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Let us pray: Dear Savior, how grateful we are that You have made us so very special! In pure love You have revealed Divine truth to us, truth which has set our souls free. May we always be willing to stand up for Your truth of forgiveness and revel in the comfort that it brings. And may we also be willing to serve Your truth in humbleness, never forgetting that “there but by the grace of God go I.” Amen GRACE MERCY AND PEACE ARE YOURS FROM CHRIST, THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE! TEXT: I John 4: 1-11 and John 15: 9-17 Fellow Redeemed Sinners: I have a new word for you. It is: demiurge. So, what’s a demiurge? It was coined by the ancient Greeks and stands for a lesser “god” who orders the thoughts and lives of the common people. It can also stand for a lesser demon who does the same thing. Keep that thought in mind. I have waited patiently over many years for someone, somewhere to write bluntly about modern attacks on Christianity and defend the faith. No one seems willing to do so. Hence, after 25 years in the ministry I guess it’s high time I did so, in a blunt, pithy way. Everywhere we turn the modern “elites” denigrate our faith. Universalism is the modern faith put forth under political correctness. All roads lead to “god.” All faiths: Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity all lead to the same place—a happy place in heaven—or so we’re told. The demiurges of political correctness preach tolerance for literally every faith except Christianity. How dare anyone actually say that there is only one true religious faith in the world which is superior to all others! And if you do, those demiurges ban you to the intellectual “hell” of intolerance and hate speech. Well, I guess I’m going to be banned after today, because I’m going to lay out for you: THE SUPERIORITY OF CHRISTIANITY I St. John writes: “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come into the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.” Contrary to the PC ideal of inclusion, that passage is totally exclusionary. It says rather bluntly that only Christians, people who believe that Jesus is the eternal Son of God Who came to give His life for ours and thereby save us, only such people are truly Godly. For only such confessions of faith come from God. Let me phrase it another way. By definition God is God. If you have multiple gods who are all equal, then really there is no God. Obviously this God has to be zealous when it comes to His character and good name. If He was willing to share it with another, He wouldn’t be much of a God, would He? And share it He has with us humans in the person and form of His Son, Jesus Christ. Only in Christ do we really know God’s essential character and essence. Only in Christ do we know the extent of His love for us. In no other faith is there any hint at a God Who would die to save fallen man and then rise to life to confirm His saving work. Christianity is unique in that. And I dare say, it’s superior in that every soul becomes eternally precious to Him. He died for sinners. He wants to save sinners. He doesn’t play favorites. II Christ says: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love…My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” We’ve seen that Christianity is Superior because it’s God made. Now we see a second characteristic: it has the highest of standards. I know some scholars like to trace the 10 commandments back to the code of Hammurabi, an ancient Sumerian king. But if you look at that code of conduct and all others and compare them with Christianity they all come up as incomplete. Only Christianity deals with sins of the heart and not just violations of external rules. Likewise, what other culture of faith has elevated and honored women as much as Christianity? None. Christianity doesn’t treat them as chattle or mere sex objects. It doesn’t denigrate them into second class citizens. No, it values them as given special ability, insight and talents which they are to use to honor God because He has honored them with His very life on a cross. Our faith clearly teaches that all are sinners and that all are redeemed by Christ. Men and women therefore have equal value and worth before God. And all are to love God and obey His holy will revealed in Scripture in order to fulfill their purpose in life. We could also delve into how God’s standards protect the family, value human life at all stages, recognize and guard the right of private property, protect another’s good name, and seeks to guard against vile language which elevates no one, and greed which hurts everyone.—But, I think you get the point of what His high standards really are. Only in Christianity are relativity and selectivity when it comes to honoring God’s will, only here are they excluded. Only in Christianity do we hear: “Whoever keeps the whole law and yet offends in just one point, he is guilty of breaking it all.” III Christianity is superior because it alone deals with the human heart. If God really created us, and He did, that must mean He is concerned not just about our external actions but especially the attitude of our hearts. Ultimately, all other religious faiths focus attention on people’s actions instead of the heart. But Christianity is unique in this regard. Literally every commandment has a component part dealing with internal sins of the heart. And God’s will is summed up when it comes to the heart in this: “Love each other as I have loved you.” Love is an attitude. The self-sacrificing love spoken of here, mirrored by Christ giving His all on the cross for us, is really an issue of the heart. Islam is about external deeds: praying to Mecca 4 times a day, wearing certain clothing, adopting a certain demeanor depending on your sex, and engaging in certain rituals. Throw in Shinto-ism, Hinduism, and all the other “isms” and they are much the same. In other words, since the world judges on the basis of externals because they cannot read the heart, almost every adherent to those faiths will say: All roads lead to “heaven” if you live an outwardly good life. Of course, they are forgetting that God, by definition, has to judge the whole human, including the heart. And if the heart, the motivation behind your actions is based not on self-sacrificing love, totally and completely, then all your righteous deeds as like filthy rags as Isaiah says. But Christianity says: Don’t fear! Your God has come to your rescue. He knows none of your hearts are completely pure. He knows He cannot overlook your sins without denying His total goodness. So, our God sent Christ to love us completely with heart and life, to live and die in our place and to rise again to provide us with all the blessings of His self-sacrifice. Only Christianity talks about and preaches how God has cleansed our hearts for us—in Christ! No other faith has God giving His all to save us. No other faith says: “Simply believe and trust in Him.” No other faith uplifts humans by reminding them that God not only created them but has saved them because we’re that special to Him. So today we celebrate the Superiority of Christianity! We do so in humbleness toward Him and in concern and compassion for the souls of those who are being deceived by the demiurges of modern life. Amen |
