Thinking Out Loud with Alan Shlemon - Christians Can’t Play Mortal Kombat

Episode Date: June 15, 2020

Believe it or not, there’s a valuable lesson that Christians can learn from the violent video game Mortal Kombat. Alan explains the lesson and how it should affect your conversations with people who don’t share your convictions.

There is a lesson to be learned from the violent video game called Mortal Kombat. Now, during a match, two players basically are dueling to the death by controlling their on-screen avatars. Now, as you kind of pummel the other person, his health dwindles to a very dangerous low. And at that point, your opponent, he's stumbling, he's struggling to stay on his feet. And what happens is the video game detects that you're about to win. And then it bellows ominously, finish him. And this is basically your cue to deliver one final and deadly blow. Now, Christians are often tempted to deliver a final verbal blow when they're sharing their religious convictions and noting their quote-unquote opponents faltering view. But taking the whole finish him approach is unbecoming of an ambassador

for Christ. Now granted, if you're in mortal combat, that might make sense. But if you're a Christian who's attempting to share the truth, it's a big mistake. Now I've seen this occur with both in-person conversation as well as in online interaction. This scenario plays out when a Christian starts with the presumption that the non-believer is an opponent and the goal is to win an argument. And so as the conversation unfolds, the Christian presents some powerful points, perhaps, causing the non-believer to reconsider his own view. Now, in his mind, the Christian thinks, okay, I've got him on the ropes. I need to deliver one final verbal blow to destroy his position. Finish him! Okay, but if he follows through on that instinct, he basically makes himself appear like the victor, right? And the unbeliever feel like the loser and of course less likely then

to consider the truth. And so sharing your faith should not be mortal combat. People are not our enemy and we're not trying to kill anyone. Now the stakes in evangelism certainly are high. They are life and death. But our goal is not to destroy an argument but to reach the person with the truth. Now, though there might be an instance when you've made a powerful point, that doesn't mean you have to continue to aggressively advance your position till your friend concedes to your view. Now, if you sense he's seeing your point, it can be prudent to back off a little and let him save face.

And let me explain to you an example of what that looks like. A few years ago, I was talking to a non-Christian about the subject of Islam. Now, he asked me if I believe Christians and Muslims worship the same God. Now, my initial answer was, no, I don't think so. Now, our conversation went back and forth for a minute until I provided the following hypothetical situation. I asked him to imagine what would happen if Jesus appeared in the room. Now, I told him that every Christian around us would probably bow down to worship that person, Jesus, as God. But if there was a Muslim in the room, there would be no Muslim who would ever bow down to worship Jesus as God.

But that's because Christians believe Jesus is God and Muslims vigorously deny that. So how is it possible then that both Christians and Muslims worship the same God when they don't both worship Jesus as their God? Now at that point, the man paused. He smiled and he said, hmm, let me think about that. And I sensed he found my point somewhat persuasive. And even though he wasn't fully convinced, I could tell his position was weaker. Now at that point, I could hear the words in my mind, finish him, you know, deliver a final blow, crush his view. And I could have piled on another point and claimed victory.

But that's not what an ambassador for Christ does, right? We're not trying to win an argument, but to reach the person with the truth. There's no need to hammer my point home and injure his self-image in front of me, who, by the way, this guy's a stranger, right? So instead, I let him save face and allowed the conversation to naturally transition to another topic. I put a stone in his shoe and felt comfortable enough to let the Holy Spirit continue, perhaps at a later time, to convict him of the truth of my point. In fact, this point reminds me of how Francis Schaeffer engaged those who sought to converse with him. In fact, one Schaeffer scholar writes this about Schaeffer.

He said, Schaeffer would be filled with compassion for these people. Always he would pray for them and seek to challenge them with the truth. But this challenge was never given aggressively. And he would say to us, and he would model for us the following. And here's the scholar quoting now Schaeffer directly. Schaeffer says, quote, Always leave someone with a corner to retire gracefully into. You're not trying to win an argument or to knock someone down.

You are seeking to win a person, a person made in the image of God. This is not about your winning. It's not about your ego. If that is your approach, all you will do is arouse their pride and make it more difficult for them to hear what you have to say. End quote. And that's precisely what I'm talking about. Leaving someone a corner to retire gracefully into. Otherwise, your finish him mentality will emotionally bruise them and leave them more resistant to the truth. Let's all remember that people, even those who might oppose us, are valuable image bearers of God. Though their false ideas need to be addressed, their souls need to be handled with care.