The Only Way?

I join discussions on many other Christian blogs, usually in defense of the blog author, but sometimes just to add some additional information about the topic, and sometimes just to give words of encouragement.

Defending the Christian faith against the cults and false teachers often raises the ire of non-believers, which, in a way, is quite amusing; they don’t believe in God at all and yet they think it is somehow “wrong” for us to say there is only one way to God.

One individual on another Christian’s blog said he visited my blog, and that from reading my blog - as well as my discussions on the other blog - it was plain that I am  “terrified of and threatened by homosexuals…, Muslims, Catholics, Jews, Mormons, 7th Day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses,… anybody who isn't exactly like you.”

So a question arises:  Is the reason apologists expose cults and false teachers because we are “terrified and threatened by” them?   Of course not.  We are doing no more than what the Scripture tells us to do when it says we are to evangelize, as well as to discern and expose false teachings.

Another question arises:  Do apologists - or any Christians - expose cults and false teachers because they aren’t exactly like us?  Again, of course not.  

No, the issue is that Christianity has a truth claim - that there is only one God, and only one way of salvation.  If that way contradicts what the cults and false teachers say, we expose why they are wrong in comparison to the Scripture, and NOT because they think differently than we do.

And that’s a problem with our current culture of those of the liberal theological, philosophical, or political persuasion; if you have a truth claim, then you must be bigoted, hateful, intolerant, and “judgmental.”  Of course when they make such charges, they are themselves being judgmental, they themselves are lacking tolerance, and they are usually bigoted and hateful towards Christians!

So, contrary to the assertions as to why we apologists do what we do, our true motive is to protect the flock that is, and also to reach other sheep to bring into the fold of the Great Shepherd, all the while pointing out the wolves.