Excerpts from "A Matter of Opinion" 
Acts 17:16-34
7/6/08

In one of Charles Schulz’s Peanuts comic strips, Linus and Charlie Brown are engaged in serious conversation.  “I have a theological question,” says Linus, “When you die, and go to Heaven, are you graded on a percentage or on a curve?” “On a curve, naturally,” Charlie responds. Linus asks puzzledly, “How can you be so sure?” Charlie brightly answers, “I’m always sure about things that are a matter of opinion.”

An ancient Hindu story tells about six blind men who were brought to see an elephant: "It’s very like a wall," said the first man as he touched the side of the elephant. It’s very like a spear," said the second man as he stroked the elephant’s tusk. And the third man taking the elephant’s squirming trunk in hand said) "It’s very like a snake." "Nonsense!" the fourth man shouted. Stretching his arms about one of the legs, he concluded "this wondrous beast is very like a tree." The fifth man, touching the elephant’s ear, cried, "even the blindest man can see that this animal is very like a fan." And the sixth, grabbing the tail, assured his friends that "the elephant is really very like a rope."

We hear different people from a plurality of religions saying that they have touched God. But the gods they describe are as different as the blind men and the elephant. This has led many to conclude that - just like the blind men of the parable - everybody’s right, they just have hold of different parts of the same God. And, since everybody is "right" then their different faiths must all lead to the same place - Heaven. Thus the phrase: All Roads Lead To Heaven.

Centuries ago, in a city called Athens, that was the predominant belief, and now it has begun to permeate our culture.

The city of Athens was a very religious city. Within the city there were over 30,000 idols. One historian noted it was easier to find an idol in Athens than to find a man.

And yet (while highly religious) these people were confused about which god to worship… and so they worshipped them all. AND in fact, just in case they missed a god – they erected an altar to an “Unknown God.”

Now, before you dismiss these people as superstitious you need to know that Athens was a center of learning in its day. It was here that the idea of Democracy took root. Many of the world’s great early philosophers and thinkers lived here: Sophocles, Euripides, Plato and Socrates.  In Athens they had one of the greatest universities of the ancient world. It was a center of philosophy, literature, science and art.

This was a city dedicated to truth… dedicated to wisdom. And yet in the midst of all this pursuit of “truth” and “wisdom” - there was confusion. Because (when it came to God) they did not know WHAT TRUTH to embrace.  They didn’t know which god to hang onto and so they believed all were somehow equal.

Even today, modern and post-modern thinkers and theologians seem to be unable (or unwilling) to discover the truth about God and so… religion gets relegated to a matter of personal taste, a matter of opinion rather than objective reality. Kind of like our tastes in clothes or the color of our houses. There’s no right and no wrong to it. If you like Hinduism as opposed to Buddhism it’s no big deal! It’s like preferring Big Macs to Chicken McNuggets.  Lorenzo’s to Donatos.  And if there is a God… well He’ll understand. Everybody was just trying to reach Him in different ways. It shouldn’t make any difference – as long you’re sincere. 

The one thing that has caused Christianity to be a stumbling block for people down thru the ages has been that we say: “Well, yes it does make a difference what you believe.”  And that is that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven.

Jesus said: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6   Peter declared: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12

And here in Acts 17 Paul is telling the Athenians the very same thing.

Do you catch what all this is saying? Jesus, Peter and now Paul are all telling us that God has no intention of being tolerant any more. In the past God overlooked such ignorance – but not anymore. Now, God calls for repentance - not open-mindedness.  People will not get into heaven by being good at practicing their religion of choice.

Notice, the crux of Paul’s argument – God’s calling for us to repent, because there WILL BE a day of judgment. Post-modern types are fond of telling people that no one has the right to tell someone else that what they believe is wrong… it’s just not nice.  What Paul is declaring is – it’s not nice NOT to tell people they are wrong. Judgment’s coming.  AND if people don’t recognize that what they believe is wrong, the consequences can be deadly.

You can’t be open-minded & tolerant when it comes to God.

We ought to realize this has got to be true. In just about every other serious field of knowledge – broad mindedness is not allowed.  There is no room for broad-mindedness in a chemical laboratory. Water is composed of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. The slightest deviation from the formula – not allowed.

There is not room for broad-mindedness when it comes to music. The skilled director will not permit his first violin to play even so much as 1/2 note off from what is written in the music.

There is no room for broad-mindedness in the mathematics classroom. Neither geometry, calculus, nor trigonometry allows any variation from exact accuracy, even for old time’s sake. As we all learned in algebra, the solution of the problem is either right or it is wrong (there is no tolerance).

There is no room for broad-mindedness in biology. If they are investigating a theory and – if one result out of a thousand is different from the rest – it will invalidate an entire theory.

There is no room for broad-mindedness on the athletic field. The game is to be played according to the rules with no favors shown for "charity’s sake."

There is no room for broad-mindedness in the garage. The mechanic says the piston rings have to fit the cylinder walls within one thousandth’s of an inch – and that’s the way it has to be. Even between friends there cannot be any variation if the "motor is to run smoothly."

Every other serious field of knowledge refuses to allow for tolerance of truth. AND here in Acts 17 Paul says it’s the same with God. There will come a time of judgment.

But – how do we know that what we believe is “Right”

Paul tells us in verse 31
“For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.”

I’ve always liked the saying I recently saw on a church sign: “If I’m OK and you’re OK – explain the cross”

Those who would challenge our faith are fond of trying to get us to defend side issues:  Do you really believe God created the world in 6 days?  Do you really believe there was a flood that covered the whole earth?  Do you really believe Moses parted the Red Sea and crossed on dry ground?  Do you really believe the sun stood still? 

If the skeptic can get you side tracked into arguing about those things – you’ll have missed the point. The only proof God seems to be concerned with is Jesus.

That’s what Paul meant when he wrote: “…I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." 1 Corinthians 2:2

We don’t have to defend the Bible or any doctrine found therein. I mean, it’s important to know how to respond to those questions BUT we don’t really need to defend the Bible. The Bible stands alone, it doesn’t need to be defended.  What we need to do is proclaim Jesus Christ.

Paul wrote: ”We preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.  For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength." I Corinthians 1:22-25