Welcome to “Real Truth. Real Quick.” My name is Rick Smith. I’m here with Todd Wagner. How you doing Todd? Hello buddy! Hello friends! Well listen. So this question came to my mind recently. I was watching the one of the interface services for a new president
And it just got me thinking, “How should a Christian responded to interfaith activities and we are, you know, different religions are together?” Yeah. So whenever somebody asks me a question like that I want to say first of all explain interfaith activity. Ok? Everything I do with a non believer
Is an interfaith activity. So Jesus was known as a friend of sinners but he was never known as a companion of sinners. So “A friend speaks the truth at all times, a friend loves somebody for who they are and who they want them to be, and a
Friend is going to spur you on to love and good deeds, and is going to give you an open rebuke,” Proverbs 27 says “as opposed to deceitful kiss.” So everything I do in one sense with non-believers is an interfaith activity. I’ll partner with anybody who wants to
Get involved to advance what is good and just and right and true no matter what the basis for their motivation is. If they want to stand for the dignity of life I don’t care if they’re a Muslim, I don’t care if they’re Mormon, I don’t care if you’re an atheist, but they
Believe in the dignity of human life I’m going to stand with. So if somebody is against human trafficking and child sex slavery and that kind of craziness and they want to do justice and love kindness with me I’ll partner with them all day long. I don’t care if they want to walk humbly
With the Lord as it relates to that good and just cause. I care deeply about whether or not they know the Lord because God takes no delight in the death of the wicked. Ok? And uh or the fool who doesn’t believe that he is the Lord God
But I can separate those two things. I can partner with you towards good and I can talk to you about what is ultimately good. Rick I signed this thing called the Manhattan Declaration but before I did I was talking to my friend Chuck Colson who had
Asked me to be one of the original signers about some of the language we use because it talks about Orthodox, Catholic and Evangelical believers or brothers. I feel like there needed to be a clarity and distinction between the fact that we’re not saying that Orthodox and Catholic and
Evangelicals all believe the same thing. We have very different views still on the issue of justification but there are things that we can stand on. So we agree on marriage, we agree on the dignity of human life, we agree on religious liberty, so I gladly stand with
Them and look at the differencse between us are much more nuanced than that we had Mormons and Muslims and others sign that. So it was specific to those but we tried to bring some clarity about people who have Catholic belief, Evangelical belief, and Orthodox belief, we stand together on these things.
Now when you get to just a basic service that we’re trying to co-exist and we should coexist. Alright? “We should do good to all men” Galatian says “but especially to those of the household of faith.” We have to be very careful when we worship God that
Were worshiping the God of the bible. We did a “Real Truth. Real Quick.” on “The Shack” and some people said “When I read the book ‘The Shack’ I felt a lot closer to God.” And I said “Well what God did you feel closer to? God as you rightly understand him or
God as you made him out to be based on reading ‘The Shack’?” And the same thing I would say to other people who go “I want to pray to God.” I always want to know you know what you mean by God. So if I’ve got a friend who’s Arab and uses the Arabic
Word for Lord, which is Allah or God, and he means the God of the scriptures when he uses the word Allah in a prayer probably no problem if I’m talking to an Arab or a person is an American who’s embraced Islam and they use the Arabic word for
God I’ve got to make sure that I don’t think that we’re worshiping and pursuing the same God. And so that’s a completely different God and I don’t want to confuse people. One of the things that we want to make very clear is that Jesus, two different times, says things that appear to be
Contradictory. In Matthew 12 when he’s talking to the Pharisees he says “If you’re not with me you’re against me.” In Luke 9 talking to his disciples he says “Hey if they are not against us they’re for us.” And those are two very different things. What he’s saying the Pharisees is “Hey
Look at me. You’re not about what I’m about. Which is the advancement of how men can be reconciled to God through the Messiah, through the son of god, which is who I am and you’re denying that.” To the disciples Jesus said “Look, if they are not against you there for you. There were
People that were doing the work of casting demons out of people that weren’t a part of that specific little band.” Jesus says “Let them alone. They are not against you.” Ok? So they’re accomplishing good even they want to part of that little band. Paul mentions this in Philippians
Chapter 1. He says “There’s some that preach the gospel out of selfish ambition. There’s others that do it out of love.” He said “I’m just glad to preaching the gospel.” So what I tell people all the time is I’ll lift up Jesus with anybody. I will not encourage you to follow Jesus with
Anybody. I’ve been on some platforms with some guys that have very different understanding about some specifics of the character the Spirit then I do. And one of the things I’d love to say is “Listen, hey we disagree on some issues of some importance here but we agree on these
Other issues”. And you’ve got to be discerning about just because we’re both speaking the same platform that doesn’t mean we agree on all things I’m not endorsing every bit of that person’s worldview. This is even within not just interfaith activities but interdenominational opportunities. And so you’ve got to be discerning. Ecumenicalism,
In the sense that hey there’s a lot of different roads that all go up the same mountain that end in the top. That’s heresy. Ok? And so you must be discerning. I think it always is helpful to provide clarity and if all we did is do things for people
Who agree with us in every jot and tittle, we’re not going to do very many things with very many people. Ok? So stay humble, be clear. Make sure that is best you’re able that you don’t lend the confusion, that you’re endorsing an idea which is unbiblical, which is all
Paths lead to God. And I would have to say that with every opportunity one by one and I’m as specific as clear as I can about who I am when I’m involved in any kind of effort either for social good or certainly for appealing to God.
Let me ask you this question. So let’s say you’re out there in your maybe you work for a company that has an interfaith service. Have you ever been part of an interface service where other not denomination but other faiths are praying and then what do you do
During that time? Do you pray with them? Do you close your eyes and bow your head? What do you do in that situation? Yeah. Listen, men are going to seek God as best they’re able to understand and what I don’t ever want to do is be a part of
Something that is going to compromise who I am or what I believe. And if somebody would ever ask me, “We want you to come. We want you to back off. Who you are?” I’m going to say “Listen I’ll come and be around you but I’m not going to
Not be who I am. You asked me to be a part because I believe that Jesus Christ is the way the truth and the life.” And so I I think that’s important. I can’t in any way participate in something that is going to make other people think I don’t
Think that’s a big deal because I’m a servant of Christ and the steward of the mystery of God. And so don’t ask me to come there not be a servant of Christ. So if I’m around places where I haven’t been asked to participate in lead and somebody’s
Praying to a god that I have the scripture, Ill pray for people that are listening. That God would break through that, Ill pray for the folks who are actually praying to a false god. That God would reveal himself to them in a very vivid way. And if I’m ever in a
Position where I prayed after that person it’s going to take extreme discernment and as much clarity as I can when I’m offering prayer to make sure that folks understand who I am and that I don’t do anything to add further to their confusion. It takes a lot of wisdom, a lot of
Discernment. Sometimes you’re thrust into stuff you can’t avoid and you do your best you can. So be discerning and be prayerful at all times. Awesome, Thanks Todd! Alright, well hey. Thank you for checking this episode out and we will see you next week on another episode of “Real Truth. Real Quick.”
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