More and more, the message of the gospel is despised and rejected by the world. Western society rejects it as a primitive superstition (How can you put your faith in a bronze-age document?
); many African people reject it as a colonial imposition (How can you follow the white man's religion?
). In the face of such marginalization, we must be assured that our faith is not tribal, primitive, western, or superstitious. The things we believe have been revealed by the God who created heaven and earth. He stands supreme above every culture, every race, every ideology, every religion on this planet. He so loved the world—including people of every tribe, language, and nation—that he gave his one and only Son, so that whoever believes in him will not perish but receive eternal life (John 3:16). While society worldwide descends into confusion, Jesus Christ remains the light of the nations.
13 And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.