This will be my last installment, dealing with the false accusation that we desire to see people hit us so we can entangle them in a lawsuit for lots of money.
I do not deny that we have been punched, kicked, pushed, spit upon, cursed, had objects thrown at us and generally hated for the preaching of Jesus Christ. He stated this would be the case when we do this work (Matt 10:22, 24:9, Mark 13:13, Luke 21:17, John 7:7, 15:18, 17:13-15). Have you ever been hated for your faith, “Christian?” I do not revile the sinner but plead with them to surrender to Christ.
We have never sued any individual for physical attacks against our persons. However, we have no problem with the government protecting us physically and arresting attackers if they choose to enforce the law (Rom 13:1-5).
We have been involved in four lawsuits against government agencies or universities, in which we have won a total of $4. We are required by law to receive some form of monetary reward in a civil lawsuit. We decided at the beginning of our ministry that we would only accept $1 as recompense in these matters.
This leaves our adversaries without ammunition to falsely accuse our motives for preaching Jesus Christ. I would add that our lawyers are not bound by that decision, and they receive the just payment for their services.
Our initial outreach on campus three years ago consisted of trying to establish a good place to preach, one-to-one evangelism and handing out gospel tracts. We were told we would have to leave or be arrested. When I was in the student center I heard one of the administrators tell Christian students they could not hand out any gospel tracts. Do we still live in America, the land of the free? After all of that resistance by the administrators, we decided we would preach from the public sidewalk. We were able to draw some crowds to hear the Gospel message for three days.
But the fact remained we were excluded from a public campus which should welcome and tolerate every worldview. The whole purpose of learning is to find out exactly what is the truth. Jesus Christ proclaimed, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one enters the Kingdom but through Me” (John 14:6).
This should stir every person’s soul as the same person that made this claim also died on the cross shedding His precious blood that you might be saved. He was resurrected, proving Himself as God, the One who has power over life and death! He offers that life in Him to you today friend. Will you surrender?
I would exhort all believers on campus to carefully study all the scriptures I gave in these articles, as the truth is knowable, and His Name is the Word of God. Thank you.
