They Just Don’t Know

I was browsing around Facebook today trying to find inspiration. I know that it's a strange place to go to look for inspiration, but you should try it sometime. It really gives you a feel for what is on people's minds right now. Sometimes it can be pretty eye-opening. One post I saw made me think.

Ryan O'Rourke, who works with the Cold Harbor Road Church of Christ in Mechanicsville, VA, had posted a link to a PBS documentary that he was watching. The documentary is called Cities of Light: The Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain. He had noted how it was pretty good "Islamic propaganda" and that "Al Qaeda would approve" of it. I watched the trailer myself on the PBS website. You don't have to watch long to see what road they are traveling.

It introduces the "ideal" of tolerance that supposedly existed in medieval Spain concerning the co-existence of Jews, Christians, and Muslims. It mentions how their "cultures intertwined" [not quite sure how, but supposedly did: likely through apostasy and compromise, cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:3, also 1 Corinthians 15:33] and the "knowledge of the ancients was gathered". Sounds great, doesn't it! A great, multicultural society was brewing. Until those Christians decided to start what became known as the "Spanish Inquisition". It doesn't explicitly say that in the trailer, but that is likely what is being referred to. Because of their actions, the trailer claims, "moral absolutism and intolerance snuffed out the light of learning."

I haven't seen the documentary (yet) but I can deduce a few things from the trailer. It is likely that intolerance and "moral absolutism" will be used to show how Christianity, especially those who lived during that time, has led to "some terrible things, too". From time to time, someone will come along and try to grind their axe with Christianity by describing all of the terrible things that people have done in the name of God, and Christ. If only they knew, but they just don't know the truth.

First of all, not everything that is done "in someone's name" is necessarily approved by that person. I could do things in your name that you would find to be reprehensible. I could then cause people to think some terrible things about you, and what they think you think. But it wouldn't be true.

The same can be said of these "Christians". They did many things in the name of Christ which indeed the son of God finds abominable. Nowhere in the New Testament can the idea be successfully supported of coercing people by penalty of death to become "Christians". Nowhere do we find torture to be an acceptable practice for bringing about repentance. Instead, the Lord is the judge (Hebrews 12:23, 2 Timothy 4:8, especially James 4:12), any conversion is done through His Word (Acts 2:37). He will decide based on men's hearts and actions. We are never told to carry out such actions. In fact, we are told the opposite (Matthew 7:1-5).

What really stands out to me, though, and I think what really identifies the problem here is what John writes in 1 John 3:1:

"See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him."

Now it's not that they don't know we, i.e. Christians, exist. The sense of the word "know" here is more that of appreciation. They do not fully appreciate the true nature of the God of Heaven. They do not see him as God, nor do they glorify Him as such. Instead, they pursue this idea of multicultural co-existence and preference over truth. In their world, which contains no absolutes, any man can decide Christianity's tenants, like the Pope. If he can, why can't anyone else create their own view of God? What a crazy, mixed up view of God (twisting to destruction, 2 Peter 3:16).

Since they refuse to know God in the proper sense, how can they ever really understand who true Christians are? Well, they can, through the New Testament. God has made it plain:

"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools," (Romans 1:18-22 ESV)

~Daniel Howell