By Scott Tibbs, May 29, 2007
In Thursday's IDS, Steve Salter responded to my letter to the editor from the previous week.
I found it interesting that he refers to me as a not surprisingly unidentified “Christian”, when my name was on the letter. It turns out that for some reason, the IDS does not attach names to the letters online. Salter must have read my letter on the IDS web site instead of in the print edition. Both of our names do turn up attached to our respective letters in the IDS search engine, so I am guessing this is an oversight.
Salter does not understand why religious people "feel that their beliefs are the only right beliefs". As for Christians, it could be because the Bible is very clear that there is only one God and only one path to salvation. "Arrogant" or not, you cannot expect people who follow the Christian faith to not believe the holy texts of that faith. If someone is truly a Christian, then he should believe the Bible is true.
I find it amusing that Salter calls the Bible a "famous fictional work" and claims "there was no real individual such as Jesus" while simultaneously calling on Christians to follow His teachings of love, tolerance and humility. Salter's argument clearly contradicts itself: why should Christians follow the teachings recorded in a book of fiction, from a Son of God who never existed?
Unsurprisingly, Salter did not bother to actually cite Scripture to demonstrate where I am wrong. If my letter was contrary to the teachings of Jesus Christ, I would be more than happy to have someone show me from the Bible where I am wrong. However, despite multiple people complaining that my letter was somehow un-Christian, Not one single person has bothered to show me from the Bible where I am wrong.
I am not saying that such inter-faith ceremonies should be illegal, nor am I saying that pagan faiths like Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism should be persecuted. I have not said that Christians should not associate with people who believe in other faiths. Indeed, such an accusation completely (and intentionally) ignores one of my main points: how are we to present the Gospel to people who we have no contact with? What I am saying is that no "Christian" minister should ever participate in such a ceremony.
The ministers who participated in this ceremony may not have intended to deny Christ, but that is what they did with their actions. By participating in a ceremony where Christianity is just another religion, these ministers hatefully hid the Gospel from sinners that needed it most. They told the sinners present that the shed blood of Jesus Christ is not necessary for salvation in direct contrast to the very clear words of Scripture.
Some would say this is intolerant, but warning people of the consequences of their actions is not intolerant. If someone is driving toward a cliff, you do not refrain from warning him that he is driving toward his own destruction out of some twisted sense of "tolerance" and fear of being "judgmental". You tell him the truth. If he chooses to go off the cliff anyway, that is not your problem. The truth is not popular, and those speaking Biblical truth will often be in the minority, but you do not judge truth by how many people believe it.
