Tuesday, June 24, 2008
57% of Evangelical Christians Say Christ is NOT the Only Way?
I read this disturbing article today at OneNewsNow.com: http://www.onenewsnow.com/Church/Default.aspx?id=150084
It says that 70% of Americans with a religious affiliation and even more startling, 57% of so-called evangelical Christians, believe that many religions can lead to eternal life. I only hope there was confusion in this poll, and that perhaps they thought it meant denominations, rather than religions. But then again, 68% of Americans said there was more than one true way to interpret the teachings of their own religion. More than one truth? And sadly only 14% cite religious beliefs as the main influence on their political thinking. Do they consider "religious beliefs" to be the teaching of the Bible, the Word of God? How can any true Christian who makes Jesus his Savior and Lord of his life not be influenced by Jesus's teaching in all aspects of his life?
This article pushes a hot button for me because I struggle with it among loved ones. Jesus said in His own words that He was the only way to eternal life, so you either believe Him or you believe He was a liar or a madman. Oh, but what I hear is that perhaps the Bible is not the inspired inerrant Word of God. Maybe some of it has been misinterpreted by flawed man who transcribed it. That argument isn't reasonable and just doesn't hold up on so many levels! For one, what other book in the history of the world has been scrutinized more for the purpose of disproving it than the Bible? And it has stood the test of time! For another, we know Jesus claimed to be God and taught His disciples and followers that He was the only way because that is what His disciples reported and taught! If they didn't actually believe what we read from them in the Bible and were misquoted, they certainly wouldn't have died for those beliefs! In that way, we can prove they meant what the Bible says they said. And I certainly don't find it a stretch of the imagination to believe that the all-powerful Creator God of the universe could preserve His word as He wanted us to read it. I am very sad for people who will not take the time to read God's Word and see for themselves that it is trustworthy. He is trustworthy! And those who do not take Him at His Word are deceived.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
I wanted to comment more on your words, as you have not recieved many comments and I believe you deserve them.
I will admit that I am not nearly as conservative as yourself. I was raised as a pastor's son, and learned the Bible was the one way - and the only way. As I grew, I began to make friends and have come to love and care for friends that are both Muslim and Buddhist! It was tough, for me, growing up because in my heart I knew that though they were good people destined for a great future with happy children, my religion taught that Jesus was the only way to live eternally in Heaven.
I have grown older and wiser in many ways, and have read and learned about my friend's religions just as they were taught. They differ in many ways but one: love is the all-consuming message. I can see why it is so difficult for these broader-minded individuals to justify that there are more ways to get to Heaven than just one.
Now, I know you are not going to agree with me here, but consider my words as carefully as you would an issue with the life of an unborn child. Does it not stand to reason that just under 2,000 years ago, Jesus existed in the minds of of, as far as the entire world was concerned, only a few million individuals?
Meanwhile, in China, Buddhism arose teaching ideals of ethics and altruism... In the Americas, many Natives came to believe in one great God and an evil "god" that caused bad things to happen such as storms and death. The Incas followed a socialist ideal with the one God that was greatest of them all (the Sun god) and many underneath him (one could see them as angels that were incorrectly worshiped as if they were gods - not saying it's right, just saying)...
The Muslim religion is, despite the fact that Christians, Jews and Muslims alike hate to admit it, based off the Christian and Jewish religions. The Qur'an even goes so far as to accredit Jesus as being a great prophet of God. Muhammad was, in fact, a Christian that was outraged by the idolatry and disobedience to the Jewish and Christian scriptures. The Qur'an quotes the Bible throughout the entire text, as though it were written as a guide for the Bible. Muhammad goes on to give credit to Jesus as being a messenger for God. The common-day Muslims translate this as him simply being a prophet, but at no point does the Qur'an refer to Muhammad as being the Messiah but quite often refers to a son being born of God - the Messiah and saviour to man. It then goes on to speak of Jesus as being that son. It matters little if the Muslims recognize Jesus as the Son of God - it was written as so by Muhammad and as far as the book goes, much like our own Bible, Jesus is both one of many messengers and the Christ.
This may piss a lot of conservatives off because this would mean that there is another prophet for God, and because it is not in the Bible then we can not credit him with this blessing. As far as I'm concerned, if one lives a good life and spends it fighting for the words that Gods have given us, and writes his own book documenting his thoughts and feelings about how the book should be read... then he is a good man bound for Heaven. It isn't his fault that a roving set of lunatics decided to take his words and twist them into something to fighting the Christians about. The Qur'an was created with good in mind just as all other religions were created to glorify some God...
Who are we to say that these are idols created to blasphem God? Can they not be the same God? I don't know, and maybe I'll burn in a deep, dark pit of Hell for thinking it but I like to think that my friends, who love their families and love the God they serve, are worshiping the same God I know and love.
Besides, it's not my place to decide no matter what the preacher says every Sunday. My place on this earth is to speak words to those that do not know goodness in their hearts.
There is one thing I want to clarify: I'm not quite sure when you speak of conservatives if you mean political conservatives or religious conservatives. I think of myself as Christian first, a follower of Christ. It so happens that Biblical views are considered conservative in this day and age. But I think of myself as Christian first, then conservative...not even so much Republican, but their platform comes closest to Biblical values. I could never call myself a Democrat; I could never align myself with so wicked a platform. I understand that people once could, but it seems very ungodly for me to do so now.
But anyway, I accept the Bible as the true infallible Word of God, and I have to take Jesus's word that He is the ONLY way to God. He said He would be the stumbling block in our time. People can accept "God" because He can be Mohammed's God or Oprah's God or whatever God suits them best, but Jesus is just too exclusive. I KNOW that the Bible is TRUE. I know my God is big enough to have been able to preserve His word through the ages, whether or not there were human hands translating it or not. I have no doubt that He left us with a perfect guide. There was a time in my life when I thought I could pick and choose the parts of the Bible I thought were true and let others go as parables or whatever. But then I came to realize that a person cannot pick and choose the parts of the Bible that feel best to him. Because what I pick won't be exactly what you pick and may be far from what the next guy picks. Then we're in the fix we are now with everyone wise in their own eyes, which is exactly what the Bible predicted. The Bible says God gives true wisdom; the wisdom of man is foolishness. We are told to trust Him and not the traditions of man. What some people can't understand is that no matter how "good" people may appear, they can never be good enough on their own. The Bible says none are good. He says our righteousness is filthy rags. THAT is why Jesus is the only way. The Old Testament and the law proved that man could never be good enough, but God loved His people and provided a way that all men could come to Him, filthy or not. They could be covered by the blood of Jesus, the perfect sacrifice for all sin. Intellectual minds have trouble with that one, for sure! But who can know the mind of God? He is loving and patient and merciful, but He can't abide sin, so He made a way that people could come to Him even in their sin because it was covered.
Please don't get older and wiser in your own eyes! :-) Get wiser in the Bible. I agree with you on the love issue. But remember, even Jesus wasn't always impressed with love alone; He said it was nothing to love those who love you. But if your friends have love, they may well find Jesus. China has the largest fastest growing underground Christian church in the world! I have no doubt that my God is big enough to draw all His children to Him and I know He draws Muslims and Buddhists and traditional Jews all the time!
I realize there have been many prophets, but there is only one Messiah. There are also many false prophets. We are told to test the prophets against the Word. Another confirmation that makes me know the Word is completely true. It is dependable to test anything, anyone, any spirit, anytime. The Bible tells me so. If you are telling me that Muslims recognize Jesus as the son of God and the Messiah, that is well and fine, but they preach a "different" Jesus if He alone is not the only way to God, and the Bible is very specific about those false teachers who come along teaching a different Jesus.
Our place on this earth is to do the will of our Father in Heaven, and His will may manifest itself into different paths for each of us. We are all parts of one body and we all have different spiritual gifts that work together. My tendency is toward prophesy, and I don't mean I see into the future. I mean like the Old Testament prophets or even John the Baptist who proclaimed God's Word and told the people to shape up or experience God's wrath! Sometimes the message might come across too strong or judgmental, but that's the gift He gave me, so I know it serves a purpose. And I keep working on trying to temper it with love! Other people are more merciful and have a softer message, but I believe we all work together. And we are all to do our work in love, and I promise you, it is out of love that I write these things. I know the truth, and I know that one day every knee will bow to the king, but to those that rejected Him, it will be too late then! And my heart honestly goes out to them and so I try to convince them in my way. You are right, I cannot judge the heart, and I don't know "real" Christians, but I know what I've been told in the Word and that is to judge fruits, shun evil, and proclaim Christ.
It is an intense experience to read your words. I watch them for fault and wonder on my own beliefs... I am unsure and untrusting of my feelings towards others getting into Heaven, as I have been lead to have many friends with many different beliefs. I wonder then, if I wish for them to go to Heaven, do these thoughts lead me to corruption?
I guess they do. Despite many of my words, you will find that my heart aches for these people in its tenderness. I spent years of my life pressing them to see my words. I prayed for both wisdom and the strength to understand what it was I needed to say for them to see things my way.
In the end, it was for naught, they continue to believe what they believe and I continue to wonder if it is truly the word of God that gives me strength or just the strong will of my parent's teachings?
I am saddened by these personal reflections. Is it to be that I spend an eternity without my best friends?
Am I forcing myself to believe that they are righteous so that I do not have to toil in the knowledge that they will not be with me forever?
Or is it that this point of view promotes a view of black and white that spoils the point of the world existing at all?
Your words bring about more questions than answers.
I believe with all my heart that the answer for everyone regarding everything is to read the Bible, daily stay in the Word. God says He will draw near to us when we draw near to Him. We also pray, but I think it's important to stay in the Word so that we can know truth. There are many deceiving spirits in the world and even Satan can appear as an angel of light, and we are told to test the spirits to see if they are of God. The way to know God is to study His word, and then we are able to test the spirits by comparing them to His Word, thus being able to judge the fruits because from His Word we know what good fruit is supposed to look like. I believe with all my heart that God will show them what they need if they will only read their Bibles.
Then we pray for them. Read 1 John, Chapter 5. That one gave me confidence lately that God hears those prayers and we read elsewhere it's not His will that any should perish. I have people close to me I pray for and I just have to believe they will come to Him eventually. I have seen many people finally come to the end of themselves and they look to Him and find Him, and most of the time without my help!!! :-)
Wordy, I remembered something else today that I wanted to mention to you. I recall hearing the wonderful testimony of a Jew and how he came to Christ. He never read his Bible; he let his rabbi tell him what it said. He had a friend who kept trying to talk to him about Jesus, but he wasn't interested. His friend would try to show him scriptures, but he didn't believe anything from the New Testament was true. Finally his friend convinced him to just read his Old Testament, HIS Bible, that's all. He did and he read all the prophecies about Jesus, and then he was curious to look at a New Testament, and when he did, he was instantly hooked! Or saved, I guess is a better term for it! :-) I don't know that that would work for Muslims since they don't read any part of "our" Bible, or do they? I really don't know. I've never read the Koran. It was just a thought I had, how God can use just a part of His Word to bring people to truth.
Post a Comment