Elderly Woman Witnesses to Robber
This is a great story. It’s not exactly new, but if you haven’t heard the story of Pauline Jacobi, watch this news bulletin.
Nice to have a truly happy news story. I thought they ruined it towards the end, though, by stating that they are still searching for the guy. Question for readers: should they still have continued to look for this man?
Also, this example shows that apologetics, while useful, are often unnecessary. When witnessing to this man, Jacobi didn’t break down the Cosmological or Teleological Argument; she didn’t start talking about extra-biblical evidence of the life of Jesus or 1 Corinthians 15. She merely convicted the man and got him to acknowledge his sin. He obviously knew what he was doing was wrong, and when his sin was brought to the light, and shown for what it really was, he broke down.
Maybe he had robbed before, or maybe this was his first time. The point is, he realized that he had stooped so low as to threaten a sweet, grandmotherly old lady with death if she didn’t give him money.
So many times we are like the man, secretly knowing we are sinning but refusing to acknowledge our sin for what it is- as we continue to move further and further away from God until we reach the point of threatening to kill an old lady for whatever cash she may have on her. Pray that we stop this.
Hat tip: Joe Carter at the evangelical outpost
April 24, 2008 at 2:35 am
I know this is an old post that I just got around to reading, but I still want to comment…
This IS a great story. And as I watched the end of the video (and before I read the rest of your post) I had the same thought – why ruin this great story of a man seeing the error of his ways by pointing out that we still want to hunt him down?
But I don’t fault the reporter – I question why Crime Stoppers / law enforcement should feel the need to still look for him. Ms. Jacobi accomplished far more punishment (making him acknowledge his sin) and rehabilitation (he stopped before carrying out his crime) than any subsequent arrest and potential incarceration would.
He changed his ways, at least for this instance. Leave him be. If he returns to crime he’ll be caught. Or perhaps he’ll evangelize in his own way in the future.