I'm Offended That You're Offended!

I've been offending a lot of people lately.

1. Wezlo, a Baptist pastor of Christdot.org fame, was offended at my statement on Barack Obama's pastor, "Shame on the fools who equate the murdering of children with the acts of a nation against the murderers." I further suggested Israel is morally right in its war against the murderers of these kids, and that there are times when God uses righteous anger, even righteous violence.
   
   So offended was the Protestant pastor that he ended up deleting several posts, closing the comments on one blog post, and finally hinted it as a reason to close his blog. "That was out of line", he tells me. "You're coming here trying to pick a fight", he asserts. "You should have said, 'I think it's foolish...' rather than 'Shame on the fools...'", so as not to offend anyone, he tells me in a now-deleted post.
   
   
2. A pluralistic man of the secular world was offended after I mentioned that the names of the months of our western calendar are named after "false gods". "False gods?", he asks, "How is my god any more false than yours?!"
   
   I suspect his was a rhetorical question; there are not too many people nowadays worshipping Aphrilis, namesake of the month of April.
   
   
3. Pakistani Muslim and long time acquaintance Adnan Siddiqi and his Muslim friends were offended by the implication that the Jewish people have survived 4000 years thanks to God's preservation, despite at least 8 different civilizations attempting to destroy them. I then suggested that Hamas et al will go the way of the dodo, as did the groups prior that tried to destroy the Jewish people. Needless to say, that didn't soothe his wounds.
   
   
4. Even some Jewish friends took offense after I pointed out the modern Jewish calendar differs from God's calendar in Scripture. All-around nice guy, dad of 8 kids, and friendly Messianic Jewish rabbi Derek Leman, found it wise to publicly distance himself from me for my remarks on the Jewish calendar.
   
   [Update: in the comments to the same post, another Jewish reader, Gene Shlomovich, is engaged in a debate with me over the merits of Messianic Israel theology, the theology that states both Jews and gentiles are part of Israel, either by descent or by Messiah's grafting-in.]
   

Combine those with the respectful theological disagreements with a Christian friend, Brian, regarding the dissolution of the Levitical priesthood, a debate with comments long enough to write a short novel, a debate which continued on privately for a few more back-and-forths.

In addition, I've recently discovered another Christian friend privately took deep offense at the recent assaults on Easter, finally admitting he "didn't want to hear anymore about it". Ignorance is bliss!

In the last few weeks, I've offended at least 4 Christians, 2 Jews, 2 Muslims, and a man who in all likelihood is an atheist. And those are just the people who've spoken up. :-)

All that said, here's some more red meat for the easily-offendable. :-) I suspect it will offend Jews, Muslims and atheists more than Christians, for it contains something most Christians believe, something I consider the Christians to be absolutely and entirely correct in. (Shocking, ain't it? Not too often I can agree with Christianity!)

It's a quote from an intellectual Jewish man, a former atheist, who turned to Messiah in his mid-life, Art Katz. He had this to say regarding the easily-offendable nature of the pluralistic western world. In some ways, it gives me reassurance through all these debates and arguments and offend-ings and disagreements,

Have you heard of pluralism? The whole modern western world is pluralistic. That is to say, "many paths to God." There's no single truth.

Jesus made a remarkable statement: "If you see me, you see the Father, I and the Father are one. No man comes to the Father but by me. If any man comes any other way, that man is a thief and a robber." You guys realize what a scandal the gospel is? You realize how abrasive the gospel is? Do you realize that God has chose the foolish things? That there's nothing about the gospel that's intellectually credible? God has given us something calculatingly foolish, compared to the wisdom of the world. The world that is pluralistic and likes to consider many paths to truth has got to contend with a gospel that insists upon itself, and the Jesus of that gospel, as the only truth. It is uncompromising in its insistence. It is absolute in its expression. And the very question of absoluteness and singularity itself runs right across the whole tenet and grain of the modern world. You understand that? Do you understand how pluralistic the whole mindset of the world is, how many options -- I don't know's, the maybe's, the grey's, who's to say's -- and into that whole mucky world of vagaries, and choices, and nuances, comes one statement out of the heart of God: "I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes to the Father but by me."

If I hear anything from my Jewish kinsmen in conversations I have been involved with my people, invariably they bring up, "What about the other people of the world? What about Buddhists, what about Muslims, what about Hindus? Don't they have a religion, isn't it a world faith? Aren't there redemptive elements in these religions? And you feel a blush coming up to the roots of your being, when you have to insist and say, "No, these are satanic deceptions and false alternatives that lead unto death." To insist on the singularity of the gospel, to insist on the absoluteness of it: this is not just an issue of religion, it's hitting the world head-on in a confrontation of wisdoms, of moral systems, of mentalities.

I've found this to be true, that one bold statement goes against the grain and tenet of the world and induces all kinds of anger and offense: No man comes to God but through Yeshua the Messiah. Speak that truth, and you're a bigot by the world's standards. The world will slander you and attack you and mock you to no end should that tiny statement be uttered in public. It is the ultimate offender in this easily-offendable, politically correct world.

For the record, I'd like to say that none of the disagreements have created a cold between myself and any of you who know me personally. I always prefer clarity to agreement, and I think honest debates help bring about that clarity.

So if you're offended or disagree with me, I want to hear from you, I want to discuss it, I want to find the truth of the matter. Even if we can't attain agreement, at least we can find clarity in exactly where each side stands.