A religious war is raging all around us, but quite unlike the classic clashes of creeds, this conflict is far more subtle. Throughout the Western world traditional Christian values are under attack in the name of “tolerance”.
When a Christian nurse was dismissed from her post in a UK hospital for wearing a crucifix, the reason given was that her public profession of faith risked offending others. When the Obama administration legislated in 2009 that health care workers who refuse to perform abortions or sterilizations because of their ‘religious beliefs or moral convictions’ may be prosecuted, a similar argument about the rights of others. This same logic lay behind the Victorian legislation of last year which makes it an offence for any qualified doctor to refuse to refer a patient to an abortion clinic. Only two months ago, a street preacher in Scotland, when asked about the Bible’s position on homosexuality, was fined £1000 for quoting Romans 1:18-32 Like the Swedish pastor sentenced to a month’s jail, his crime described as “homophobic hate”.
Tolerance, once understood as living amicably with others of different opinions, has come to mean adhering to the notion that all moral and spiritual beliefs are equally valid. Where Christians articulate the orthodox view that Jesus is the only way to God (John 14:6; Acts 4:12; 1 Tim 2:5) or that sex outside of marriage is a sin (Mark 7:21; 1 Cor 6:18), they are invariable labelled as “judgemental”. The incoming tide of this new secular creed proclaims that one religion is as good as another, and that all moral codes are the same. As one social commentator puts it, there is “boundless tolerance for anything-except for dissent from the dogma of toleration.”
The notion of truth has been abandoned and replaced by the primacy of personal feelings. Anyone who claims to be “right” is suspect because their claims seem to imply others must be “wrong”. It is easy to imagine a time when the public proclamation of the gospel as the way of salvation is outlawed, even in Australia.
The answer to this peril is certainly not to return to the judgementalism which has sadly been such a part of the history of Western Christianity. What is required is a renewed focus on Jesus himself. Christ, not the church, said, “I am the truth…no one comes to the Father but by me” (John 14:12). The apostolic conviction resounds, “the truth is in Jesus” (Eph 4:12). Truth is not about Paul, Luther, you or me, it is about the eternal “Word…full of grace and truth” (John 1:14), our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus, through whom and for whom all things were made (Col 1:16) contains in his two fold nature as God and man all divine and human truth. In the Bible, truth is not a set of ideas, but relational faithfulness. Truth is a Person! Only Christ, especially through his cross, is the perfect image of human faithfulness to God and others. Similarly, God the Father is revealed as a true father by raising Jesus from the dead. In other words, it is the gospel message of death and resurrection that mediates (relational) truth in our world (Eph 1:13; Col 1:5).
This is the truth that the Lord himself proclaimed, ““If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”” (John 8:31-32). Jesus is not referring to a mere emotion of feeling free, he is talking about the freedom from sin, shame, guilt and the fear of judgement for which he died and rose again. This is the real issue. However our culture may see us as bigots, or even fanatics, we must not cease to communicate, by BOTH word AND deed, the saving truth of Christ. Only in this way may our fellow human beings enter into that faith, hope and love for which our Lord suffered, died and rose again. May we be such a truth-filled people.