Tuesday, July 18
Liberal tolerance, Hell's despair
"Though Tony [Campolo] and I disagree on lots of things, I really like Tony. He's honest, and he loves the Bible. He tried to explain at this conference the necessity of following Scripture.
"But one participant retorted, 'I thought this was a spiritual progressives' conference. I don't want to play the game of "the Bible says this or that" -- or that we get validation from something other than ourselves.'
"There you have it. Validation from ourselves simply means you make up your own god. We Christians may interpret the Bible differently; we may apply it to life differently; we may have arguments over exegesis. But the Bible has to be the ultimate authority. Otherwise we end up worshiping the goddess of tolerance and believing that tolerance takes precedence over truth.
"Dorothy Sayers, the great English writer, said it best: 'In the world it is called Tolerance, but in hell it is called Despair, the sin that believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, enjoys nothing, hates nothing, finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing, and remains alive because there is nothing for which it will die.'"
"But one participant retorted, 'I thought this was a spiritual progressives' conference. I don't want to play the game of "the Bible says this or that" -- or that we get validation from something other than ourselves.'
"There you have it. Validation from ourselves simply means you make up your own god. We Christians may interpret the Bible differently; we may apply it to life differently; we may have arguments over exegesis. But the Bible has to be the ultimate authority. Otherwise we end up worshiping the goddess of tolerance and believing that tolerance takes precedence over truth.
"Dorothy Sayers, the great English writer, said it best: 'In the world it is called Tolerance, but in hell it is called Despair, the sin that believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, enjoys nothing, hates nothing, finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing, and remains alive because there is nothing for which it will die.'"
