Let’s begin here

Posted by Gary on July 24, 2007

The gospel of many is the gospel of sincerity, it does not matter what you believe as long as you are sincere (see more here). In the recent controversy concerning the prayer for the conversion of the Jews which will be offered in the resurrected Latin mass of the Catholic Church this statement was made by Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League:

“How do we now sit and dialogue when the other side believes we are blind and need to be converted?”

Humanly we can sympathize with a person resenting being called “blind” and “unconverted” but the important issue is if someone is blind and unconverted. Do we even believe that there is such a thing as spiritual blindness and being unconverted in this day? Most don’t.

Before calling theology to enter the Fray, Foxman’s statement makes no sense simply on the basis of logic (which is not at odds with theology by the way). Can two things that oppose each other both be true? One faith involved holds forth Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Savior of man, the other rejects Jesus as the Messiah. Can both of these groups be correct? If salvation is at stake, must not these groups be willing to speak of the other as blind and unconverted? In many cases I think we must admit that people do not believe salvation is at stake. If Mr. Foxman believes salvation is at stake, he must be willing to view Christians as blind and unconverted. Amazingly, this is what his faith did throughout the Old Testament. Those who were uncircumcised and outside God’s covenant with Abraham were without God and without hope.

There are some to whom salvation is all-important and I mean here people who do not currently possess salvation. God is always at work drawing men to Himself and when He does begin to draw someone, He makes the answer to how salvation can be had vital to that person. I am more and more convinced that where we must begin in the work of evangelism in this day is to reason with men on the basis that not everything can be true. Those whom God is saving will seek the matter out to its end. But perhaps today they are still caught in the deception of sincerity, they may believe that the claims of the different world faiths do not matter just the sincerity of the adherents. God has given us minds and when He begins to save someone, He begins to send light and truth into their mind and so we hold before them the simple, undeniable truth, things that contradict each other cannot all be true, this is often the first seed that grows into salvation.

We are going to have to be willing to embrace the call to discipleship if we are going to be used of God in our day. We are going to have to be willing to lovingly yet firmly use words like “blind” and “unconverted”. How politically incorrect Paul was:

Acts 17:22-31
“So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. “For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.”The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’ “Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. ³⁰ “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”

21^st Century Social Architect: “Excuse me Paul; we don’t use words like “ignorance” in religious dialogue today.”

Paul: “I wasn’t dialoging, I was proclaiming.”

21^st: “But you were dialoging, and doing so well at first and then meanly used the word “ignorance”.

Paul: “We have different definitions of dialogue. By dialogue you mean that each side is considered equally valid. I was willing to make mention of the Athenian’s many gods and religious spirit so that I could open a door to show them that they don’t know the one, true God. Your goal is to have everyone feel good when the conversation stops, my goal is to see people receive salvation.”

21^st: “In the process you have also offended many people. Who taught you to deal with people this way; this doesn’t seem very much like Jesus.”

Paul: “Actually it was Jesus who taught me to approach people this way; He told the woman at the well that she worshipped that which she did not know and that woman came to faith and is in heaven today.”

21^st: “It still doesn’t seem right.”

If we are going to see the gospel go forward we will need to strip away the delusion that everything can be true. We will have to be willing to be called, “mean” and “bigoted”. Let’s remember that is not our goal to have people think well of us now, but later. Let them think of us as mean now, it will be all the more enjoyable when they embrace us in heaven.