witnessing

[Jeffro-Wilson]

do you believe that the way you present the gospel has any bearing on whether a person gets saved ? what if you say something not quite right ? what if someone gets saved because of someone manipulating their emotions ? can someone be saved by simple reasoning and arguements ?

[R_A_D]

I believe that it is the work of the Holy Spirit that saves, and that the things we do and say are simply acts of obediance. By our witnessing we get to take part in the process of salvation, but it is not our eloquence, or lack there of that saves, it is the conviction and drawing of the Holy Spirit, and He can use anyone willing to obey and be available as one of His tools to bring someone to know Christ.

[elifan86]

Yeah I agree completely with RAD, it is our responsibility to present the gospel to someone, but it is the work of the Holy Ghost and the convictions thereof that bring someone to repentance and faith in Christ.

[Blindman]

Originally posted by Jeffro-Wilson
do you believe that the way you present the gospel has any bearing on whether a person gets saved?

Ditto what R_A_D said; it's the Holy Spirit that saves, not us. That said, there are many ways to lead people to the point where they're ready to make that step of faith... for some people logical arguments work better, and for others you need more of an emotional approach.

But having one without the other leads to an incomplete faith. We are called to love God with all our minds and all our hearts. A faith that is based entirely on emotional experiences of God can easily turn into a faith where you worship emotion, not the loving God from whom those emotions come. And a faith that is based largely on what you know about God or the Bible but which does not include an attempt to truly experience the love and peace and joy of God is also not a complete faith, since it leads to the worship of the intellect and of knowledge and not worship of the One who gave you your intelligence.

So I would say that it doesn't matter a whole bunch how you present the Gospel to someone, as long as you use both reasoning and emotions in doing so. Its the Holy Spirit that does the real work, after all, and if the Holy Spirit is working through you, you don't have to worry about thing not coming across quite right.