Saturday, November 21, 2009

An atheist makes a way for the Gospel to be heard

Last Thursday my friends Jon Speed and Tim Crawford headed up to the University of North Texas to share their faith. Prior to going, they put in for a free speech permit two months ago and The Dean of Students Office honored the permit for the 19th. But with in that 2 month period UNT changed their free speech policy - so after the 19th UNT won't allow any open-air preachers on campus unless they have a sponsoring student organization.

On Thursday, Jon preached for the last time on the Sovereignty of God and how God is Sovereign even when He allows the UNT administration to change their free speech policy so that open-air preachers cannot come on campus without a sponsoring student organization.

After he finished, a young atheist man named Stewart who they have witnessed to several times and who was on Wretched Radio with me in February of this year (you might remember him from my "Stewart has a problem" video) asked Jon about what he was saying with regard to the free speech policy. Jon explained as Stewart listened, "The Dean of Students office will not allow us back on the campus without student group sponsorship and that most Christian student groups don’t like to be aligned with open-air preaching (or any evangelism for that matter)".

Stewart left, made a phone call, and came back and said that he has a secular student organization that would be willing to sponsor Jon and Tim's ministry and that he would be willing to be the contact person backing them. He gave them his phone number and the authorization to put the student organization name on the application!

I was so filled with joy when I heard this!

In other words, an atheist is helping Christians so that they can continue to preach at UNT!

Stewart told Jon, "I don’t agree with your message, but I hate to see anyone’s right to free speech taken away. You have the right to be heard."

Isn't this wonderful!

In Jon's words, "Our Sovereign God is able to use atheists to keep the gospel coming to UNT."

11 comments:

stranger.strange.land said...

God's atheists. Love it. : )

Craig

Melanie said...

Isnt it ironic that the Christians are unwilling to step up even if they don't fully agree, yet an atheist is willing to step up even though he is completely opposed? I find it a sad commentary on Christianity in a way. God always gets done what He wants done even if He can't use Christians to do it.

BathTub said...

But Atheists want to shoot you and knife you right? That's what Terry Burton was telling us over at Ray's blog. That's why you were all so scared you had to lie about the hand out date for the past 2 months, because of how scary teh Athiest are.

ITs All About Jesus!!! said...

Truly the LORD works in
mysterious ways.

I thought about this passage when I read your post, an answer to prayer.

Romans 8:28
(New King James Version)

28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

russell robinson said...

Wow! God is great. He honors faithfulness to his word.

Blogger said...

God will get his glory in one way or another. Never doubt.

ExPatMatt said...

Trish,

I've been away for awhile but I note that you never answered my comment; I repeat it here for your convenience -


"In a previous thread, Craig noted that he didn't believe for a second that you (or the LW team) thought that the doggit was a viable representation of what evolutionists mean by the term 'transitional' species.

Could you please clarify this?

Do you think that the doggit is a valid example of what evolutionists think evolution predicts?


Your statement regarding dogs and cats seems to imply that you think evolution does say that dogs evolve into cats or some such thing, but I can't be sure because of your ambiguous and muddled terminology.

You seem to be accepting speciation (the emergence of new species) in this post, just like Ray did in his discussion with Thunderf00t, is this the case?


I'd appreciate it if you replied to me this time, you've been somewhat distant of late.

Regards,"


Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Praise God!

Whateverman said...

Jon's quote seems rather meaningless, though I say this with no animosity. If LW had not been able to speak on campus, supporters here would probably have claimed it as evidence of a fallen world in need of Christ's message. If a Christian organization had stepped up and sponsored LW, the same supporters would be praising God for allowing LW to spread the good word. And now that an atheist decided to sponsor, it's God working his will in mysterious ways.

Does anyone here at Trish's blog doubt that God would get the credit for whatever happened at the university?

I think it's a tad shameful, Trish, that you don't applaud the moral relativist atheist for sticking to his principles, even when he disagrees with the consequences. Rather than give him the credit he deserves, you take the opportunity to praise your own faith.

Reynold said...

Because no one in North America has ever heard of the Christian's God before...so if it wasn't for this happening, they would have remained forever ignorant of this being's existence.

Debunkey Monkey said...

That was sure gosh darn nice of that man to help you out even though he didn't need to. I'm glad everyone's happy. :)