Non-Fiction. 
Dobson and Scott wrote about how moral relativism and tolerance is not good, and how it is infiltrating the church. When we see someone sinning, or messing up their life, or going around professing some untruth, we should not be tolerant, like our society tells us to be. There is, in fact, absolute truth, so we need to confront that person and show them (gently and with respect-- in love) what the truth is.
A few quotes from Dog-Eared Pages:
"If you have a moral relativist friend who says "There is no such thing as absolute truth," he's laying "out a truth that he believes will never change.H should put it this way: "It is an absolute truth that there is no such thing as an absolute truth." Isn't that just crazy? It's self-refuting. It's like me saying, "This sentence does not exist." p 52
"Can you do this kind of thing too [ stand up for Christ and absolute truth in a morally relative world]? Absolutely! And you know what? You have to. God has placed you right where you are and in just this time in human history because He needs you to stand up for truth." p 111
"Christians are the only thing holding back the decay of our world. If Satan cam make us dump the Bible and live by a philosophy that says it's wrong to stand up to evil- or even to call anything evil- then we're all set up for the rise of a great world tyrant. The Bible calls him the Antichrist." p 119
4 comments:
do you have this bok? can i read it when you're done?
Yes I do, and yes you can. I'll bring it to school? I have to warn you, though... its a little marked up and dog eared...
The decay of the world is a completely natural result of mankind's sin nature. It is arrogant to believe that we are so special as believers that it is OUR place and OUR duty to eliminate sin from this world. As we are called to be a light, does a candle ever truly eliminate darkness or does the nature of the candle merely overpower darkness for a time being until its time has come?
We are not Christ. We are called to live like him, but in the end, we are not him and our best efforts are like filthy rags before him.
Remember that the word "tolerate" means to "put up with" and not to truly "accept". In that regard, there is nothing wrong with tolerance.
George,
You are correct. Our best efforts are nothing, they don't even make it onto the measuring stick. That's why we need God's grace- the gift of Christ defeating sin and death. But we are still called to live a certain way, as is outlined in the Bible, and summed up as 'love the lord your God with all your heart soul strength and mind and love your neighbor as yourself'.
What I think Dobson and Scott are getting at in this book is when 'putting up with' becomes a problem. It is not okay, I believe, to 'putt up with' someone who is teaching lies. If they say the grass is orange, we correct them. If they say lying is okay, we correct them. If they teach something contrary to the Bible, we correct them. Or, we are supposed to. When we don't, thats 'tolerance' Dobson and Scott are saying that tolerance becomes a problem when we allow others to teach what we know the Bible says is wrong. When it leads others away from Christ, that is when 'putting up with' is not okay.
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