Evangelism Options

[yummy_delight]

A good friend of mine and I recently got into a heated debate about evangelism. We're both Christians, but we have very different ideas about evangelism. When my friend started getting really involved in church a few years ago, he also became a rampant evangelist. He believes that by bringing more people into the church he is not only saving them from eternal damnation, but also doing his duty as a Christian. He has often quoted Charles Spurgeon, saying "Every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter," essentially stating that you can't truly be Christian without evangelizing non believers.

I, however, don't like the idea of evangelism at all. Although I'm a devout Catholic, I dislike the idea of evangelism because I don't believe that anybody, myself included, has the right to force his or her beliefs on someone else. I think that everybody has a right to be whatever the religion they choose. Perhaps it's because I have a different idea about God than other people. I don't think that God sends honestly good people to Hell just because they don't believe in him. There are such things as Christian people who are hypocritical, paying lip service to God at church on Sundays, and still go about causing harm to other people. In my opinion, these people are less deserving of heaven than the good-hearted people whose only "fault" is that they don't believe in God. I think that my duty as a Christian is to be a good person and have a positive impact on the world, which doesn't necessarily mean that I HAVE to be an evangelist.

I'd just like to know what everyone else's opinion is on this, not merely from a Christian standpoint, but from another religion's or atheist's perspective as well. Do you approve of evangelism? Are you an evangelist? Do you think that evangelism is a necessary requirement for all good Christians?

[sdingfelder]

Good morning, icy_wonderland.

If you believe it's okay to lie, steal, look at someone's son or daughter (I'm not sure if you're a guy or a girl) to lust after them then you've seared the very conscience that God gave you. The conscience bears witness of the Ten Commandments that God gave.

As for the "should's" and "shouldn'ts" that disgust you, they're from God. Feel free to take it up with Him.

Finally, I'm not telling people what to do. God's done that through His Word and the conscience that He's given each person -- including you. What I'm doing is trying to point out that each of us will die some day -- no idea what day that'll be. And on that day, each person will be judged by the Living God. Because He's done something for me that I can neither pay back nor have I earned, I'm simply trying to share something with people that they may have never heard before or never thought about before.

If caring for others is offensive to you, I'm very sorry for that. Please examine your own mortality. We're all victims of the ultimate statistic: 10 out of 10 people die.

[Based on the latest edit I saw]

So what if there's no God? What if we're not Christians? Why do we have to live the way some book (Bible) tells us to?

Since we're in the realm of the philosophical: What if God does exist ? What if you are to be judged by The God who shows Himself through the fact that we have Creation itself showing His existence ?

As for not being a Christian, please read somewhere above. Someone else asked the question and my response is up there.