Editor:
As a pastor, I feel obligated when someone misrepresents Biblical teaching as did Steve Nofel’s article, “First, we are Christians.” He quotes Bible passages claiming all humans are created equal and therefore children of God (Christians).
Certainly the Bible teaches all humans are created in the “image of God” (Genesis 1:26-27), giving all equal dignity. But it doesn’t follow all are Christians. Nofel quotes verses with conditional statements he ignores. In Galatians 3:27-28 one is regarded as a child of God only “through faith” and “having been baptized into Christ.” A person must be regenerated (i.e. born spiritually) by being “immersed” into Christ before he is a child of God.
Nofel quotes John 3:16, which contains a condition for eternal life. Jesus says a person must first “believe in Him.” This excludes a wide range of people. I doubt atheists desire to be identified as God’s children. Muslims are taught to have faith in Allah, but there is no demand in Islam to regard Christ as the crucified and risen Messiah which they deny happened. They wouldn’t identify themselves as Christians.
Nofel disregards other statements of Jesus. Jesus said many who rejected Him didn’t have God as their father but the devil (John 8:42-44). On another occasion, Jesus said not everyone who calls Him Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven. They will seek entrance and He will say, “Depart from me, I never knew you” (Matthew 7:21-23).
Jesus does beckon all people to come Him (Matthew 11:28-30) and He is full of untold grace and mercy desiring to forgive all our sins (Acts 10:43) and supply us with His righteousness to gain us acceptance before God (Philippians 3:8-9). But none shall be adopted as God’s children without the explicit condition that one acknowledge their desperate and sinful plight before God and fall upon His abundant mercy by believing upon Christ for salvation.
If that message is ignored, many will be fooled, thinking they are God’s children when in fact they are not.
Scott Christensen
Mancos
