September 10, 2024 Daily Dose of Discernment

“For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy." (John 10:33)

In the Middle Ages, there was a Spanish theologian who was executed through the major help of one of the most prominent names in the Protestant Reformation. Just because he didn't get the doctrine of the Trinity right, he was brutally burned at the stake. The cruelty of supposed believers in God didn't change 1,500 years after the barbaric religious culture of first century Israel who wanted to crucify the Lord for supposed blasphemy.

Jesus said we will be known as His followers by our fruit, not our creed. Nowhere in scripture did He or any of the apostles and prophets that godliness is getting doctrines right. They all teach us to love God with all our being and our neighbor, even enemies, as ourselves, and so prove to be sons of God. We may not be burning anyone for false teachings anymore, but we sure still crucify those who don’t agree with us with our hate and slander, sometimes to a global extent using an immensely more devastating tool called the internet. Let’s be Christians, not Pharisees.