In America today a new gospel is being preached called tolerance. We are told that we need to be tolerant of every person’s belief system. If we are not we are called bigoted, narrow-minded, and prejudiced. And since Christians, by definition, believe that they have the only truth when it comes to matters of God, heaven and hell, sin, and a host of other doctrines, they as a result are labeled intolerant.
We are told that we should keep our views to ourselves and not to preach our intolerant beliefs to others. I, however, like what Billy Graham shared on this point when he said: “Because truth is unpopular does not mean that it should not be proclaimed.”1 And here lies the problem for Christians. We, by definition, will always prove unpopular to the great masses of people because quite frankly most people don’t want to hear the truth about themselves. Telling people that they are sinners, that they need to repent, that Jesus is the only way back to God, and that if they refuse to embrace the Christian gospel that they are doomed to spend eternity in hell, will often not make us very popular with many.
But thankfully there are still some people who are open to hear the truth and our job as Christians is to share the truth of the gospel and believe that those who are open-minded may be willing to examine their own hearts and realize their need to get right with Jesus. While many will reject our message and we will clearly not be popular with the masses we must always stand on the truth regardless of how people view us. We need to realize that the eternal destiny of souls are at stake and that our message of the truth of the gospel is the only antidote for a world steeped in sin.
Popularity is not the issue – the truth is. And the truth of the matter is if we want to be popular with man we often will not be popular with Jesus. But praise God that the inverse is true. If we are willing to be unpopular with man we will garner the approval of Jesus. (Matthew 5:11-12) shares one of the most encouraging set of verses in all of Scripture: “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
When we stand on the truth of the Word of God we should be confident that we are pleasing our Savior and accruing great rewards in heaven. We must never negotiate away the truth of the gospel, in order to be more popular with man, since, as I stated earlier, the eternal destiny of souls lay in the balance. Pastor John MacArthur states the case for truth well when he says: “The truth is in Jesus and it leads to the fullness of truth about God, man, creation, history, sin, righteousness, grace, faith, salvation, life, death, purpose, meaning, relationships, heaven, hell, judgement, eternity, and everything else of ultimate consequence.”2
Finally, always remember that truth will never need to be changed to accommodate our everchanging culture. Again, Billy Graham adds insight here when he shared: “Truth is timeless. Truth does not differ from one age to another, from one people to another, from one geographical location to another . . . the great all-prevailing Truth stands for time and eternity.”3
1 Inspirational Quotes on Truth (bibleportal.com)
2 Inspirational Quotes by John MacArthur – page 57 (bibleportal.com)
You often strike a chord with your devotional that applies directly and with great effect. Today’s post was such. My only hope and future reside in the truth of God’s word. The enemy relentlessly attempts to draw Christians away from this truth.
Thank you for refreshing my true calling.