very useful to use with Christian counterfeits like Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses. 

Listen to Ray Comforts sermon on 3 minutes to live here.