I am not suggesting by any means that we not speak the truth with passion and conviction, but this can be done with love and mercy. The trick is never taking our eys off of the fact that these folks are at CARM real human beings with real fears, hurts, sorrows, regrets, loves and passions, they have kids, they are moms and dads, sons and daughters and some of them really love Jesus and I praise God for that.
This takes real effort to love and not to hate. I feel that often times the world of apologetics becomes a cold callous place where we begin to see our so called “opponents” as numbers or projects to dispose of when they are defeated and therein lies the danger.
That is an anti-christ spirit simply because the devil is always seeking to demoralize people made in Gods image, to bring them down to the level of the animals, to do violence with one another, to slander and mock one another.This is what I loved about John Paul II: he taught us the true meaning of mercy, he was completely abused by the media and the world, by Protestants, by schimatics yet how many times did we ever hear him lash back in anger or call down judgement upon anyone? The answer is none because he knew the meaning of Mercy…