By Tin-chee (TC) Lo, June 18, 2016
Prologue
Like it or not, we are living in a pluralistic and anti-Christian society where sensitivities are at the surface. This makes evangelism very difficult. If we are not careful, we can easily make enemies at all fronts.
- From Philosophical viewpoint, as long as you don’t claim that truth is exclusive, you are safe and sound.
- From moral viewpoint, as long as you don’t claim that the Bible is the moral framework, you may live in peace.
- From religious point of view, you may say anything except bringing Jesus into the conversation. Otherwise, friends can turn quickly into adversaries.
- Even if you want to express spiritual ideas, eastern spirituality is granted with critical immunity but western spirituality will face thorough criticism. Bigotry is at work.
- Journalists can freely enter into any Christian church and openly mock Christianity but they dare not make any contemptuous hint toward Muslims.
This is precisely the mood of today’s society. But we should make our judgment of the Christian message based on truth, not the mood of our times. Moods change. Truth does not. Twenty-first century Christians are facing many challenges—just to name three:
The first challenge is Universalism (Ref. 1)
From one man God made every nation of men (Acts 17: 26). In the sense of this broad level, yes, God is the father of every individual on earth. But in the specific sense of salvation, it is quite a very different matter. Only Christians can call God “Abba Father”, and God only calls those whom He adopted (the redeemed) as His children, “My Son” and “My Daughter”.
Jesus summed up All the Law and the Prophets into one greatest commandment:
- 1a. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
- 1b. Love your neighbor as yourself.
All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two-part commandment. (Matt 22:37-39)
All religious people–Christians, Muslims, Buddhists–agree Jesus’ great commandment as good. My questions are: When you agree “love your God“, who is God? And when you go along with “love your neighbor”, who are you?
- Those who embrace “Universal Fatherhood” say: All Gods are the same only with different names.
- Those who embrace “Universal Brotherhood” say: All religious followers are brothers.
This sounds very broad-minded but is very deceiving. Now listen to what Jesus said, “If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well” (John 14:7; 8:20). It follows that if you don’t know Jesus, you don’t know God. Since Muslims, Buddhists, Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, etc. don’t really know Jesus, their Gods cannot be the same as the God of the Bible. No way can universalism apply to Christianity. To Christians, we don’t have universal fatherhood, we don’t have universal brotherhood; we only have universal neighborhood.
The second challenge is Relativism (Ref. 2)
Relativist says, “That is true for you but not for me.” During the Passion Week, Jesus was summoned by Pilate to his palace. Pilate disdainfully asked Jesus, “What is truth?” (John 18:38) Without waiting for Jesus to reply, Pilate turned and went out to the Jews angrily. Pilate’s question was not a genuine truth-seeking inquiry; he asked in a manner of defiance, derision, contempt, and mockery. In effect, he said in his heart, “What do you mean by truth? What is the Truth to you is not the truth to me.” Today, in this twenty-first century, the spirit of Pilate is very much kicking and screaming in our society.
Relativism is existentially unlivable. For example, if you had deposited $5000 into your bank account and the next statement shows only $50 in it. What would you do? You would be angry and confused and you would immediately go to see the bank manager and demand for explanation. How would you feel if he reply with a smile, “It is true to you that you have deposited $5000, but it is not true to me. To me you only have deposited $50.” Would you accept his relativistic explanation?
Moral Relativism is more detrimental: Relativists think that we Christians think these are bad: Homosexuality, gay marriage, unisex bathrooms and locker rooms, violation of the sanctity of life, and so on. But the relativists say, “It is bad to you but not bad to us.” Relativists reject the existence of Absolute, they reject the Absolute as the moral framework. Their logic goes like this: They proclaim in absolute sense that the only truth is “There is no Absolute Truth.” Do you see the circular nature of their argument? When the logic is circular, it is no logic at all.
The third challenge is the challenge of Tolerance (Ref. 3)
Universalism and Relativism are asserted in the name of tolerance. Yet they also admit that their tolerance has an element of intolerance: Their only intolerance is that they cannot tolerate Jesus’ claim “I am the Only Way to heaven.” You see that argument is self-defeating because their tolerance is selective.
Truth, by definition, is exclusive. It exclude what is not truth. A person can either be a man or a woman—it is an Either-Or” logic. Transsexuality is a “Both-And” logic which rejects the principle of exclusivity. Exclusivity is an expression of the first law of logic: the law of non-contradiction: “A” cannot be “not-A” at the same time and in the same sense.” It is true that I am a father and a husband and a son and a brother all at the same time, but not in the same sense. If Jesus is the Only Way to heaven, there is no other way in the sense of eternal destiny. Jesus’ claim “I am the only one way” is reasonable and logical. As to why only Jesus can make such claim but no one else? The answer rests upon the uniqueness of Christ in terms of His Personhood (what He claimed He was) and Christ’s work of atonement for our salvation (what He had done for us). The understanding of Christ’s uniqueness requires hard work and persistent study and an attitude of humility toward Bible’s many hard sayings (Ref. 4). While promoting intolerance, the atheists practice the claim that “the only intolerance is the tolerance toward Christianity. Prejudice is at the heart of their thought.
Epilogue
To meet these challenges, Christians need the LIGHT of the Holy Spirit to illuminate the TRUTH into our heart and mind that we may gain the COURAGE to steadfastly embrace the Christian worldview so that our faith can be deeply rooted in the Word of God. “Light (Lux), Truth (Veritas), Courage (Virtus)” should be the motto of Christian living in this modern times. These three Latin words:
- Light (LUX) —David says, “The LORD is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?” (Psalm 27:1)
- Truth (VERITAS) —Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
- Courage (VIRTUS) —Jesus says, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” (Matthew 14:27)
Let the Word of God be our guiding light in this anti-Christian world: Paul concludes his doctrine of Justification by Faith by saying, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2)
General Readings:
- “Jesus Among Other Gods” by Ravi Zacharias.
- “True For You, But Not For Me” by Paul Copan.
- “Reason to Believe” by R.C. Sproul.
- “https://hocl.org/blogs/tincheelo/?p=1505”—one of TC Lo’s blog post.
