Jesus and Strippers

[Recovering IFB]

https://justajesusfollower.com/2016/05/09/i-went-to-a-strip-club/

 

[FSSL]

The Apostle Paul preached in the temples of Greece. Not exactly morally-sanitized places. Good article (didn't finish it... but got the gist).

 

[Twisted]

Understand completely.  While in Nevada once, I went door knocking with a pastor.  We met a young woman whose mother worked at a brothel.  People just like anyone else - they all need Jesus.

 

[Anchor]

The Apostle Paul preached in the temples of Greece. Not exactly morally-sanitized places. Good article (didn't finish it... but got the gist).

Where do you find that he preached in a temple? I see where he went to the Areopagus (Acts 17) and preached oft in the market places.  I'd be very interested in sourcing for the his preaching in pagan temples.

 

[FSSL]

I am kind of surprised at the question, but here is my understanding.
Mars Hill: sure, technically, he was not in the Aeropagus, but on the hill where the temple was.
Acts 21: Jerusalem temple
Acts 5:42: earlier apostles preached in the temples

 

[Anchor]

I am kind of surprised at the question, but here is my understanding.
Mars Hill: sure, technically, he was not in the Aeropagus, but on the hill where the temple was.
Acts 21: Jerusalem temple
Acts 5:42: earlier apostles preached in the temples

Why the surprise?  Your thesis that going to the strip club for evangelism equates to Paul in a pagan temple preaching.  If Paul didn't preach in a pagan temple your premise for your thesis goes up in smoke.

Which he evidently did not.  The Areopagus is a place of debate and judgment, not a temple (i.e., it is a civil forum, not a religious/idolatrous forum).  The temple in Jerusalem hardly equates to a pagan temple such as you would find in Corinth (Aphrodite), Ephesus (Artemas), or Athens
(Zeus, et. al.).

 

[Anchor]

Assuming that Paul and the other apostles did not actually enter pagan temples for the purpose of the Gospel (and there is no evidence that they did), what biblical imperative is provided that the place to evangelize is in the "seat of the scornful" so to speak--the strip clubs, bars (gay or straight), neo-nazi or afro-centrist confabs, etc.?

If I'm going to send my wife to evangelize in a strip club there had better be pretty strong biblical foundation for it as opposed to reaching those same lost through other venues. 

 

[subllibrm]

Assuming that Paul and the other apostles did not actually enter pagan temples for the purpose of the Gospel (and there is no evidence that they did), what biblical imperative is provided that the place to evangelize is in the "seat of the scornful" so to speak--the strip clubs, bars (gay or straight), neo-nazi or afro-centrist confabs, etc.?

If I'm going to send my wife to evangelize in a strip club there had better be pretty strong biblical foundation for it as opposed to reaching those same lost through other venues.

In what other venues would your wife likely cross paths with a stripper?

 

[ItinerantPreacher]

Assuming that Paul and the other apostles did not actually enter pagan temples for the purpose of the Gospel (and there is no evidence that they did), what biblical imperative is provided that the place to evangelize is in the "seat of the scornful" so to speak--the strip clubs, bars (gay or straight), neo-nazi or afro-centrist confabs, etc.?

If I'm going to send my wife to evangelize in a strip club there had better be pretty strong biblical foundation for it as opposed to reaching those same lost through other venues.

In what other venues would your wife likely cross paths with a stripper?

The grocery store. McDonalds. Walmart. etc

 

[sword]

Assuming that Paul and the other apostles did not actually enter pagan temples for the purpose of the Gospel (and there is no evidence that they did), what biblical imperative is provided that the place to evangelize is in the "seat of the scornful" so to speak--the strip clubs, bars (gay or straight), neo-nazi or afro-centrist confabs, etc.?
If I'm going to send my wife to evangelize in a strip club there had better be pretty strong biblical foundation for it as opposed to reaching those same lost through other venues.

In what other venues would your wife likely cross paths with a stripper?

You could knock on her door while soul winning. You could talk to her at a school function, since many strippers have school age kids they are trying to support. You could talk to them at community events and in some limited situations, if you are targeting women you believe to be in trouble, you could volunteer at a women's shelter.

 

[sword]

If I was trying to witness to a specific person and the only place I knew I could find him was a bar then fine. If let's say a church members father or uncle would not allow you in his house, you may try to talk to him in a setting he would be more comfortable. If the only place I could meet someones grandma was at the casino then I'm fine with that, otherwise I think Christians should avoid such places. I have no problem going to the jail to visit someone, otherwise I'm going to avoid it at all costs.

 

[subllibrm]

And if the Holy Spirit tells you to go?

 

[Ransom]

The grocery store. McDonalds. Walmart. etc

And how do you know they're a stripper when they're at Walmart? Are they in their work clothes?

 

[FSSL]

The grocery store. McDonalds. Walmart. etc

And how do you know they're a stripper when they're at Walmart? Are they in their work clothes?

Aisle 5... Look for the dollar bills

 

[Anchor]

And if the Holy Spirit tells you to go?

This is the reason I asked for the scripture imperative that the strip club (or similar) is the place to evangelize these. The Holy Spirit will only direct according to Scripture, never contrary to it. 

I can hardly imagine a strip club that is not operated by "scorners" for "scorners", in the biblical sense.  Again, I'd like to see some scripture that definitively directs me to find the scorner in the practice and place of scorning  as the proper methodology for an effective, efficient witness to the lost before I'm willing to confront others that it should be their practice as well as the blog article attempts to do. 

That these women are broken, the Gospel can fix them, and they are capable of responding to the Gospel is not in question.  That we are to take the Gospel into the temple of the pagans, which these clubs certainly fit the bill of, is a question.

 

[Ransom]

what biblical imperative is provided that the place to evangelize is in the "seat of the scornful" so to speak

Psalm 1:1 is about whom you get your advice from, not where you go. If you want to share the Gospel with sinners, you go where there are sinners. If you want to share the Gospel with a particular kind of sinner, you go where that kind of sinner is.

If this were men going to the strip club to talk to the women, I'd see the problem. But it's other women, pastors' wives specifically, whom (as a general rule) I wouldn't expect to be enticed by the particular kinds of temptation that strippers offer.

 

[subllibrm]

what biblical imperative is provided that the place to evangelize is in the "seat of the scornful" so to speak

Psalm 1:1 is about whom you get your advice from, not where you go. If you want to share the Gospel with sinners, you go where there are sinners. If you want to share the Gospel with a particular kind of sinner, you go where that kind of sinner is.

If this were men going to the strip club to talk to the women, I'd see the problem. But it's other women, pastors' wives specifically, whom (as a general rule) I wouldn't expect to be enticed by the particular kinds of temptation that strippers offer.

Yep

 

[ItinerantPreacher]

The grocery store. McDonalds. Walmart. etc

And how do you know they're a stripper when they're at Walmart? Are they in their work clothes?

Lol, well, if you've ever seem a "people of Walmart video" it's possible.

No, the point was rather that strippers or any other person for that matter has to go other places. For instance, the woman taken in the act adultery. Jesus didn't go sit on the bedside during the act and say "hey, what's up?". The woman at the well was a woman of poor reputation, he found opportunity at a different location where his activities were not in question. Did he eat with publicans and sinners? Sure, at Matthew's house, not the "bawdy" house.

 

[FSSL]

Problem. We don't have omniscience.

The fact that Jesus was at that well had implications.

Jesus sat and ate and drank with the scum of society, in their own context. The apostles hung around the pagan temples.

Our Christianity has become sanitized to such a degree that we have destroyed the inroads and bridges to evangelize our society.

 

[Anchor]

...
Jesus sat and ate and drank with the scum of society, in their own context. The apostles hung around the pagan temples.

...

Emphasis mine

Still say that if this is going to be a premise of your thesis it has to be supported scripturally. I Cor. 8-10; II Cor. 6; all of the Book of Acts, particularly chap 15, indicate that pagan temples were off limits.