Diversions From the Sanctioned Path

Witnessing in today’s world finds many conflicts originating from different ideologies, aspects of culture, and perspectives ever-changing with a continually updating society. These obstacles, both historical and modern, create great opposition when presenting the gospel to an otherwise perceptive unbeliever. Many false religions and cults saturate the diverse cultures found in the world and create contradictory false doctrine. These become great obstacles for the Christian witness when reaching out to the lost around him.

A complete denial of God is becoming very prevalent today all over the world. One of the first experiences most witnesses encounter in today’s world is almost always the denial of an Atheist. Like the young ruler of Luke 18, they instead find their security in things such as money, situation, and social status. However, in denying God there is little hope outside of the brief satisfaction brought by temporal things of this world. According to James Moody, a professor in religion and philosophy, those who deny God’s existence also deny an afterlife leaving “no enduring value or meaning to anything we do in this world” (Moody 30). The things of this world do not have lasting satisfaction. 1 Timothy 6:7-10 states that we came into the world with nothing and will return to the earth empty-handed as well. One can turn to the hope spoken of in Ephesians 1:18. If one believes in Christ, he has a rich inheritance with God and hope of life after death.

One of today’s primary obstacles is sexuality. Secularism completely separates moral law from any source in religion. The world takes this Christian perspective and skews it by “still using a narrow interpretation of Christian morals” towards the homosexuals (Bullard). The result is a subjective approach to law that can allow for anything man deems as good (homosexuality being one thing). Moody claims that “without a divine judge- not to mention moral legislator and executor- there can be no final accounting of our conduct in this life” (Moody 32). James 4:12 states that God is the only lawgiver and judge. God clearly speaks through his servants in passages such as Romans 1:26-28 and Hebrews 13:4 about the wrong nature of the sexually immoral.

One particularly sticky obstacle when witnessing is an additive approach to religion. Cultures highly associated with this approach to religion are found usually in Asiatic countries. Japan’s culture: centred around Shintoism especially illustrates this ideology, which includes spirit worship, animism, and belief in multiple gods. Missionary Charlotte DeForest states that the Japanese “could not distinguish between God and deceased heroes and this would lead to animism and superstitions” (Ishii). There must be a definition between worshipping the true God and simply adding onto a myriad of gods. Paul deals with a similar situation in Acts 17:22–31. In this passage, Paul calls out to the Greeks saying that the unknown God is in fact the only God. They were so polytheistic in their nature that they could not even leave out one god. Out of fear they created an altar for the unknown God, lest they anger him. Modern alterations of this belief find infinite sources of worship: a potluck of religion that is politically correct, but unstable because of their endless nature. Paul approaches this belief in 1 Corinthians 8 by stating the foundation of one God superior to any manmade idols.

In conjunction with an additive approach to religion is a focus on works instead of faith alone. Many religions are work-based such as Catholicism, Islam, and Mormonism. Islam claims a day of judgment similarly to Christianity in which “they will be judged according to their works” (MacArthur). However, this is the limit of their belief. The God of the Bible requires faith alone. John 3:16 forms the foundation of who God is and his design.

Some religions such as Islam and Mormonism accept God but deny the deity of Jesus Christ. Mormonism takes the approach that Jesus is a spirit child of God the Father making the “most obvious difference from traditional Christianity—[is] the belief that Jesus Christ is an individual being, separate from God the Father” (Carter). According to MacArthur “Islam teaches that Jesus Christ was a mere man–a prophet, and not God incarnate. Islam also denies that Jesus died on a cross” (MacArthur). Both claims completely undermine faith in God with their belief that Jesus does not claim to be a deity. In John 17 Jesus clearly states that he is one with God in his high priestly prayer. He claims that “I and the Father are one” in John 10:30. Scripture is necessary to defend against false doctrine and these are passages that should be brought to attention.

Resources:

“God Against the Gods: The History of the War Between Monotheism and Polytheism” by Jonathan Kirsch (secular perspective) Chapters 1-5

“The Stampede of Secularism Will Not Stop Conversions” by John Piper

“The problem of polytheisms: a serious challenge

to theism” by Raphael Lataster & Herman Philipse (online article through ebsco) 233-245

“The problem of invoking infinite polytheisms:

a response to Raphael Lataster and Herman Philipse”

by Mark Douglas Saward (online article through ebsco) 289-297

“The Stampede of Secularism Will Not Stop Conversions” by John Piper

“The Making of an Atheist” by James S. Spiegel Moody 10-45

“The World's Newest Major Religion: No Religion” by Gabe Bullard

“Understanding Islam” by John MacArthur

“Difficult Conversations across Religions, Race and Empires: American Women Missionaries and Japanese Christian Women during the 1930s and 1940s” by Noriko Ishii (online article through ebsco)

“Jesus and Islam” everystudent.com

“Understanding Islam” by John MacArthur