Tolerance. Multiculturalism. Diversity. Religious pluralism. Ecumenism. Each of these terms is ubiquitous in today’s vocabulary and each gives the impression of unselfish regard for others and their beliefs. While this undoubtedly sounds very noble, the problem, however, is that more often than not, when someone uses one of the listed terms it is generally in a context that is anything but tolerant or diverse of opinion. Specifically, when the issue of religion is discussed, an alarming number of people are under the impression that all—or at least many—religions are generally the same. Steve Turner, writing in his Nice and Nasty wrote humorously about the obvious contradictions, "We believe that all religions are basically the same, at least the one we read. They all believe in love and goodness. They only differ on matters of creation, sin, heaven, hell, God, and salvation."

Americans of all walks of life are becoming increasingly tolerant of the beliefs of others according to a recent poll. The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found more than 70% of respondents agreed that "Many religions can lead to eternal life." But what is more troubling is that 57% were self-described evangelical Christians, a clear indication of a paradigm shift within our cultural and within our churches.

In the final analysis, our churches must shoulder a considerable amount of responsibility for the rampant theological chaos. What we are witnessing today is merely the consequence of a generation that has failed to provide foundational teaching from God’s Word and Scriptural reasoning against the onslaught of attacks from theological liberals who deny the inspiration of Scripture and those who surrender to notions of religious pluralism. All too often, churches have reduced their doctrinal statements and teachings to the lowest common denominator for two reasons: to attract the masses and to appease the majority. But in so doing, they only serve to hurt everybody. The unbelievers and unlearned never mature in the faith and are deprived of the substance of the gospel message. Furthermore, the orthodox faithful are never grounded in solid truth and are vulnerable and ill equipped to face the bombardment of attacks against the faith.

The only antidote against this is to return to the truth of God’s Word. Christians should not be embarrassed or think it archaic to subscribe to the faith that was once delivered to the saints. Attacks from within and outside the church are nothing new. The apostles themselves were constantly contending against worldly influences. The only remedy the Christian has is to be grounded in the truth of Scripture in order to be ready to give a defense for the hope that is within him. Apart from this, the Christian will be left weakened and susceptible to the vacillating doctrines of man-centered thinking.