“Mere tolerance is the virtue of men who no longer believe in anything.”-G.K. Chesterton

I see many “Christian” groups accusing other Christian groups of being judgmental and self-righteous in how they deal with non-believers. Most of these accusations focus on the reactions from non-believers. We’ve become a bunch of sissies.

Christianity is inherently unattractive and exclusive to non-believers.You see, until God reveals our depraved, awful state to us we have no desire to “be saved” (we have to be saved from something). Once we do understand the condition we are in, God stirs within us the desire for salvation. There are so many believers who strive so hard to make Christianity appear to be something it isn’t: a simple lifestyle choice to be considered alongside pagan, satanic, empty, God-hating, blasphemous religions like Buddhism, Islam, Taoism, Zoroastrianism, etc. The problem is that Christianity is real, the rest aren’t. My personal opinion is that this desire to compulsively lie about what you believe comes out of personal insecurity and the desire to be accepted by other people. I know that is what causes it in me. If you really believe in Jesus, then you believe that people who don’t also believe that His sacrifice is the sole pathway to salvation are going to Hell. If you don’t believe that, then you don’t believe in Jesus and are also going to Hell (John 3:18). So why are we so concerned about trying to sweeten what is already far better than any one of us can really comprehend? Salvation is the most gracious, undeserved gift we could ever be given. The problem is that by trying to make our religion appealing to heathens, we have to lie about it. We have to tell them stuff like we are all God’s children (wrong! Romans 9:8) and that perversions like homosexuality are a natural, tolerable “other form of love” (of course, lust, greed, selfishness, etc. are all also natural but we are commanded to suppress those urges and be righteous). If Christians live in a heathen culture that hates them, then they must be doing something right. We’re commanded to love others regardless, but we can’t possibly expect that love to be reciprocated without the direct intervention and revelation of God… and lying to someone about their relationship to God is not love (but, of course, I don’t think beating them over the head with it is either). I think that’s the core issue I am trying to aim at… we have a screwed up notion of what love is. Romans 5:8 says “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” We hated Jesus for His message and we crucified Him as He was actively loving us… that’s basically the example we can expect to follow as we share God’s love with others.