Evangelism Coach

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The story of the blind men and the elephant is well known and one that I have encountered often in discussions about faith.  

It is about three or more blind experiencing just one part of the same elephant and that none of their explanations are complete.

The story of the elephant and the Blind Men

American poet John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887) put it into verse and it is probably this version which is best known today. [Read The Blindmen and the Elephant]. 

The story occurs in many forms and appears to have Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic and Jain versions.

Three to six blind men encounter an elephant.

The first touches its trunk and says that an elephant is like a palm tree. 

Another touches the side and says that an elephant is like a rough wall.

Another touches the tail and says that an elephant is like a piece of rope.

Each comes into contact with a different part of the elephant and is convinced that their own explanation is correct and that the others are wrong.

None of them realize they are all experiencing just one part of the same elephant and that none of their explanations are complete.

In the same way, so it is argued, different religions experience different parts of ‘God’ but fail to realize that each is just one part of the complete truth.

The problem with this interpretation of the parable is best phrased as a question:

How does the interpreter know that every religion is just a part of the overall conception of God?

In order to know this, one would have to be able to see God in all his fullness (the elephant) and understand how each religion reflects just a part of that complete picture.

Let me ask you this?

Have you encountered this illustration?  What do you do with it?

A great question about the gospel and evangelistic methods. Do many methods strip the gospel of its riches through oversimplification?

An article from an athiest about unconvincing arguments for God. It’s a good read if you want to examine your witness.

The Engle scale – Is evangelism a Linear Process?

First time visitor impressions. Part 1 of a nine part series.

Thoughts on first appearances with children’s ministries. A helpful list.

Steve Hayner writes about the Missional Church.

In case any of you saw the Atheist/Christian debate on ABC last week, The Irish Calvinist has a good discussion happening.

The debate was organized after some words were traded between the Rational Response Squad (who is promoting the Blasphemy Challenge) and The Way of the Master promoters Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort. So it was more of a follow up discussion between two organizations rather than the typical academic debate between incredibly deep thinkers.

If you care about it, feel free to read along at The Irish Calvinist.

The Way of the Master is a particular approach to evangelism using the Ten Commandments. It’s focus on the fact that we have violated God’s Law (what we do). It’s evidence that we are sinners (who we are). At its basic presupposition, it assumes that everyone believes in the authority of the Ten Commandments, which in this post modern age, may not be true.

If you desired so, you could google it all and see some of the discussions about it. It’ll come up here from time to time, but I don’t need to spend my time on it now.