D. James Kennedy Had His Moments, Too

The passing of D. James Kennedy is a loss for Christianity.  Kennedy literally revolutionised personal evangelism with his Evangelism Explosion course of study.  And he lived his own course, taking the initiative to share the Gospel when the opportunity presented itself.

Well, most of the time.

I used to be very active in the deep foundation construction equipment business.  One of my colleagues was a Rhode Islander contractor and equipment designer/distributor named Charlie Guild.  Like many people in the geotechnical field, Charlie was an evolutionist, which caused him difficulty with Christianity.  This bothered another mutual friend, a construction material salesman named Earl Seck, who was a member of Kennedy’s church.  Earl worked for a long time to set up a meeting between Charlie and Pastor Kennedy, which he finally did in the latter’s office in Ft. Lauderdale.

Charlie and Kennedy went back and forth for a long time about evolution and other issues.  The meeting was coming to an end when Earl asked Kennedy, "Don’t you have a couple of questions to ask Charlie?"

Kennedy paused.  The light came on.

The "questions" Earl had in mind were the Two Diagnostic Questions, the centrepiece of Evangelism Explosion.  They are as follows:

1. Have you come to that place in your spiritual life where you can say for certain that if you were to die today you would go to heaven?
2. Suppose you were to die tonight and stand before God and He were to say to you, “why should I let you into My heaven?” What would you say?

Kennedy asked Charlie the questions, presented to him the Gospel, and lead him to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.  Charlie was a superlative Christian man until the time of his death a few years ago.

By the way, how would you answer those questions?  If you’re not sure where you’re going, click here and find out what Charlie learned.