Re: The weak religion in Street Tales.
I think the public is given to understand that Potter’s Hands is a Christian service and that Chris Salomons, its kitchen co-ordinator, is a Christian. I am not wholeheartedly convinced.
Any gospel-believing Christian organization will tell you that helping needy people achieve a better life for themselves cannot be the ultimate end striven for in helping them because a merely moral life cannot gain anyone an entry into heaven. They need the gospel, not just help, because the Bible teaches that sinners (the ones not yet saved) stand condemned before God and will be judged by him unless the obedience and merits of Christ are credited to them through faith in his name.
The religion of Salomons in Street Tales falls way short of the gospel. I can show this from at least four of his articles. I’ll just paraphrase the last paragraph of the one from Aug. 18, The horrible burden of self-loathing. Don’t condemn street people, he says. They already condemn themselves. Let’s help them make some changes and then guilt will no longer keep them down.
I’m not for condemning anyone. But if sinners are on the road to damnation, as Romans 3 teaches, can it be wrong for a Christian to warn them of it by the use of words like ‘guilt’ and ‘condemnation?’ After all, it is necessary to do this in order to preach the gospel of salvation from the punishment guilty sinners will get if they don’t repent.
All sinners, including street people and drug addicts, face imminent condemnation by God and will be kept down in hell by the guilt of sin forever unless they are redeemed and released by the salvation Jesus provides through faith.
Do you not agree, Mr. Salomons? Aren’t you a gospel-believing Christian?
Mark Gaboury
Red Deer