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to make moral decisions, and to act as co-creators with God).
Several years ago, to help our congregation see how science and faith are not enemies but companions in a search for knowledge and truth, I preached a series of serm...
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one does not have to choose between science and faith but that both are valuable partners in understanding our place in the universe.
To the surprise of some people, the study of
science, far from damaging their faith, actua...
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CHRISTIANS GET it right when they see science as an important companion in the quest for knowledge
and truth.
Scott was doing very important work at Cornell in the area of biology—making discoveries that answered the how and what questions. But he began to long for more. He wanted to know why and for what purpose. He wanted to know if there was a God who really did know and love him.
He wanted to know if he would continue to live after his physical body succumbed to cancer. These were not questions science could answer.
“I will be with you wherever, whenever, forever.”
“I will love you forever.”
His hope of watching his children even after his death and of loving his wife forever came not from the field of sci...
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POSTSCRIPT: POLITICS AND RELIGION
More than one person implied that she couldn’t be both a Christian and a Democrat.
WHEN IT comes to politics, some Christians say and do things in the name of God that are the antithesis of the gospel.
her political views might keep her out of heaven.
Some Christians, in the name of God, say and do things in the realm of politics that are the antithesis of the gospel: slander, gossip, malicious talk, mean-spirited rhetoric, disrespect, and worse. This has been particularly true when it comes to spreading rumors and half-truths using the Internet.
Christians should be engaged in the political arena. I encourage our church members to consider civil service as a calling.
But Christians get it wrong in the area of politics when they too closely associate their faith with a political party, or they lay aside Christian ethics and Christ’s call to love even our enemies, and instead they engage
in slander and mean-spirited partisan politics. Christians get it right when they work for justice, and when grace, truth, and l...
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CHAPTER 3 WHEN SPEAKING OF OTHER RELIGIONS
One of the things I have always had trouble swallowing with the Christian faith is that we have a God of compassion, a God of love, a God of forgiveness, but if you don’t say “Jesus you’re my savior,” you’re gonna burn.
Let’s clarify for a moment what we mean by people of “other faiths.” In this chapter, I mean people who are adherents of a religion other than Christian. Orthodox Christians, Roman Catholics, and Protestants all claim to be followers of Jesus Christ. They represent different sects within the Christian faith. For our purposes here, “other faiths” refers to Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and others.
Most Amer-icans know very little about faiths other than their own.
Surprisingly, I found my own Christian faith deepened by this study. As I gained understanding and appreciation for what others believe and why, my convictions about the Christian faith grew stronger.
At the same time, the other faiths challenged me to be a better Christian.
Several dozen people actually left our church, unsettled by these sermons, but several hundred people chose to become Christians after hearing how we approached these other faiths with respect and a willingness to learn from them, while honestly pointing out our differences. In addition, the entire congregation came to better understand their Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, and Jewish friends, and we are able to talk with them with respect and appreciation.1
Pressure to accept Christ seldom leads to a desire to become a Christian. No one enjoys a high-pressure sales job.
There is nothing wrong with Christians sharing their faith. Jesus spoke of his message as good news—and good news should be shared.
The problem is when Christians share their faith in ways that are arrogant, disrespectful, hurtful, insulting, or insensitive.
The apostle Peter, in his first letter, offers the following counsel to Christians on how they might share their faith: “live such good lives among the pagans that … they may see your good deeds” (2:12 NIV). He told them to “show proper respect to everyone” (v. 17). He tells them to carry
themselves with humility noting, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (5:5). And he says, “Be compassionate and humble…. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” (3:8, 15; emphasis added).
Will God welcome
to heaven only those who call upon the name of Jesus, regardless of those persons’ character, actions, or actual love of God and neighbor? To young adults, this idea is unthinkable. They find it inconsistent with a God of justice, mercy, and love.
What is the fate of faithful, practicing Jews, Muslims, and Hindus?
CHRISTIAN EXCLUSIVISM
Christians from the conservative and evangelical traditions typically answer the question of the eternal fate of faithful Jews, Muslims, and Hindus in a way similar to what we have considered so far—such persons will be damned because they did not avail themselves of the gift of salvation offered in Jesus Christ. According to this view,
human beings are born contaminated by sin. Sin separates us from God both here on earth and in eternity. A holy and righteous God cannot admit persons who are still sinful into heaven. God has provided, by the offering of his Son, salvation from sin and death. It is available to all. But one has to take hold of this salvation by trusting in Christ. Imagine a person drowning in the sea. A life preserver is tossed in the from a ship. The person must still take hold of the life preserver to be saved from drowning. Jesus Christ is the life preserver offered by God...
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In the fifth century, Saint Augustine championed this view. It was restated by John Calvin in the sixteenth century. In its harshest, yet most consistent form, it excludes from heaven even infants who die who did not receive Christ. It excludes those with mental disabilities who do not receive Christ. It excludes from heaven any who have never heard the good news of Jesus Christ. Many Christians allow exceptions in these cases, but the most consistent and hard-line do not.
It should be said that many evangelical Christians find the hard-line position difficult to accept; they allow exceptions. They speak of an “age of accountability” for children, before which, if they die, they are received into heaven. They say that mentally handicapped people will be judged based upon what they can understand of the grace of God. Some are willing to say the same of persons who have never heard the name of Christ. These persons will be judged based upon how they respond to God’s grace as they are able to know and understand it.
CHRISTIAN UNIVERSALISM
second answer to the question of the fate of faithful Jews, Muslims, and Hindus is the absolute opposite of Exclusivism. It is called Christian Universalism (not to be confused with the Unitarian Universalist denomination). This view suggests that all persons—not just faithful Jews, Muslims, and Hindus but all persons—will ultimately be reconciled to God and are bound for the kingdom of Heaven. Christians who hold this view, who also believe in hell, think of hell as a temporary place with the primary focus of redemption rather than punishment. Hell’s purpose is to l...
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I like this idea, and it solves several theological problems. The challenge it poses for me is that it appears to remove human freedom to reject God, at least in the ultimate sense.
CHRISTIAN INCLUSIVISM
Christian Inclusivism offers a third alternative. It teaches that Jesus is the Son of God. That he came to offer salvation for the world. It teaches that the salvation of the human race is made possible by Jesus Christ. But this salvation can be given by God regardless of whether an individual personally knows Jesus Christ. God can offer this gift based upon the criteria God chooses.
This view also notes that the Christian gospel teaches that salvation is a gift given by God. Human beings do nothing to merit salvation; we simply trust in it. We receive it as...
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Inclusivism reminds us that the Christian gospel, the good news, is that we are saved by grace. In the New Testament, grace refers to God’s kindness, love, care, work on our behalf, blessings, gifts, goodness, and salvation. But it is more than that—it is undeserved. God’s grace is pure gift.
We are saved by God’s initiative, because of God’s love, God’s righteousness, God’s kindness, and God’s mercy. For those who don’t understand or have not made sense of the gospel, but who have sought God—to love God, to do what God desires—the very act of seeking God is an expression of faith. Many conservative and evangelical Christians are surprised to hear that evangelical thinker C. S. Lewis seems to have held this view.
