NBA star Michael Porter Jr shared the gospel with Muslim streamer N3on with clarity, confidence and compassion, says AJ Gomez
The internet can be an equally weird and wonderful place.
And I think the latter adjective aptly describes an interaction in the back of a car between NBA player Michael Porter Jr and popular streamer N3on.
What began as a conversation about artificial intelligence eventually became something altogether more consequential. Porter presented N3on with a clear explanation of the gospel and, perhaps inadvertently, offered watching Christians a lesson in how such conversations with Muslim friends can be approached.
Because it was not the first time someone had attempted to evangelise N3on.
The first attempt
Five months earlier, the 22-year-old streamer was filming content in a boxing gym when a man standing ringside took the opportunity to preach to him.
“There’s no other way to God other than through Jesus Christ,” he began, before quoting Jesus’ words in John 14:6 and stressing that the way to God was not through Islam, Muhammad, Buddhism or other belief systems.
At that point N3on interrupted: “I am Muslim.”
But the preacher continued, so lost in his impassioned message that he failed to register the offence his approach was beginning to cause. N3on eventually responded: “You can preach your religion without knocking other religions.”
Walking away, he told his viewers: “Everyone believes in what they believe in. Believe in God and you’re good.”
N3on was raised in a Muslim family and continues to identify as Muslim. He was advocating religious tolerance to an audience made up primarily of young people whose relationships with faith will vary considerably.
The sentiment is easy to understand: believe in God, allow others to do the same and leave it there. It sounds inclusive, welcoming and respectful. The problem is that neither Christianity nor Islam allows the theological differences between them to be smoothed over quite so easily.
At the heart of Christianity is the belief that Jesus is God incarnate, that He was crucified for humanity’s sins and rose from the dead. Islam recognises Jesus as a prophet, but rejects His divinity and the biblical account of His crucifixion and resurrection. The Quran states that Jesus was not killed or crucified but that it was “made to appear” so, before God raised Him up.
So “believe in God and you’re good” sounds conciliatory, but it sidesteps a fundamental question: Who is God? And what is at stake if one of us has it wrong?
That was the question Michael Porter Jr was willing to press.
An uncompromising truth
During their recent stream, N3on raised concerns about where artificial intelligence might be heading. Porter’s response took the conversation somewhere else entirely.
“The world’s just, it’s evil, bro,” he told him, using N3on’s anxiety about the direction of the world as a segue into the security he has found in the God of the Bible.
“That’s why you [have to] make sure you’re right with God. Not just any God, make sure you’re right with Jesus Christ.”
“I know you’re a different religion…” he continued, before N3on explained that he was Muslim, respected different religions and reiterated his message to his followers: essentially, believe in and pray to one God.
“Everyone worships the same God, no?” N3on floated.
“No,” Porter replied.
It was an equally uncompromising answer to the one N3on had received in the boxing gym. But rather than simply telling N3on where he was wrong, Porter began asking questions.
“Are you scared of death?” Porter enquired.
“I’m so scared of death,” N3on admitted. “That’s my number one fear. Dying.”
And suddenly the theological disagreement was no longer abstract.
Porter recalled a conversation with a Muslim Uber driver whom he had asked how he knew he would go to heaven. According to Porter, the man admitted that he did not know, explaining that he simply tried to live well and be a good person before ultimately facing death uncertain of what would come next.
Porter contrasted that uncertainty with assurance of the gospel. Christianity, he explained, does not teach that human beings can earn heaven by being good enough. All have sinned, but Jesus has done for humanity what it could not do for itself.
That, Porter said, was why he could face death without the same fear. “Someone else did it for me. Jesus died on the cross for us.”
Porter had not diluted Christianity to make it more palatable. If anything, he had been just as direct
Porter challenged him by pointing directly to Jesus: Christians believe Jesus is God and the only way to the Father; Muslims regard Him as a prophet. Both claims cannot simultaneously be true.
“So one of the religions is wrong,” Porter said.
“That’s the scary part,” N3on replied.
N3on was lovingly confronted with the implications of not knowing the one true God. Porter was also clear about the urgency of this choice. “We’re all going to die one day and what if you’re on the other side of that fence? You spend eternity in hell. Imagine that.”
The interaction did not end with N3on praying the salvation prayer. But it did end with him acknowledging that he had avoided seriously confronting these questions, and recognising that what he believed about God was something he needed to give serious thought to.
And perhaps that response reveals why this conversation succeeded where the previous one had quickly broken down.
Porter had not diluted Christianity to make it more palatable. If anything, he had been just as direct as the preacher in the boxing gym. But in this instance, N3on was listened to. And the gospel was presented to him in a way which addressed an issue he had admitted he was wrestling with.
The first encounter produced offence and an exit. The second produced another question and, a few minutes later, an invitation from Porter for N3on to come to church with him. We can all be praying he accepts it.
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