Is Jesus the only way?

1. Is Jesus the only way?

2. So when we are hunting for clues on this topic….

3. Is Jesus the ONLY way? • What does Jesus say? • What about the view that all religions see part of the whole truth? • If Jesus is the only way, then everyone else is in trouble. How can this be? Isn’t God loving?

4. To look at this complex issue we need some power

5. So I googled the topic and found a good sermon. • From Anglican Church in Santa Barbara. The Rev. Rob Kemp has served as the vicar for Church Of Our Savior since 2007. • So I am going to quote from a sermon he gave for the 1st two points.

6. 1) What does Jesus say: • … "Does Christianity make an exclusive claim to truth?" Yes, it does and the claim is succinctly found in John 14:6 when Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me." The exclusive truth claim of Christianity is that truth is found only in the person of Jesus Christ. We may summarize the truth of Jesus in this phrase, Jesus, the crucified and risen Messiah is Lord. That means that any religion that does not affirm that Jesus came in the flesh, that he was crucified for our sins, that he was resurrected on the third day, that he is our Messiah and Savior and that he is the son of God and Lord of all creation, is wrong. The exclusivity of Christianity does not and should not lead to oppression and violence for in the exclusive Christian truth we see Jesus dying for his enemies, we see Jesus praying for those who crucified him, we see Jesus accepting and forgiving all sorts people regardless of their ethnicity, economic status, gender and social status. The exclusive truth of Christianity should foster and create a forgiving, merciful and inclusive community.

7. We should not be fighting..

8. For example, The Roman World was a pluralistic world, just like our world today. The Romans believed in many gods and they detested exclusive religious truth claims. However, the pluralistic Roman society despised the poor, oppressed women, encouraged economic inequality and enjoyed persecuting exclusive Christians who would only worship Jesus. While the exclusive truth of Christianity created a church that cared for the all those in poverty -- Christian or non-Christian, welcomed women and broke down economic class distinction. Why? Why would an exclusive truth create an inclusive religion? Because the Christian truth claim is about Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen Lord. • Throughout history religions have used claims of exclusive truth to promote hatred, violence and oppression. However, the answer is not to get rid of exclusive truth, for nobody can escape from making such a claim. The answer is to find to right truth, an exclusive truth that fosters a loving, peaceful, forgiving and inclusive community. The exclusive truth of Christianity that truth is only found in Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen Lord and it is the only truth powerful enough to save the world and create a world of peace, love and forgiveness. The problems of this world are not caused by claims of exclusive truth, they are caused by people believing in the wrong truth. Therefore, we must not flee from truth, but run to Jesus for only in him can truth be an agent of peace and forgiveness.

9. 2) "Does all religious truth, therefore, flow from one river making all religions equal?" • Since exclusive claims to truth have promoted hatred, violence and oppression, many people believe religions only option is to claim partial knowledge of the truth. They argue "each religion sees part of spiritual truth, but none can see the whole truth."5 This assertion has a traditional illustration that I am sure we have all heard, the story of the blind men and the elephant. The illustration goes: • Once upon a time three blind men were walking along and came upon an elephant. One blind man grabbed the elephants trunk and said, 'Elephants are bendable and long!' Another blind man grabbed a tusk and said, 'Elephants are hard and sharp!' The last blind man grabbed a leg and said, 'Elephants are thick and firm!'" • The moral of the story is that each blind man is both right in what they affirm and wrong in what they don't affirm and in order to understand what an elephant really is, they need to combine their truths. This is a very powerful illustration having the appearance of deep piety and humility but …….6

10. With this example, there is a disagreement.

11. In small groups, • Using the story about the three blind men & the elephant: • 1) What is appealing about the story? • 2) What does the story say about Jesus? • 3) What does the story say about the person telling the story?

12. Moving to the attack!

13. Three reasons why the elephant example is untrue. • 1) It assumes the author is ‘smarter’ than all religious people who have ever lived. • 2) It claims an exclusive truth as much as any religion. • 3) It assumes unprovable assertions, that I believe to be false.

14. 1) The author is smarter than all religious people---- ever. • This is a very powerful illustration having the appearance of deep piety and humility but Leslie Newbigin, who heard this story numerous times as a Missionary in India, said this: • There is an appearance of humility in the protestation that the truth is much greater than any one of us can grasp, but if this is used to invalidate all claims to discern the truth it is in fact an arrogant claim to a kind of knowledge which is superior to [all others]...We have to ask: 'What is the vantage ground from which you claim to be able to relative all the absolute claims these different scripture make?"

15. Question: How do you know there is an elephant?

16. 2)The claim that no religion has the whole truth is a whole truth claim. • The claim that no religion sees the whole truth, but only a part of the truth is itself an exclusive truth claim. You can only claim blind men see a part of an elephant if you yourself see the whole elephant. In order for this illustration to work, the story has to say, "Three blind men were walking one day. One ran into something long and flexible. One ran into something hard and sharp. One ran into something stocky and firm." [What is it?] • As Keller asks, "How can you possibly know that no religion can see the whole truth unless you have the superior, comprehensive knowledge of spiritual reality you just claimed that none of the religions have?"7 The inconsistency of this illustration shows us something profound: everybody, no matter what their creed or anti-creed has a set of exclusive beliefs.

17. When seen in this light, the illustration is an exclusive religion.

18. 3) It also makes faith assumptions. • Tim Keller writes: • [T]he fatal flaw in the approach to religion in general and to Christianity in particular should be obvious. Skeptics believe that any exclusive claims to a superior knowledge of spiritual reality cannot be true. But this objection is itself a religious belief. It assumes God is unknowable, or that God is loving but not wrathful, or that God is an impersonal force rather than a person who speaks in Scripture. All of these are unprovable faith assumptions. In addition, their proponents believe they have a superior way to view things. They believe the world would be a better place if everyone dropped the traditional religions' view of God and truth and adopted their. Therefore, their view is also an 'exclusive' claim about the nature of spiritual reality. If all such views are to be discouraged, this one should be as well. If it is not narrow to hold this view, then there is nothing inherently narrow about holding to traditional religious beliefs.8 • The problem, therefore, is not exclusive claims to truth, for everybody has one. The problem is what those truth claims are.

19. So you see that the elephant story • 1) Makes a claim of truth that is greater than all religions and all religious people ever to live. • 2) Is a exclusive faith argument. • 3) Makes assumptions about God that in my view are false.

20. Oh Yeah. …

21. 3) If God is loving, why do we HAVE to have Christ? • There is the argument, mainly from those who are more on the ‘open’ side: “Would God really turn my friends away at heaven’s gate because their names are Moses, Mohammad, Krishna, or Joji? I have trouble with this. I have trouble because I have come to understand God as a benevolent creator who calls to love one another; in short, that God is a god of peace. “

22. I am going to shoot down this argument.

23. Revelation 6 •  12 I watched as the Lamb broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake. The sun became as dark as black cloth, and the moon became as red as blood. 13 Then the stars of the sky fell to the earth like green figs falling from a tree shaken by a strong wind. 14 The sky was rolled up like a scroll, and all of the mountains and islands were moved from their places. •    15 Then everyone—the kings of the earth, the rulers, the generals, the wealthy, the powerful, and every slave and free person—all hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. 16 And they cried to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. 17 For the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to survive?”

24. For example, if your parents are away and you do something that will anger your parents ….. • And when your parents come home do you: • 1) Stand out like a sore thumb and be completely honest about all that you have done wrong. • Or 2) You be as quiet as a mouse and hope no-one notices? (Homework all of a sudden looks appealing).

25. So hiding is a natural reaction.

26. So in facing an all knowing and all powerful God under these conditions: • Naked • With God knowing ALL your actions of your life (think video replay of your life) • With Gold knowing ALL your thoughts of your entire life (think video replay) How are you going to feel?

27. Revelation 6 •   9 After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands……….. • 13 Then one of the twenty-four elders asked me, “Who are these who are clothed in white? Where did they come from?” •    14 And I said to him, “Sir, you are the one who knows.” •    Then he said to me, “These are the ones who died in the great tribulation. They have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb and made them white.

28. If God is loving, why does God require us to have Christ? • To me the question is different: • How can you stand before God all alone and naked? • Or do WE require the robes that have been washed with Christ’s blood. • Thus, WE require Christ, not God. Christ did not come to the planet to make rules or requirements, but for us to be able to be with God. He is our savior; Not God’s hurdle.

29. We want to be heroes, but we have problems.

30. To Summarize this section • Standing in the presence of God is not easy. • The idea that a human can do so without any help is pretty arrogant. • Christ gives us the robe of Salvation to stand before God.

31. Is Jesus the ONLY way? • What does Jesus say? • What about the view that all religions see part of the whole truth? • If Jesus is the only way, then everyone else is in trouble. How can this be? Isn’t God loving?

32. John 16 • 13 -15"No one has ever gone up into the presence of God except the One who came down from that Presence, the Son of Man. In the same way that Moses lifted the serpent in the desert so people could have something to see and then believe, it is necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up—and everyone who looks up to him, trusting and expectant, will gain a real life, eternal life. •    16 -18"This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him. •    19 -21"This is the crisis we're in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God. Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won't come near it, fearing a painful exposure. But anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is."

33. Acts 4 •    1 While Peter and John were speaking to the people, they were confronted by the priests, the captain of the Temple guard, and some of the Sadducees. 2 These leaders were very disturbed that Peter and John were teaching the people that through Jesus there is a resurrection of the dead. 3 They arrested them and, since it was already evening, put them in jail until morning. 4 But many of the people who heard their message believed it, so the number of believers now totaled about 5,000 men, not counting women and children.[a] •    5 The next day the council of all the rulers and elders and teachers of religious law met in Jerusalem. 6 Annas the high priest was there, along with Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and other relatives of the high priest. 7 They brought in the two disciples and demanded, “By what power, or in whose name, have you done this?” •    8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of our people, 9 are we being questioned today because we’ve done a good deed for a crippled man? Do you want to know how he was healed? 10 Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene,[b] the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead. 11 For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says, •    ‘The stone that you builders rejected      has now become the cornerstone.’[c] •    12 There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”