Living out the Hope

(Originally Written April 29, 2007 in Book 15)

Chapter 9: Living Out the Hope

On Maintaining the value of Pi: Evangelicals and Inter religious discussions

The state of Indiana sought to change the value of pi to 3.2 from 3.1459... in 1897 to help students along. If they had succeeded (the bill never left the Senate floor) they would not have really changed the value of pi.

This illustration points out three things in regard to evangelical Christians and inter religious dialogue:
1) It is legitimate for evangelicals to have inter religious dialogue
2) Evangelicals bring strengths and weaknesses to the table
3) There is a limited scope in legitimate involvement in dialogue by evangelicals

My Personal Involvement in Inter Religious Dialogue

Inter religious dialogue is not necessary evangelical in nature.

Inter religious dialogue does not have to involve some constructed global ecumenism.

Pi is Real: Commitment to Truth

Religious dialogue needs a commitment to truth in order to thrive.

Christianity has a truth claim in the very understanding of truth.

Pi is important: Commitment to Seriousness

One cannot compromise in the assessment of exclusive salvation and truth and have a serious inter religious dialogue.

Compromising exclusive claims so not to hurt anyone's feelings makes a mockery of the entire purpose of inter religious dialogues.

Pi is Difficult: Commitment to Work and Openness

Evangelicals fail many times in these dialogues because they make one of two mistakes:
1) Comparing our best with their worst
2) Addressing caricatures of other religions not the other religions themselves

We must strive to stay away from exaggerations, distortions and cartoons of other religions.

We should compare our worst with their worst and our best with their best. We cannot compare our worst with their best and visa versa and have fair dialogue.

Pi is Virtually inexhaustible: Commitment to Humility

What I know of pi is true, but it is true only as an approximation.

Inter religious dialogue takes place between human beings. We all share humanness and humility helps our case.

The Spiritual Dimension

Not everything is infested with demons. Demons exist, but the spiritual warfare that takes place has no bearing on the ultimate outcome.

Christ's victory was the one and only decisive battle.

There are situations which are clearly demonic in nature and Christians should immediately leave these situations, but this is hardly the same as claiming all non-Christian houses of worship are demonically possessed.

Christianity provides a lifestyle free from fear. We do not have to live in fear of the devil or demons or evil.

Satan's greatest work has been achieved in the churches where "the gospel of salvation in Christ is reduced to a set of moral platitudes, the biblical picture of the sovereign Lord of the universe has been caricatured into a wimpy-whiny Casper Milque toast, and the assurance of redemption has been turned into a vague optimistic outlook" (Corduan, 232).

The Church in the Pluralistic World

Worship

Worship has been reserved nowadays for the music portion of Church.

But when music starts to take the center stage then the proclamation of the Word takes a back seat. A major problem!

The historicity of Christianity give it a strength no other religion has. It is grounded in objective hope.

The abstraction of God's characteristics in praise of them (Holiness, love, etc.) is good and has its place, but when it becomes the totality of praise (a current trend). Christianity becomes groundless in history and work like every other religion.

Attitudes

As Christians we face unnecessary temptations of the need to be liked and the need to feel disliked.

There is no real oppression of Christianity in its truest forms in the 21st Century America. Yes, there is the removal of Christian symbolism and actions from the public eye, but this is not oppression at the core of Christianity.

The real danger facing Christianity in America is not the suppression of it, but the trivialization of it. Many want to relegate Christianity to some relative preference with no objective value to it.

Truth

The Church cannot flounder on the issues of the truth of God, authority of the Bible, reality of personal sin, substitutionary atoning death of Christ, need for faith in Christ, and the expectation of Christ's return.

Evangelism is an invitation to invite people to partake of the truth. It is not:
1) an exercise to entice people to an organization
2) A campaign to see who can promise the most personal fulfillment
3) "a method of putting the Christian dish or the post modern religious cafeteria" (Corduan, 237).

Context

The Church must present the gospel in its pure and unadulterated form.

This means we must discern what is true on the basis of the Bible and separate our own cultural contextualization of it from the truth.

Contextualization does however provide the avenue of preaching and reaching the lost.

Ministering Universally

The Church must demonstrate its universality by being willing to minister universally.

God, not the religion of Christianity, should have the place of preeminence in our faith.

Fin.