A Timely Reminder
On Easter Sunday, I sat down to a beautiful lunch of rice and lamb. Seated across from me was a pretty Korean acupuncturist recently come over from China; on my right was Jessica,* a soft-spoken elderly heiress from Arkansas. As the conversation progressed, I noted that each of them repeatedly mentioned God’s love, but I wondered how similar a concept of Him they shared.
Jessica was an ecumenical “social gospel” believer. Over hors d’oeuvres, she had said she “couldn’t believe in a Christ who would condemn anyone.” We had been discussing Islam, and I was getting frustrated with her views on polygamy and female oppression. She gently discounted my stories of persecution and held that most incidents resulted from “cultural” differences, and that Islam is actually an improvement on Christianity (she wasn’t very clear how). She pointed out the “similarities” between Islam and Christianity, and I began to feel ashamed for her. In the name of “tolerance” and “love,” Jessica is ignoring the failures of others and herself. “Love” means turning a blind eye to the ugly parts of human nature. As long as they are trying to do right, people have no real need of forgiveness. Jessica is trapped in an intellectual labyrinth that denies human sin and any need for a Savior.
On the other hand, Hope,* the Korean acupuncturist, had become a Christian while studying medicine at the University of Beijing. She told of the severe penalties the police inflict on Christian pastors who are caught preaching. While in China, she had attended an underground church, risking her safety to study the Bible. Hope, who has spent less than a year in the United States, rejoices in the freedom she has to worship Jesus Christ in the open. Although she is not sure what her next life step is, she repeatedly said she was trusting God and that he was helping her learn English.
As I sat between these two women, I thought of the place in Romans where Paul quotes the prophet Isaiah: “They pursued it [God’s favor] not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the "stumbling stone." As it is written: "See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame." – Romans 9:33
On one side of me, an old woman was stumbling on the Rock of Ages. On the other, a young one was rejoicing in her risen Savior. My heart hurts for Jessica. I am grateful for our conversation. I learned that I need to further study the history of Islam and the countries dominated by it, and I need to always keep in focus that it is not human words that save, but God’s pure grace in Christ Jesus.
*names have been changed
