Years ago someone asked me about my greatest challenge in ministry. Without hesitation, I answered that our greatest challenge is the loss of community in our culture. That is, families and churches have become fragmented, and people, regardless of how crowded things get, feel very much alone.
I would stand by that statement, adding that the draconian measures of governments to “stop a pandemic” have made things far worse. But I wish I would have added that this fragmentation is not as much a problem as a symptom of our increasing individuality, and what has been called the “privatization” of values and spiritual things.
In other words, and more practically speaking, we are being told that while science and the material world are objective and rational, religion is your own business, subjective, and best kept out of the public square and marketplace.
In a pluralistic society, a tapestry of many cultures and points of view, it had to come to this, humanly speaking. But God’s people need to remember where we are living, lest our own convictions become irrelevant, even to ourselves and our churches.
While the world may think that religion and values are purely subjective, the Scriptures teach otherwise. God HAS revealed Himself objectively, and that revelation is through the Bible, and the incarnate Word, Jesus Christ–-not through the other so-called world religions.
It is not that many religions do not contain some truths. But Jesus came as Truth with a capital “T,” not as another religious teacher in a never-ending cycle of teachers. We are not at liberty to choose our gods as we choose coffee or tea, paper or plastic. All will be judged by Him and in light of Him. See John 5:19-23; 1 John 5:9-12.
Jesus alone is God’s unique Son who has entered the world to save sinners by dying for them and rising from the dead. Thus, the message of the Gospel is not a cultural message, for Jews alone, or certain Americans alone. It is the one and only Message of Truth which cuts through every racial and social barrier with love and grace. May God keep us strong in His love, in His grace, and in His Truth.
“I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except by me.
John 14:6