Bad Swiss Apologetics?

My wife and I moved to Geneva, Switzerland a few weeks ago. Here, we have encountered a whole different culture and the hardest adjustment has been that of language – we had never spoken French before in our lives. Nevertheless, we were blessed by the Lord Jesus for, in His providence, there was an English-speaking local church about 40 minutes away from Geneva city (though it takes us an additional 20 minutes to get to the main city station) in a town called Lausanne – the church is called Lausanne Free Church (www.lausanne-english-church.com), a reformed interdenominational church (WCF, 1689 LBCF, 3 Forms) for expats. Those familiar with the Swiss Reformation must have heard/read of these geographical places. However, let’s not get started on how expensive things are up here, including transport. But I digress. At the church, we are going through the book of Genesis and are currently at chapter 23, on Sarah’s death. It is lovely and comforting to sit under sound preaching again – I had been preaching at our local church for quite a while whilst in Kenya. Yesterday, a small number of us, including my wife and I, went out after the service and fellowship to have lunch at Pastor Alan’s home in a town called Montreaux and then to evangelize at Kiosque Biblique, a little shop owned by the pastor close to a very busy street still within the same town. On a large white board in the street, we had the question: Do you think you are a good person? Below the board we had 6 boxes, 2 of a similar color put together (2 in one column and a total of 6 boxes in 3 neat columns). Each of 3 (out of 6) boxes had about 100 small balls (about 3 balls could fit into my palm) in 3 colors: red, yellow and green. At the bottom of the white board and corresponding to the position of each column (of 2 boxes each) were 3 answers: Yes (in green), I don’t know (in yellow), and No (in red). The idea was to take one ball from the box full of balls and vote your answer in the corresponding empty box. We also had many bibles in over fifteen (15) different languages since it was a tourist destination – and sure enough we freely gave out very many copies in Mandarin, Burmese, Arabic, Italian, French, English and many more. There was also a small fridge with many drinks – sodas of different flavors and bottled water. Kids and teenagers were particularly interested, especially since they were free and, in that way, we got to speak to many of the youngsters and their parents about the gospel. We also had a helium gas tank that was constantly filling red balloons (my lovely wife was in charge here) which attracted the very small children, even toddlers, and we used that to distribute very many bible-based tracts. Finally, we had a large world map and pins of many colors with which people could indicate from which country they had come – this interested people of every age. There were a few other attractions, but these were basically how we were able to reach many with the gospel. The Swiss people are very cautious and keep very much to themselves – which is so unlike Kenya, where my wife and I come from. The Swiss are also very affluent, which can be a major factor in evangelism. Drawing crowds in Switzerland is not as easy as it would have been back home, especially with free (“gratuit” is the French word) gifts we had to offer!

I got to speak to a number of people – about 15. Some could only speak French, but I only handled the English cases. Ultimately, 17 people voted “yes”, 7 voted “I don’t know”, and 6 voted “no”. Among those who voted no were a German family (Daniel, Nicole and their 3 kids) that understood the gospel quite well. We encouraged one another with the truth for some time. There were two young men who stood out – I will focus on our conversation. They seemed to be Swiss and could speak both French and English – so, I had the “luxury” of choosing which language to use, which happened to be English (surprise, surprise!). They came, read the board and observed us for a moment, and then each voted “yes”. I asked them why they thought they were good and they, responding, asked whether asking “why” was necessary. I told them that if we are to consider what good means, there ought to be a standard, and that’s why. They disagreed and said that everyone can be good at their own level, as long as they try to be nice. So, I asked them about two very famous and controversial men: Adolf Hitler and Donald Trump – my aim was not to enter into a mere political, but a moral, debate. I told them that these two men thought themselves to be good and each thought they were trying to do what was good for their own country – in Trump’s mind, he is and does what is good, and in Hitler’s mind, he was and did what was good. So, I asked them, “Do you think Trump is good, despite all that the media tells us about him?” One answered that the media can be biased and we cannot depend on what other people tell us about Trump. “Furthermore,” he added, “I cannot judge him. It is not my place.” “So,” I asked, “do you also think Hitler was good?” His friend grimaced. “I would not say so,” his friend retorted. “But then Hitler thought himself a good person and leader,” I quipped. Again, the first fellow answered that we cannot judge him. So, I asked them whether they think everyone is good. Without hesitation they said yes. “Good enough?” I asked. “I don’t understand,” they answered. “Do you think people are good enough to be perfect; good without any error or bad thing; are you, for instance, perfect?” They kept silent for about 2 seconds, probably thinking of a response, then one said, “No one is perfect.” The other one agreed with him. I told them that I agreed with them, partially. They smiled. They asked what perfection had to do with the discussion. I told them that there ought to be a standard of good that we are all aiming for, otherwise all our attempts to be good are meaningless. Good with some bad in it is not really good, unless it is truly and wholly good. Hence, the only true definition of good, without comparison, is perfect. I asked them to consider a building; every building requires an architect, someone who will plan how the building is built, how everything will go into place, how every floor will look like, how the structure will be shaped. It all has to be drawn out in a very detailed manner and the building has to be built according to the dimensions given or else the building would collapse. If the engineer or a mason building the house decided to take a different direction or to put in his own different ideas into the building and deviated from the original plan, which is the standard, the building might fall on them even before it was completed. I then went to the point; that every man has a standard that cannot and should not change. If we are to determine the goodness or evil of Hitler or Trump or themselves or myself, there must be a standard that we use to measure that – so that we are not deviating from the true meaning of good. Since a building is measured according to the drawing of a well-planned building and a vehicle is manufactured by the drawing of a well-planned vehicular structure and a road likewise with a similar plan and even war is well planned by drawing out battle lines on the field of war on a sheet of paper, it follows then that mankind is measured according to the plan laid out for him by the One who designed him, that is, God. “Here”, I told them, “there is One who is perfect,” (I had earlier on agreed partially with them that no one is perfect) – “His name is Jesus Christ,” I said. I asked them whether they had heard of Him and one of them joked saying that he had just heard about Him in our conversation – we all laughed, because we knew I had asked a rhetorical question. I asked them whether they knew about the Bible; had they read it? They kept silent. I told them that Jesus Christ was the standard of comparing our lives as human beings; all men need to compare their good with the good One. “You mean ‘all Christians’…” one of them said, meaning to correct me. I told him that Christ did not come to set the standard for Christians alone, but for all men, hence all are required to be perfect as He is (God commands all men everywhere to repent). They asked me, “Are you perfect yourself?” I answered in the negative. I then begun to explain to them however about justification by faith alone, how our sins are all imputed to Christ on the cross and His righteousness is imputed to those who believe in Him and thus we are counted righteous, or according to our discussion, perfect, in God’s sight. I could begin to see that I was making them uncomfortable, even though that was not my intent. One of them then said, “But, all I want is happiness.” I told him that happiness was actually a result of true goodness, of perfection. The reason someone sits down in a relaxed environment, stretches their legs on the sofa or in a jacuzzi with some wonderful music playing in the background and feels happy (at least in the moment) is because he feels so strongly that that particular environment is great. In fact, he may even express it saying, “Perfect!” as he lays down to rest. One of the young men wanted to continue interacting with the topic but I think I had pricked the other young man’s conscience – his facial expression had just changed. He interjected and said that they had a train to catch and they really would have wanted to “continue philosophizing” but they had to go. We shook hands and they left, hopefully with a lot to think about. I did not even remember to give them one of the many tracts we had.

As we went home that evening, I could only think about that conversation I had with the two young men. I mentioned it to Pastor Alan and he encouraged me (I felt a bit downcast that I could not tell them more about Christ) saying, “You left them with something worthy to consider. Let’s hope they will think about it.” Later, in the train, I could not keep my mind off the conversation, especially about the manner in which I engaged the young men. I kept correcting myself on almost every sentence, thinking, “I could have done better here to present the gospel in a clearer way.” My wife tried to engage me in conversation but I was not in the mood – that woman at times (maybe at all times) does keep up with a lot from this foolish fellow. I later told her how our conversation went and she encouraged me to put it in writing so that I may remember this and use it to get better in future. I must say, having written it down, that I have remembered aspects of the conversation that were not earlier coming to mind, and I pray that the Holy Spirit would lead these two young men to a realization that they are not good, in and of themselves. I am reminded in Scripture of a rich young ruler who came to Christ and called Him, “Good Teacher.” Christ then challenged the young man saying, “Why do you call Me good? Only One is good, that is, God.” (My paraphrase). He was telling the young man two things. One, that in calling Him good, He was comparing and equating Jesus Christ with God, i.e., making Him out to be God, which Jesus Christ was, and is, in fact. This man may not have had all that in mind. Secondly, Christ was telling the young man that no one else but God is good, and so, we should not carelessly think we can attach the adjective “good” in its absolute sense to any other, except the One who, alone, is good. The lesson drawn from that second point is that all goodness comes from the nature of God and thus He is the standard of who and what is good.

If you consider the question yourself (Do you think you are a good person?) are you tempted to compare yourself to other creatures as the standard of goodness? Will you say, “Oh, compared to Hitler, or to Trump, or to the corrupt government officials, or to the drug peddler down the street, I am good; I’m not as bad”? Will you think, “Oh, no one is perfect, but really, no one is truly that bad; very few are evil and so we can be and are good”? Do you think it is fallen human nature to be good and to do good? I suggest that you are wrong. You ought to ask yourself, “Compared to the holy God, how am I? Am I as good as He is? Can He and I be on the same level? Have I kept His law perfectly? Have I obeyed as He requires of me? Have I lived one single day without a sin of omission or commission? Have I pleased God and can He testify this about my goodness?” What should your answer be? Yes? No? I don’t know? The answer is with Jesus Christ. He is the good One who dies for undeserving and unfaithful man, the Righteous for the unrighteous, giving us His goodness and removing all our evil from within us. Yes, for goodness is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, fruit which can only be seen in the lives of those indwelt by Him as their portion. Learn from the good One – run to Him to receive His goodness. Truly, only God is good all the time; and all the time, God is good, and that is His nature.