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DL82
Guest
"And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebub! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.” So Jesus called to them and spoke to them… “I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin.” (NIV)
Jesus here pronounces against the idea that the devil can do any good. When we see our neighbours of other faiths doing good, we can’t say ‘it’s an evil spirit that does this’, the devil isn’t stupid, and Jesus is telling us not to attribute the devil’s defeat to the devil.
This also ties in with Matthew 7:17-18 “Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.”
Regardless of our starting point, Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, there are two ways of viewing other religions, and they reveal two different ways of seeing God.
We can view other religions as other men’s honest though flawed attempts to seek the one true God, and be thankful to God for teaching them part of the truth, using that common ground to build bridges and witness to the fullness of truth.
Or we can view other religions as the devil’s distorted attempt to ape the truth, to use an appearance of good to pervert people away from God, and insist that others leave everything good in the culture tainted by their false religion behind in order to follow God’s true religion.
The first view relies on a God who is loving and always reaching out towards all people to draw them into closer and closer union with Himself, despite our flawed intellects. A God whose goodness is absolute, and is so easily distinguished from the work of the evil one that it’s like the difference between darkness and light.
The second view relies on a God who is petty and sends good people to hell for sincerely trying to follow Him. A view of the devil that is so like the good God that he can be mistaken for Him, and God can seemingly do nothing about this deception. (this seems to be the Jack Chick world-view at any rate.)
Jesus condemns this latter view. He tells the Pharisees plainly, if they can’t tell the difference between the good works of God and the evil works of the devil, they’re really lost, and they will have no way, no way at all of ever finding God. If they don’t know whether the being they’re asking forgiveness of is God or the devil, how can they be forgiven? What’s more, what a monstrous fear to have to live with, that maybe your god isn’t the ‘real’ God, maybe he’s an impostor, and that if, through no fault of your own, you’ve picked the wrong church door, you’re really worshipping the evil one, no matter how many good works you do, no matter how much peace you feel, no matter how close to the truth the teachings you believe. What a monstrous way to see the world.
But, by their fruits shall you know them! Blessed be God forever.
Jesus here pronounces against the idea that the devil can do any good. When we see our neighbours of other faiths doing good, we can’t say ‘it’s an evil spirit that does this’, the devil isn’t stupid, and Jesus is telling us not to attribute the devil’s defeat to the devil.
This also ties in with Matthew 7:17-18 “Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.”
Regardless of our starting point, Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, there are two ways of viewing other religions, and they reveal two different ways of seeing God.
We can view other religions as other men’s honest though flawed attempts to seek the one true God, and be thankful to God for teaching them part of the truth, using that common ground to build bridges and witness to the fullness of truth.
Or we can view other religions as the devil’s distorted attempt to ape the truth, to use an appearance of good to pervert people away from God, and insist that others leave everything good in the culture tainted by their false religion behind in order to follow God’s true religion.
The first view relies on a God who is loving and always reaching out towards all people to draw them into closer and closer union with Himself, despite our flawed intellects. A God whose goodness is absolute, and is so easily distinguished from the work of the evil one that it’s like the difference between darkness and light.
The second view relies on a God who is petty and sends good people to hell for sincerely trying to follow Him. A view of the devil that is so like the good God that he can be mistaken for Him, and God can seemingly do nothing about this deception. (this seems to be the Jack Chick world-view at any rate.)
Jesus condemns this latter view. He tells the Pharisees plainly, if they can’t tell the difference between the good works of God and the evil works of the devil, they’re really lost, and they will have no way, no way at all of ever finding God. If they don’t know whether the being they’re asking forgiveness of is God or the devil, how can they be forgiven? What’s more, what a monstrous fear to have to live with, that maybe your god isn’t the ‘real’ God, maybe he’s an impostor, and that if, through no fault of your own, you’ve picked the wrong church door, you’re really worshipping the evil one, no matter how many good works you do, no matter how much peace you feel, no matter how close to the truth the teachings you believe. What a monstrous way to see the world.
But, by their fruits shall you know them! Blessed be God forever.