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Tour Israel with us – Spring 2006!
Question: Is it wrong to say that person's religion is incorrect? Isn’t that a form of judging that the Bible says we aren’t to do?
ATP: To use a Christian versus non-Christian comparison to answer the question, very often those who are from a non-Christian, atheistic or agnostic point of view are bothered when Christians say that the only way to get to heaven is through Jesus Christ.
Actually some atheists or agnostics may not be upset at all by such a statement, arguing that there is no heaven to get to in the first place, or at least none that we can be certain about. So the example I am using may be viewed as moot in their view.
Saying that the only way to get to heaven is through Jesus is a statement by definition that rules out other possibilities, therefore assigning other opinions to the realm of error when compared to this view. But it is not "judging" to say so any more than it is judging to say that there are many ways to get to heaven and that therefore the view that Jesus is the only way is in error.
Greg Koukl, co-author of the book, Relativism: Feet Firmly Planted in Mid-Air, (Baker Books 1998) describes a call he had from an upset non-Christian listener, who phoned in to his L.A. radio talk show.
The conversation went something like this:
"Greg, I don’t think you should be judging other people’s religion as right or wrong. The Bible says you aren’t to judge."
"So you think it is wrong to judge?" Greg asked.
"Yes. I don’t think you should be judging," the caller said.
Greg got right to the point of the confusion about judging when he replied,
"If you think it is wrong to judge, then why are you judging me?!"
The person’s argument was self defeating.
It wasn’t the judging that he didn’t like, it was the conclusion. The man was doing himself what he thought Greg shouldn't be doing: judging another's view to be incorrect.
He adamantly disagreed with Greg’s position, believing Greg to be incorrect in his assessment that Jesus is the only way to heaven. He simply preferred his own conclusion that there were many ways to heaven.
It is impossible to avoid making judgements about truth. We all do it every day. It is not "judging" in the sense prohibited by the Bible, to call error what it is. Nor is it unkind, unless done in an inappropriate or insensitive way.
The truth is that telling the truth about error may be the greatest act of kindness one human being can render to another. It literally can make the difference between going to heaven or going to hell.
