Month: March 2013

Are Christians Narrow-minded?

~ wzippler

It seems that in some circles all you have to do is mention Christ without an attached profanity and you are called all sorts of names, narrow-minded , and intolerant come to mind.

Are we Narrow-minded?
Well in one sense they are right, we think what we believe is true, but doesn’t everyone?  If you don’t believe that your beliefs are true, then why bother believing them at all?  It turns out that someone who wants you to accept all beliefs, and will reject you if you reject any of those beliefs is just as intolerant as they claim that Christians are.

If a cancer patient said to you “I HATE chemotherapy so I am going to take a shot of vodka instead.”  would it be tolerant to let them do that?  Under the modern day definition of tolerance, which is really total acceptance yes it would, but that “tolerance” would end up killing them which is an act of HATE! While ultimately it is their choice I will not tolerate someone going to their death without a good stern talking to. I will tell them repeatedly that cancer kills, and vodka will do nothing to prevent it from doing so. They need Chemo!

It may be narrow-minded to believe that in order to get to Heaven that you have to first seek admission from the creator of Heaven, but if it is true , so what that it is narrow minded? Truth is narrow.  2+2=4 not 3, and not 5  but if a child were to tell me that it was 5 I would correct, but still love that child. And that is what true tolerance is, the ability to see error, but love that person anyway.

Suggested for further reading
Relativism: Feet Firmly Planted in Mid-Air

by Francis J. Beckwith , Gregory Koukl

I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist

by Norman L. Geisler and Frank Turek

The Safest Road to Hell

~ wzippler ~ 2 Comments

“Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one–the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts,…Your affectionate uncle, Screwtape.”

— C.S. Lewis (The Screwtape Letters )

Drug addicts don’t wake up one morning and suddenly decide that they will become so addicted to drugs that they will throw away everything to get another high. They usually start out with “just this one time”.  Then the addict changes to “just one more time” and the unfortunate keep adding just one more time it till they are willing to do unthinkable things just to get the next high.

Many sins start out really small, committing sins that can easily be rationalized away by most. I am sure many affairs have started out “I am just thinking about my hot secretary, it isn’t like I am touching her, and my wife will never find out.”  I am not saying that every small sinful thought will turn into a life shattering event, but it can. We all commit these “little” sins from time to time. We can’t help it. It is human nature, but the closer we draw to God the chances of this happening gets smaller.  In an age where our culture is calling good things bad, and bad things good focusing on God, Family, and the duties of the church are increasingly important. They will help you avoid the safest road to hell.

Note: by hell I am not just referring to the place where sinners experience judgement, but an earthly hell that we experience when our life falls to pieces.

Why balk at what you don’t understand?

~ wzippler

Why do you balk at the doctrine of the Trinity – God the three in One – yet meekly acquiesce when Einstein tells you E=mc2? What makes you suppose that the expression “God ordains” is narrow and bigoted, while your own expression, “Science demands” is taken as an objective statement of fact? You would be ashamed to know as little about internal combustion as you know about Christian beliefs. I admit, you can practice Christianity without knowing much theology, just as you can drive a car without knowing much about internal combustion. But when something breaks down in the car, you go humbly to the man who understands the works; whereas if something goes wrong with religion, you merely throw the works away and tell the theologian he is a liar.
– Dorothy Sayers

Does Religion Cause War?

~ wzippler

 

Does Religion Cause War?

The charge that most of the wars in history were religiously motivated is a popular one, especially with the New Atheists and their followers. Sam Harris has written in his book The End of Faith that religion is “the most prolific source of violence in our history.”1 But a cursory review of the wars fought throughout history shows the opposite is true.

As Robin Schumacher reports “An interesting source of truth on the matter is Philip and Axelrod’s three-volume Encyclopedia of Wars, which chronicles some 1,763 wars that have been waged over the course of human history. Of those wars, the authors categorize 123 as being religious in nature, which is an astonishingly low 6.98% of all wars. However, when one subtracts out those waged in the name of Islam (66), the percentage is cut by more than half to 3.23%.”2

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