Interfaith?

So I caught myself up too late this evening watching a special on PBS (Channel 10) called "Three Faiths, One God: Judaism, Christianity, Islam".

First, I must put forth, that I am a Christian. I put full faith in Christ Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I hold that the Scriptures, both Old and New Testament, are the inerrant Word of God and are the final divine authority for Christian faith and life.

Ok... back to the special. I was drawn in as I switched through channels to catch a couple minutes before falling asleep. This program portrayed to me the concept that the 3 religious communities, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity should be more understanding and respecting of one another. At the outset, that sounds great. But the way the message was portrayed throughout the examples threw up many red flags. We as Christians are called to know, understand, respect and love the people of this World. However, we cannot deny the absolute truths that God has given us. We must hold firmly to the Word of God whenever we enter into dialogue with people of other faiths. We must know that our God is the one true God. We must know that Jesus Christ is the only way that we as sinners can receive reconciliation and salvation.

It is tempting to want to open up outside of the truths which seem restricting and offensive to an atmosphere of inclusion and unity amongst faiths. Any time we hold there to be a truth, there is inherently a contradiction to that truth. Truth excludes that which is contrary.

I pray that we as Christians might fervently love the people of this world and be able to show them the love of Christ. We need to be beacons of the Truth that he has given us. Let us follow Christ, living our lives full of grace AND truth.