Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)I was reading an article in which the governor of Alabama is taken to task for saying that he was a brother only to Christians. And that he wanted people to become his brother and sister.
I first read of this in an article written by a Jewish woman who felt she had to comfort all of her neighbors (she lives in Turkey, a predominately Moslem country) and let them know that all Americans didn’t feel this way. She felt he had done wrong by stating his beliefs so openly in public.
I read it then in another couple of places. The upshot of the complaint was how dare he say what he thinks about religion.
In other words, shut up speaking the truth. You might hurt someone’s feelings.
Of course, if you believe the Bible, and if you believe that God is real and that he sent his Son Jesus to die for our sins – if you believe all this, he is right. If you don’t, then what is the point of claiming any kind of Christianity? Just go ahead and sell your soul to the Moslems or the Buddhists or someone else.
Jesus said, He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters (Matthew 12:30). You are either with him and believe what you are doing is right, or you are not.
That is a hard line approach that many do not feel comfortable with. It is a shame that they do not, but it is no less the truth. The apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2:16: To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task?
To those outside the kingdom, death is seen. The fact that there are limits to our lives, or that the limits are not those we want, or that they are different from others, especially those we fear – that all drives the desire to shut those who believe what they are saying up. They see death in what should be seen as life.
To us, those who believe, it is the fragrance of life. We have life in Jesus. In fact, he says we have abundant life. Jesus said: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly (John 10:10).
He came to make us live. The devil doesn’t want that. It is no wonder that his name is satan (the opposer, the adversary).
He does everything in his power to stop it, including making a world that is so “diverse” that Christianity has a tough time existing. The only people in this “culturally diverse” world who cannot say what they believe are the Christians.
That is because of the simple fact that they are the only ones who really have the truth. As long as the devil can keep everyone worrying about other religions’ feelings, he feels he can water down the truth and by so doing, stamp it out. Under that plan, it will become nothing more than one of many ways to God.
But it isn’t. it is the true way, the only way to God. All the rest are smoke and mirrors.
You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free (John 8:32).
It took a lot of courage for Governor Bentley in Alabama to say that. I hope he doesn’t waffle on it. And, quite frankly, and I do not intend to be mean here, but it does not matter what a Jewish columnist in Turkey thinks about it.
It is still true.
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