Comments on: Common Compromise

By: marion

marion — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 09:32:05 +0000

I was very disappointed too, to read the names of those that signed the Yale letter. Stott, Warren, Hybels, along with George Verwer former head of OM, also Maiden the present leader of OM, too depressing.

Then followed so quickly by the ridiculous remarks of the AB of Canterbury…

And just today I read about Esposito (another signatory of the Yale letter Oh what company they keep) with his hateful remarks at Stanford…

Dhimmitude creeps up on those unaware.

By: Mike F

Mike F — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:44:03 +0000

Thanks for all the good information and links.

By: Curtis

Curtis — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 23:55:00 +0000

This document is a very big deal! These people who signed this document are standing on very shaky ground. There is no reverence for God the Father nor His Son Jesus Christ in that document. In fact, it minimizes their glory, majesty, and deity! I thought I’d jot down a few scriptures on just who God and His Christ are. the scriptures from Isaiah came straight from the Father’s mouth. To the signators: read’em and weep!

I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols. (Isa 42:8)

You are my witnesses, declares the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am He. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me. I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from me there is no savior. I have revealed and saved and proclaimed–I, and not some foreign god among you. You are my witnesses, declares the Lord, that I am God. Yes, and from ancient days I am He. No one can deliver out of my hand. When I act, who can reverse it? (Isa 43:10-13)

…You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one. (Isa 44:8)

Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. (1 Jo 5:5)

We accept man’s testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which He has given about His Son. Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made Him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about His Son. And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. (1 Jo 5:9-12)

One is life and the other is death. One is in light and the other is in darkness concerning just who Jesus is. I have one question. What do you get when you mix a glass of clean water with a glass of septic water? Would you drink it? Neither would I.

Curtis

By: Doug

Doug — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 17:35:56 +0000

Perhaps we need to teach about Pergamum more often. (Rev 2:12)
How can these “Scholars” miss the meaning of the double edged sword?

By: Brian Culver

Brian Culver — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 15:18:18 +0000

Here is the link, in case anyone wanted it, to a list of email addresses of some of the key people who signed the letter. It also has links to their schools or churches.

http://time2changechurches.blogspot.com/2007/12/due-to-bad-weather-theology.html

By: Christophe Despeville

Christophe Despeville — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 01:05:17 +0000

This is a sad document showing how far the so called “church” have fallen and corrupted the Truth of the Gospel of the Lord and Master Jesus Christ the Messiah. I can barely see any notice of the fact that the letter signed by Hybles, Warren and others makes a repeated allegation that God of the Bible and “god” of Koran is one and the same! This is an utter and absolute blasphemy. It is absolutely outrageous, outlandish and mockery of the Word of God!
Public appealing lies build on false and skewed willingness to please people who in the name of cooperation and works will deny anything not to mention the “inconvenient” exclusivity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Lord. People, so called “leader and teachers” who signed this letter have publicly denied their faith and have denied the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and his Son Jesus and Holy Spirit. Shame on you! You have proclaimed the lie and propagated it by signing this hellish document in the name of your shallow and worldly interests if influence. False teachers and restless minds. You might as well go on and teach that Isaiah believed that Baal was the same God as YHVH. Did anybody catch this? Do you see that those people equate and put on the SAME LEVEL Word of God and a satanic lies contained in Koran? What a travesty and the sad part is that most people going to churches will not even now about this statement and even if they would know they would applause it in the name of corruptly understood reach out…
Sad, very sad but the Lord is over this too.

By: stuart

stuart — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 06:21:59 +0000

If I truly love God and my human brothers who practice religion in accordance with Muslim doctrine, why on earth would I enable them to suffer apart from Y’shua?

By: Cindy

Cindy — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 22:10:34 +0000

The whole concept of Christians joining with false religions is simply preposterous. It’s like joining the circus!

By: Thomas Twitchell

Thomas Twitchell — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 19:11:05 +0000

We are to avoid the appearance of evil. For the men who are otherwise sound conservative Christians, whatevers that is, they need to be called to account. I do not think that there is a reasonable explanation for signing. But, someone with repect should ask.

Romney’s presidency has thown this very discussion into the public light. Now is the time for clear, sound voices. They have the platform, they will be heard.

By: Rhology

Rhology — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 18:57:54 +0000

Of note is those to whom the letter is addressed. No one I’d consider a leader worthy of unmitigated or nearly-unmitigated respect. But maybe they’re not talking to me.
There’s Pope Benedict XVI, a bunch of Orthodox high-ups, the Pope of the Coptic Church (the memorably-named Shenouda), leaders of other historically Christian churches, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the ELCA, the World Methodist Council, the Baptist World Alliance, and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. It would have been nice to see a bone thrown to someone like SBC Pres Frank Page, John MacArthur, Al Mohler… even Billy/Franklin Graham. As it is, a significant portion of their supposed audience goes unaddressed.
And they lose points for addressing the General Secretary of the World Council of Churches, to be honest.

Reading thru the actual text, I note that this (Muslim-penned) document frequently refers to “the Unity of God”. Given that this is not a theological document but rather a start of dialogue ostensibly aimed at producing peaceful relations, it is a little funny to me. Almost like the authors are tossing a few snips at the Trinitarian concept of God while laying out peace. It’s what I would do, honestly. But maybe I’m just reading too much into it, and either way it’s just a quirky sidenote. All that to say, when a Muslim says “Unity of God,” he doesn’t mean it the same way a Christian does – “unity” to the Muslim entails an (unjustifiable) assumption of unitarianism.

The document’s big gaffe is almost unbelievable in its clumsiness. On the .pdf page 15 of 29, it asks: “Is Christianity necessarily against Muslims?”
The answer, of course, is that this question is silly. Christian doctrine is that men everywhere must repent and request forgiveness for their sins from the Savior Jesus Christ, which will lead to their salvation from that sin and to eternal life. Where did the idea that Christianity might be against Muslims come from, so that they added the word “necessarily”? This alone is almost enough to tempt me seriously to disregard this document entirely, as either disingenuous or just ill-conceived.
A much better question is: “Is Christianity necessarily against Islam?” to which the answer is “yes.”
Or one could ask: “Are Christians against Muslims?” to which the answer is: “Any Christian who acts without love against a Muslim who is not attempting to blow him up or something is acting in a sinful manner.”

We are then told: “We therefore invite Christians to consider Muslims not against and thus with them, in accordance with Jesus Christ’s words here,” based on three out-of-context quotations from Jesus Christ in Matt 12:30, Mark 9:40, and Luke 9:50.
To be honest, when I meet a Muslim in the US, I look on him/her as almost certainly a peaceful person who is a sinner, but also with a greater amount of suspicion than that with which I look upon an Argentine, a Chinese, or a Singaporean.
I’m glad these authors invite me to consider them “with” me (I assume they mean with me in the pursuit of peace on earth), but I have to withhold unconditional acceptance of that from “Muslims” until I see more than a kind of poorly-written document from some Islamic scholars.

Finally, the authors (again, clumsily) seem to lose track of the goal of their document with this closing statement: “Let this common ground be the basis of all future interfaith dialogue between us, for our common ground is that on which hangs all the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 22:40).”
I’m not interested in “interfaith dialogue” as it is usually meant in modern parlance. Followers of Islam need to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ and need to repent and believe it. “Interfaith dialogue” might be a good vehicle thru which such might be accomplished, so on that level it’s great. But it must not become the end for the Christian, b/c it is pitiful in its short-sightedness.

That said, I come away from this document a little more hopeful that the attitude expressed therein can lead to more peace in this world. I hate war. May God grant the people of the world reprieve from war. I need to see alot more from the Muslim side, however, before I could have a lot of optimism that the hostility endemic to their religious system has been conquered by modern sensibilities. One document does not erase Qur’anic statements directing Muslims to conduct violent jihad nor their bloody history of military expansion.