Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Why True Christians Make Room For "Atheists" In The Public Square

Cut and pasted from here.
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Making Room for Atheism
Thoughts on the Supremacy of God in a Pluralistic World

Our church exists "to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ." That is our mission. "All things" means business, industry, education, media, sports, arts, leisure, government, and all the details of our lives. Ideally this means God should be recognized and trusted as supreme by every person he has made. But the Bible teaches plainly that there will never be a time before Jesus comes back when all people will honor him as supreme (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10).

So how do we express a passion for God’s supremacy in a pluralistic world where most people do not recognize God as an important part of their lives, let alone an important part of government or education or business or industry or art or recreation or entertainment?

Answer: We express a passion for the supremacy of God...

1) by maintaining a conviction at all times that God is ever-present and gives all things their most important meaning. He is the Creator, Sustainer, and Governor of all things. We must keep in our minds the truth that all things exist to reveal something of God’s infinite perfections. The full meaning of everything, from shoestrings to space shuttles, is the way they relate to God.

2) by trusting God in every circumstance to use his creative, sustaining, governing wisdom and power to work all things together for the good of all who love him. This is faith in the future grace of all that God promises to be for us in Jesus.

3) by making life choices that reveal the supreme worth of God above what the world values supremely. “The steadfast love of the Lord is better than life” (Psalm 63:3). So we will choose to die rather than lose sweet fellowship with God. This will show his supremacy over all that life offers.

4) by speaking to people of God’s supreme worth in creative and persuasive ways, and by telling people how they can be reconciled to God through Christ, so that they can enjoy God’s supremacy as protection and help, rather than fear it as judgment.

5) by making clear that God himself is the foundation for our commitment to a pluralistic democratic order—not because pluralism is his ultimate ideal, but because in a fallen world, legal coercion will not produce the kingdom of God. Christians agree to make room for non-Christian faiths (including naturalistic, materialistic faiths), not because commitment to God’s supremacy is unimportant, but because it must be voluntary, or it is worthless. We have a God-centered ground for making room for atheism. “If my kingship were of this world, my servants would fight” (John 18:36). The fact that God establishes his kingdom through the supernatural miracle of faith, not firearms, means that Christians in this age will not endorse coercive governments—Christian or secular.

This is why we resist the coercive secularization implied in some laws that repress Christian activity in public places. It is not that we want to establish Christianity as the law of the land. That is intrinsically impossible, because of the spiritual nature of the kingdom. It is rather because repression of free exercise of religion and persuasion is as wrong against Christians as it is against secularists. We believe this tolerance is rooted in the very nature of the gospel of Christ. In one sense, tolerance is pragmatic: freedom and democracy seem to be the best political order humans have conceived. But for Christians it is not purely pragmatic: the spiritual, relational nature of God’s kingdom is the ground of our endorsement of pluralism, until Christ comes with rights and authority that we do not have.

achadwick,

Your post reminds me of what Dr. Kindell told me about the doll machine I posted the other day. It was called a "creation" with over 6,000 parts while we are told a living cell with many millions of parts came about by chance. The hypocrisy of blind faith!

Christians permit non-believers, and those of different faiths because they no longer have the power to do otherwise. We should never forget how Christianity acted when it did have the power.

And we're just now starting to see the affects of removing God from our daily lives.

That opinion seems very limited in scope, rooted in some selected socio/politcal history and strongly jaded to the negative. Is there any possibilty that you are hampered by inability to recognize, or comprehend, the premises and behaviors exemplified in the cited article?

"Making room" is a funny way to put it. Provocative.

When they say, "This is why we resist the coercive secularization implied in some laws that repress Christian activity in public places".... what laws are they referencing?

That's exactly what many want, and the only thing stopping them is the Courts.



Why do so many so called "christians" automatically assume anyone who disagrees with something they say must be mentally inferior?

Maybe we just don't buy the BS

I usually stay away from politics and religion on the internet, but I saw the title of this thread and just wanted to say:

Thanks for "making room" for me.

OK. Back to shooting and hunting.

Define "so many".

You would be suprised that the majority of Christians are content to know that you were, at a minimum, introduced into to the Gospel, and feel then it is now up to the Holy Spirit to do whatever He has planned, with no more interruption of your life from 'pesky' Christians, other than what you allow.

However, you seem to take offense to a vocal minority that quite possibly aren't even advocating a theology centered on Jesus.

Maybe, you should hop on down to Planned Parenthood, and ask for a tube of something to cure the itch of your mangina?

(That's one of their functions I support, BTW)

Very truly yours,

heathen #2

Obviously you either know nothing about being a real christian, or you're the type that makes the rest of them look bad.

I think it's both

When power was used against non-Christians those wielding said power were not true Christians.

I'm pretty sure you know nothing about real Christians, or me.

I know what I see, and if you're an example of a "real christian" I wouldn't want to be one.

The real ones I know act like it

It seems the ones you know don't quell your bitterness any.

"Why do so many so called "christians" automatically assume anyone who disagrees with something they say must be mentally inferior?

Maybe we just don't buy the BS"

My observation is that it is far more common for non-Christians to denigrate the mentality of Christians. Your condescending dismissal of Christianity as BS is a case in point.

I don't know that I am mentally superior to anyone; but when it comes to Christianity, I believe I am right and you are wrong. If you can't deal with someone having a different world view from you, that's your problem.

That is the same argument the Muslim apologists use when they claim suicide bombers are not true followers of Islam.

Any true Christian knows that salvation is an individual thing. The person must want to know Christ. If he doesn't, no amount of coercion will do it. God knows us all, he knows who will respond to him, and those he calls them to him. It's not predestination, it's just that God knows what you'll do.

To which "true Christians" are you referring, the Catholic paedophiles, the boy buggering "Brothers", the lot that burnt those women in Ireland and called them "Witches"...but only if they had land the "church" could steal.
Or do you mean the vast majority that spend so much on church buildings and garments instead of seeing to the needy.

Or do you possibly mean the lunatics that point the finger and condescendingly disparage those that do not suck the local church hierarchies assorted cocks.

Really...which?

I thought this was going to be about atheists.

No...it is always about some bleating piece of filth that spends his time looking down his nose at others he considers beneath him.

Oh, I know...they must mean the current "Pope" that is throwing all the "old" church doctrine out the window because it isn't "current" and in vogue.

Way to go Popey...make it up as you go along, that will get bums on seats at the local ped market.