Dogmatism

Tom Shrader addresses the cultural pressure to be tolerant of all viewpoints, arguing that Christians must be dogmatic about certain absolute truths. Using Jesus as the model, he demonstrates how Christ was uncompromising about religious purity, the necessity of being born again, the authority of Scripture, and His exclusive role as the only way to heaven. Shrader challenges believers to distinguish between matters of preference and non-negotiable gospel truths.

“Jesus was pretty dogmatic and inflexible in some certain areas.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: Life Management (2001)

Recorded: December 06, 2001

Duration: 44 min

Themes: truth, tolerance, absolutes, compromise, conviction, faith, gospel, certainty, facing cultural pressure, defending faith, new believer, confused about truth, college student, parent teaching children, pastor, struggling with doubt

Scripture: John 2, John 3, John 3:16, John 5, John 6, John 8, John 14:6, 2 Timothy 3

Theological Themes: biblical authority, scriptural truth, apologetics, worldview, pluralism, religious exclusivism, gospel essentials, orthodox doctrine

Full Transcript

How many of you are hot? How many of you are just right? We get the point. We do the "who's right" question, and we'd laugh and say "well I am," and then we'd go back through. But we basically understand that when we talk about the temperature, there's not a singular answer. That's why we've given up the discussion on questions like "How hard should the bed be?" We'll give you a control and you control—you both get it where you want it. How much air should we have in the car? It doesn't matter—you get a control, you get a control.

But if we say "what's two plus two?" and somebody says five, we can say to them definitively: you're wrong. That's what we're talking about—being able to declare something is true.

Living in a Pluralistic Society

Let me spend a second on this—it gets a little philosophical here. You live in a society whose motto is "e pluribus unum"—from many, one. You live in a society that proclaims its diversity. You live in a society that says we're pluralistic. Those are all fine things.

But what can come out of that which isn't good is the idea that because we're pluralistic, all viewpoints are equally valid. We have, for example, faith. We have all these faiths, and we're protected by the Constitution and the law to have all these faiths. But because that protection is there, don't assume for a second that that means all these faiths are true.

If you've got a guy here—I was listening to a discussion the other night with a guy that's a Muslim, and he said Jesus is a great teacher and a great prophet, but He's not God. You got a guy over here that says Jesus never existed. You got a guy over here that says Jesus was a good teacher. You got a guy over here that says Jesus came and died on the cross to save His people from their sin. What we know is this: they could all be wrong, but they can't all be right.

The Answer We Have

So now we come to this pluralistic society, and we say to you all the time in here: you're fortunate. You've come to a place that has an answer. I would even say it's stronger—we have the answer. Because we know where to go to find what Francis Schaeffer called at the end of his life "true truth."

Schaeffer said we've so wasted away the definition of the word "true" that he had to add to this "true truth"—this is the real truth. This means developing a sense of what we said the essence is: knowing the issues that are absolute, and that determines then how I'm going to live in those things.

When we talk about truth, the world kind of looks at it like the Dow Jones—it's up and down. But we're saying there is this core of truth that we need to know and we need to cling to.

The Virtue of Proper Intolerance

Being flexible is good in human relationships. Being tolerant of other people and their little idiosyncrasies—that's fine. But being tolerant of falsehood is no virtue.

I read a study the other day, and I sense this may represent that the American people are confused. There are a lot of interesting things in there: 96% of people believe in God, 75% of the people questioned believed in life after death, 86% of the people polled believe they're going to heaven. Very interesting statistics. I have no idea what it means, but something's out of whack here.

In this process they asked and tried to determine tolerance, and here's what they discovered: the most tolerant age group in America was—what would you guess? Let me do it the other way first. The most intolerant age group—intolerant of others' beliefs—was exactly the opposite of what you think: 18 to 24. The most tolerant age group: 65 and older.

That threw me off, but then I came up with the reason why. If I'm 65, I understand that in life I'm now playing not just the back nine—I'm kind of teeing off on the final three or four holes. So I don't want to believe that there's a right and wrong because I want all my bases and options covered. That's my theory on that. I don't know if it's right or not.

Three Kinds of Issues

Here's what we say to you: you've got to know the issues, and you've got to know the absolutes. This is just my thinking, and I hope it's right—there's three kinds of issues.

Here's the first one: issues that really don't matter—they're essentially irrelevant. Whether you like a white car or a blue car, it doesn't really matter. Whether you're a Crest man or a Colgate woman, it doesn't really matter. I mean, it's essentially irrelevant—unless you're married to somebody.

I will never forget the first morning I woke up and went into the bathroom and came running out and said to Susan, "Somebody's been in our bathroom and assaulted my toothpaste tube!" Because she's a squeezer in the middle, and to this day I cannot understand that. Mentadent has saved our life, really.

But some issues are irrelevant. Other issues are very important, but on those issues you can compromise and still leave your integrity intact. I don't know what those issues would be, but you have to define them in your life. They're issues that you feel strongly about—they're not irrelevant, they're significant issues—but you can compromise with integrity somehow.

They're not what we would call "mat issues." That would be the third category. These are issues upon which there are non-negotiables, so that compromise—and that's going to be different for every person. What are those issues? What are those things in your life? You have to navigate your way through it. Life has in it a good portion of compromise. That's why this is just my theory—that's why...

When you take a Christian and put them in a political environment, it doesn't work very well because politics is the art of compromise. The Christian life is an uncompromising life, and they just don't blend together very well. We don't do that very well, which is fine. But there are those mad issues that we're trying to get at—those things upon which we can't really bend. We can't really move because our integrity and who we are would be challenged if we did.

Our model for this, and you've heard it now seven times, is Jesus. We look at Jesus' life, and from Jesus' life we derive some terrific illustrations and points.

Jesus Was Dogmatic, Not Meek and Mild

Jesus was—and you don't get this view—let me tip my hand up front. We've got about a half hour, and I'm going to tip my hand. Here's what you're going to hear from me a lot: we as a culture don't do a very good job of understanding Jesus or Christianity. It's a very distorted view. It's a Jesus of love, it's a little baby Jesus meek and mild. It's a culture that's got Jesus in the crib and leaves Him there basically, that sees Him as kind of this guy—you know, Jesus was a lover, Jesus loved everybody. That's kind of what you get about this.

Well, let me tell you what Jesus was. Jesus was pretty dogmatic and inflexible in certain areas. Let's take a look at Him.

He Was Dogmatic About the Purity of Religion

Here's the first one: He was dogmatic about His purity of religion. In this case, He was dealing with the Jewish faith. John chapter 2: "It was almost time for the Jewish Passover. Jesus goes to the temple, and in the temple court He found men selling cattle and sheep and doves, and other men sitting at tables exchanging money."

Now without getting into a diagram of what He was seeing at the temple, He's in the courts of the Gentiles, and in the court of the Gentiles there's commerce going on. He's not necessarily responding to the commerce. What He's responding to is that people are ripping each other off. They're gouging one another, and they've altered the designated purpose of this temple.

So Jesus made a whip out of cords, and He drove from the temple area the sheep and the cattle. He scattered coins and money changers, and He overturned tables. I saw a movie on the life of Jesus five or six years ago, and this scene was depicted in there. It really was helpful in reminding me of what a chaotic scene this had to be. Jesus is there with His whip. Sheep are running, cattle are running, tables are flying, coins are rolling. Jesus is right in the middle of this. He's a whirlwind. He's turning this place upside down.

Little baby Jesus meek and mild? Little baby Jesus who's just a little lover? He's got this place in total chaos. Why would He do that?

Here's the answer: He scattered these coins and money changers, the tables are overturned. To those who sold the doves He said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn My Father's house into a market!" He's saying there's a designed purpose here, and you've perverted the purpose. You've taken advantage of this thing. In this case, it was the present system that was in place. He's saying to us, I would think, that there's a purity in our worship. There's a purity in our life. There's a purity in our church. Make sure they stay that way.

He Was Dogmatic About the Necessity of Conversion

Here's the second thing, and we'll spend the majority of time on this: He was dogmatic about the necessity of conversion. This is a really important scene in John chapter 3. You'll turn on a football game and there you see somebody that says "John 3:16: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." That comes within the context and right after this discussion with Nicodemus. John chapter 3 becomes a very important chapter, and it's a chapter that you can use so easily with your friends.

Let's look at it: "Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council." Nicodemus was a guy that when you had a religious question, you went to Nicodemus. When you wanted to understand things of faith, you went to Nicodemus. So the question is, where does that guy go when he has a question?

When Nicodemus comes to Jesus, the next thing tells us he came to Jesus at night. We stop there because that gives us, if we were going to do it, a title on this chapter and study it out. That would be our title right there. You see it: "Nick at Night." There it is right there. Not funny, but very clever.

He comes to Jesus and here's what he says: "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform the miraculous signs you're doing if God were not with him." Here's what we know: we know you're a godly guy, we know you speak the truth. You couldn't be doing all this.

Nicodemus is saying—he's not trying to—I don't think Nicodemus is trying to catch Him. There's all sorts of reasons some would suggest he came at night because he was busy all day and that's when he came. Others would say he came at night under the cover of darkness, and here's this Pharisee reaching out to Jesus and he's asking this question.

Whatever it is, he comes and he sincerely, it appears, is looking for answers. But he doesn't even get a question out. All he does is say, "Listen, I got this figured out. You're from God."

In reply—now Jesus is responding. This would be great to have a tape of this. Was Nicodemus about to form a question, or was Nicodemus just there and he was just stating it? We don't know. Did Jesus interrupt? We don't know.

But Jesus replies, perhaps anticipating the question, and He says this: "I tell you the truth"—some of the translations will say "verily, verily." Whenever we see that repetition, we know: listen up, this is important. This is significant. And then He uses a word that's very...

So in our philosophical days and trying to understand what's going on, what He's giving us here is essentially a pre-existing condition. If something's going to happen, we have to have this in place. I'm never going to get whatever it is—in this case He's going to talk about seeing the kingdom of God. I'm never going to see the kingdom of God unless something happened. This has to be happening for me to be able to see the kingdom of God.

And here's what He says: "I tell you the truth, unless a man, a woman, a boy, a girl is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." When He talked about the kingdom of God, He's talking about the kingdom of heaven. I think there's two things—is He talking about paradise and heaven? You bet. But I think He's also talking about earth and understanding life. You're never going to get it. You're never going to understand it, no matter what's in place in this life here. You're never going to understand it unless you've been born again.

Now in this part right here, He doesn't really define born again for us. We know from Scripture what He's saying: unless you believe in Me, unless you repent and believe in Me, unless you come to Me, unless you believe I'm who I said I was. Unless you believe—and that doesn't mean mental assent. It doesn't mean check a box in a card and say yes, I believe. It means belief in a way that my life is transformed. Unless you believe in Me, unless you repent, unless you are born again, you're never going to go to heaven and you're never going to understand life.

The Stakes of the Gospel

This, men and women, is absolutely essential for you to understand as you penetrate the marketplace as missionaries to the culture. You have to understand this. These are the stakes. This is the non-negotiable. This isn't toothpaste. This isn't politics. This is life and death, heaven and hell, unless you're born again.

And here's the word that comes to my mind: it's grace. What Christianity brings to the world is saving grace. No religion has that.

The Necessity of Grace Alone

I have the second Friday of December each year at 1:15—I eat lunch at Durant's. Been doing it for 15, 20 years. The second Friday at 1:15, I meet the same guy and we eat at Durant's and order the same thing: the fat man won. Every year—you are what you eat, by the way—every year. Over the years our purpose is we meet every year and we go through all the bowl games and we make wagers. Nobody has ever paid yet in all the time we've met. We keep a running total. One guy sets a line in the game and the other guy picks the team, and it takes two, three, four hours for us to go through this exercise.

The afternoon crowd is coming in for their Manhattans while we are still journeying, and we'll talk about, as you would think over the years, many things. One of the things we talk about is heaven and what do you need to do to go there. And what I want him to see is grace. And what he sees is yes, grace, but works.

So the icon that's become the discussion point at lunch is Mother Teresa. And he will say, "I know what you say. I just can't believe that if Mother Teresa doesn't believe like you believe, she doesn't go to heaven. Look at all that Mother Teresa did." And see, until you can understand that Mother—and I'm not making a judgment here, by the way, on Mother Teresa. I've got no idea where Mother Teresa is. There's some suspicions, but I have no idea. But unless you can embrace the fact that Mother Teresa could well be in hell, unless you can embrace that, you don't understand grace. And if that begins to get into your theology and your doctrine and your church, then let's get it out of that. Let's use Gandhi.

The Example of Gandhi

I love to use Gandhi. I use this as here's your icebreaker for the Christmas party this year: Mahatma Gandhi's the nicest man in hell. Just throw that out for discussion. What happens is this—and I like the Mahatma for this reason because I really admire him humanly for some things. There's that classic picture of the Mahatma after he dies: all his earthly possessions, and there's his glasses, his prayer book, and a purse. That's it. And humanly we look at him, we say he's got to be in heaven.

Well, here, let me give you something that Gandhi said, because this gets more complicated. Gandhi said, "I believe in the teaching of Jesus. I follow the teaching of Jesus. I read the Gospels every day. But I refuse to believe that Jesus or anybody else was God come in the flesh to die on the cross for me." Now if that's true, and obviously that part's true because that's what he said, if he died with that in his heart and mind—and we think he probably did—then the Mahatma's in hell. Not because he didn't do a bunch of good things humanly speaking, but because he did not have atonement for his sin.

See that? I got to grab that—that's what it means to be born again. I'm going to come back to it. I just want you to see that Jesus didn't give Him any wiggle room here. We'll come back to it in a second.

Jesus Was Dogmatic About Scripture

Jesus was also dogmatic about the Scripture and the testimony of the Scriptures, the Bible. He says this in John 5: "And the Father who sent Me has Himself testified concerning Me. You've never heard His voice nor have you seen His form, nor does the word dwell in you, for you do not believe in the one who sent Me. You diligently study the Scriptures because you think by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about Me, and yet you're refusing to come to Me to have life."

He's saying you've got the Scriptures—now for us that means the Old and New Testament. For us it means the canon of Scripture that we have. Jesus is saying listen, you're not going to find life in these Scriptures in and of themselves. You're not going to fulfill a law and find eternal life. All they're going to do is point you to Me. And not to the life of Christ, but to the death of Christ. You know this—we've talked about it before. Thomas Jefferson did what—

In practice, many of you love to do what Thomas Jefferson did: he took the Bible and took out all the stuff He didn't like. He created what you can go right over to Borders or Barnes & Noble and buy - something called the Jefferson Bible. If you get a good introduction to it, you'll get even Jefferson's own writing. Jefferson writes to a friend and said, "Here's what I'm doing." Here's Jefferson's high view of scripture: "I'm finding," and I quote, "diamonds in a dunghill." So here's the Bible that's dung, and now I'm going to find the real diamonds out of that.

What he put together that we call the Jefferson Bible - he didn't call it the Jefferson Bible. He called it "The Life and Morals of Jesus." As Thomas Jefferson wrote, "I'm a real Christian," and here's how he defined a real Christian: a real Christian is a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus. Jefferson did what Gandhi did - he took the teaching and said this is good stuff, some of it. He didn't, by the way, get all excited about this John chapter 3 thing.

In fact, here's what he did. Jefferson had a problem with anything he couldn't understand, and obviously he's a very brilliant man - way smarter than I am. But he was so smart that he missed some very basic things. He couldn't handle anything that was supernatural. The last verse of the Jefferson Bible says, "And they put Him in the tomb and rolled the stone in front of the sepulcher." That's the end.

The Problem with Taking Only the Teaching

There's no hope. See, if you take the teaching of Jesus and you get rid of the supernatural, there's no hope in that. Just be good, just be kind - it's almost practice random acts of kindness.

You're not saved by following the life of Jesus. You're saved by embracing His death on the cross. Is His teaching important? Obviously, it's very important. Does it give us a roadmap on how we live? Sure, and I try to figure out - how is love manifest? Love is patient, love is kind. What's that look like? Look at Jesus! But I'm not saved by the life and morals of Jesus. I'm saved, I'm born again by the death of Christ.

Maybe you've got problems like Jefferson where you've got scripture in this Bible you don't like. Let me give you a great thing to do for the year 2002: find the verses you don't like and study them until you love them. Because we know they're true, we know they're of God. I don't mean verses that perplex you and you're looking for the meaning. I mean verses that you look at and you say, "I just hate that verse. I don't like what it says. I don't like what it means to me. I want it out of here." Take this year and study it until you fall in love with that verse.

Christ's Dogmatic Focus

Let me give you a couple more things very quickly, and then I've got something I really want to hit on at the end. He was dogmatic about the focus of His attention. We've really talked about this before. He says in John 6, "I have come from heaven not to do My will but the will of Him who sent Me." Jesus was constantly going back to His focus. His focus was to save His people from their sin. Jesus never lost track while He was on this earth. I'm going to let it go because I'm going to run out of time - I want to get to the end.

Christ's View of Society's Corruption

He was dogmatic about the corruption of society. This has some relevance to it. Jesus did not see people as basically good and the world is getting better. He said, "The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify that what it does is evil." Jesus' very presence in this world began to galvanize the opposition.

In fact, to the Jewish leaders, here's what He said in John 8: Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I came from God and now I'm here." But you belong - again, let me just spend a second here. This is the same Jesus that everybody's going, "Oh, it's old Jesus good. Oh, Jesus is here, little old Jesus meek and mild." Here's what Jesus says to these guys - these, by the way, are the Jewish leaders: "But you belong to your father the devil, and you carry out your father's desires," which would mean your desires are the same as his. And now He says, "He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies."

The Corruption of Natural Affections

When you get into 2 Timothy chapter 3, Paul starts to describe the world in the latter days, the times in which you live, and he said men will be lovers of self. Really, it just all kind of flows from there, and then he lists all these things. One of the characteristics is they'll be unloving. What that word means is they will turn against natural affections.

I was at the hospital last night. My secretary - administrative assistant, I never know what to call anybody anymore - just had a baby. To watch her with that baby was - I mean, she just said, "Isn't she beautiful? Look at her hands. Did you see her feet? Tom, she has incredible feet!" That's the most natural thing in the world. It's instinctive.

It's instinctive. Susan was there, and they were talking about because they've got all these books and they're logging when they feed them and when they change a diaper. Susan's going, "We didn't have it. We left the hospital with a bag, looked at each other going, 'What in the world are we going to do now?' We had no idea." Susan said, "You know what we did? We just did what kind of came naturally, instinctively." That's what that word "loving" means.

Well, here's what Paul says to Timothy: in the latter days people will be unloving. I would contend to you one of the most natural, loving things is a mother for her baby. And yet you live at a time when a million and a half mothers kill their babies every year.

It's just a given now. It's interesting how things - when I was a kid, smoking was a big thing. You know, you quit smoking, stamp out smoking. Then the generation under that got it, then it was seatbelts. We never wore seatbelts - I mean, we had them, they weren't—

Even in the car. But now my girls get in the first thing they do is buckle up. I mean, you just kind of the things that were there and then they just kind of go away.

Well, like when we did recycling I said this is crazy I got to recycle I got to take this. We've got now places where you go to drop off babies that you've had you don't want. This is sick. You have a baby and you don't want it you got a place where you. Please don't hurt it or kill it or stick it in a dumpster. Bring it to a safe house. This is a very dark world.

Here you go. They just did a study and here's what they discovered. Pregnancy they're talking about kids. Teenagers average boy has his first sexual intercourse at age 15 and has five girls by the time he's 18. Pregnancy results not from sexual activity, but from ignorance. Why'd you get pregnant? I'm stupid. We need you need a study.

See because what you got to understand is we've got this proliferation of pregnancy today because kids don't understand sex. If they don't understand it, I don't know what you from the time they're in kindergarten they're learning to put condoms on bananas. I mean if they don't get it now, they're never going to get it. We got pregnancy because we're corrupt and we want to have illicit sex. That's why you're got pregnancy. Doesn't it bug you that it have to have a government-funded study to figure out that it's ignorance. So we're going to give them more education. Stupid you live in a corrupt society.

Jesus Was Dogmatic About the Exclusivity of Christianity

Here's the thing I want to get to. Jesus was dogmatic and this is similar to what we've talked about the necessity of conversion. But takes it really to another depth. Jesus was dogmatic about the exclusivity of Christianity.

John chapter 14. Let me set the setting for you. Jesus knows He's going to die the next day. He gets together all these guys. I was thinking about this and I'd never really thought about it until a couple of days ago. Here are these 12 guys 13 guys that have essentially lived together for three years. They're hanging out. They've had the highs they've had the lows, you know, they've had the water fights in the Jordan. They've told jokes they've played around they've messed around they've short sheeted each other's beds. They've done all the stuff that you would do and stuff that you'd never want to do they did it. They're guys. These are guys living together. They've bonded in an extraordinary way.

Jesus understands that one of the 12 is going to betray Him and that the other 11 He's leaving behind. He gets them together and they sense something special's happening. I'm just telling you you really want to help understand your role in the world. I'm just telling you you really want to help understand your role and how God works in your life. Read John 14 15 16 and 17. Those are those last-minute instructions.

Well in John 14 Jesus gets them together. He's had the Lord's Supper. He's now getting ready to say goodbye. Here's what He says. Don't let your hearts be troubled. Don't be afraid. Why? Because He understands it's going to be pretty scary coming up next. Don't let your heart be troubled. I'm going to prepare a place for you. In My Father's house, there's many mansions and I wouldn't tell you I was going there unless it was a place for you. And you know where I'm going and you know the way.

Thomas says we have not got a clue. I don't know what you're talking about. He said we don't know the way in other words. You've lost me completely. I don't know the way I don't know where you're going. I'm absolutely confused. Jesus says John 14:6, "I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."

Modern Debates About Salvation

That's at the heart of discussions that are going on now all over the place. Here you go. Larry King last Saturday night. You see it Larry King last Saturday night has a rabbi a priest. It always sounds like a bad joke when I give you his lineup of who's in there. But he has a rabbi a priest somebody who's a Muslim somebody from the Nation of Islam and Max Lucado. They're having this discussion and obviously they're trying to do is Islam is it is it a religion is it whether Max Lucado says listen. Okay, salvation in the Christian view is very different than the Islamic world. Salvation is by Christ and grace.

So King asked him is that are you telling me that Jesus is the only way. And Lucado says I'm telling you I'm saved by grace not by deed not by works. So King says to the Catholic priest father. Do you believe that? He said well, I believe that people are saved by Jesus. So King says you're saying that if I don't believe in Jesus, I won't go to heaven and the priest said no I'm not saying that at all. I'm not saying that at all. Because if you if you live a good life and be the best you can be you'll go to heaven. He said take the rabbi here. I thought I had a young man take my rabbi, please. But he said take the rabbi the rabbi if the rabbi and this is a quote if the rabbis the best he can be following the rule that he has he's going to heaven.

So King says to the rabbi. Well rabbi, what do you think about all this and the rabbi says? Well, I think this thing of deeds is important and then the rabbi says take Adolf Eichmann now most of us in this room probably remember Eichmann, but a Nazi war criminal guilty of the death of millions of Jews. He and the rabbi saying when Eichmann was in prison he had ministers coming to him to say you believe in Jesus. You'll go to heaven and the rabbi says and I quote that's preposterous.

See that's what's at stake here. Here you go. Let me read you. Let me read you and this is now verbatim. This is the discussion from the O'Reilly factor the other night. Jerry Falwell's on with Bill O'Reilly. And O'Reilly's all because this is the hot topic now. Are they are these Muslims are these from the Nation

The Stakes Are Eternal

Let me share with you a conversation between Bill O'Reilly and Jerry Falwell about the eternal destiny of those who follow Islam. O'Reilly asks, "Are they going to heaven?" What I'm going to read you sounds choppy because there's cross-talk and people interrupting, but here's the exchange:

O'Reilly says, "Do you believe that unless you accept Jesus, you're not getting in?" And I assume he means heaven, not the Elks, but I don't know.

Falwell responds: "Bill, as an evangelical, I believe that. I grew up with a father that was agnostic, a grandfather that was an atheist. Through hearing a radio broadcast when I was a sophomore in college 50 years ago, I came to believe that there's a God in heaven who had a son named Jesus who died for the sins of the world, mine included, and I was born again in January of '52. I believe John 14:6 - it's the very verse we just read. I believe that Jesus said, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.' I don't believe that's vindictive or that it's in any way bigoted. I believe it's all-inclusive. That's why I spent 50 years sharing the gospel."

O'Reilly presses further: "If I'm a Jewish guy and I don't believe that Jesus is God, do I go to heaven?"

Falwell answers: "I don't believe anyone can go to heaven - Gentile, Jew, black, white, red, yellow, whatever - without knowing Christ as Savior."

The Catholic Loophole

Now O'Reilly is a Catholic, so he says, "And that's what your Catholic Church..." But O'Reilly interrupts himself: "No, no, no, no. They don't believe exactly that. No, no, no, no. They don't follow what Billy Graham preaches."

O'Reilly continues: "No, no, they don't. They've got a little loophole. They got a little loophole here, and believe me, I know the finest Catholic scholars in the world, and the loophole... Here's the loophole if you want to hear it. It's very interesting, and I believe this - I mean, I believe this to be true. The Catholic theologians, not all of them, but the ones I respect - I'll be the ones I agree with - say that if you lead a life that mirrors the life of Jesus in the sense that you love God above all things and you treat your neighbor as yourself, that's enough to get you into heaven or paradise or whatever you want to call it, because that's Jesus' philosophy. So maybe you don't acknowledge that Jesus is God, but by living the way He did, that's enough to get you there. And I believe that."

Why People Reject Truth for Inclusivity

I want you to understand the world you live in. Why would a guy who says, "I'm part of this church," not believe what that church teaches? I'm not arguing whether that church teaches what they teach - I'm just saying, why would he do that? What would drive O'Reilly, who takes these people and absolutely rips them apart (which is why you like it), why would he say, "But we've got this loophole here"? Here's why: I believe that's inclusionary.

There's cross-talk, so now they're yelling at each other. O'Reilly says, "I think that's inclusionary religion. That's a religion for all men."

Falwell responds: "I admire and respect your point of view, and there's nobody I admire on television more than Bill O'Reilly. Nobody sends more people to watch you because I know what you're doing, but you're wrong on that."

O'Reilly then says: "I'd rather be wrong and inclusionary." Think of that sentence! "I don't even care what's true. I just want to get him." This is somebody who doesn't know Christ. This is O'Reilly who's just been told, "You're going to hell, Bill," and he doesn't want to talk about himself. He's going after the guy that's never heard, because somehow if the guy that never heard gets in, he'll get in too.

It just goes on and degenerates from there. O'Reilly says, "I know some very, very good Jews and Buddhists, and I can't imagine that God would ever not accept them." Then it's total chaos, and basically it ends with, "We'll just agree to disagree with each other."

What Would Jesus Say?

What would Jesus say in that conversation? Here's what He'd say: "Bill, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

The Window of Opportunity

I think we have one last point, and that is He's dogmatic about the window of opportunity - you don't have forever to figure this out.

I had a very interesting week. On Tuesday morning I did a funeral for a 77-year-old man who died in the hospital. On Tuesday morning I also held in my arms a baby that was less than a day old. That's the cycle of life.

As I held that baby in my arms, and there was a lot of conversation and people talking, I was looking at this baby and thinking: "Not too long from now, you'll be that dead old man. That's your future."

The reason that everyone comes back to this - O'Reilly comes back to it, people come back to it - is because the stakes on this are so high. This is bigger than SDI. This is bigger than what's going on in the Middle East. This is bigger than Osama bin Laden. This is your eternal destiny. You get this wrong, and the consequences last forever.

Embrace Being Dogmatic

So somebody says to you, "You're dogmatic." If what they mean is you believe that there is a God and He communicated through His Son Jesus, and you believe in His Word and you believe the Scripture is the Word of God, and you believe that if you don't believe in Christ you don't go to heaven, and they say you're dogmatic, then what you say to them is: "Thank you. You're right."

When somebody starts this inclusionary nonsense, here's what you say to them: "I admire and respect your point of view, but you're wrong on that." Don't be like O'Reilly saying, "I'd rather be wrong and inclusionary." Think of that sentence: "I don't even care what's true. I just want to get everybody in."

This is somebody who doesn't know Christ. This is O'Reilly who's just been told you're going to hell, Bill. And he doesn't want to talk about him. He's going to get the guy that's never heard because somehow if the guy that never heard gets in, he'll get in too. And it just goes on and it just kind of degenerates from there.

Falwell says okay, they go back and forth. O'Reilly says I know some very good Jews and Buddhists, and I can't imagine that God and all just God would ever accept them in whatever that God, and it's total chaos in here. And basically it ends with we'll just agree to disagree.

What would Jesus say in that conversation? Here's what He'd say: He'd say Bill, I'm the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

The Window of Opportunity

I think we have one last point, and that is He's dogmatic about the window of opportunity. And that is you don't have forever to figure this out.

A very interesting week. On Tuesday morning I did a funeral for a 77-year-old man. On Wednesday morning I held in my arms a baby that was less than a day old. That's the cycle of life. And as I held that baby in my arms, and there was a lot of conversation and people talking, I was looking at this baby and I was thinking: not too long from now you'll be that dead old man. That's your future.

And the reason that King comes back to it and O'Reilly comes back to it and people come back to it is the stakes on this are so high. This is bigger than SDI. This is bigger than what's going on in the Middle East. This is bigger than Osama Bin Laden. This is your eternal destiny. You get this baby wrong, and the consequences last forever.

Embracing the Label

Dogmatic. Somebody says to you, you're dogmatic. If what they mean is you believe that there is a God and He communicated through His son Jesus, and you believe in His word, and you believe the scripture is the word of God, and you believe that if you don't believe in Christ you don't go to heaven, and they say you're dogmatic, then what you say to them is, thank you. You're right.

When somebody starts this inclusionary crap, here's what you say to them: okay, you're acting like you're God. Here's what you're saying: if I was God, I'd let everybody into heaven. If I was God, I'd allow everybody in. Here's the deal: you're not God. That post is taken. And He's spoken. And He didn't stutter. I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me.

For Christmas, and I can't guarantee you we'll go here, but for Christmas, this whole idea of gifts becomes a very important thing. Next couple of weeks we'll take a look at that.

Closing Prayer

Father, help us see this. Help us understand this truth. God, let us live lives that bring honor and glory to You. I confess, I get all worked up about this one because I see around me tons of people who think they're going to heaven and they're going to hell, and they're not as certain as I'm standing here.

Something instinctively tells them that they are. So rather than accept the truth, they just refuse to believe it. Rather than accept things that You say is true, they argue, they fight. They talk about Jews and Buddhists and those that never heard, failing to understand that now they've heard. And what about them?

We can't convince anybody, Father. So we ask You, Your Spirit to touch people's hearts. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

See you next week.