Author of Contradict – They Can't All Be True.
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Andy was a guest on Fear Knot Radio, where he got to share Contradict Movement with Vincent and Cynthia Hill, the hosts of Fear Knot Radio.
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Contradict Movement was born through weekly evangelism outings at University California Irvine (UCI). Our method of engaging in conversation was to setup a folding table with a few camping chairs at UCI’s Freedom of Speech Zone. We’d have some Starbuck coffee in a “traveler” with creams, sugar, cups, and stir sticks. We would then use various signs and posters laying on the table or taped to the front of the table that were designed to spark conversation that would allow us to introduce the Gospel. One night, Adam Stetson, suggested creating a poster that spelled Contradict using religious symbols. That idea profoundly struck me as the best idea I had ever heard. It’s a perfect conversation starter: “All religions can’t be true because they contradict each other in their teachings. Logically, they could all be false, but how would we know that?” We then could spring into why we believe Christianity to be true!
Upon returning home, I instantly searched for Contradict bumper sticker online. The following are the two images that I found online:
Image #1: This Contradict image doesn’t strictly use religious symbols and it has no tagline of explanation.
Image #2: This Contradict image was also online at the time and being sold by someone who clearly wasn’t Christian. The tagline really makes no sense! I think the sticker is calling for us to go against all religions because all religions are just forms of social slavery.
After using these two as small printed pages on the top of the table, Adam had a friend paint an original Contradict design on a poster to tape to the front of the table. Once we had that poster, Contradict became are constant (only) go to sign for kickstarting evangelism conversations.
After a couple of year at UCI, I wanted to write a book laying out the Contradict message I would share with someone from start to finish, if they gave me five hours of their time. I also I wanted the book to serve as a tool to help spur others onto college campus and public spaces with a similar approach to evangelism. To help raise awareness for the book, I wanted to create bumper stickers and a website. If I was to sell bumper stickers and sell a Contradict design on the front cover a book, I’d need to own the copyright of the image, those I sat down and made a list of religious symbols I would use to spell Contradict and I hired a friend, Danny Martinez, to put it together for me. I own the copyright and now I also own the trademark to the Contradict Movement logo:
Image #3: The Contradict Movement version of Contradict!
At the time I launched Contradict Movement as a website, I saw that another Contradict image had emerged:
Image #4: That I could tell the person who made this image was Christian and had a Facebook page named Contradict, but no stickers of this image were being sold. Later, Cross Examined, started to sell this image with the same tagline with their website url on it. I don’t think Cross Examined sells this image anymore.
Recently, I checked online and I have seen that numerous other Contradict designs have been created and they are now being sold online as bumper stickers! Here they are:
Image # 5: This was the first obviously Christian Contradict image I saw being sold online (besides the Cross Examined one I mentioned above that is now no longer being sold at the Cross Examined store, Impact Apologetics). This one is being sold on Zazzle.
Image # 6: Here’s a variation of the one above that is also being sold on Zazzle.
Image #7: This is the current Cross Examined Contradict image being sold through their Impact Apologetics online store.
I suspect that the clearly Christian Contradict images created after I launched Contradict Movement were working off my Contradict image. I suggest this because the common theme is the Shinto torri gate for the letter N, but I could be wrong! They might not have seen my image first.
Two questions:
1. Which Contradict tagline do you think is the best?
“They Can’t All Be True – John 14:6”
“Only 1 is Truth, Life eternal, and the Way”
“Don’t be a Contradiction. There can only be ONE Truth.”
2. Which sticker do you think would be the one best suited to go platinum, “Coexist status”, and why?
If you think it should be mine, please, share http://www.contradictmovement.org with all your friends and family. Order extra stickers and help distribute them.
Here’s why I think my sticker is best situated for sharing the Gospel! It has the url to my website, big and clear for people to visit. The home page has a video that details the message of Contradict by sharing the importance of Coexistence and Tolerance, while also sharing that Tolerance can’t be taken to mean that all religions are true. I then share examples of religious contradictions and close by sharing the Gospel and why we can trust that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. From a stand alone point of view, the one with the tagline, “Only 1 is Truth, Life Eternal, and the Way” clearly shows a Christian message. The Cross Examined tagline, “Don’t be a Contradiction, There can only be ONE Truth”, does not clearly demonstrate that it is a Christian bumper sticker, however, the name of their website’s url does indicate this. When visiting their website though, you are not instantly greeted with the message of their Contradict sticker. With my tagline, “They Can’t All Be True – John 14:6”, interested parties could be forced to go to a Bible and look up John 14:6 to know why all religions can’t be true. If interested parties go to Contradict Movement, they will only find links to my blog, the Contradict Facebook page, my Youtube channel, and my book. All of these sites are very much Contradict themed!
Every sticker I sell comes with a Contradict folding tract as well as a printed page of explanation. The goal is that if anyone is interested in knowing more about the message of Contradict when seeing a person’s sticker, the Christian has something to hand interested parties on the spot. It has been my experience that when people are caught starting at your Contradict sticker, they usually don’t want to talk long in the parking lot.
If you do appreciate my work with Contradict Movement, help share my image online and through print. Right now, images to my page do not always display as prominently as these others, so people may not find my page. Cross Examined is way more known and popular than Contradict Movement, my blog, or my book. If their sticker takes off and becomes the one everyone sees and knows, that’s great, because they certainly proclaim the Gospel and do a great job defending it, but if you think the Contradict Movement platform is better due to more specialized focus, again, share Contradict Movement with everyone you know by selecting some key blog articles, Youtube videos, or Facebook posts that you find helpful for sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Thanks so much!
Peace in Christ,
Andy Wrasman
When speaking with famous atheist, Richard Dawkins, on his Fox News program, The O’Reilley Factor, Bill O’Reilley told Dawkins, “I can’t prove to you that Jesus is God, so that truth is mine and mine alone. But you can’t prove to me that Jesus is not God, so you have to stay in your little belief system.” O’Reilley’s statement fits into a view of truth called relativism. It is common to hear relativistic expressions within and without the Christian community. Relativism holds that truth is relative to each person’s experiences, culture, and needs. Since such guideposts for truth are not universal, truth is subjected to individual determination. Approaching all truth claims from a relativistic approach fails in three specific ways: failure to distinguish between subjective and objective claims, denies basic laws of logic, and is an inherently self-contradictory worldview.
First, relativism fails to distinguish between objective and subjective truth claims. Subjective truth claims are relative to each individual, because these claims deal in preference and personal opinion, often based on experience and feelings. For example, the best seats at a movie theater are the front rows. There are less people there to bother you, you don’t have anyone sitting in front of you to block your view, you always have a middle seat, and the screen encompasses the totality of your vision. I think the majority of the population would disagree with my claim, judging from my experiences of sitting by my lonesome in the front few rows of movie theaters. Others claim that the middle rows are the best. Others assert the back rows are superior. “The front rows are the best” is a true statement for me, but it might not be true for you, because determining the best row in a movie theater is based on subjective values.
Objective claims on the other hand lie outside of one’s individual partiality and experience for determining their truthfulness. They are unbiased claims that are determined to be true based on external realities that can be verified or tested. Objective claims pertain to facts, not opinions. Sticking with movie examples, the Best Picture of 2013 according to the Academy Awards was 12 Years a Slave. That is an objective claim. It can be factually verified to be true or false. If it were simply stated that 12 Years a Slave was the best movie of 2013, it would be a subjective claim, because everyone has a different opinion on the matter, but the specific Oscar winner of the 2013 Best Picture award is not a matter of opinion. A movie either won or did not win the Oscars for Best Picture. Relativism fails to realize this distinction by handling objective claims as if they were subjective, which is what Bill O’Reilly failed to do, when saying that “Jesus is God” is his truth, but not Richard Dawkins’ truth.
A second failure of relativism is its denial of basic laws of logic. When relativists state that all religions are true, they reject the Law of Non-Contradiction. The Law of Non-Contradiction states that “A” cannot equal “Non-A”. This means a statement cannot be true and not true at the same time in the same respect. Plugging statements into this equation, “Jesus is God” (Christianity) cannot equal “Jesus is not God” (Judaism and Islam). Already, the Law of Non-Contradiction has disproven the notion that all religions can be true, however the Law of Excluded Middle and the Law of Identity further demonstrate relativism’s denial of reason. The Law of Excluded Middle states that “A” is either “A” or “Non-A”. This means an objective claim is either true or not true. Jesus is either God or he is Not-God. Finally, the Law of Identity dictates that “A” is “A”; a thing is what it is. Therefore, if “Jesus is God” is a true statement, Jesus must be God.
A third failure of relativism is that it is a self-contradictory worldview. Relativists declare, “All truth is relative.” Yet, in their rejection of the existence of absolute truth, relativists are making an absolute truth claim themselves. If a relativist says, “There are no absolutes,” ask him, “Are you absolutely certain?” If a relativist says, “All truth is relative,” ask him, “Is that relative?” Such simple questions in response to relativism reveal the self-contradictions within such a worldview.
To answer this question directly, objective truth is not a matter of opinion. Jesus is God or Jesus is not God. We cannot have it both ways. The truthfulness of these two positions is not contingent upon our subjective experiences. This means that it is intolerant to claim that all religions are true, because it would require the erasure, or change, of all exclusive teachings within all of the world’s diverse religious faiths to make them one. If relativism is not intolerance in action, then it must be ignorance that fails to distinguish between subjective and objective claims, denies basic laws of logic, and embraces an inherently self-contradicting worldview.
Consider ordering my book Contradict – They Can’t All Be True!
I was just on a padcast show called G220 Radio. The name comes from Galatians 2:20. You should look that verse up, here. The show is hosted by Ricky Gantz. He has followed the Contradict – They Can’t All Be True Facebook page for quite awhile. He recently launched this podcast and he has a lot of great topics that I think anyone who likes this blog would be interested in hearing discussed. The show before the Contradict episode was on Jehovah’s Witnesses and the show that will be aired next week is on interracial relationships and marriages – you know from the Bible. I hope they address the insane idea that dark skinned people came from the descendents of Ham, because Ham was cursed to have children born to slavery. If you want to see where people get that idea, go to Genesis 9.
For the G220 Radio episode I was on as the guest, I love that Ricky focused on Chapter 2 of Contradict – They Can’t All Be True. Chapter 2 teaches the basic history, beliefs, and practices of the world’s five major religions via 20 key terms for each. So 100 terms in total. Ricky went through each of the five religions and asked me to speak on some of those terms for each religion. I like that he did this because I took it upon myself to compare and contrast the teachings with what the Bible teaches us. I also was able to give some good points for where the Gospel could be interjected into the teachings of other religions – in other words points at which adherents of these other religions would find the Gospel to be truly Good News for them!
Ricky also got to share some experiences he has had using Contradict in evangelism.
Give it a listen and share it far and wide. G220 Radio: Contradict They Can’t All Be True!
My first published book is entitled, Contradict – They Can’t All Be True. In case you have been wondering what’s inside the book before taking the plunge to order your copy, I have provided a brief overview of the book in this blog post:
Ch. 1 – The State of Pluralism
America’s state of religious pluralism stems from Hindu influence that crept in via the transcendental movement and came full force in the 60s counter-culture movement. The New Age Movement has direct parallels to Hindu beliefs, both of which lead to forms of religious pluralism. I share that the heart behind the movement is love, but that truth and love is lost in pluralism.
Ch. 2 – The Multiple Religious Paths
Many believe religious pluralism is true because Americans are religiously ignorant. Many of us don’t even know Christianity. So I give a 20 word glossary for Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. If you know these 20 terms for each, you will know the basic history, teachings, and practices of the world’s five major religions.
Ch. 3 – Enacting the Law of Non-Contradiction
I then take direct quotes from the authoritative texts of each of those 5 religions and other minor religions and cults and put them under various doctrinal topics such as who God is, who man is, what mankind’s ultimate problem is, what the solution is to that problem to show the contradictions.
Ch. 4 – Finding a Religious Litmus Test
I present the historiographical tests for evaluating claims of the past and that Christianity offers a historical claim to prove or disprove the Christian faith – the resurrection.
Ch. 5 – Testing the Testable
I apply those tests to the Gospels. I present it in a way that I haven’t seen done yet in another book – so I think I’m contributing something new to the vast works that are already out there.
Ch. 6 – The Ring of Truth
I share what I call the ring of truth. The ring of truth can be found in the Bible’s details, its one unified message, its accuracy in predicting future events, and its uniqueness amongst the world’s religions. I close this chapter by quoting Peter from Acts 2 and Jesus from Mark 16, “Repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins.”
All of the book so far was in a non-Christian voice. I want anyone reading to not know where I am coming from – what I actually believe. I have not identified myself as Christian until the end of this chapter. It’s all fact based presentations. It turns me off reading most books of this nature because I don’t think my non-Christian friend would get past the first few pages in most cases the way they are written. The bias comes through too strongly in most of the books I have read making a case for the Christian faith.
Ch. 7 – Using Contradict to Share the Gospel
The Christian voice is out. This chapter focuses on sharing the Gospel using Contradict. It explains how I have used Contradict as a witnessing tool on college campuses and I explain the whole process if someone else wants to use it. I then give the 20 most asked questions after the initial conversational starter sharing that all religions can’t be true because they contradict each other, but that I believe Christianity is true and that Jesus is the son of God who died for the sins of all of mankind. Every question has several types of responses that should be utilized in the response. Validation responses show why it’s a good question and how you understand why it is being asked. Socratic method responses are questions that lead the person to the answer based on what they already know. Answer responses give multiple ways to respond to answer the question directly. Scripture responses show the verses that support the answer from God’s Word. Back the Gospel responses must always be used at the end of every answer. The Gospel saves, not our apologetics, so the answers must always be used to get back to the Gospel and often times the Gospel answers the question!
Ch. 8 – Join the Movement.
Why did I call Contradict a movement? The Holy Spirit moves each of us to action as he desires. There isn’t only one way, or method, to present the exclusive claims of Christ to be our only all-sufficient Savior. The Spirit might move some to share the Gospel exactly as I have using Contradict, but others might get other ideas on how to initiate the conversation. We might not all be led to success by the Spirit either. We might be led to persecution. Our role is simply to resign ourselves to will of God as the Spirit moves us to make disciples of all nations.
Andy Wrasman 