“If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it…but even if He does not, we want you to know…” Daniel 3:17-18

Charles Krauthammer, a non-religious Jew writing in a 1998 Time magazine article, wrote that “every manner of political argument is ruled legitimate in our democratic discourse. But invoke the Bible as grounding for your politics, and the First Amendment police will charge you with breaching the sacred wall of separating church and state.” Referring to a quote by G.K. Chesterton that “tolerance is the virtue of people who do not believe anything,” Mr. Krauthammer wrote, “Chesterton needs revision: tolerance is not just the virtue of people who don’t believe anything; tolerance extends only to people who don’t believe in anything. Believe in something, and beware…you’ll make yourself suspect should you dare enter the naked public square.”

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego faced a blazing furnace of fire because of a politically intolerable position–

—they were unwilling to bow their knee to a false god. The fiery furnace of intolerance is ablaze today. It is the furnace facing every person of any generation who would dare to proclaim and stand upon truth. How will we face the heat? The three young Jewish men in Daniel 3 could have reasoned that it would be better to compromise this one time so they would live to serve the Lord another day. After all, it was only an external act that had nothing to do with their heart, right?

As a grandfather, my grandchildren need to know that I will not bow my knee to the idols of the world in order to avoid some painful consequence. To do so is to lose the battle for good. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego understood that victory was theirs no matter what might happen because they only bowed their knee to God, the Creator of heaven and earth. If they died, they gained a crown. If God spared them, God gets the glory. Either way, they were victorious. It’s a lie to believe that compromise gains anything but defeat. Even as they stood and watched the heat being turned up, they knew they were in a win-win situation.

What are your grandchildren learning from your life about integrity and unshakable faith when the heat is turned up? As an unbeliever, Charles Krauthammer wrote his article almost thirteen years ago. Today, the furnace of intolerance about which he spoke is being stoked hotter than ever before. Will your grandchildren, like King Nebuchadnezzar, see the greatness and glory of God displayed in your life because you faced the heat confident in God’s salvation, or will they simply say, “it’s all hypocrisy”? The furnace is blazing…but God is with us. So, together let’s face the heat.

GRANDPAUSE: “Only by desertion can we be defeated. With Christ and for Christ victory is certain. We can lose the victory by flight but not by death.” –Bernard of Clairvaux