Wednesday, 25 June 2008

• Currently Reading AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND (Barbour Christian Classics) By George MacDonald see related

  Is Jesus the Only Way?

  "I believe in preaching to the converted;
  for I have generally found
  that the converted do not understand their own religion."
  --G.K. Chesterton, Tremendous Trifles

  If you saw the news in the past couple of days, and if you have any interest in religion, most likely you saw the report of the largest recent survey on the religious beliefs of Americans.  No fewer than 35,000 people were interviewed for the survey, which means that the statistics are about as accurate as they will ever get.  Thanks to the Pew Forum for the legwork.  (Here is a link to the source, for those interested.) 

  I was not surprised to learn that the majority of Americans think that there are many true paths to God.  This is a pluralistic nation, after all. 

  What surprised me was that the majority of Christians would agree with them.

  66% of all Protestants, 79% of Catholics, and 72% of Orthodox believers said they agreed with the statement "Many religions can lead to eternal life."  Even among Evangelical Protestants, supposedly so conservative in their theology, a clear majority (57%) agreed that their religion is not the only way to salvation.  The only self-identified Christian groups whose majority would disagree?  Mormons (39% agreed) and Jehovah's Witnesses (a mere 19%).  Go figure. 

  Why is this a surprising issue?  Christianity is founded on this guy--hopefully you've heard of Him--by the name of Jesus of Nazareth.  Among His many teachings recorded for us, we find this statement:

  "I am the way, and the truth, and the life.
  No one comes to the Father except through me." 
  --John 14:6

  That doesn't strike me as figurative or even especially complicated language.  Most of the words are one syllable.  It's not that there's a clarity issue here, or that this sentence is open to all that many interpretations.  Jesus said that He was the only way to the Father.  Not a very popular message in a pluralistic society, perhaps, but there you have it.

  Why would somebody make a statement like that?  I can think of only three possible explanations:

  1. He was an arrogant, prejudiced egomaniac who wanted to use religion to control people's lives.
  2. He was naive and didn't know about all the other alternative religions out there.
  3. He genuinely had something to offer that no other religious system had to offer, and it works in a way that no other religious system works.

  The first one is indeed true of a lot of cult leaders and spiritually abusive types, who try to manipulate their followers by telling them that if they leave their little group, they will be eternally condemned.   All the evidence shows that groups like that are not healthy, from a spiritual, emotional, or even mental standpoint.  However, can anyone seriously read the Gospels and think that the character of the Man presented there is anything remotely like that of a David Koresh or a Jim Jones?  If so, I deeply pity you.  If not, we have to dispose of the first possibility.

  The second option is that Jesus was speaking out of ignorance; if He had broadened his mind more, He would have known that there were other possible ways to God.  That won't do for Christians, of course: who wants to trust their eternal destiny to a man who can't even be trusted on simple facts?  For non-Christians, consider this: A naive person might say, "My way is the only right way."  Jesus said, "I am the way."  A person can be naive about what they believe, but being that wrong about who you believe you are is not naivete but insanity.  Again, does the Jesus of the Gospels seriously strike you as clinically insane?  I've talked to insane people, and even to people who thought they were God or Jesus or something.  Not one of them talked remotely like Jesus did.

  So the question then is, what did Jesus offer (if anything) that no other religious system offers?

  When you think about it, most religions really do have a lot in common, especially when it comes to ethics and morality.  I've even seen writings from atheists and other completely irreligious people stressing the importance of moral living.  The ethical system they all put forward (religious or otherwise) is in all its essentials the same as the one your mother taught you: "Don't cheat.  Don't steal.  Be honest. Talk respectfully to your parents. Treat others nicely."  People in any church or synagogue or mosque or temple would agree with that, though they tend to put it in more sophisticated language. 

  So in that sense, all religions really are the same, and you stand an equal chance for salvation in any of them.  Find an ethical or moral system that works for you, and stick with it.  Try your darndest to live up to it, and the best of luck to you. 

  Because as soon as you make a serious concerted effort to live morally according to your system of choice, you're in for an unpleasant surprise:

  You can't.

  By "you" here, I'm referring of course to myself, because I know that's true from my own experience.  But I have a shrewd guess that it's true of the rest of you as well.  If you don't think so, feel free to try to prove me wrong.  Pick out whatever serious ethical or religious system you like, and keep a detailed journal of how well you perform for six months. 

  But remember, the least little slip-up shows a fault with the whole arrangement.  If you slip up, it shows that there is a problem not with the rules but with the person trying to keep them.  Ethics are all fine and good, but if you can't keep them, adding or changing the rules won't help.  Memorizing and trying to follow all the rules of swimming won't do you any good if your problem is that you have a tendency to sink.  If you sink just once, you could drown.  In that case, you don't need a rulebook: You need a lifeguard.

  See, God (any God worth believing in) is 100% morally perfect.  So if you want to get to God, you have to meet that standard.  One little slip on a tightrope means your balance isn't perfect anymore.  One little crack means your window isn't perfect anymore.  One little cramp means your swimming isn't perfect anymore.  One little drop of poison means your water isn't pure anymore.  And one little slip-up on the ethical system means you're not a moral person anymore.  If you're not a moral person, so much for your hope of getting to God.

  But (to go back to my lifeguard illustration) the great thing about lifeguards is that they say, "You can't swim here when you need to, but I can.  I'll help you and do the swimming for you."  When you're going under, that's exactly what you want to hear.  There's all the difference in the world, of course, between knowing there's a lifeguard up there somewhere and knowing there's someone who's coming to rescue you.  Once that person rescues you, you have a special relationship with them: They're not just a lifeguard, they're your rescuer.  Your savior.

  That's why Jesus puts the emphasis not on His ethics (although He preached ethics better than anyone), but on Himself.  What you need is not more rules, but someone to help you follow the rules, and to save you from the terrible results that would otherwise happen when you inevitably broke the rules. 

  "But why couldn't God just forgive us?" you say?  Well, the answer is that He did, but when you forgive someone's debt, you're left owing the balance.  "The wages of sin is death," according to Scripture, so somehow God had to die in our place, or the balance would be off.  By coming to earth and dying on the cross, Jesus paid the penalty we deserved so the books could be cleared.  (I wrote about this in more detail here.) 

  That's a message that no other religion offers.  The only one who offers to do it is Jesus.  If that's something you want, then there's only one person to get it from.

  All you have to do is accept that He did it for you.  He did it for you because He loves you. 

  If this is the first time you've heard something like this, I encourage you to watch or read the presentation at Yours For Life, which puts it as clearly as anything I've seen. 

  If you know this already, find somebody else and talk to them about it.  And remember, that person might very well be sitting next to you in church.

  If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.

  Actually, I have a question myself.  There was one other other really surprising revelation on that survey of religion:

  21% of people who identify themselves atheists say they believe God exists.

  6% of atheists even say they believe in the existence of a personal God.

  I guess Christians aren't the only converted people who could use a bit of doctrinal clarification.

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