Archive for: religion
People often ask, “How could there be just one religion? Is it arrogant to say that your religion is superior and people can only come to God through your religion? Everything else is null and void.”
First of all, no religion is better than the foundation on which it rests. Christianity stands or falls on the empty tomb. If the empty tomb is true, then what Christ said is true. If the empty tomb is not true, what Christ said doesn’t matter. He said in John 14:6, “ I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Therefore, the empty tomb, which is the proof that He is who He said He is, has to be studied.
While visiting in the Mormon’s visitor’s center in Salt Lake City I met a pilot who was acting as a guide. I said to him, “What would you say is the one thing on which your religion, Mormonism, stands or falls?” He answered, “I’d have to say Joseph Smith.” I then explained to him that he had more courage than I do. He wanted to know what I meant and I continued, saying, “I understand you’re a pilot. I fly enough to know that pilots are extremely smart people. It amazes me that you’re willing to put everything – your hope, your future, your eternity – on someone you have no proof ever came up from the grave. If you did, you’re okay. If he didn’t, you couldn’t be worse.” I don’t think I’ll ever forget his comment. He answered, “I guess I never thought about that.” Once again, no religion is any better than the foundation on which it stands or falls.
Some feel to claim that there is only one way to God is most arrogant. I would agree that it could easily be perceived that way. Arrogance is not always wrong though. For example, I do a tremendous amount of flying. I’ve found that airplane pilots are most arrogant. Never once in more than 37 years have they ever let me fly the plane. They seem to think they can fly it better than I can. They’ve never offered that privilege to anyone on the flight. Quite frankly, I’m glad they didn’t. Arrogance can sometimes be a good thing. If you know the truth and it’s a matter of life or death, you ought to be arrogant about it. I’m using arrogance in the sense, of course, not of pride, but of conviction.
Two words often used are, “True religion”. It’s worth asking, what’s true religion and what’s false religion? What has a basis and what has no basis?
Pluralism is doing quite well while Christianity seems to be feeling a little ill.
A couple of weeks ago I touched on the spread of mainstream populist tolerance for Islamic law and the potential effects on Christianity in the public forum. Evidence of the complete breakdown of orthodox Christian doctrine in American life is, of course, everywhere. However, it is interesting to note that even within the ranks of those who would state that they believe Jesus’ claim to be The Way, The Truth, and The Life, many also believe that Christ does not have a monopoly on the concept.
In a recent survey of 35,000 adults, a full 57% of “evangelical church attenders” believe that the teaching of other religions can also lead to eternal life. It’s important to avoid a clever play on words—implying that yes, although everyone has eternal life we won’t all be enjoying it—because I don’t think that’s what they had in mind.
The following percentages may not be as surprising, but are nevertheless of concern:
“Nearly across the board, the majority of religious Americans believe many religions can lead to eternal life: mainline Protestants (83 percent), members of historic black Protestant churches (59 percent), Roman Catholics (79 percent), Jews (82 percent) and Muslims (56 percent).”
It is interesting to note that the smallest percentage belongs to the Muslim group—once again; the commitment to their religion should make us look inward.
Furthermore, and perhaps even more interesting,“Another finding almost defies explanation: 21 percent of self-identified atheists said they believe in God or a universal spirit, with 8 percent “absolutely certain” of it.”
WOW—isn’t that telling? So do not give up on those atheist friends of yours—most of their talk is defensiveness and insecurity anyway.
“The survey shows religion in America is, indeed, 3,000 miles wide and only three inches deep,” said D. Michael Lindsay, a Rice University sociologist of religion. “There’s a growing pluralistic impulse toward tolerance and that is having theological consequences,” he said.
The consequence, or perhaps the cause, is that Americans jump from one belief to another. There is a lack of commitment to their faith and an avoidance of the deep waters of theology where one can truly grow roots and therefore grow strong in their convictions. Without convictions, no one stands on principals—when it comes to anything. Therefore, they are easily swayed—the first clever orator to come along captures their attention, and soon their lives.
Denver Roman Catholic Archbishop Charles Chaput offered a quote which I believe applies to all in the Christian faith:
“Being Catholic means believing what the Catholic church teaches. It is a communion of faith, not simply of ancestry and family tradition. It also means that the church ought to work harder at evangelizing its own members.”
We should all work harder at evangelizing our own members—an often overlooked field ready for the harvest and sometimes desperate to be fed the truth—as painful and exclusionary as it may be. That Jesus is The Way, The Truth and The Life and NO ONE can go to the Father except through the Son.
-AJ Rinaldi
The Associated Press on Monday, June 23, 2008, released a statement that caught the attention of millions, Christians and non-Christians alike. The statement read, “Among the most startling numbers in the survey conducted last year by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life: 57% of evangelical church attendees said they believe many religions can lead to eternal life, in conflict with traditional evangelical teaching.”
Once again, the issue comes back to a very simple question. Is Jesus Christ the One He said He was? If He was, the evangelical church attendees could not be more wrong. If He wasn’t, anything evangelical church attendees say has as much authority and credibility as what He said.
He declared, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:26). If He was indeed the Son of God and the only one who can extend eternal life, then there is no other way to God except through Him. If He wasn’t the Son of God, what He said about being the only way to God is of no value whatsoever.
How do we know if He was who He said He was? The issue is bigger than the Bible. It’s the resurrection and the empty tomb the third day. That is the issue on which everything Christ said stand or falls. The Bible declares itself ot be the Word of God, without error or mistake (II Timothy 3:16, II Peter 1:20, 21). But the proof behind the empty tomb is far wider than the Bible. In fact the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most attested fact of history. Thomas Arnold, who was author of a three volume history of Rome and appointed to the Chair of Modern History of Oxford said, “I know of no one fact in the history of mankind which is proved by letter and fuller evidence of every sort to the understanding of a fair inquirer than that Christ died and rose again from the dead.”
Therefore, before anyone, anywhere can say, “There are many religions that can lead to eternal life,” they must disprove the empty tomb of Christ. So far, nobody has. In fact, I personally do know of one person who objectively studied the evidence behind the empty tomb that did not become a believer. That means they came to God as sinners, recognized Jesus Christ paid for their sins on a cross and rose again, and trusted Christ alone as their only way to heaven.
My recent trip to Israel coincided with the 60th anniversary of Israel’s statehood. In the scope of the number of years that God’s chosen have lived in the land, 60 years is a blip. But what a 60-year span it has been — a successful re-start that we can study to see God’s hand at work. Our Jewish cousins, upon whose Biblical foundation we stand, have succeeded in reclaiming a land, a people, and a dream.
It was great to celebrate the miraculous convergence of events and courage that resulted in the declaration of Israel’s statehood in 1948. The pioneers who came to the new state from the dispersion around the world even before statehood were persistent in the most difficult circumstances, buying land from Turkey that everyone thought was worthless and making it bloom. The hardy hopeful who were trying to create agriculture on top of limestone and desert had such physical and engineering challenges that we can hardly imagine them. The ink had not dried on their declaration of statehood before folk were taking up arms against them.
Over the last sixty years a testament to the sheer determination of free people has happened in the land of Israel. Only this country, in the history of all countries, has been able to successfully integrate millions of folk who did not know the language, arrived with nothing, and had limited future prospects because they had fled for their lives to reach their homeland. Many were highly educated, but poor. Some were secular, Jewish in heritage but not religion, some were tied to Jewish religious tradition through generations, some were Arabs who lived in the area declared to be Israel and who still live there – citizens in exactly the same way their Jewish neighbors are citizens. So many were coming, coming in waves, rescued, airlifted, willing to suffer passage in boats too small – it was an amazing migration. None of the effort really mattered to them – they were all coming home, going “up to Jerusalem.”
They had survived the worst that mankind could throw at other human beings. While almost the entire world sat in deadly silence they died in the Holocaust. When the world waked up and came to their assistance a generation of Europe’s fine Jewish heritage had perished. Every Christian owes every Jewish person an apology for the depth of suffering supported by our sins of omission. We all need to look at their subsequent “resurrection” as a nation and thank God for His mercy, His provision, and His grace. The Western world’s laws, religious heritage, culture, flowed out of their history into our daily lives.
Guest Blog by: Mary Margaret Gibson
Read State Legislators Seek Bills to Allow Questioning of Evolution Theory in Schools.
Well, I am sure the debate concerning the harassing nature of neo-Darwinists and evolutionary scientists will begin to heat up. I don’t know if Expelled: The Movie had anything to do with raising awareness of the real issue—freedom of academic inquiry—but it is exciting to see this boil up in the public sector.
Be sure to check back or subscribe to this site. Over the next few weeks I will be posting some guidelines to help identify common logical fallacies used not in the arguments for or against evolution, but in the way neo-Darwinists and evolutionists attack anyone that doesn’t agree with them. It is very interesting to see how people who claim to be rational thinkers turn so irrational in their reasoning when the position they hold so closely (like a religion?) is threatened. You will not want to miss it.
