Who Are You to Say?

As we seek to allow God's love to overflow from us to others, what better way to do that than for us to know the truth and to share that truth with others? I'll be the first to admit that I don't do that as well or as often as I should. But I hope you'll join me as we discuss issues of faith and truth each Tuesday from an apologetics standpoint. For those who don't know, "apologetics" comes from the Greek word apologia, and simply means to give a defense. In other words, we use apologetics so that we can know what we believe and why we believe it, and that by doing so, we can be better equipped to share that with others.

Our culture tells us that it doesn’t matter what we believe as long as we are sincere. Many people believe that all roads lead to God and your faith is subjective. They believe absolute truth does not exist. This was illustrated recently on USA Today's religion section of their website. Last Thursday, the Baptist Press wrote an article about a four page insert the Nashville branch of the Church of Scientology had published in the Tennessean, Nashville's largest newspaper, offering a "free personality test." The Baptist Press article warned about the deceptive practices of Scientology and dangers and non-Christian doctrines they teach. Cathy Lynn Grossmans' Faith and Reason blog on the USA Today website had a response. Her post began, "This must be in-your-face month on the faith front. First, Brit Hume takes on Tiger Woods' soul. Now, folks at the top of the Southern Baptist Convention are riled up over a direct frontal recruitment campaign from Scientology in the SBC's hometown." She proceeded to recount the article in question as well as include a brief response from a Scientology spokesperson. Her question to promote discussion was, "How is Scientology's conversion campaign different than fairs and festivals that Christians hold to spread word of their vision of faith? Or Brit Hume telling Tiger Woods that Christianity is his best choice?" In case you're unfamiliar with Brit Hume, he is the Fox News anchor who recently expressed his opinion that Tiger should turn from Buddhism to Christianity in order to find forgiveness and restoration.

After some 309 comments to Grossman's blog post, the overall view of truth in our culture is apparent. Many comments harped on the rights of all religions to promote their beliefs. I couldn't agree more. The right to believe what one wishes is a fundamental human right. Not to mention, the Baptist Press article in question made no comments whatsoever about denying the Church of Scientology their rights. Many comments also spoke negatively of the Southern Baptist Convention for being "hate mongers," and some posters simply questioned who are we to say who is right and who is wrong. It was obvious that the overall mindset of posters was one that claimed something is true for you if you have faith and sincerely believe in it. In other words, all beliefs should be equally valid, and therefore true.

To answer Grossman's question we must first decide what truth actually is. Grossman's question is really not one of rights, but one of truth. Truth is simply telling it like it is. In other words, truth corresponds to its object. If I say snow is cold, then that is true. If I say ice is warm, then that is false. It’s pretty simple stuff. But truth, by its very nature is absolute, that is, it’s true for all people in all places at all times. If I say I’m cold right now, the fact that I’m cold right now is true for all people in all places at all times. Carry that logic to the realm of religion and God however, and suddenly truth is no longer true in the eyes of many. Let me explain what I mean.

The Bible says that Jesus is the Savior of the world who died on the cross and was raised from the dead to pay the penalty of our sin debt (I would agree). Others, however, believe some other faith or “god” is the correct way to live and believe. These two different beliefs cannot both be true no matter how sincere the belief. Christianity says Jesus is THE truth, while other religions say He is not. They may both be wrong, but they cannot both be right. The problem is that IF Christianity is true, and Jesus IS the only way to God, we need to know that we’re on His side. Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” There is an abundance of evidence that proves beyond a reasonable doubt that Jesus is indeed THE way. We’ll explore some of that evidence in this blog in the coming weeks.

So what's the difference between the Christian promoting their beliefs and the Scientologist promoting his? As a matter of religious freedom, none. As a matter of truth, everything. If Christianity is true, then the Scientology ad, or any other belief system's ad, would be equivalent of someone who believes asbestos is healthy running an ad encouraging people to inhale asbestos. What would be the most loving thing for those who know asbestos is deadly to do? WARN THOSE WHO MAY BE DECEIVED BY THE AD! That's exactly what happened in this case, and that's exactly what you and I should be doing.

For His glory,
Adam Tucker