How to Know Truth and Evaluate Competing Worldviews...Continued from page 5

Of course, the other possibility is that the Bible came to be corrupted at some point after the seventh century. The problem with this is that we have a massive amount of New Testament manuscripts dating as far back as the second century and Old Testament manuscripts dating back even earlier that are virtually identical with our Bibles today. This rules out the possibility of the kind of Biblical corruption that Islam requires after the second century. And of course, for Islam to suggest that the Bible had become fundamentally corrupted after the second century would simply clash with history, causing Islam to fail the Test of Historical Consistency.


So where does that leave us? The Koran does not allow for a corrupted Bible before the seventh century. History itself shows that the Bible could not have been corrupted after the second century. So there is no time left in which the Bible could have been corrupted. And since Islam depends on the notion that the Bible has been fundamentally corrupted, we see that Islam as a worldview cannot fit reality.

What About Tolerance?
With all this talk about different worldviews failing to fit reality, you might wonder what happened to tolerance. It sure doesn't sound tolerant, does it? But what is tolerance?
Our modern notion of tolerance is that you can't say that someone else's beliefs are wrong. If you do, you are being intolerant. But that is not what tolerance has always meant. The historic meaning of tolerance is that you should be willing to live peacefully and respectfully with those you believe, and even say, are wrong.

If you think about it, our modern "redefined" understanding of tolerance doesn't even make sense. If you can't say something is wrong or false, there is nothing left to tolerate.
But even more than this, our modern understanding of tolerance undercuts itself. It does the very thing that it claims ought not to be done. It says, essentially, that it is wrong for you to say that someone else is wrong. This, of course, fails the Test of Logical Consistency, and thus cannot be an approach that fits reality.

The historic meaning of tolerance is actually a reflection of the teaching of Jesus himself, and this is how we ought to approach others and the worldviews they hold.

The Call of Jesus
This leads us, finally, to the call of Jesus. John 1:17 states, "The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." One of the implications of this verse is simply that grace and truth must be held together when evaluating different worldviews, and when relating to the people that hold them.

If we hold onto truth without grace, we beat people up with our words and we fail to follow the Jesus who was called "the friend of sinners" and who humbled himself even to the point of death on a cross. If we hold onto grace without truth, we find ourselves no longer in touch with reality, but rather blinded by a pretend world that doesn't match the real world as it actually is.

The Apostle Peter shows the need for both when he says in 1 Peter 3:15, "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have [referring to truth]. But do this with gentleness and respect [referring to grace]."

May it be so with each of us.