Have you ever been offended by a bumper sticker on the car in front of you? I have. In fact, there are times I hoped that my children weren’t able to read the obscenities. Some people have lost all sense of shame. However, what I might find even more disturbing are the bumper stickers that aren’t so “in-your-face,” but are every bit as obscene. While driving back from lunch today, I pulled in behind a car that was displaying the bumper sticker above. At the top of the bumper sticker it says, “God bless all nations.” Nice sentiment. Who can be against God blessing all “nations” or “peoples?” However, below that statement are symbols for world “religions.” Here are a couple of reasons why this bumper sticker disturbs me.
- It contains a logical fallacy called a “non sequitur” (Latin for “it doesn’t follow”). It doesn’t follow that asking God to bless all nations or peoples is equivalent to asking him to bless all religions, which is the implication of the bumper sticker. All religions are not “created equal.” Do those who promote such tolerance really extend it to “all” religions? And if not, why not? Do the preachers of tolerance realize that there are religions that are based on hatred? Would we be tolerant to ask God’s blessings on religions, that due to superstition, practice human sacrifice? Somewhere along the line, even preachers of tolerance, are going to “draw the line,” but my question is where is the line drawn, and who gets to draw it?
- My second problem with this bumper sticker is that it’s message is every bit as obscene as some of the more blatant bumper stickers I’ve read, but it’s far more subtle, shrewd, and sophisticated. People are deceived by the apparent promotion of “love” that they do not see the subtle, disastrous consequences of this “gospel of tolerance.”
Friends, while many in our culture are preaching “tolerance,” the gospel of Christ demands repentance and conformity to a universal standard. Christianity is diametrically opposed to the religious tolerance as preached by some today, and I’ll tell you why. If any and all religions are equally acceptable to God, and are all “roads that lead us to the same destination,” then someone please tell me why God would unnecessarily send his Son to die on the cross? If there was another way, then why would God turn a deaf ear to the prayers of Jesus, “let this cup pass from me?” What kind of God would sacrifice his own son when it wasn’t necessary?
The obscenity of the above bumper sticker is that the tolerance it preaches is really an assault on the goodness and character of God.
Don’t misunderstand. There is tolerance in Christianity. The fact that God would extend the offer of salvation to all men, in spite of our sinfulness, is the greatest display of tolerance this world has ever seen!