Gary :
You are listening to a special edition of Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call. Still ahead, Dave and Tom continue their weekly in-depth study of the Doctrine of Salvation, please stay with us. We return now to our program series from 2000 and:
CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH
In this regular feature, Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call. Here’s this week’s question: One of the big issues during this year’s Republican Primary was the fact that Governor Bush spoke at Bob Jones University , an institution which the press characterized as anti-Catholic, intolerant and bigoted. Now I don’t think that the Berean Call is against inter-racial marriage or dating as BJU is, but your organization would also be viewed by the press as anti-Catholic and intolerant. In fact, so would a number of other evangelical ministries I have great respect for. How should a ministry or Christian institution respond to such accusations?
Tom:
Dave, we complain sometimes that people misunderstand what we say or what we write and so on and that goes on and I can understand that. But there is no doubt that there is an attack by the media on evangelical Chrisitanities; on people who take a biblical world view.
Tom:
Tom again to me it’s a matter of simple logic and it’s a bit ridiculous. Is there such a being as God? Did He create us? Does He have any thing to say about it? Does He have any plans for us? Is there such a place as Heaven? Is there life after death? Well, if so, it would seem that from everything that we can analyze around us there would be some very definite rules. I mean it’s like the mind science people, you know? They believe in this universal mind, but this universal mind has no mind of its own. So whatever their positive affirmations, they can impose themselves and they can use like the Star Wars Force. Well I can play the dark side or the light side or and I can use this force to get what I want. Tom it just doesn’t make sense. You were talking about it. Everybody has their own idea about gravity? Everybody has their own idea about atomic energy? Everybody has their own idea about this or that? No, it doesn’t work. So why is it when we come to the realm of—it would seem to be the most important area of all, our eternal destiny, if there is such a thing and God and so forth—if there really is life after death and we could give you all the reasons why there are—bodies wear out, but souls and spirits don’t wear out and the guy who sticks a gun to his head and pulls the trigger—he can be assured of one thing. He stopped the function of his brain cells, but that bullet missed his soul and spirit entirely and that continues to go. Okay, so where will you spend eternity? Okay, it’s a very serious question! Now this is the most serious question anyone can face! And Satan has put such blinders on mankind that when they come to this, suddenly they say oh, I think anything goes. You got your idea, I’ve got mine. And President Clinton in fact, has equated preaching the gospel with religious intolerance and hatred. Now we’ve got a new definition of intolerance. Tom, if you are about to take a dose of arsenic and you don’t know it, and I say Tom, wait a minute, wait a minute, hey don’t take that, it’s arsenic! Am I being intolerant of your right to eat whatever you want to eat?
Tom:
Based on what’s going on today, people could make a case for that Dave.
Dave:
I guess they could, but Tom it’s not rational. I keep saying we’re not only trying to be biblical, but rational as well. The Bible is rational. God says come now and let us reason together. So the idea that I say that I don’t agree with what the Catholic Church teaches, Bob Jones University ought to have the right to be able to do that. I mean people are disagreeing with them, why can’t they disagree with someone else? I disagree with Catholics, why am I called an anti-Catholic? But when the Catholics disagree with me they’re not called anti-evangelicals. Shouldn’t I have the right to point out to someone where I think they’re wrong, where I think especially they’re wrong for eternity and this is really serious. Now why should that be called intolerant. You know what this breeds is the idea that anything goes, it doesn’t matter what you believe, just have your own opinion and that’s okay. It’s like, Tom I’ve used a lot of ridiculous illustrations. You go to a doctor and after he examines you, you say doc what’s the prognosis? Well he says, I wouldn’t be so dogmatic and narrow minded as to come up with a definite diagnosis, what would you like? Open heart surgery has been very popular lately, or I could transplant a kidney. Everybody has the right to the operation of their choice. Well of course everybody has the right to the operation of their choice, but I hope you have enough sense to consult a physician who could provide an accurate diagnosis and prescribe a remedy for your malady and when it comes to eternity that’s very important and you better be sure you’ve got a good physician the Great Physician Jesus Christ, and you don’t have someone who makes a false diagnosis and promotes a remedy that isn’t going to work. To say that it is intolerant to try to present the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that is totally irrational Tom and this is where we are going in our society. And it will soon be against the law to even proclaim the gospel.
Tom:
Dave that’s of concern to us, but the absurdity of this I heard on a program the other day. There is a legislator who is really being scrutinized by the body about a comment he made about another man in his legislature. He called him an irreligious left-winger because he’s been…
Dave:
Because he is.
Tom:
Well he is, but they objected to that and they thought this was something intolerant and they were going to go after this guy. Now this guy has been living with a label of “religious right” for a long time, but when he reverses that, somehow that’s intolerant. Incredible!
Dave:
Right, we have right here in our little town of Bend , a professor at our local college who is being put out because he gives creationism as an alternative to evolution. It’s not intolerant—
Tom:
But he doesn’t teach that, he—
Dave:
No—
Tom:
He’s just made the comment that there must be something more than molecules and chemistry out there.
Dave:
Well at least, look Tom, you know the famous Scopes Trial—the whole idea was that you shouldn’t just have creationism, you ought to have evolution too, and now then they’ve got control, no, they through creationism and impose one. But it’s not intolerant for them to impose it, but it’s intolerant for us to say there ought to be an alternative.
Tom:
Yes.
