The God of All Mankind

In his seventh woe to the Pharisees, Jesus promised to send prophets and teachers and sages. The prophets would reveal the secrets of God, the mysteries we’ve been discussing for the last several weeks. 

We’re considering several mysteries—the secrets of God spoken about in the New Testament: The mystery of godliness, or the source of goodness; the mystery of iniquity, or the source of evil; the mystery of the revelation that God is the God of all mankind; the mystery of the transforming power of grace; and perhaps others we’ll deal with in the future. 

We’ve had an extensive discussion on the first two—on good and evil. Today I’d like to move on to the next mystery of the God of all mankind, which is found in several places in Paul’s writings. Here is one: 

 I was made a minister of this church according to the commission from God granted to me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, that is, the mystery which had been hidden from the past ages and generations, but now has been revealed to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what the wealth of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles is, the mystery that is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:25-27)

God is the God of Jews and Gentiles, of Asians and Africans, of northern and southern Americans. We’ve already understood that when we refer to mystery in this setting, we’re not talking about the “whodunit” type of ministry but rather the discerning of a new truth, something previously hidden and not understood but now revealed; an idea, Paul says, hidden, undisclosed from the foundations of the world; not a new truth, but one previously obscured and now revealed. 

The question today is: What does it mean to you that God is the God of all mankind? 

Earlier this week, I received a text message from a friend of mine, a surgeon colleague, saying: 

 “It’s the Night Journey date tonight for the Prophet Mohammed. Yes, it’s a very special night. The Prophet Mohammed made a night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem, and then got lifted to the heavens and had a full journey with Gabriel. They kept ascending and ascending until no one could go any further except Mohammed alone. The Prophet then moved on alone till he was in the Presence of Allah alone. Whether he saw with his own eyes or not is debatable depending on different narratives. Our mother Aisha, who is the wife of Muhammad, did not indicate that he saw Allah but was only very close to Allah.”

Then the appeal: 

“Dr. Weaver, please pray, make lots of duea (دعاء) tonight. [Duea means prayer in Arabic]. I never wanted anything for you more than this Islam and this path. From the day that we first met, I always wanted Islam for you.” 

In earlier texts he expressed great concern about my afterlife. As long as I don’t know or understand the accuracy and the validity of Islam and the Islamic path, then I’m considered ignorant. But since I now know, my standing in Paradise is very much in doubt unless I embrace the five fundamental pillars of Islam. As you can see, my friend is deeply concerned about my soul. 

The idea that we possess God, that we have an inside track to salvation is deeply held by all people of faith. Whether you’re a Christian (of any number of different denominations) or whether you’re a Muslim, a Hindu, a Buddhist, a Jew or any other of the major religions, you believe that you have a direct path into heaven. Christians quote the New Testament to support their belief that salvation is only available through Jesus Christ: You must be a Christian to be saved:

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me. (John 14:6) 

And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among mankind by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12) 

All those who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.  (John 10:8-9) 

For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all,… (1 Timothy 2:5-6)

I have had the good fortune, like many of you, to have traveled widely. I have been broadly exposed to many different cultures. Of great interest to me is the religious part of a culture. How we worship is considered to be our spiritual DNA and in many ways, it is very much like the genetic or physical DNA that we know so much about. Using this analogy, our spiritual DNA will eventually be transcribed into spiritual proteins that form the basis of our individually unique spiritual traits and behaviors, including our individual relationship with God. 

This brings us back to the issue of multiple religions, each unique to the point of conflicting and contradicting one another. Religions are like language. Insofar as we usually are born to them, they color our beliefs, just as our native language or mother tongue tends to color our speech (most noticeably when we speak in a foreign language, unless we were raised bilingual from birth). We are raised through our languages and through our religions. We’re taught through them, we become socialized through them. 

It is possible to learn another religion just as it is possible to learn another language, but with some rare exceptions most of us tend to have at least a trace of an accent when speaking a foreign tongue. Is the same true we decided to convert to a new religion? Can a convert see the new religion’s revelation of God as clearly as a believer who was born into it? Or is the convert’s view colored and accented by their previous revelation? 

Is there a benefit in receiving the revelation of more than one religion? And if not, why would God not have decreed a uniform religion for all times in all places? Since God clearly has not done that, surely there must be some benefit either to God or to humankind, even from our very contradictory revelations of him. 

The idea that we possess the inside track to God is as old as humanity itself. Most of us look to others like us, who share our spiritual thinking and our ideas and spiritual actions to inform us of the way to God. We build barriers against the ideas of others. This third mystery, which (Paul says) was hidden from the foundation the world until Jesus came to reveal it, was that God is the God of all mankind:

…the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel…. (Ephesians 3:6) 

But Jesus and Paul were not the first to talk about this mystery. It is mentioned several times in the Old Testament. God told Jeremiah:

“Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh;…” (Jeremiah 32:27) 

It is evident to in the book of Malachi:

Do we not all have one Father? Is it not one God who has created us? (Malachi 2:10) 

The truth seems, however, to have been deliberately hidden by those who wish to keep God—and particularly his grace—to themselves. The mystery revealed was emphasized by Paul when he wrote to Timothy: 

… we have set our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all mankind, especially of believers. (1 Timothy 4:10) 

While on his second missionary journey to spread Christianity Paul developed this concept in some depth in a sermon given to a non-Christian audience on Mars Hill in Athens. Reminding them that they already had an altar devoted to an unknown god, he proceeded to expose for them the mystery of God. This was his sermon: 

 So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I see that you are very religious in all respects. For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything that is in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made by hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might feel around for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His descendants.’ Therefore, since we are the descendants of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by human skill and thought. So having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now proclaiming to mankind that all people everywhere are to repent,…” (Acts 17:22-30)

The Old Testament has some seemingly contrary references to special covenants between God and the Israelites. The concept of a chosen people of God grew out of passages such as the following: 

 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself. Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.” (Exodus 19:4-6)

Notice, however, that this passage simply allows for a chosen group of priests to serve as ministers and missionaries to all mankind. It does not in any way refute the New Testament statements that God is the God of all mankind. 

The concept of possessing God is by no means unique to Judaism. All Western churches think that he is theirs. All creeds and statements of belief and evangelism lay claim to exclusive knowledge of the “real” God. This tends directly and indirectly to prevent them from embracing others who have faith in the one God of all mankind. 

What does it mean to you that God is the God of all mankind? And how does it affect your religious practice and the rituals that you use? 

A book manuscript compiled from discussions that occurred in this class was read by a Christian reviewer. His assessment was direct and scathing. Among the many things he took exception to in the book, most vigorously he opposed the notion that God is the God of all mankind. “This undermines,” he opined, “the very root and essence of Christianity.” 

In his Mars Hill speech, Paul would seem to disagree. God, he begins, does not reside in temples made with hands. God doesn’t need your churches, your temples, your synagogues, your mosques; and is not served by your lighting of candles, the burning of incense, the eating of the Eucharist, or the washing of feet—all of this serving by hand. This is religion as we know it: The building and the rituals. 

God, says Paul, is the giver of life—he doesn’t need to be given anything. He gives mankind the desire to seek him, he builds this into all men, Paul says, All mankind is born, Paul says, seeking God. But we fail to see that he is close to everyone, because he is within us as the inner light; because, as Paul said, “For in him we move and we have our being.” Indeed we are his children, therefore all men are brothers and sisters. If God is our father, Paul goes on to say, then we should recognize that and not seek to objectify God. 

We so much want to make God into our own image. Not just a gold and silver or stone idol, but as an idea as well. We would never consider worshipping an idol, but easily fall into the trap of worshipping an idea, a belief, or even a doctrine. 

So what does it mean to you that God is the God of all mankind? Can you practice your religion, go to your church, do your rituals and live by your doctrine and still embrace and worship a universal God? What effect does it have on your evangelism to say that God is the God of all mankind? Why do we seek such an objectification of God? And why do we have such an objection to sharing God with others? Why does the book reviewer feel that this truth revealed is so threatening to Christianity? 

Why do we seek to make God in our own image? Why was this a truth that was hidden for so long? Does what you believe affect your salvation in any way? Do your rituals actually matter? It doesn’t seem that the idea that God is the God of all mankind should be a mystery, should be a truth revealed, right up there with a mystery of good and evil. 

Donald: Today’s topic is something I either get hung up on or find great joy in. I get hung up on the word proselytizing, which suggests that I need for you to convert to the God of my small corner of mankind. The question then is, do we need religion to find our way to God? I think what we’re proselytizing most of the time is our doctrines, at least in Christianity. So what’s the role of religion? What is the relationship between religion, church, and fellow believers? 

C-J: Paul traveled a great deal, both as a Roman soldier and as a tentmaker. He was aware that there were many gods throughout Palestine, around the Mediterranean Sea. He understood that if he was going to bring this message it had to be a universal God, that God was with all people. And I think he found that common ground by referring to the Holy Spirit. It didn’t have a ritual to it, it didn’t have a face, it didn’t have a place. 

Even Paul, though he spoke of it because of his Damascus experience, had to wade through his own traditions and experiences to come to that place where it was this light, it was this consciousness. It was written in his language, but God is a God of a universal language. How do you communicate that, given the limits of humanity? I think Paul was wise to say that there has to be a common denominator, and he used the law. 

All faiths have very common laws because we live in a society and there has to be order in a society. As for the institution of religion, be it a church or a tent or an altar, I think that that has to do with ritual, and humans are people who have ritual, both in our personal life (where we call them habits) and in the church, and they are a place where we can leave our world, our life—the things that distract us—at the door. It’s a way of us focusing on something that cannot be defined, nor be looked for. It is a gift. 

And we find it through many things. People who walk in the woods are very spiritual. People who go to a church and light a candle—it’s their expression of what they see that light to be, or their hopes to be. But every belief that I’ve ever brushed up against or spent time exploring has many ways of practicing the foundational religion, whether they’re conservative or liberal or whatever, they have that core, and it is based in what’s best for society and for humanity. You have to have rules. 

I love the different flavors. I learn so much about culture and language. Some languages don’t even have a word that will express certain things that we have because they don’t experience that in their culture. They don’t get all bent out of shape about LBGTQ AI or IA. In Native American cultures, people who were intersex were seen as a special gift. They were oftentimes raised to a shaman because they had a sensitivity to both male and female, but in other cultures, they were stoned. 

I just think there’s so much beauty with what the Holy Spirit does, and all means inclusivity.

Jay: I think we can pretty easily wrap our minds around the concept that God is the God of all mankind. Of course he is—he created us. The more specific question for me is, is God the God of all religions? It seems as if in any kind of relationship you have a back and forth. God relates to us, and we relate back to God. I think I can understand that God relates to us uniformly, universally. We’re not bound by time and culture, and he relates to us through very broad concepts such as love and goodness and grace. 

We now have to relate back to God, and as we relate back to God, for whatever reason, we are not capable of doing that in broad ways. I don’t say that’s wrong—it’s just who we are. I was born where I was born to whom I was born and it has made me what I am. So of course, I have this way of relating back to the God who was the God of all mankind. I’ve been raised to relate in very specific ways back to God. 

The more difficult question is: Is God the God of all religions? Is God in every way, every time, and every culture’s way of relating back to God? 

C-J: The original Bedouin tribes in what is known as the Palestinian region were abhorred by the Romans because they passed their children through the fire, meaning they sacrificed their children to their God or gods. I think faiths evolve as cultures evolve, as we become literate, as we are in closer proximity. There is mixture. The word mixture in the Christian faith is a no-no—we want to keep it clean. We want to keep it easily accessible to those who are willing to accept, without question, the articles of faith. 

But the truth is, the more we mix together, I believe, the more we see God; even the difficult pieces in our society that make us examine the inequities. Nothing is wasted in God. The timing of God is perfect, no matter how harsh it may be. But I’m very thankful for the diversity of experiences and knowledge that I have in my life because it makes me say: “Who are you Lord? How does this work? What am I missing? Where’s my humility in this? What makes me right?” 

I think it’s central to who God is, going back to the garden. I’m sure that the original people who walked in the cool of the evening with the story of “Tell me who you are, Lord, and what purpose I have for being here.” There was much examination of humanity and relationship. 

Jay: In the give-and-take that I’m talking about—God relating to us and us relating back to God—I have faith that God relates to us perfectly (or maybe is evolving into relating to us perfectly) but we are not capable (because of our fallen nature) of relating back to him perfectly. As human beings, I don’t believe that we’re capable of doing that. Through all of time in history, I think you’re going to see attempts to do that, that are going to be perverted, are going to be misguided. 

The question is: If any good came from trying to relate back to God, was God in that? If God is goodness, isn’t that the source? There’s no doubt, if you look at Christianity just in the United States alone, you see multiple religions popping up, trying to relate back to God, especially Protestant sects such as the Church of Latter Day Saints and the Seventh Day Adventists. I’m sure that the Mormons consider the Adventists to be crazy and kooky, and vice versa. But in the end, are we not all just trying to relate back to God? And in the end, are not both religions trying to do something good?

Donald: Let me go on record saying I’m grateful I was raised a Seventh Day Adventist. But it doesn’t stop quite there. We are saying that we are right. It’s not a matter of having a multiplicity of experiences and then saying, “This is it.” We say: “You are wrong, I am right” in approaching God. That’s why my question is: Do we need organized religion to find God? It certainly enhances the experience, but when you start using the words right and wrong, truth and untruth, then we may have to look at it from a different perspective.

David: It would be so easy, I think, based upon the passages Don read this morning, and from some of your comments, to attack religion at this point; to say: “See what problems it causes!” and how it’s unnecessary and that even our own Bible really is telling us that— we’ve been mis-reading it all these years. 

I’m not going to do that! 😉 

I find it so encouraging that we can have this discussion today, on this very issue. It is to me evidence of the evolution of God, the becoming of God. I think both the Old and the New Testament show that God and religions evolve over time. I think it’s inevitable that as God continues to evolve in the (evolving) global village, religions must evolve also. Unfortunately, evolution takes time, during which errors are introduced, conflict is caused, and people get hurt. On that basis one could make a case for getting rid of religion entirely, but one could also make a case (I think) for the net benefit that religion brings to mankind. 

My fundamental point is that what we’re seeing is the evolution of God. I think that’s a wonderful thing.

Michael: This mystery is a given, to me. If it were any other way, I don’t think God would be worth wasting my time on. I think the God of all mankind extends grace to all mankind without any conditions. So everybody is loved, everybody is saved.

I agree about evolution. I think people who still cling to a personal God are on the brink of extinction. That’s the evolution.

Don: They’re dinosaurs. 

Jeff: Is your point, David, that God as an entity himself is evolving? Or is it that we as humans in our relationship to him are evolving in our understanding?

David: I am a process theologist. Process theology argues that God is both a Being—a fully developed, complete, entity in and of itself—but also a Becoming. God the Being is both Alpha and Omega, but between Alpha and Omega there is a process that takes place, and in that process, God is Becoming. It’s quantum!

Jeff: So am I hearing you say it’s an entity and it’s a concept, and the concept therefore is evolving?

David: Our concept of God is evolving, but also God is evolving.

C-J: If I think of God likened to the universe, this energy that goes out and pings into things, I can think of it the way David does, that God is evolving. It’s constantly in a state of flux. But the energy is still there. It has its own characteristics, its own way of being. But we humans see it in this dimension, within the confines of where we are. 

But we ping into things too. So I remain who I am but when I ping into this class I begin to evolve because of all the energy that is here that makes me think in a different way. I’m still the same energy, same molecules, same DNA, but I am constantly reformulating my reality, in my truth. 

Bryan: I don’t have any problem identifying God as a God for all mankind. Maybe that makes me more liberal than others. Because obviously, as Don said, his book editor didn’t like it a bit. 

Don: I must say it surprised me greatly to see how vigorously and stridently he opposed it.

Bryan: The problem, as I see it, occurs when humans get involved, because humans want to own things. If you see God, then as a human you want to own god, because owning God gives you the right to define it, to categorize it, to say what’s right and wrong and who gets it. The more people you can get to see it your way, the more right you become. 

Thus, to me, each religion and denomination has been on a quest to prove it is more right than the others, and that’s where conflict comes in. If there is, in fact, one God, then there should be a fairly consistent way of worshipping that God, but the translations, over time, have gotten more ritualistic and more focused on how to worship than on what to worship. 

It has been suggested that maybe denominations are on the wane. I can see that happening, when what is taught is less important than how it is taught. The ownership that humans crave seems to me to be what causes the problem, because then you try to define how someone else needs to worship God and if they don’t do it your way then they’re wrong.

C-J: I think that the more chaotic the world becomes, the more we need religion or law, because inherently we want order, our brain craves order. And so out of chaos, such as what we’re seeing in the Ukraine and this cascading effect globally, we want order. We’re looking to an institution of systems that will make this happen. 

Religion plays a very important part, in our sense of well being, of achieving this order, spiritually and in our community. 

Kiran: I was born in India to a Hindu family. A college friend of mine talked to me about Jesus and I became a Christian, a Seventh Day Adventist, and here I am today. Now, since God is the God of all mankind, it seems there is no need to evangelize to other people since every culture has had some kind of revelation of God. Thus, there was no need for my friend to talk to me about Jesus. 

But I wouldn’t like that, because the joy I’m enjoying and experiencing today is because of what he did that day. Yes, every culture has some sort of revelation of God, but we’re all groping in darkness. For whatever reason, the chosen people of Jews had a complete picture of God, or a better picture of God; then, through Jesus, that picture was revealed much more clearly. 

So there was a responsibility on the part of the Jewish people (or indeed anyone who receives the perfect revelation) to share it with others. But what we’re doing is making carbon copies of ourselves. For example, when you go to a temple in India you hear Indian classical music and songs in Sanskrit accompanied by Indian traditional musical instruments, but if you go to an Adventist church you hear a piano and a guitar and people singing in English to Western music. Everybody wears a suit and tie even on hot days, but at the Indian temple, they wear typical Indian dress. 

So there is a problem with converting people into carbon copies of other religious believers, but there is no problem—in fact, there is good—in explaining to people that you have complete picture of a God who loves them, who knows and understands their pain, who knows that they are sinful but offers them forgiveness for free. I think that is absolutely necessary and we need to tell it to everybody. 

No matter which culture you go to, everybody experiences that pain of “I’m not right” or “I’m not good enough.” I speak to my relatives (my family has a few Christians but most are Hindus) and I sense this pain in all of them—the pain of thoughts like: “Maybe what I’m doing is not enough. What happens if I’m not here today? What happens to my family? What happens to me when I die?” 

Every religion is trying to answer these questions in their own way, but we have this amazing way to tell people that God will take care of them, he paid their price, and they free. “Just accept this and live your life!” It’s a liberating concept, so why not share it? Paul talked about this but he didn’t stop proselytizing, he didn’t stop telling people about Jesus. 

So yes, religion does some bad things. It’s a very imperfect tool, but that tool reached out to me through one person and saved me. So even though it’s imperfect, I think there is still good in it. If there is a better way for us to do it then we should fix it, but we should not completely drop everything and leave everybody alone. I think people need to know the good news that they are forgiven and that God has their backs. 

It’s our duty to take care of other people. Otherwise, the pain that we have inside us makes us evil, and we hurt each other. That’s my view. 

Chris: I’m struggling a little bit with the notion of God evolving, because evolution is a human construct, a theory we devised to explain something we really don’t know or can define. When I think of something evolving, I know the starting point—what something was—and what it is now. But do I really know what the starting point of God was and do I truly understand where God is at now? How else could I know if there’s really been change?

In our class discussions we use human constructs such as love and grace and mercy to try to determine who or what God is. If these characteristics have truly changed, evolved, they may not be what we think they are. And this is where I struggle when I think of something evolving.

Adapting might be a better word because it’s not necessarily something changing from something more simple to something more complex, for example, which is what many people think of evolution, but something that is able, through who it is, to be applicable, adaptable, and relevant no matter where you are in time.

David: I prefer the word Becoming to the word evolving, but I still think evolving works. We accept the theory of evolution without knowing how it all began. No physicist I know would claim that the Big Bang was the absolute beginning of evolution, because they know that something must have caused the Big Bang. They are still searching for that primal cause. You don’t have to know everything to believe in evolution, and indeed, we may never know the beginning of evolution because, if God the Being is the primal cause, how can you ever know God the Being unless you become a part of it?

Therein perhaps lies the potential. Maybe there are aspects of the universe, including us, that are part of the Becoming process, to help God Be, which is the case when the universe ultimately is nothing but God. 

You’d have to read Alfred North Whitehead to get into the full depth of process theology, but to me, it has enormous explanatory power. A theory that has great explanatory power will tend to be true. To me, process theology has great explanatory power, so I tend to believe it.

C-J: What if you were to substitute the word express for adapt? That it’s not necessarily an evolution but an inappropriate response that is expressed, given a period of time in the continuum of expression. A baby in a nurturing environment will continue to grow and mature. Its full potential is unlimited if it’s allowed to do that. So I like the word express, because it implies evolution, it’s just a different word.

Jeff: Regarding evolution, I think it is certainly correct that we can’t see the beginning; but evolution, by definition, is a change, which means that at some point you’re seeing a difference. So in the traditional sense of the physical world evolving, it is true that nobody has seen the Big Bang. But the reason is postulated that because we’ve seen evolution on a smaller scale then we can predict that this is potentially the beginning. 

So Chris’s point still is valid. To say something is evolving requires at least two snapshots of it over a period of time. Whether the first snapshot is the actual beginning or not, it still requires at least two points of reference to show that something is changing.

David: [Provided post-class:} I don’t disagree. The Old and New Testaments provide two snapshots of God over time. In the first snapshot, God is violent and jealous and does not flinch from smiting anyone who crosses him. In the second snapshot, he is a gentle and loving God who would gladly turn the other cheek to anyone who crosses him—and still forgive them. Is that not evidence of God evolving? Of God Becoming? 

Reinhard: I can see the evidence for physical change, but in terms of spiritual life, things must remain the same because God’s law is unchanging from beginning to the end. Scripture says that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. God’s Law, moral law, never changes. So I have a hard time understanding such changes as same-sex marriage and the fact that some churches allow it. 

I moved from one church to another and I felt better. Maybe I feel closer to the truth, or more challenged to find it, as an Adventist. It fits my needs to keep the truth, as Paul said. I don’t condemn—that’s up to God. In the end, salvation is what all Christians are looking for. If we go back to the Bible to see why in this world we have several denominations in Christianity, let alone other religions, God never allowed a single institution. God scattered Babel to prevent such unity. 

The history of Christianity itself, with the Protestant Reformation and the diminished power of the Catholic Church perhaps was a similar sort of correction. But again, salvation is God’s decision—we cannot judge other people, especially not those in different religions. 

When Jesus met Martha and Mary in Bethany, the sisters were kind of competing. Some churches just want to be like Martha, they want to do this and that. But Jesus said to her, “You worry and get upset about many things, but only one thing is needed, and Mary has it.” If we examine ourselves, we may also realize there’s only one thing we need: The grace of God.

Holding to the truth we know makes us comfortable. I have Muslim friends. I had a Muslim student roommate who liked to talk about his religion. I did not want to confront him but I think our duty as Christian is to say what we believe to be the truth about Jesus and the plan of salvation. I think that’s important. If people want to know more, to study more about my beliefs, then fine. If not, I just want to show the love of God to other people and let them judge for themselves. 

Don: Next week we will talk about the story in Acts 10 where Peter has a vision of a smorgasbord of forbidden foods lowered from heaven for him to eat, and his interaction with Cornelius.

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