The First Ranting on This Blog

I know most people don't want to hear me banter on, but I had a topic that I felt I needed to address from a pastoral point of view. Since this is my forum for such things, I believe I shall. I apologize that it is long, but I thought I'd take a stab at an answer to the question. Maybe I'll fail, but don't hate me for it, please. :-)

I often times will read the blogs of others, and it's always amusing when I come across the religious musings of another person. Sometimes they are insightful, but other times they make me think.

Today, I stumbled across a person who was discussing how Christians can claim they have the market cornered on truth. They wandered how it is that Christians can claim that their religion is the only way to heaven. After all, isn't religion man-made? So how can it be fair that a person like Gandhi would go to hell by Christian understanding when He exhibited Christ like character better than many Christians?

The problem with such debates is that it misunderstands several things. First, Christians didn't "invent" their religion. The earliest Christians took their religious understandings from Judaism. Judaism has a strong oral tradition by which the encounters between God and His people were passed down, and eventually written down (I would argue at first by Moses, but other scholars seem to think that unlikely, but all the same they were written down). The Old Testament is a recollection of God's encounters with His people, His chosen people. They, we are told, knew and worshipped the true God.

So if Christians get this concept from anywhere, it is from their roots in Judaism. The earliest Christians witnessed the coming of the man Jesus, who they believed to be the Christ, the Son of the True and Living God. Jesus testified that He was who they believed Him to be, but many of God's chosen people did not believe Him because He was not the Messiah (Greek = Christ) who they believed He should be (i.e. they expected a political conquerer who would free them from the tyrrany of the Romans, and not a suffering servant who would conquer sin and death - an even bigger problem). And this presented the religious leaders with many problems. And this is why they sought His death. But it wasn't completely their fault - after all, He came willingly with the purpose to die for the sins of all mankind and redeem God's people, which makes it our fault too in a way...but that's getting off the beaten path.

Nonetheless, many of the writers of the New Testament witnessed not only the earthly life of Christ, but in some way particularly, they witnessed the Risen Christ. Others recorded it first-hand from someone who did. These people who witnessed the Risen Christ are called Apostles (and Paul qualifies as one because He witnessed the Risen Christ in a vision on the Damascus Road). The Scriptures are their testimony to this, and they make that clear (for instance, see 2 Peter 1:16-21). And the Scriptures, and therefore the basic teachings of Christianity are not man-made; they are divinely inspired. Peter tells us this in 2 Peter 1:20-21, "...knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."

That being said, Christianity at its very core, is not a man-made religion. It is a testimony to what these Apostles saw and testify to. It is a faith based on eyewitness testimony, which means you have to take it for what it is worth. I won't try to prove Christianity true or their testimony true, because beside the fact that I am not able to do that, doing so would undermine the whole concept of trust and having faith in God, the basis by which man receives the grace and salvation of God. Now, as for it being the only way, while it may seem unfair to us that God would do such at thing, the reality is that if God is real and is Sovereign (meaning He has power and dominion over all things), then does he not have the right to determine what is just and true? And thus would not truth be what God decrees as true and real?

I know I'm skipping a lot of other questions that need to be answered, but follow me here on this: If, even hypothetically, God has this power, does He not have the right to determine what is right, true and good? And if God is the absolute standard of truth because He created it in the first place, and He chose to reveal who He truly is in some way, His revelation would thus be the truth, correct?

Well, this is what Christians claim Jesus came to do. As God incarnate (in human form), He came to reveal who God is and the way that man can know God. And this is what the Apostles are telling us in Scripture. So what does Jesus say? In John 14:6-7, He is quoted as saying, " 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.' " (and this whole passage is a demonstration the Jesus is God, and thus a revelation of who He is. Not only so, but it means He has the authority as God to tell men how they may truly know Him). And there are several other places where Christ seems to claim His power as judge of the world or shows some exclusivity to coming to God, such as Matthew 7:21-23 (where He says not everyone who calls him "Lord" will be saved), Matthew 7:13-14 (the Narrow Gate), or Luke 13:22-30 (when someone asks if few will be saved, He doesn't just answer yes or no, he says to strive to enter through the narrow door, which He says few will really find).

Further, the Apostle Peter testifies to this in his speech, recorded by Luke in Acts 4:10-12: " 'Let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead--by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.' " And I could go on, but I think I've made my point on that matter.

So what does all this mean? Well, first it means we humans do not know what happens between God and people, so we shouldn't venture to guess where they went in the after life. I don't know where Gandhi ended up, and I would never say where a person ended up after death, because I plain don't know. But perhaps God saves more than we think - if so, wonderful and that's His choice. But from what He tells us, (and my belief is that since this is a part of God's revelation of Himself to us, He will be consistent) He is the way to salvation (and that through faith in Jesus Christ).

And yes, people will still disagree and even complain about that; and they can do that because it is their choice. But remember that it is a part of sinful human nature to complain about God's way of doing things. The Israelites complained about the manna in the desert, but at least God provided for them. And He wasn't happy with them when they did and showed His judgment. They complained that He delivered them out of Egypt to "die in the desert," when it was their sin after the fact that caused this, and they weren't happy in Egypt. God once again punished them for this. The Pharisees complained because Jesus wasn't the Messiah they wanted, but they missed the only Messiah they were ever going to get. And I know this is a stupid analogy, but I know I complain a lot about not finding a girlfriend yet and although God doesn't show His judgement on me (for a good reason - but not in the current scope of this post), He probably is not happy when I don't trust that He will work things out in His time and in His way.

But that is the point: if God is God, and He is sovereign over the whole universe, what right do we mere mortals have to complain about His way of doing things? Will He change the course of human history because we say He should? The problem is also that God has provided us with a means of coming to Him. It isn't man-made. It's God. He blessed us by sending His Son to die for us and rise from the dead, that we might have forgiveness and eternal life. As Paul tells us in Romans 10:9-13,"...if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, 'Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.' For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For 'everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'"

God went to such great lengths for us, and makes salvation open to all people. And we complain about His method? To do so unfortunately shows a deficient understanding of the nature of God, sin, fallen humanity, faith and grace. Well, I've rambled on long enough. But I will leave on this thought. Jesus says in Luke 9:62, "'No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.'" In other words, unless we are willing to put faith in and service to Christ above all else, we will never be able to follow Him. After all, as He says elsewhere (recorded twice - Matt. 6:24 and Luke 16:13), " 'No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. ' "

My aim here is not to prove Christianity true or to destroy others in the process. I have love and respect for all human beings (at least I try - I'll regretfully admit I don't succeed at this). But I felt the need to clear up some misunderstandings about Christianity which are out there, and to hopefully show some justification for why Christians claim exclusivity (even though I do think Christians often don't handle when approaching and working in the world with others of different faiths). In the end, I probably didn't succeed in what I set out to do, and maybe made some people mad. That was not my intent if I did.

My true intent is to see that all people I come in contact with experience the grace, love and mercy of Jesus Christ in my thoughts, words, attitudes and deeds. No I don't always succeed at this, but it is my life's goal to do this: to be more and more like Christ every day. So instead of seeing Christians (and ultimately God) as being mean for not letting all people in, I would implore that we should perhaps look at the whole problem from another angle. God tells us in His word that He offers salvation through Jesus Christ to all people, no matter who you are, what you've done, where you've been, or how many times you've screwed up in life. To all who simply trust and place their faith in Him for salvation, He offers it to them. The question is do we take it or do we not? And that's the real question every man and woman must ask himself or herself.