Posted on 03/05/2016 1:33:18 PM PST by truthfinder9
A couple of years ago I visited Canada to record television interviews about my book Christian Endgame.
Prior to the recording, some of the Christians in the green room told me to be cautious about saying that Christianity is the exclusively true religion. When I inquired why, I was told that it is considered intolerant in Canadian society to claim Christianity is the only way to God. The Christian program executives were concerned about receiving legal reprisals from the Canadian government for broadcasting “intolerant” religious statements.
I don’t know exactly what Canada’s laws are concerning alleged statements of religious intolerance, but it appears the Western world (including America) has allowed political correctness to run amuck.
So, how should Christians respond to the challenge that their belief of exclusivity reflects intolerance? Here are five ways to handle this increasingly tricky topic.
1. We can point out that truth exists and that it really matters. Respect and tolerance should never be divorced from truth, especially the concept of ultimate truth. All denials of objective truth are ultimately self-defeating.1 For example, to claim there is no objective truth would itself constitute an objective truth.
2. We can point out that cold, hard logic requires that contradictory religious truth-claims cannot be simultaneously true. For example, Christianity affirms that Jesus Christ is God incarnate (God in human flesh); but traditional Judaism and Islam both assert that Jesus was not God incarnate. The law of noncontradiction states: A cannot equal A and equal non-A at the same time and in the same way.2 Based on this law, Jesus Christ cannot be both God incarnate (Christianity) and not God incarnate (Judaism, Islam) at the same time and in the same respect. Affirming the dictates of reason does not violate any acceptable standard of tolerance.
3. We can make an apologetic case for the truthfulness of Christianity. Believers can present persuasive arguments for the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 3:15; Jude 3) and point out difficulties in alternative, non-Christian belief systems (2 Corinthians 10:5). For example, the Apostle Paul made an affirmative case for Jesus’ resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:3–8) and the Apostle John criticized the Docetist heresy that claimed Jesus hadn’t come in the flesh (1 John 4:1–3).
4. We should admit that societies significantly influenced by Christianity have at times promoted or permitted genuine intolerance (e.g., anti-Semitism in twentieth-century Europe). Christians are forgiven sinners and they should personally and corporately admit their constant struggle against sin. They can, however, point out that Christianity itself affirms genuine tolerance as a virtue via the biblical view that all people are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26–27) and are thus deserving of respectful and dignified treatment. Jesus himself set a moral example of treating people with respect and tolerance when he initiated a conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:7–26). Usually rabbis didn’t speak to women in public and Jews avoided interacting with Samaritan people (see John 4:9).
5. Christians are called to witness to the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ with both their words (preaching) and their lives (ethical conduct). The world needs to see the power of lived truth. These two things can be accomplished when believers are personally and socially tolerant of people while simultaneously intellectually intolerant of conflicting truth-claims.
At the heart of the Christian faith is the conviction that “Jesus Christ is Lord” (Mark 12:35–37; John 20:28; Romans 10:9–13; 1 Corinthians 8:5–6; 12:3; Philippians 2:11). Remember, the exclusive claims of Christ’s Lordship are no more politically correct today in Canada (or anywhere) than they were 2,000 years ago in the ancient Roman Empire.
Endnotes
1. For a discussion of why denials of truth are self-defeating, see Ronald Nash, Faith and Reason: Searching for a Rational Faith (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1988), 161–67. 2. See Kenneth Richard Samples, A World of Difference: Putting Christian Truth-Claims to the Worldview Test (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007), 42–44.
Yes, I’ll take Jesus at His Word.
It is perfectly fine to say you belief Christ is the only way to God.
It is also perfectly fine to declare that your belief is based on faith.
Hebrews 11:1 - Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
First, it is incumbent upon the speaker to define “tolerance”. The objective, always, of Christianity in the modern era, is to gently, through example and appeals to both emotion and logic, that acceptance of Christ as Savior is a fully VOLUNTARY act. But with the understanding that if the spark of belief is not lighted in the breast of the potential convert, that is not necessarily a fatal flaw of the unconvinced, as the inspiration may occur at a later time. Or sometimes, not at all.
Forcible conversion to the particular set of religious beliefs, as practiced by certain other cults claiming supernatural authority, up to and including slaughter of those unconverted, would seem to defeat the whole purpose of the drive to proselytize, by creating a class of “believers” that only remained in the religion because of fear of terrible punishment at the hands of not a divine power, but other very savage and unforgiving men. And the dedication to that set of beliefs has to be proven over and over by complying with demands that truly horrible acts must be committed to assure these same savage and unforgiving men that your faith is “pure”.
I just do not see an upside for that kind of enforced “faith”, which is certainly not “tolerant”, and would never practice reciprocity with the Christian version of tolerance.
Intolerance relates to how you treat others who are different than you, because of those differences (including faith). It has nothing to do with anything you claim to be true, or any other beliefs that you have, Christianity or otherwise.
By definition, if you believe something to be true, then anyone who belief different than yours must not be true, therefore ONLY your belief is true. So I don’t see how anyone can really believe in Christianity if they don’t also believe that it is the only religion that is true. Otherwise, it’s not really a belief, but more of a culture, or a preference, or a fondness for a particular religion, which you affiliate with based on habit or familiarity, but not based on belief.
I always tell those who ask this question to take it up with the person who first said it, He wrote the book, I didn’t I just follow the Truth.
Claim? Of course we’re being tolerant. We’re not killing those who disagree.
... Unlike another religion...
Deuteronomy 4:19 and Malachi 1:11
Is it intolerant to claim that only Global Warming is true?
Our society seems much more intolerant than in the 50s and 60s I remember.
People called each other intolerant. But nobody used government grants to choose winners and losers in the debate.
We now lack the distinction between intolerant individfuals and intolerant government. By suppressing the intolerance of those not in control of the government, the government now is the intolerant power.
If one believes any religion, one implicitly believes it is true and the others are false. This is a silly grouse.
One would think so, but Pope Francis apparently thinks both the Catholic and Jewish religions are true and both have means to eternal salvation.
Why isn’t this ever asked about Islam?
As opposed to Jews that say it?
As opposed to Muslims that say it?
As opposed to Hindus that say it?
The reason this country was founded on religious freedom is that religion is faith which is thought. Who among us should be allowed to dictate the thoughts of others?
Two people are born in a field at the exact same time. At what point in their lives does one become the master of the other?
No, and it is not intolerant to claim that Catholicism is the only true form of Christianity....both statements are true.
bkmk
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