While some friends and I were out witnessing at the mall during lunch one day, we were talking about different ways to transition a conversation from the natural to the spiritual. We often do this by asking people questions. One friend suggested the question “On a scale of 1 to 100, how sure are you that you would go to Heaven when you die?” The question is right to the point and covers a number of scenarios. Even professing Christians that go to church every Sunday might answer less than 100. And the unbelievers most certainly would answer less than 100. Regardless of the persons answer there is always a follow-up question to consider. Let’s look at the possibilities.
If the person answers 100%, then we can follow up with something like “WOW! You really sound confident. What makes you so sure that you will go to Heaven?” Now at this point the person can profess their faith in Jesus. If so, great, we are talking to a brother (or sister) in Christ. I like to ask some follow-up questions like if they are reading their Bible regularly, what church they attend, how they got saved, etc. Most true believers will be encouraged by these types of questions.
If they answered 100%, but then when we ask them why they come up with something about religion, or anything other than repentance and faith in Jesus, then it leads to a Gospel presentation. Similarly, if someone answers anything less than 100%, then you can ask them if they’d like to be sure and you can share the Gospel with them.
We have found that this question is a good conversation starter. We have been using it effectively for some time now, so, we printed the question on the front of a new tract which is in the July 2013 mailing.