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FROM THE PASTOR'S STUDY

Topic: Tolerance

Life vs. Warm Fuzzies

by Darrel Cline
(darrelcline biblical-thinking.org)

In another article (190) we asked how Christ would respond to those among us who want to love everyone and make room for everyone in respect to the global push toward ecumenical unity. Our answer was that Christ Himself taught that He came to bring a sword and division among men. But that was only part of the answer. There is another side to the issue.

This other side is the difference between the love that men show and the love that God shows. Man's love reveals the core of his agenda; God's love reveals the core of His agenda. In this the loves are alike. But the agendas are not alike. In the ecumenical agenda, the highest priority is unity, cooperation, and the warm fuzzies of everyone getting along. In God's agenda, the highest priority is life. The two agendas are worlds apart. There really are two different kingdoms in competition for the loyalty of men. One is a kingdom of darkness that promises unity, cooperation, and warm fuzzies. The other is a kingdom of light that promises life.

Someone is going to ask the obvious. What is wrong with unity, cooperation, and warm fuzzies? Nothing, as long as they are incidental results; but everything when they are primary objectives. An example might help. Suppose that a father has a son whose definition of life is being spaced out on drugs and not having to deal with the realities of living on this planet. This son wants dad to work to provide the money. He wants dad to deal with the hard decisions and make it possible for him to live without the hassles. He wants dad to be the buffer between him and the law enforcement folks, the drug dealers and their meanness, and everyone else who thinks dope heads are worthless and self-destructive. He wants dad to do everything so that all he has to do is pop his pills and enjoy his hedonism.

Now, what does dad have to do in order to promote unity, cooperation, and the warm fuzzies? Everything the son demands. Otherwise there won't be any unity and warm fuzzies because the son is committed to his hedonism more than he is committed to unity and warm fuzzies between himself and his dad. So dad has the option of pursuing the warm fuzzies, or deciding that his son will die if he doesn't enforce some truth on the relationship.

This is the way religious ecumenicalism operates. Those who talk about unity, cooperation, and warm fuzzies aren't really interested in those things. There is a hidden agenda that is being hidden behind the smoke of warm fuzzies. The proof is that those who push for unity have no tolerance for those of us who reject it as a goal. This proves that something else is driving the agenda.

God, on the other hand, is mostly interested in life for His creatures. But life is full of decisions that must be made with wisdom. And wisdom comes only from Truth. Therefore, God is looking for people who are committed to Truth as the way to wisdom as the way to life. Unity without Truth is worthless.


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This is article #191.
If you wish, you may contact Darrel as darrelcline at this site.