If you can’t see the video go here.
Penn says, “How much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?” That is a very intense statement from someone who claims to be an atheist. It honestly is something that I see as a wake up call in my own life. Does that mean that I am going to start running around telling everyone I encounter all about God? No, because I personally do not believe that is an entirely effective way to go about it. But it does mean that I am going to pay more attention to those moments when I feel a prompting from God to tell someone about the love of God.
I talked a little bit about the idea of confrontational evangelism a couple of years ago and you can read that here. To summarize that post, I said that I do not believe that is the best method for evangelism. I believe that friendship or relational evangelism is a much more effective way to do evangelism in this culture. I am not saying that the other method doesn’t work, but I do not believe it is as effective.
I think Penn even agrees with this because he commented on how he was a good man, a kind man, a nice man. this guy did not walk up to Penn and tell him that he was going to hell, but instead he went up to him complimented him, thanked him, talked with him and then shared the message of God’s love with him.
So I guess the question every Christ follower needs to ask themselves is, “what am I doing?” Are we sharing the love of Christ with those around us and telling them about the message of hope that we have in Christ Jesus? Or are we simply telling our friends to go to hell?