Addendum to #9-5: Family Reunions & Speaking the Truth in Love
Posted by: homenews <homenews@...>
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Hope Chest Home School News
with Virginia Knowles
June 28, 2006
Addendum to #9-5: Family Reunions & Speaking the Truth in Love
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Dear Hope Chest friends,
I mentioned in the last issue (Summertime!) that I would be going to a family reunion in Pennsylvania this past weekend with baby Melody. We were gone about five days and just arrived home yesterday. I had such a lovely time! For starters, my relatives were extremely generous and hospitable to me. I could write a whole book on the people and places I encountered. (And I did not even get to meet all of the 87 or so people at the main Saturday gathering.)
Thank you for your prayers! I feel that the time was very fruitful. I particularly enjoyed the Biblical fellowship I shared with many of my Christian relatives. In the sense that they are also my brothers and sisters in Christ, being double family is a double blessing indeed. One of my second cousins, whom I had not seen in many years, reminded me that those who have Christian spouses can be extra grateful because the essential foundation for success is already there. All of us must zealously guard and build our marriages, but those who are unequally yoked have to work extra hard at it.
I can think of many ways this kind of spiritual edification occurred over the weekend, such as giving Christian books and music to some of my relatives, sharing with various folks how I had come to know the Lord at the Hess reunion 30 years ago, singing hymns in the car with my sister Barb, or listening to my cousin Mary Lynn sing bedtime prayers to her little boys. I pray that all of these interactions will bear fruit for eternity. We will never fully know the impact our words will have, as the following story will show. My cousin Rick told me that many years ago (maybe in the late 1980s?), he was far from the Lord. While we were visiting my grandparents, my husband Thad came alongside Rick and exhorted him toward faith in Christ. What is notable is that Thad and Rick didnt really know each other at the time, and they probably havent seen each other more than once since then. There were many other people who also contributed to Rick coming to know God, but he wanted to express his gratitude, after all these years, that Thad faithfully played a part in it. Rick is now passionate Christian who spends his spare time ministering in the Pennsylvania prisons, just like his dad. What a blessing!
One topic which came up among a few of us at Sunday brunch is whether we can love and accept someone, while at the same time disagreeing with their theology or lifestyle. I believe so! If we really care about someone, we will want to speak the truth in love to them. If we see them heading down the road toward danger, it would be most unloving to shrug and say that all roads lead to God when they really dont. I am so grateful for the cousin and aunt who shared the truth of the Gospel with me, because otherwise I would be in very bad shape indeed. I did not need a pat on the back, but a Savior in my heart. (Praise be to God for his undeserved mercy to me!) Many people believe that all sincere religions lead to God that we all have different ways of expressing our faith systems, but it all comes out the same in the end. The Bible certainly does not teach this. As R.C. Sproul will argue in the book excerpts I will include a little later, if you take each religion at face value for what they say about God, they could NOT all be equally valid at the same time. We can know the Way, the Truth, and the Life his name is Jesus Christ!
But first, a few other quick thoughts.
© Affection for family and friends must never eclipse a passion for Gods eternal truth. The first is like the moon, which cannot shine except as a reflection of the holy sun. So, if the issue pits family unity against essential doctrine, we do our best to preserve both, but we must never ever compromise the Gospel.
© In our culture there is a relentless attack on Biblical truth. There are so many alternative worldviews and lifestyles that we dare not oppose at the risk of sounding intolerant. But we must dare to speak the truth, kindly and tactfully. We dont need to hide from other viewpoints. As educated Christian people, we should stay informed, read widely, think deeply, and use Biblical discernment. We must know the truth from Scripture, prayer, fellowship and wise counsel and be prepared to speak it to others as the Holy Spirit leads us.
© We must speak the truth to ourselves, continually and purposefully. Why? Because we are vulnerable! We are in spiritual warfare against a crafty enemy, masquerading as an angel of light, whose plans for are for confusion and destruction. Just when we want to serve God the most, just when we are ministering to others, just when we are finally getting through to our children, we face the fiery darts of the enemy. Add in the fact that our own hearts are deceitful. Our emotions and desires shout at us. So we must speak the truth in love to ourselves, over and over again. We must put on the full armor of God and take every renegade thought captive. As I wrote in The Real Life Home School Mom:
Our attitudes are largely a matter of choice. When it comes to dwelling on unhealthy thoughts, the Devil may prompt you, but he can't make you do it. If you are a Christian, you have the authority as a daughter of the King to take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). Suppose a dangerous criminal has escaped from a nearby prison and is lurking in your neighborhood with a pistol in her purse. She looks innocent enough when she knocks on your door and asks to use your phone, but fortunately you just saw her mug shot on the evening news. Instead of opening the door and inviting her in, you dial the police, who haul her back to the slammer in their squad car. You would not even think of harboring a fugitive like that in your home! We should likewise be on guard against allowing destructive thoughts to linger in our minds. They may seem innocent enough, as angels of light, but their mug shots are clearly displayed in the Scriptures. We may freely call on Christ Jesus to banish them from our lives and spare us from untold hazards. So what thoughts should you invite in? Meditate on lovely and pure thoughts that glorify God. These guests should be entertained continuously!
(You can order The Real Life Home School Mom or my other books at http://www.thehopechest.net/resources.html)
© We must prepare our children to know what to believe and how to stand strong. Just like us, they will be bombarded with blatantly unbiblical messages from the media, politicians, educators, celebrities, friends, family and even the church. The peer pressure to conform to the culture is incredibly strong. We have seen so many young people, including some of our relatives and lots of home schooled youth, walk away from biblical faith because they did not grasp onto it for themselves. It was just what they heard in their Christian homes, and not something that sank into their own hearts. So it is not just planting a little seed here, a little seed here, but watering it, weeding it, and seeing that it grows roots and fruits. Isnt discipleship why we are home schooling in the first place? Surely it's not just for academics or family unity! We are launching arrows far into the future, where we will never go ourselves. Are we aiming well?
OK, enough from me. Lets hear from Dr. Sproul. (Fortunately for me, I already had this excerpt typed in from a high school co-op world history class I taught a couple of years ago!)
Arent All Religions Basically the Same?
Excerpts from
Reason to Believe: A Response to Common Objections to Christianity
by R.C. Sproul (copyright 1978)
America is a melting pot. People from every conceivable ethnic and religious background come together to form one nation e pluribus unum, from the many, one. At the heart of our national sense of unity stands the crucial principle of religious toleration, all religious systems are guaranteed freedom of expression and equal treatment under the law. No one religion has exclusive claims to legal rights and government establishment. The government of the United States of America expresses the will of the founding fathers that there be no established national religion. Thus, we have no state church that enjoys exclusive privilege under the law. With the principle of equal toleration has come the idea that no religion has exclusive claims to the truth. Though the concept of legal religious toleration says nothing at all about the validity of true claims, many have drawn the implication that equal toleration means equal validity. Thus, when Christians or advocates of any religion make claims of exclusivity, their claims are often met with shock or anger at such a narrow-minded posture. To make exclusive religious claims is to fly in the face of national sentiment. It is like attacking baseball, hot dogs, motherhood, and apple pie (not to mention Chevrolet) .
(In the nineteenth century) Religion was often reduced to its lowest common denominator. Frequently the distilled essence of religion was pinpointed by the phrase the universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man. Thus it was seen that at the heart, all religions were working for the same thing. The outward trappings of religious belief and practice differed from culture to culture but at the root their goals were the same. Thus, if all religions were essentially the same then no one of them could ever make exclusive claims to validity. Out of this quest for the essence of religion came the now famous and popular mountain analogy. The mountain analogy pictures God at the peak of the mountain with man down at the base. The story of religion is the account of mans effort to move from the base of the mountain to the peak of fellowship and communion with God. The mountain has many roads. Some of the roads go up the mountain by a very direct route. Other roads wind in circuitous fashion all over the mountain, but eventually reach the top. Thus, according to the proponents of this analogy, all religious roads, though they differ in route, ultimately arrive at the same place. Out of this conviction that all roads lead to God has come a considerable number of ecumenical movements, pan-religious endeavors, and even new religions such as Bahai which seek a total synthesis and amalgamation of all of the world religions into one new unified religion
At the heart of Christianity stands the person and work of Jesus Christ. His person and his work are part of the essence of Christianity. It is in who He is and what he has done that the essence of Christianity can be discovered. Both in His person and His work we find elements of utter uniqueness. The Christian claim is that in the person of Jesus of Nazareth we meet God incarnate. Buddha never claimed to be anything more than a man. Mohammed claimed nothing more than to be a prophet. Moses and Confucius were mortals. If Christ was in fact God incarnate, then it is a travesty of justice to ascribe equal honor to Him and to the others. To do so would necessitate either falsely attributing to mortal man the attributes of deity or stripping Christ of His divine nature.
In the truth-claims of Christianity we find the notion of the sinlessness of Christ. If Jesus was in fact without sin, this would put Him in a class by Himself. If He had no other uniqueness, this one factor would set Him apart from every religious leader the world has ever known. Though claiming something does not make it true, nevertheless the fact that Jesus claimed to be sinless is significant. By that claim the religious stakes are established. If the claim is true, then Jesus uniqueness is assured. If the claim is not true then Jesus fails to qualify as even one of the many great religious teachers. He would only qualify as a hypocrite and a charlatan.
The claim of resurrection is vital to Christianity. If Christ has been raised from the dead by God, then He has the credential and certification that no other religious leader possesses. Buddha is dead. Mohammed is dead. Moses is dead. Confucius is dead. But, according to the truth-claim of Christianity, Christ is alive. If Christ has been vindicated by resurrection, His uniqueness as an object of religious devotion is established.
Another dimension of the uniqueness of Christ that is vital to Christianity is His work of atonement. Moses could meditate on the law, Buddha could give personal counsel, Confucius could offer wise sayings; but none of these men was qualified to offer an atonement for the sins of the world. It is not only the resurrection of Christ that makes Him unique but it is his death that puts Him in a class by Himself. His death was made as a payment for the sins of mankind. His sacrifice was perfect. Here we see the direct correlation between the uniqueness of His person, of His sinlessness, of His atoning death, and of His resurrection. Together these factors describe the only-begotten of the Father.
It is a mistake, indeed a fatal mistake, to assume that God is pleased by religion. The cliché that it doesnt matter what you believe, as long as you are sincere involves a devastating error. We can be sincerely wrong and miss the way of redemption offered by God. What we believe in and who we believe in makes an ultimate difference to our destiny. Religion can be a substitute for truth, a man-made system of distorting the revelation of God. Christ alone is worthy of unlimited devotion and service. His total value sets Him apart from all pretenders to the throne. He alone is able to redeem. He alone is worthy of worship. The exclusiveness of the Christian truth-claim must always rest on the uniqueness of Christ. Christians are not immune from arrogance and bigotry. Yet arrogance and bigotry have no ally in Christ. Christs critique of these evil practices is more severe than any critic of Christianity can muster. At the same time this one who is so critical of arrogance and bigotry calls us to a single-minded devotion to truth. He claims to be that truth.
Key Points to Remember
Are all religions good? Does it matter what you believe?
1. Religious toleration does not mean equal validity of truth. The problem of exclusive claims to truth is deeply rooted in our culture. We must keep in mind the difference between religious toleration as a matter of legal rights and the concept of the equal validity of truth-claims.
2. Objective evidence, not arrogance, must be the basis for Christian truth-claims. Christians must guard against communicating a sense of arrogance about their convictions. The uniqueness of Christ must be established on the basis of objective evidence rather than by personal preference.
3. All religions do not teach the same thing but differ at key points. Attempts to make all religions basically the same involves the serious problem of reductionism reducing everything to a broad common denominator. Analogies such as the mountain analogy obscure the real and crucial differences between world religions.
4. The uniqueness of Christ and His own exclusive claims are the heart of the issue. To understand that uniqueness we must understand the whole pattern of biblical history. If the biblical history is true, then we can never suppose that God has not done enough to provide for our redemption.
5. In light of biblical history it is easy to see why there is only one way.
6. In spite of the fact that the world has been in constant rebellion to Him, God has provided a way of redemption. The ultimate question of redemption is the question why God would bother to provide any way of redemption for us. The wonderful truth is that even though we dont deserve it, in Christ we have redemption through his blood, according to the riches of his grace (Eph. 1:7).
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I hope this has been helpful to you. I encourage you to share Dr. Sprouls words with your teenagers and young adults. Let me know what you think!
In His Sovereign Grace,
Virginia Knowles
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