It’s a great question isn’t it? And from this street-level philosopher we might extrapolate questions like: “Why can’t all the church just get along?” or “Why can’t churches of ALL denominations just get along?” or “Shouldn’t OUR church teach tolerance of all poor street philosophers and inclusively preach THEIR philosophies from every religion?”
THEIR Two-faced ‘Tolerance‘
“Why can’t all the church just get along?”
Because we are ALL sinners. WE accuse the brethren of OTHER denominations while lacking discernment of our own fledgling flock of philosophers.
And this is NO different for the philosophers who deceivingly call THEMSELVES a ‘church.’
Returning to close examination of the PLANK in OUR own ‘evangelical christian’ eye, let’s review the theological discernment shared in our previous two Saturday Posts:
Christology and Theology may be at odds with prevailing social philosophy which USES a loose interpretation of the Bible to fill the house with non-committal christians.
The shift from ‘accepting the existence of different views’ to ‘acceptance of different views’ .. is subtle in form, but massive in substance. To accept that a different or opposing position exists is one thing; to accept the position itself means that one is no longer opposing it.
D.A. Carson, The Intolerance of Tolerance
Something’s wrong with our church!
(So why not RECALL it & fix it?) QUESTION what OUR church teaches AND build it back to be all-inclusive and tolerant.
In deconstruction everything is a SOCIAL construction, including the church.
Darrell Harrison – Just Thinking podcast
As a watchman on the wall Harrison points to the strategy of deconstructionist everythingologist preachers of the false gospel:
Once WE accept the philosophy that the CHURCH is a SOCIALLY constructed system, NOT a divinely ordained institution that originated in the mind of God..
- THEN the church falls into disbelief.
- CONSEQUENTLY these fledgling lambs of the faith will be led to the slaughter.
Deconstructionists
- ASSUME a HUMAN faith which WE need to fix.
- YET try to follow the illogic of philosophers who preach that:
- ALL of these DENOMINATIONS ‘can just get along.‘
Denominations / Divide and Conquer
Why the attack on Christians?
- Christians claim the LARGEST RELIGION in the world! [< 2 BILLION souls]
- Worldwide about three out of every ten people are Christians.
- In the U.S. about three out of four people claim Christianity as their faith (mostly Protestant) &
- In Mexico and Brazil about 9 out of 10 claim Christianity (mostly Roman Catholic)
- Roman Catholics are the largest denomination with about one billion communicants worldwide.
- 12% of the world population claim Orthodox Christian denominations with about 40% of the 260 million living in officially atheistic Russia.
- ~800 MILLION Protestant Christians [37% of the world population] can be divided into < 40,000 denominations
- Worldwide about three out of every ten people are Christians.
Major Monotheistic Religions
Why can’t believers in the One God just get along?
- Islam claims almost 2 billion worshipers of Mohammed
- Sunni Islam is the largest denomination with about <85% or about 1.6 billion followers
- Shi’ism or Shia Islam is the second-largest Muslim denomination and divided into additional sub-denominations.
- SEE THEIR intolerance toward OTHER religions below.
- Judaism, the original Abrahamic faith prior to Jesus Christ (1st c. A.D.) and Muhammed (7th c. A.D.), retains just a remnant of the world’s population with >15 MILLION worshipers, further divided into several religious schools of thought, culture and worship.
Catholic ‘kata-holos’ – universal
- IF Catholic = Universal, how then can ‘christians‘ call BOTH the Roman Catholic and the Orthodox a ‘Christian Church?’
- Did the fall of Rome or any empire of the world separate Christians from Christ?
- Yet IF Universal = Catholic + EVERYBODY ELSE; the PHILOSOPHER then becomes the Pope with no clothes, as well as a stone ‘thinker’ with failed logic.
- The religion of the Universal ‘Church’ is NO religion except ALL religions.
- WHY can’t YOU Christians and non-Christians all just get along?
- The Agnostic acknowledges that GOD IS; but like so many other truths, THEY cannot prove it.
- On the other face of the religion of philosophy, an A-theist by definition professes a religion AGAINST the god of their philosophy.
- ANY reasonably constructed religion accepted except the intolerance of Christians!
WE will RECONSTRUCT from OUR common ground.
Let’s invite the Pope to confess OUR sins against indigenous Americans of the past. He could wear a chief’s bonnet in place of his Roman MITRE. (Just instruct his holiness NOT to mention Jesus Christ.) He could help save OUR environment.
AND cultural Jews – they’re like us, so we can study their original faith. (Just don’t mention that Jesus called some of them ‘whitewashed tombs‘ or Christian claims that JESUS and the Father are ONE, or many other intolerant things JESUS said.)
Of course we have common ground with our Muslim brothers. (Maybe we can get them to give women some rights if we accept some of their very good examples of regular faith.) WE even know some at work (and they are all hard workers) who have even accepted Christians into THEIR Islamic faith and married into THEIR Muslim family.
Religion is a dirty word in the 21st century public square and an evangelical Christian the most offensive icon of intolerance to be mocked in social media.
Roger@TalkofJESUS.com
Other Faiths & Many Truths (not to mention ‘gods‘)
Let’s talk about culture. (WE can create it better.)
- The CURRENT WORLD POPULATION includes nearly 8 BILLION human souls.
- There are 18.6 million Asian Americans living in the US, making up 6% of the US population
- Nearly 400 million Christians live in Asia (5 regions), while just 230 million Christians live in N. America.
- China has a population of 1.4 BILLION souls and although officially the PEOPLE are ATHEISTS, more Christians evangelize their faith in China than in much of the U.S.
- Unofficially, Chinese folk religions comprise ~22% of the population, Buddhists ~14%, Christians about 5% (~74 MILLION disciples of Christ) PLUS 52% of the Chinese population are “unaffiliated” with ANY religion [probably safest even for many Christians]
- (Could the intolerance of evangelical Christians in America become the official ‘freedom FROM religion’ in the U.S.?)
- Open Doors USA estimates the number of Christians in China to be 96,700,000
- Unofficially, Chinese folk religions comprise ~22% of the population, Buddhists ~14%, Christians about 5% (~74 MILLION disciples of Christ) PLUS 52% of the Chinese population are “unaffiliated” with ANY religion [probably safest even for many Christians]
- #India, a mostly English-speaking country [in addition to Hindi] increasingly embraces Hinduism
- with 1.25 BILLION believers worldwide.
- A Pew research study comparing religions shows a growing intolerance of ‘minority monotheistic religions’ such as Islam & Christianity.
- The persecution of Christians in India is intensifying as Hindu extremists aim to cleanse the country of their presence and influence. Open Doors ranks the level of persecution as comparable to that of Iran and India’s Islamist neighbors of Pakistan & Afghanistan.
Intolerant Karma
Not only do a majority of Hindus in India (77%) believe in karma, but an identical percentage of Muslims do, too.
A third of Christians in India (32%) – together with 81% of Hindus – say they believe in the purifying power of the Ganges River, a central belief in Hinduism.
Source: PEW RESEARCH CENTER
YET note intolerance of many surveyed in 2019-2020 in India:
- ..members of India’s major religious communities often don’t feel they have much in common with one another.
- Many Indians, across a range of religious groups, say it is very important to stop people in their community from marrying into other religious groups.
- Roughly two-thirds of Hindus in India want to prevent interreligious marriages of Hindu women (67%) or Hindu men (65%).
- Even larger shares of Muslims feel similarly: 80% say it is very important to stop Muslim women from marrying outside their religion, and 76% say it is very important to stop Muslim men from doing so.
Denominations of Neighborhoods
It’s NOT just the Church which divides itself, but socially constructed systems of cities, communities, clubs, political parties, schools, work.. and yes, shunned minorities (like Christians) NOT tolerated by the majority.
To further quote the PEW study:
Indians, then, simultaneously express enthusiasm for religious tolerance and a consistent preference for keeping their religious communities in segregated spheres – they live together separately. These two sentiments may seem paradoxical, but for many Indians they are not.
The study goes on to mention the mythical ‘melting pot’ approach of ‘other’ countries. NO forced integration there, just two-faced tolerance of paradoxical convenience.
WHY can’t WE all just get along?
Integration of culture (or religion) risks ruining the unique values of individuals, as well as trespassing upon any inviolable Truth part and parcel of those individuals who cling to our worship of the Lord our God and Jesus Christ.
IF our evangelical Christian denomination is NOT different from the religions of the world, the philosophers of humanism, the teachings of the false prophets or the inclusiveness of all the idols which are NOT God, THEN WHY would any soul from another culture come to the community of faith in CHRIST JESUS or fellowship of love and worship of God by grace?
IF our GOSPEL of eternal life in the Lord Jesus Christ promised in Scripture is ONLY available to those who will repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, WHY would a denomination or church tolerate ANY teaching which might lead many lost sheep into the dark deceptions of death’s doctrines?
so that the name of God and our doctrine will not be slandered.
1 Timothy 6 – Instructions to Those Who Serve
If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself. - I Timothy 6:3-6 New King James Version
So withdraw yourself from such as cannot tolerate OUR intolerance FOR refusing to once again crucify Christ.
Against this contrast of sin and worldliness, Paul lays out examples of leadership and the character REQUIRED of leaders of the church under constant scrutiny by the congregation they lead; a pastor, elder, bishop or deacon watched closely by a world they would lead to Christ.