Pastor Peter Simpson was proclaiming the glad tidings of salvation in Christ alone in the centre of Aylesbury on December 21st, ably assisted by Mrs Lesley Pilkington.
At one stage Pastor Simpson endeavoured to challenge some passers-by with the question, Why are you here living on this earth? A young woman responded that it because her mother made her, to which the preacher asked, Was your being born a chance random event, or was there a deeper purpose behind it? Is there importance in. your existence? Her reply included the comment that people do not need Christianity to give them purpose. Everyone has their own ideas about the way to live. Pastor Simpson came back by asserting that it is only God who determines what is right and wrong. This cannot be left to the personal whims of millions of individuals; it is a matter objective, eternal truth. The atheist has to borrow from Christianity for his morality.
The young woman then suggested that the minister should be ‘pushing’ his religion on other people. She was told in response to this that she was perfectly free to walk by and ignore the reaching. She was then asked if she was a good person, because the Bible teaches that none of us is good by nature but that all have sinned and broken God’s commandments. The response to this was that the Bible is a book of nonsense. This prompted Pastor Simpson to ask her if she would be willing to say that publicly about the Quran? He asked this question because it seems that some religious viewpoints in contemporary Britain appear to have much more respect granted to them than Christianity does.
The young woman also defended abortion and the LGBT lifestyle, with the preacher asserting that this was to reject the plain teachings of the Bible, and to reject those teachings is in affect to claim to be wiser from God himself. Another young female passer-by who was a Bible believing Christian was listening to this exchange, and then entered into the conversation by giving her own testimony to the young woman about how she used to be involved in various fashionable sins of the day, but through the gospel she was brought a wonderful release. Another half a dozen young women had also by now stopped to listen to this public debate. So prayer is being offered up that the double testimony of the preacher and the Christian who joined in will lead this young woman opposer, along with others who heard, to seriously re-examine their thinking in the light of the exclusive truth of the Christian revelation.
Mrs Pilkington was able to distribute a good number of special evangelistic incarnation-themed gospel leaflets. She spoke profitably with two students from a Russian Orthodox background, but who seemed lacking in knowledge concerning some key aspects of the faith. She also had a long conversation with a man with whom she had spoken previously. He asked many questions about sin, what is goodness, and what does it mean to accepted into the presence of the all holy Holy God. He seemed to be genuinely seeking, and said that he may contact Pastor Simpson via email for some more answers. Might he indeed do so.
May the Lord be pleased to greatly use this public testimony in Aylesbury to the Lord Jesus Christ as He who is the only means for the sinner to be reconciled to the holy God.