One of the chapters contained a quote from John Hick's A Rainbow Of Faiths "Absolutism in religion, preaching the superiority of ones own tradition over against others, continues to motivate young men to be willing to kill and be killed for what they regard as a sacred cause." (pg. 61 of The Message Of Mission.)
That fits in well with todays message doesn't it? If only Islamic extremism wasn't so...well extreme. If only evangelicals weren't so dogmatic, if only everyone could recognise that every religion has elements of truth in them and blend the religions together then the world would be a much happier, much less violent place.
The only problem with that is that none of the world religions leave that option open to us, all of the major world religions make some ultimate truth claim or other. For example Muslims quote that Allah is one he neither begets nor is he begotten. (Qur'an 112)
Straight away this puts Muslims at odds with Christians who teach that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, logically God cannot both not beget and be the Father of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ himself teaches that "I am the way, the truth and the life and that no man comes to the father but through Him." (John 14:6)
Blending all of the religions together is not simply an option that the religions themselves leave open to us. Yet what about this statement that it is religious dogma that motivates young men to kill and be killed? As we look through history we see religious wars being fought, the crusades of Christian church and the advance of Islam in Europe.
Christianity is at its heart a message of peace, peace with God and peace with one another. We see that as he was being betrayed Peter drew his sword and cut off a servants ear. Jesus response was to calm Peter and his revolutionary spirit and to heal the servant.
At times the church has lost sight of this truth and has used millitary might to advance the kingdom of God yet that was not what Jesus has in mind for the church. Rather we are always to be resident aliens in a strange land.
The gospel is a message of peace but it is also a message of self denial and even willing death. Jesus as the crowds where coming to him said "If anyone wants to come after me let him take up his cross and follow me. (Luke 9:23)
The call to carry a cross is not some insignificant travail that we have to endure in this life, the call to carry a cross is a call to come and die. Young men and women have gladly laid down their lives from the earliest days of the church right through to today? Why precisely because they believe the truth of Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ as the only way to God are worth laying down their lives for.
Far from being something to be avoided we should seek to arrive at the truth because it is the truth that shall set you free.
That fits in well with todays message doesn't it? If only Islamic extremism wasn't so...well extreme. If only evangelicals weren't so dogmatic, if only everyone could recognise that every religion has elements of truth in them and blend the religions together then the world would be a much happier, much less violent place.
The only problem with that is that none of the world religions leave that option open to us, all of the major world religions make some ultimate truth claim or other. For example Muslims quote that Allah is one he neither begets nor is he begotten. (Qur'an 112)
Straight away this puts Muslims at odds with Christians who teach that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, logically God cannot both not beget and be the Father of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ himself teaches that "I am the way, the truth and the life and that no man comes to the father but through Him." (John 14:6)
Blending all of the religions together is not simply an option that the religions themselves leave open to us. Yet what about this statement that it is religious dogma that motivates young men to kill and be killed? As we look through history we see religious wars being fought, the crusades of Christian church and the advance of Islam in Europe.
Christianity is at its heart a message of peace, peace with God and peace with one another. We see that as he was being betrayed Peter drew his sword and cut off a servants ear. Jesus response was to calm Peter and his revolutionary spirit and to heal the servant.
At times the church has lost sight of this truth and has used millitary might to advance the kingdom of God yet that was not what Jesus has in mind for the church. Rather we are always to be resident aliens in a strange land.
The gospel is a message of peace but it is also a message of self denial and even willing death. Jesus as the crowds where coming to him said "If anyone wants to come after me let him take up his cross and follow me. (Luke 9:23)
The call to carry a cross is not some insignificant travail that we have to endure in this life, the call to carry a cross is a call to come and die. Young men and women have gladly laid down their lives from the earliest days of the church right through to today? Why precisely because they believe the truth of Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ as the only way to God are worth laying down their lives for.
Far from being something to be avoided we should seek to arrive at the truth because it is the truth that shall set you free.
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