04 May, 2018

No, Jesus is not accepting of other religions.

Having a slow day at work, I got involved in a discussion about the morality of Trump after a Facebook friend posted a Fox News opinion piece with video.  Trump definitely has issues, but he is certainly not the worst we've had in the White House, as colorful as his issues are.   There are certainly areas of growth and improvement he should consider, but that is a conversation for another day. 

 As is usually the case when having these discussions with Alt-Left folks, to bolster their case they usually bring in other unrelated topics as their primary thrust of argument runs out of steam, like in this case, they turned to bashing the religious right's views on homosexuality.  One writer suggested Billy Graham went to hell because of his preaching against the sin, which is laughable.  Another writer, trying to justify their case attempted to use the passage of Luke 9:51-56, claiming Jesus was accepting of everyone, even other religions and thus would accept homosexuals,  She concentrated on the passage where Jesus rebuked the Apostles for suggesting the village should be nuked.  For reference, the scripture passage is as follows:

 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make preparations for him.  But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem.  And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”  But he turned and rebuked them.  And they went on to another village.                                                                  -Luke 9:51-56  ESV

 In the above passage, Jesus is making his final trip to Jerusalem near the time of the Passover.  By this point, history had left Samaritans as a mixed race people following religious customs not in agreement with the Jews, thus the two groups would generally not get along.  Samaritans had little tolerance for Jewish religious customs and were particularly hostile to them during the times of the various festivals when travelers would be on the road days at a time. 

In this case, we see that they refused to provide shelter to Jesus and his companions.  Well, this irritated the sons of thunder, James and John, so they inquired of Jesus if they could call down fire from heaven, to punish the village.  It is not that Jesus believed the action was wrong generally, but that the punishment in this case did not fit the crime.  Hearkening back to Elijah, when fire was called down, it was because of a direct challenge of who was sovereign over Israel, Elijah or Ahaziah, and their respective gods.   The Samaritans, while not being hospitable, were posing no such challenge.

Jesus, did not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it.  God is a jealous god and we are commanded to have no gods before him.  Accepting of other religions, I think not!  Jesus taught love and I believe we should love all people and I have no problem respecting them and their beliefs, but he also taught repentance, for He is a just god and he will exact his justice on those that do not accept Jesus.

Please don't use this angle to justify your sin and demand my acceptance of it.

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