Well, folks let me start by saying thanks to all of you who responded to my Larry King question. Honestly, you all had some really insightful approaches that I hadn’t considered. Obviously there were no right or wrong answers per se, but I do think that certain responses would work better than others. I feel that a good response to Larry’s question would contain 3 ingredients. 1. Demonstrate Humility - always remember that any time you are asked a tough question like that you never want to come across as being prideful or arrogant. You want to do all that you can to show the gentleness and compassion that Jesus did when he encountered sinners. 2. Hold Firm to the Truth - the tough thing about Larry’s question is that it requires you to have to share one of the most difficult aspects of the gospel and that is that those who reject Christ will go to hell. But as Christians we must remember that the greatest act of love we can show someone is to give them the truth. Ultimately, we also have to never forget that we will have to answer to God. 3. Extend the Invitation - any time someone asks you a question regarding your faith you should see it as a wonderful opportunity to invite them to become a Christian. Our job is not to simply give answers, but to invite people into a personal relationship with Christ. I think that if we do these 3 things then we have answered Larry’s question in a Biblical manner that demonstrates the love of Christ and potentially leads to his salvation. Oh yeah, let’s all pray that Larry comes to salvation! Wouldn’t that be a great testimony.
Well, on to the next difficult question for you to consider. As many of you know I have spent the past week in Budapest, Hungary (what an awesome city! absolutely beautiful). I’ve been attending the European Leadership Forum. I have gotten an opportunity to meet some of my personal favor pastors, theologians and apologists. It has been a time of great intellectual dialogue and transforming time with the Lord. The primary issue that we wrestled with this week is the question of “Absolute Truth”. Put another way, is there any such thing as absolute truth. Some would argue that all truth is relative. What is true for you, may not be true for me. A classic example of this is often given by those who feel that no religious group has the right to say that their faith is the only true one. The example goes something like this: Imagine there was a group of blind people who were ask to describe what an elephant looked like based off of touching the elephant. The first person grabs the elephants tail and says that an elephant is like a hose. The second person touches the elephants body and says that and elephant is like a wall. A third person grabs the elephants nose and says that the elephant is like a snake. The final person grabs the elephants leg and says that the elephant is like a tree stump. Those who don’t believe in Absolute Truth will argue, that each person has some truth but none of them can say that they are absolutely right. They argue that this is a great analogy when it comes to religion, God is the elephant, and the blind men represent different religious beliefs. My question for you is do you believe that this properly describes religion? If not, then what is wrong with this scenario? And how would you respond?
