By Margaret Luevano
“He is not really an atheist!”
That was my thought after hearing the story of a man who claimed to be an atheist. Eduard was born and raised in Russia during the communist regime and had been taught that there was no God. He had served in the Russian military during the war Russia had with Afghanistan in the 1980s. He was captured and put into a pit as a prisoner of war but was able to escape eventually and ended up walking over miles of desert looking for someone who could help him.
At one point Eduard told me he had prayed, “God, if you are real, let there be a house over the next hill.” He was surprised to see a house, and he was able to get help. I had always thought atheists were really atheists until this encounter, but I realized he would never pray, “God, if you are real . . .” if he didn’t perceive there was a God (Rom. 1:20).
Through the years, I have had a burden for the unsaved, and the Lord has given me the opportunity to share the gospel in many settings. I have planted seeds and have been blessed to see some people come to Christ.
I have learned so much from these experiences and hope I can be an encouragement to others who want to share the gospel:
1. You don’t have to be fully prepared to begin. Share the gospel and see what happens.
I was riding a train in the late 1990s and was totally unprepared for a discussion started by a young girl sitting near me. We were soon in a conversation about beliefs.
I quickly learned that she was a Jehovah’s Witness. My dad (who had taken our family to Japan as missionaries) had taught me that the key to the cults was to get down to the question “Who is Jesus?” I started with that. I knew that Jehovah’s Witnesses believe Jesus is a created being and do not believe he is God. We started going back and forth on who Jesus is.
Since iPhones were not invented yet, I tried to look up applicable verses in the sparse concordance of the Bible that I had. I expected to find many verses where Jesus declared himself to be God but didn’t find much help, leaving me to use verses I had memorized. I shared John 1:1–4 only to find out that the New World Translation she was using changed the words of the verses to misrepresent the meaning. Instead of revealing the deity of Christ and proclaiming that “in him was life,” it portrays him as “a god” and declares that life “exists by him” rather than “in him.” She explained her belief that God created Jesus before creating Adam.1
As someone who grew up in a Christian home with a decent amount of biblical knowledge, I was shocked at how incapable I felt in this situation. That experience sent me on a years-long journey of writing down anything related to the question of Jesus’s deity in Scripture.
I asked the Lord to show me the truth and give me wisdom based on James 1:5. As I read and heard pastors teach the word, I began writing down every passage that revealed who Jesus is. Over time, those notes became an invaluable resource in sharing the good news of Jesus.
A few of those notes included Old Testament prophecies, the “I AM” statements, and passages about Jesus forgiving sins, healing the sick, raising the dead, his command over nature, his existence before Abraham, Jesus’s claim to the title “Son of Man,” and more.
2. Be willing to be uncomfortable.
One day I was in a coffee shop and noticed a Jewish man near me. I had always wondered about what prophecies an Orthodox Jew would view as prophecy about the Messiah. I was intimidated to approach him but did it anyway, hoping to create an opportunity to share the gospel. I asked if he minded me asking him a question. He said I could. It turned out he was a leader in his synagogue.
I asked what verses in the Scriptures (Old Testament) the Jewish people viewed as prophecy about the Messiah and if there was a list somewhere I could refer to. It was shocking to hear him say he didn’t have any verses and there was no list. Being stumped by his answer, I tried to think of what to say next.
Since Orthodox Jews do not believe the Messiah has come yet, I asked him how he would recognize the Messiah when he came if he didn’t rely on any prophecies. We talked a bit more about some of the New Testament passages, like Acts 8:26–39, where Phillip explains to the Ethiopian eunuch that Isaiah 53 is about Jesus. The Jewish leader I was conversing with did not see it as a prophecy of the Messiah.
In thinking about the conversation later, I realized I should not have been surprised by this since the eunuch did not understand who the passage was about at first. Also, 2 Corinthians 3 speaks of a spiritual blindness. I continue to pray that the Holy Spirit would lift the blindness from his eyes and that the Lord would use the conversation to spur him to seek the verses that tell of the Messiah, bringing him to the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus.
3. Create opportunities for conversation.
I started handing out tracts in Japan as a kid when my parents were missionaries. As I got older, my mom continued to hand them out. I am ashamed to admit that when I was a teenager, I was self-conscious and sometimes outright embarrassed about that.
As an adult, I decided to start handing out tracts because I was convicted about the lostness of those around me. At first, I would just give them to people without saying anything. Some would take the tract, but many would refuse. I decided to start saying, “This is a reminder to pray.” This totally changed the number of people willing to take the tract!
Some people still refuse the tract. Sometimes conversation is sparked by comments people make as they take or refuse the tract. This occasionally gives me the opportunity to share the gospel.
Certain times I have felt the need to hand out a full Bible. One time, I was buying fast food and a young Muslim woman was serving me. I felt prompted to ask her if she would like a Bible. I was so happy to hear her say “Yes.” I retrieved one from my car to give to her.
When I heard about the salvation of Hudson Taylor because of a tract2 and how many famous Christians like Charles Spurgeon had used gospel literature for evangelistic purposes,3 I had even more motivation to hand out tracts and Bibles.
4. The convicting work is from the Holy Spirit. We share, but only he can “convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment . . .” (John 16:8).
Sharing the gospel with Mormons (Latter-day Saints (LDS)) has been challenging because we often use the same theological terminology with very different meanings.
Once, I shared the gospel directly using Scripture only to be told, “I don’t think our beliefs are as different as you think they are.” Another time, a couple asked, “How is what we believe so different from what you believe?” Come to find out, these LDS held to a belief that God the father had a father who, in turn, had a father going back without end. (Not all Mormons believe this.)4
It is tempting to get frustrated when those who claim to believe the Bible actually believe things that are vastly different from biblical teaching. Instead, we must have compassion and pray that God will help them see the truth. Second Corinthians 4:4 says “. . . the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
5. Be willing to change the approach.
One way in which I have changed my approach over time is in recognizing that apologetics alone is not enough. While presenting the reasons for the faith is valuable, it is equally important to move beyond the intellect and reach for a person’s heart and conscience.
In reflecting on my own conversion, I remember being convicted of my sin. That made me realize I needed Jesus. There are three verses in the approach below that helped me to be more effective in sharing the gospel with those of other faiths!
Ray Comfort from Living Waters has a very simple method of evangelism that reaches for the heart.5
- Ask if the person believes in an afterlife, and then ask where the person thinks they will go after they die. Hebrews 2:14 tells us that through fear of death, we were subject to lifelong slavery, and through Jesus’s death we can be delivered from that.
- Ask if they are a good person and whether they think that will get them to heaven. Most people are self-righteous and think they are basically good. But Romans 3:23 tells us that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
- Because people don’t see the need for a savior unless they understand they have sinned, ask if they have broken the law by lying, stealing, and so on. This question is based on Romans 3:20, which says that through the law comes the knowledge of sin.
- Explain why Jesus died on the cross and what that accomplished.
What a joy it was to see the dad of a dear friend come to Christ right before he died last year. Planting seeds is wonderful, but there are few things that can compare with the joy of being a part of the end result of the seeds others have planted over the years! Praise the Lord.
Notes:
- JW.ORG, “Why is Jesus Called God’s Son” and “When was Jesus Created,” n.d.
https://www.jw.org/en/library/magazines/wp20130301/when-jesus-created-why-son/. - C.H. Spurgeon, Sermon no. 312 in Spurgeon’s Sermons, Volume 06: 1860, Christian Classics Ethereal Library, n.d. https://www.ccel.org/ccel/spurgeon/sermons06.xxv.html.
- “J. Hudson Taylor: Founder of the China Inland Mission Biography,” Christian Classics Ethereal Library, accessed July 23, 2026, https://www.ccel.org/ccel/taylor_jh.
- “King Follett Discourse,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, January 1, 2018, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/topics/king-follett-discourse?lang=eng.
- Ray Comfort, “How to Effectively Share the Gospel,” Living Waters, June 6, 2025, https://livingwaters.com/how-to-effectively-share-the-gospel/.