New ain't always better

New ain't always better

Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son. I John 2:22 NIV

I didn't know it had a name. On the outskirts it looks like a place to build a bridge of peace and acceptance. At some level we probably need religious tolerance. But as I move from the outskirts and get closer to the center, what seemed idyllic takes on an enormous sense of spiritual poverty. I might even call it a place of modern day heresy, or apostasy... or both.

They call it Chrislam... I can barely write it; just the title sends shivers up my spine. If Christianity and Islam got together to have a kid, Chrislam would be their offspring. Chrislam is cloaked as a "God's love" movement. But underneath, it is more than an attempt to merge two religions; it is an attack on the most deeply held truth of The Faith. If you merge the two faiths, are the people that follow Islam going to take Christ as Savior and Lord? I sincerely doubt it. The only way to merge the two faiths is to remove Christ from the picture. And you would have to because the Jesus of the Bible draws a line between himself… and every one else. Jesus didn't say, "I am one of the ways, one of the many truths and one of the many ways to get life." Jesus never endorsed an alternate route to his dad. He always claimed to be the only way. What Jesus actually said was, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me.” (John 14:6)

Islam teaches that Jesus (among other things) was merely a great teacher. And that type of idea attempts to remove the deity of Christ and nullify Christianity. The only way to merge Christianity and Islam into a new religion is to deny Christ. And let me say that new ain't always better.

Consider the words of today's verse very carefully. These are strong words for sure, but reflect on them cautiously none the less. Today's verse says that if we deny Christ, we become antichrists. If one denies Christ, that person is a liar. And lastly, a denial of Christ is a denial of God Himself.

Without sound doctrine, we will fall away from the faith that God has delivered to us on the shoulders of Jesus. Without sound doctrine, Chrislam sounds like a pretty good idea.