Sometimes when you are open-airing you get someone who walks by and heckles you. And even in the blog world you have people that are like "blog hecklers". They show up and shout something out.The plan is when I get a comment on the blog that I would deem heckling (which is extremely rare) I'll try to answer how I would respond in a open-air setting to their comments. Now understand not all hecklers should be responded to because it's a distraction of the preaching of the gospel, however some heckling could draw a bigger crowd to then share more of the good news.
In the future I would kindly ask if you are going to heckle me please don't use suss words (mild or abbrev.), blasphemy, URL’s (website addresses), incivility, or failure to give the name ‘God’ or ‘Jesus’ capitals, your comment will be deleted immediately.
"Bullhorn Twotails" wrote a comment for THIS POST: (Sentences in bold/italic were "edited" to remove inappropriate content)
Fantastic! Cops who stand-up to nuisance makers!! Why would anyone on their day out want to be serenaded by loud-mouthed, deluded loonies?
The 'evangelising' youngster in the clip (as far as I could make out, given the poor sound...) was courteously asked to move away to another spot. He refused; reckoning, no doubt, he had a captive audience as people walked in & out of the entrance...
Why should his 'right' to pollute a quiet afternoon with his mindless preaching trump other people's right not have their peaceful afternoon disrupted by a lunatic??
We've heard it all before. It gets more & more tedious every time. Don't you crazies realise that you're all a laughing stock.... and that your silly beliefs will be your own undoing?
The 'evangelising' youngster in the clip (as far as I could make out, given the poor sound...) was courteously asked to move away to another spot. He refused; reckoning, no doubt, he had a captive audience as people walked in & out of the entrance...
Why should his 'right' to pollute a quiet afternoon with his mindless preaching trump other people's right not have their peaceful afternoon disrupted by a lunatic??
We've heard it all before. It gets more & more tedious every time. Don't you crazies realise that you're all a laughing stock.... and that your silly beliefs will be your own undoing?
If Jesus ever lived (which is very doubtful), he's long since dead & buried. (Blasphemy deleted) Yo!
My Response:
Sir because God, judgment and hell is real that is why we will proclaim that Jesus Christ died on a cross for your sins and rose again from the dead, so that you can be forgiven by the very One whom you have blasphemed. As far as being a laughing stock... well, you're actually agreeing with scripture when it says "the message of the cross is foolishness... to those who are perishing". Sir; come to your senses, you are perishing, TURN AND LIVE!
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
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ReplyDeleteJohnny, PRAISE THE LORD for your boldness!! I think I need to take advice form you on this matter. The most physical contact I've had is a drunk woman knocking me off my box. I just kept preaching.
ReplyDeleteJesus command to "turn the other cheek" would apply for minor offenses. John MacArthur wrote in his study bible: Matthew 5:39- "This deals only with matters of personal retaliation, not criminal offenses or acts of military aggression. Jesus applied this principal of non-retaliation to affronts against one's dignity, lawsuits to gain one's personal assets, infringements on one's liberty, and violations of property rights. He was calling for a full surrender of all personal rights."
I think it is a case by case basis. If you are walking in the Spirit, He will guide you. Sometimes you would see the Apostles flee or stand. I don't think its un-biblical to defend oneself physically if needed. I.E. if someone broke into my house, I will defend myself and my family. Jesus said in Luke 22:36-"But now, he who has a money bag, let him take it, and likewise a knapsack; and he who has no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one." I believe this was for defense.
Personally;
If someone spits on me...keep preaching.
Takes my bible...keep preaching.
Threatens me... keep preaching.
Gets physical... keep preaching... as you try to avoid contact.
Johnny be encouraged, your preaching is having an effect if this is the response you are getting and great is your reward in heaven!!
I accidentally removed Johnny's comment, here is what he wrote:
ReplyDeleteOne thing, I am still trying to figure out is what to do when things turn more violent. I have been street preaching here in Lebanon and at times things get very risky, shall we say? Do you leave after someone threatens to hit, or when someone takes your books and throws them or until things get more aggressive?
Then how do we respond? Obviously not with force, but should we report violent incidents to the police? The police here might care might not.. Depending on the officer...
Last night we had a great open air, though earlier in the day it was quite violent...
Just trawling thru various swamps where I've deposited my precious fecal matter, in the hope of oxygenating the fetid, viscous remains of what once must've been crystal-clear bodies of water, teeming with life...
ReplyDeleteThanks buddy, but no thanks. You just keep on suffocating in your own dribbe, if that's your calling. Each to his own, for all I care. The point is you dribbling fools are no more than programmed bots, like the online personas in the vast virtual world out there, sent to amuse the rest of us.
When I need your forgiveness for being a downtrodden, sin-ridden, paranoid, self-loathing schizo, who's afraid of his shadow, hell will've frozen over.
In the meantime, I don't need your God, your half-baked beliefs, or your moronic words, thank you.
You see, Huckleberry, in your tight, constricted, self-validating little, airless world, the only blasphemers (in the true sense of the word), are the irredeemably damned like you.
Oh and trust me, hating your kind or resorting to violence is never even remotely on the agenda of thinking people. You fundies are only fit to be mocked & scorned for what you are, even though you'd surely love to be battered physically, if only to prove to yourselves that your warped take on reality, as the soldiers of Christ, was thereby justified.
I don't even expect you to understand anything I've just said, which I suppose, from your very shaky point of view, is further justification to you to keep on the hell-bound path you're on...
You're lucky, though, aren't you? Can you begin to imagine what the world would be like, and what would happen to you, if such a place as your childishly fiendish vision of hell actually existed??
So while you're at it, you just keep standing on your soap-box, wasting your life away, spouting for all your worth...
In meantime, life as we know, will drift by your clotted mind, unnoticed.
But that's OK...
...Should any doubts intrude, you can keep them at bay by praising your Lord.
Good luck!