The Wesleyan Christian Advocate

Sister Editor:

I would like to submit the following letter. I think it is very germane as we have increasing need to deal with rather novel religious discussions at work and in other interactions with members of other religions.

The letter now follows..

When we think about the motives of founders of false religions, we might be reminded of Nazi Propaganda Minister Paul Joseph Goebbels when he said, “Any lie, if big enough and told enough, will be believed.” The Nazi view of the world was going to be as natural as growing up believing in Santa Claus, but without ever learning anything different. What keeps the Christian faith from being based on such a deliberate and deluding lie? It is here that the Wesleyan takes center stage and promotes the gift of the Christian experience, for, as John Wesley put it, what the gospel promises has been accomplished in our souls. What is this promise? That we will gain both peace and joy in the actual witness of our souls coming gradually to love doing good; and that is a miracle! Therefore we Wesleyans can say to all the world that we have evidence which is independent of the scriptural stories, namely: if you will but heed the spirit of the New Testament you will find a miracle in your own life, in coming to love doing good, that will then in turn validate and make feasible the stories of the miracles in this very book which will have inspired you in the first place.

There are other religions which promise a thousand delights in paradises of fun and games, but sacred scriptures of some of these religions can be understood by some adherents to call for immoral acts in order to reap this reward. Unfortunately for them the only evidence for the truth of the assertions of these religions will have to come after they are dead, when it is too late to change. It is an affront in the Holy Court to presume to justify murder by having thought that it occasionally pleases God.

Only the Christian religion can provide a validation of its stories this side of the grave.

Yours in Christ.

Philip McPherson Rudisill