Pastor Peter Simpson was preaching the gospel in Slough High Street on June 6th, helped by Mrs Lesley Pilkington.
Pastor Simpson preached on 2 Thessalonians 1:7-8, which speaks of the time “when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in faming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ”. All people, the passers-by were told, whatever their religion, or if they be of none, must appear before the judgement seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10).
The preacher entered into discussion with a man who embraced various New Age ideas, but who certainly understood that contemporary western society is in serious trouble. However, there was a barrier in his mind when told that the only solution is the gospel of Jesus Christ, which can alone change the hearts of men. Pastor Simpson endeavoured to get the man, who was certainly a deep thinker, to focus on his own personal standing before God. Are you a good person?, he was asked. Yes, I believe that I am, was the reply. However, the word of God asserts, “There is none righteous, no, not one … there is none that doeth good, no, not one” (Romans 3:10,12). The man could see how things were going wrong in society, but how he also needs to see the great problem in his own heart, which only the word Jesus Christ can deal with.
Mrs Pilkington had a very useful conversation with 3 Muslim schoolboys. Initially when she handed them a tract, they politely declined them. However some time later they came out of a shop and were listening to the preaching. So the witnessing sister enquired of them again, and this time they said that they agreed with the preaching and the posters in its assertion that Britain has lost its moral moorings, which is especially seen in the tedious and continual promotion of all things LGBT.
Mrs Pilkington then briefly told them about the Person of the Lord Jesus and His paying the price for the sins of men. The schoolboys responded that they totally disliked the LGBT agenda and the ‘woke’ drift of society. They were told in response that truly born again Christians, those who believe the Bible, teach uncompromisingly that homosexuality is sin and that the general wokeness of modern Britain is thoroughly anti-Christian.
They seemed surprised at this, because there is an assumption in the minds of many Muslims that western society is Christian (there being no distinction in Islam between personal religious faith and a nation’s government and the culture of that nation. Nothing of course could be further from the truth with respect to Britain being Christian, but when Muslims in the UK see many churches engaging in a craven capitulation to the LGBT agenda, it just reinforces their misconception that the general drift of UK society is simply reflecting what the Christian faith teaches.
So the horrible compromise of many churches on LGBT issues is providing Islam with an open goal to assert that their religion alone is the truth, because, they can argue, the evidence is there for all to see that the ‘Christian West’ is immoral, Godless and decadent – and this is confirmed by what the churches teach. We may think in this context of the appalling recent decision of the General Synod of the Church of England to bless same-sex marriages. What they have done in reality is to give to Muslims powerful ammunition for claiming that theirs is the only true religion, because the Christians completely ignore God’s laws.
The Muslims schoolboys thankfully took some literature. May the Lord open their hearts to see the unique truth of Jesus Christ – God manifest in the flesh – and may many others who heard in Slough also see their need of fleeing to the only Saviour of sinners.