Should Christians Respect All Beliefs?
Imagine
you are observing a conversation between a fellow Christian and
someone advocating for evolutionary theory, gay marriage, and
abortion- just as an example. The advocate for these things uses all
the standard arguments.
“It
is my body, keep the government out of my womb.”
“It
is just tissue. It isn't a baby until it can breath on its own.”
“Jesus
never condemned gays.”
“How
can you be so stupid? Science has proven evolution!”
There are two roads you can take here.
There are two roads you can take here.
The
informed Christian can respond to each of these with facts that
refute every presupposition. This often leads to the advocate of such
errors saying something like, "Well no matter what you
think, that's what I believe."
Now,
imagine instead that our Christian friend responds with, "I respect
your beliefs, even if I disagree with them."
Do
you see the erroneous thinking in that statement? Look carefully. I
understand that because our culture is so filled with politically
correct speech and thinking that it might not hit you at first, so
take a moment and repeat the response if you need to.
"I
respect your beliefs, even if I disagree with them."
Okay,
if you're tired of guessing at it, here it is; why is a
Christian respecting beliefs that are false?
In
today's society such statements roll off the tongue almost without
thought. Relativism- the idea that all opinions are equally valid and
true and worthy of respect- has so permeated society that it has
found its way into the church. For many it is the central focus of
their epistemology. This sort of watered down Christianity cripples
meaningful apologetics and evangelism. After all, if you respect
error, then error must be as valid as truth. Some Christians, wanting
desperately to be seen as "different" from “those other”
Christians (You know, the Christians the Leftists dislike because
they defend their faith and defend healthy Christian cultural
ideology), will almost crawl on their knees to appease the Leftist,
thinking this is somehow "loving them into the kingdom".
They make room for “diversity” on issues that Sacred Scripture is
rock solid clear on, as if diversity were somehow a hermeneutical
approach, or a virtue that supersedes the demand for orthodoxy and
orthopraxy.
Don't
get me wrong. Love is an essential part of evangelism. I get that.
However, the milktoast, groveling Christian act is not love, it is
self flagellation and groveling before the world, albeit on an
intellectual level. We are to speak the Truth in love, not
seek to be politically correct and in some strange, distorted view of
sanctification think that makes us more godly.
I
have looked hard. Really, I have.
I
have looked hard for that scripture verse that says I have to respect
error, false teachings and lies. Maybe it is a defect in my study
skills, but I just can't find it. In fact, I find quite the opposite.
"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them."- Ephesians 5:11
"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them."- Ephesians 5:11
Now
where I come from respecting error and outright falsehoods is having
fellowship with an unfruitful work of darkness. Respecting error does
nothing to lead someone out of that error, but rather
reinforces the idea that error is on the same platform as Truth.
Sorry,
I don't buy that.
And
exposing something deemed to be error? Well that's just plain
offensive to some.
"But you don't want to offend someone, do you?"
"But you don't want to offend someone, do you?"
True,
I don't want to intentionally offend someone, but let me ask you
this; can one expose error without the potential-just the
potential- of offending someone who believes in that error?
Should I then not expose error and falsehood since
someone might be offended? And if they are indeed
offended, does that make me rude, mean or un-Christlike? Where do we
get the idea that we will never be offensive?
Jesus
could be pretty offensive at times.
"You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires."- John 8:44
"You snakes! You brood of vipers..."- Mathew 23:33
"You snakes! You brood of vipers..."- Mathew 23:33
I
am not suggesting we start calling people names. None of us is God
(and Jesus certainly is), and so we don't know a person's heart and
innermost thoughts. However, this does demonstrate that Jesus could
be offensive, and so will any Christian combating error. Even more so
when you're able to label the specific errors and demonstrate how far
from Truth they really are.
We are commanded to proclaim the Truth, in season and out of season; when it is received, and when it is not. (2 Timothy 4:2) This in no way means we have a license to be crude or deliberately rude. Clearly we don't. (Ephesians 4:15) What this does mean is that the Gospel offends. It offends the abortionist, the Leftist, the homosexual, the Atheistic Naturalist- in short, it offends the sinner. It offends because error cannot abide the light of Truth, and Truth has no respect for error.
We are commanded to proclaim the Truth, in season and out of season; when it is received, and when it is not. (2 Timothy 4:2) This in no way means we have a license to be crude or deliberately rude. Clearly we don't. (Ephesians 4:15) What this does mean is that the Gospel offends. It offends the abortionist, the Leftist, the homosexual, the Atheistic Naturalist- in short, it offends the sinner. It offends because error cannot abide the light of Truth, and Truth has no respect for error.
Likewise,
to say"I respect your beliefs" is itself an
error. As Paul writes to Timothy:
"But shun the profane and idle babblings, for they will increase more ungodliness. And their message will spread like cancer."- 2 Timothy 2:14-17
"But shun the profane and idle babblings, for they will increase more ungodliness. And their message will spread like cancer."- 2 Timothy 2:14-17
Can
you get any more profane than affronts to God's Truth? The very fact
that one would respect opinions founded in falsehoods leads to that
very falsehood spreading like cancer.
Again,
to say you respect error is to give error a dignity it does not
possess and does not deserve. It is placing error on the same level
as Truth, even if only in the mind of the one in error. So, while I
care about the individual, while I contend with them seeking their
highest good (Christ), I don't respect their false beliefs, nor will
I pretend to. What about you? What road will you take?
Well Sal, you would have to show me where we have the "right" to believe something that isn't true. The average person today, as your question serves to exemplify, confuse ability and liberty. Just because we have the ability to do something does not mean we have the right to do so. If Man indeed had some sort of right to ignore God and His Word, then any punishment for doing so would be unjust on God's part, because He would have given them the right to do so. However, since God's Word is clear that we will be punished for sin apart from Christ, it is also clear that nobody has any sort of right to choose to believe a lie and reject God's Truth.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading.