Quoted: YOUR FAITH IS NO MORE VALID THAN JOSEPH SMITH'S OR JERRY FALWELL OR DAVID KORESH OR MOHAMMED OR BUDDHA OR
Disconnector |
It is my belief that my faith is a gift from God.
Men being fallen, we'd never have faith in the true God unless He gave it to us.
Having said that, let's set it aside for a moment and deal with a different aspect of faith.
You're correct that all of the men or groups you listed have faith, of some sort. You're correct that all can claim to genuinely believe in....whatever they beleive in. I don't believe in atheists (see Romans ch. 1) but I don't doubt that many men genuinely believe in non-Christian deities or religious systems (some don't really have deity).
The real issue, though, is the
object of that faith.
In a sense, religious discussions don't center around my faith or yours; they center around the
object of our faith.
I have faith in a God that is described in the pages of Scripture.
Mormons have faith in a god that is different than mine, though their god does go by the same names as mine. Falwell (who I respected, thoug I strongly disagreed with him on some issues) had faith in the same God I do, though we had some deep (but not dividing) disagreements about some of God's decrees and methods.
Mohammed's God is most certainly not my god (regardless of what GW says...).
SO, when people discuss faith, ultimately, what is being discussed is not the genuineness of my faith versus yours, but, rather, the validity of the object of my faith, versus the
object of Mohammed's faith, versus the
object of Joeseph Smith's faith, and so on.
It is my belief that the God of the Bible is essentially and fundamentally differnet from other constructs of god.
(I'd even say other gods are figments of imagination, created by sinful men who would rather believe a lie than to worship the True God. But that's food for a different thread).
Anyway, the reason for discussing these things is twofold:
1) errant understandings of God are, in reality, no understanding at all, therefore, those in error don't really have faith, but only
presumption. As such, they are in danger of Hell.
2) Even worse, those who teach falsely about God denigrate His character. I'm compelled to speak when men speak falsely about the God of the Universe.
In summary, it's not that I don't respect the validity of men's belief in other gods. It's that I don't believe their god even exists.
An important tenet of Christianity is that God gave us, in Scripture, everything we needed to know about Him.
When a group teaches things that contradict with Scripture, therefore, either 1) they're right, or 2) we're right, but we can't both be right.
Speaking purely from a logical standpoint, it is possible that we all can be wrong. But from a Christian standpoint, God has given me eyes to see, and ears to hear, so that, as one of His sheep, I will hear His voice and follow Him, even in matters of what I believe about His essential nature. Therefore, when I disagreew ith someone on fundamental truths about God, such as His holiness, sovereignty, the divinity of His Son, and so on, I am absolutely, 100% confident that I am correct, not because I am smarter than others, but because God's truth has been revealed to me in a manner exactly as is described in Scripture.
It's not that I hate others; if I hated them I'd silently watch them espouse their false beliefs. I'd be much more popular if I took an 'I'm OK, You're OK' approach to religion - but when all my friends are cast into Hell, how much will I be able to say I loved them if I never attempted to correct heir erronous views of God (the object of their faith)?