Is your life an unending horror movie?

This post was originally published August 19, 2013.

Good evening,

Did you know a Christian bishop founded Japanese Buddhism? Not because he agreed with it, but he happened to translated Buddhist writings into Japanese.

Fear was the common theme of the Chuck Colson Center’s Wilberforce Weekend Conference in May. And fear in a very unexpected sense. “No fear” is a common youth group theme, but how is this concept applied to knowledge?

Fear is commonplace for Christians today. In the most free country on Earth, our rights to speech and practice of religion are being taken away in the name of tolerance. Laws are losing rational basis, taking on the tint of self-justification. We fear a discourse on ideas, the spread of other religions, the Nones, etc.

In multiple sessions, speakers lectured on the idea that Christians are to proclaim God’s dominion over the earth. Kuyper once stated, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!’”

In essence, there is nothing to fear, because the earth is God’s. One day, he will renew it, but in the meantime, we are to make his invisible kingdom visible. We cannot fear losing our institutions. Why? First, they are not our salvation. Second, we have the truth! The truth cannot fail.

The Christian bishop that translated Buddhist writings into Japanese did not fear knowledge. In fact, Christianity spread because we happened to be excellent translators, because we held knowledge! We grew our resources, analyzed and supported the truth. Science, philosophy, theology, mathematics… Shun immorality and evil ideas, but do not fear knowledge. Let us today restart this impassioned pursuit to understand God’s creation.