Is Jesus the only way to God?

Jesus is controversial. Really though. He’s got some beef with those inclusive-loving, everybody-goes-to-heaven lovey-dovey people out there. Here’s a couple quotes from Jesus.

Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. – from Matthew 7

I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. – from John 14

Not exactly your people pleasing Universalist. 

There are three appropriate reactions to these views.

1. Jesus is a lunatic
2. Jesus is a liar
3. Jesus is Lord

In order to determine which to arrive at, we should look at exclusivity itself. It’s not popular and that unpopularity needs to be combated with some cold, hard reason. A Christian using reason isn’t exactly blasphemy; Jesus used logic all the time.

Is an exclusive way allowable?

People in our culture get a little bit peeved at the idea of someone saying “my religion has the exclusive way to heaven.” Despite the fact that many religions do this, it comes across as arrogant and perhaps a defensive mechanism against some inferiority complex. People will proclaim that religion ought not share their exclusive views. They will say one of two things, either all religions are the same or there is no way to know what’s true. Often, they pull on an old Indian parable of some blind men and an elephant.

A bunch of blind men all touching different parts of the same elephant, or God, will each get different perspectives of the exact same elephant. The one touching the trunk will think of the elephant as a snake, the one by a leg – the trunk of a tree, the one by the side – a wall, and so on… 

The problem with this explanation is that the very point that it is trying to demonstrate commits suicide on itself as soon as the story begins. The point is “no one can have a view of the elephant or God that is correct” and then goes about explaining how different parts of the elephant (or God) look. It’s a story that tries saying “hey, you can’t be exclusive in your understanding of God” and then goes about providing an exclusive prospective of God. Even the person who says “God cannot be known by anyone” is providing a statement that is objective and excludes many religious adherents. Can you justify the exclusion of the exclusive? Can your tolerance of others spread to those who have intolerant views?

An exclusive way is allowable because we are all exclusive in our perspectives on God.

Is an exclusive way knowable?

I have some sympathy for people struggling with this question and in my last post before this one I struggled with the question on a personal level. Here’s a question for us though – what do we really know? A famous philosopher named Zhuangzi came up with the problem of the butterfly dream: how do we know we are not butterflies dreaming we are humans? In a dream, any scientific method and logical proofs are stuck within the dream; we have no way of truly proving we are not butterflies dreaming we are human. So even to say “I exist” we take a leap of faith.

I think it’s okay to do that… to take a leap of faith. We do it everyday. When I sit down in my chair I have faith that the chair can support my weight (but if I keep eating at Bomber more and more I may start to lose that faith). Faith is cool. It’s everyday’s reality. Don’t be scared of faith. But don’t be scared of reason either.

Let us reason together, how do we come to know what is true? Perhaps the media, perhaps science/reason, perhaps a holy book. I think it’s smart for us to come to a conclusion to this question. We must make a decision. The media and science may disagree – which do you go with? So have you arrived at a destination? What is your source of truth? Now that you know that, I must now again ask us to be reasonable. Let’s say you choose a holy book – why do you know that holy book to be the best source of truth? You can’t say it is because of the holy book saying so, that’s circular logic. Same with science/reason, you cannot prove that science/reason is the best source of truth without using circular logic. I hate to break the news to you, but there is no way to arrive at the best source from which to receive truth without taking a step of faith. Embrace it. Don’t be scared of faith. But don’t be scared of reason either.

Jesus is the only way to God

How did I come to the conclusion that Jesus is the only way to God? I already identified above that taking a leap of faith is necessary in most life decisions, and this is no exception. However, when we look at this question, and look at Christianity, I see four quick reasons that reinforce the idea that Jesus really is the only way to God.

1. Jesus’ outrageous claims deserve outrageous attention. If a country was looking for mass murderer and then someone walked into a police station saying “I’m that guy” wouldn’t it make sense to assess that guy instead of going through each member of the population alphabetically? Jesus said he was God, therefore it makes sense to assess him first.
2. Jesus’ way to God is testable. Within Jesus’ Christianity, faith in him is absolutely and admittedly useless unless Jesus historically rose from death (see 1 Corinthians 15). Disprove the resurrection and you disprove Christianity. The problem is that the evidence points to the resurrection being true – unmistakeably true (see the Resurrection of the Son of God, by NT Wright).
3. Jesus champions the most inclusive view of getting to God. Unlike other religions with their rituals, moral practices, and high levels of spirituality needed to enter their version of God/nirvana/etc.., Christianity has the most inclusive way. It’s open for all through faith alone. Faith is incredibly simple. We already established that you do it everyday. Christianity is having faith that Jesus is your Lord and Saviour; the God over all and the forgiver of your sins.
4. Jesus’ way is humbling. People don’t like those arrogant exclusive religions. That’s cool. Religious deeds, based on human effort and moral practice, when achieved, only make one more likely to look down their nose at lesser spiritual people. However, Christianity at its core is about humans saying we have no significance through our own efforts, moral practice, or religious rituals – it is through Jesus and Jesus alone. Christianity’s view on this is unique – and it leads to humility rather than smug arrogance.

In closing, know that we are all exclusive so we must allow exclusive perspective. Know that we all take faith leaps and cannot have anything fully proven. And know that Jesus’ way is humbling, testable, inclusive, and outrageous. Jesus said he was God – it makes sense to consider how to respond to that. Is he your Lord? Or is he a liar or lunatic?

It’s you who has to take the leap of faith.

“There’s no way to know what’s really true, therefor Christians can’t claim they have exclusive truth”

The short response is simply: “Is that statement true? How do you know that statement is true”  But I’ll explain in more detail.

this is the written version:

This statement is very similar to an example of blind men and an elephant.  (diagram and Elephant diagram) … so the elephant is like God, and all these religions are blind. They touch and feel different parts of the elephant, the Christian says he’s like a snake, and lanky… the Muslim says he’s firm and strong like a tree… and so on… But they are all blind, so they cant say they know everything. In fact, all religions may just be partial truths of the same thing.
So back to the statement “theres no way to know whats true”… and basically there’s no way of seeing the elephant, because everyone is blind.
The problem is that you place yourself out here, you are the only person that isn’t blind, and the only person that really knows what the elephant looks like.The statement contradicts itself… its like many strong truth claims against knowing truth:

“there is no truth” – (is this statement true?)
“no one can know any truth about religion” (then how did you come up with that truth about religion?)
“there is no way to know what’s really true?” (then in what way did you discover that that statement is true?”

And my point is this, you cannot make that statement without contradicting yourself. 2ndly, no one lives there life like this. You wouldn’t go to university if there was no way to discover what’s true.

But there’s still an elephant in the room. We still have to figure out God.(change scenery)

Some people respond they simple want to live a life under the golden rule, that they treat other people the way they would like to be treated. –I’m always tempted to call plagerism at this point… i mean jesus came up with that first… —

Would you rather have an objective God, or a subjective god?

Assuming you believe in some sort of God, you can’t simply create your own new God. All religions are not the same, muslims think Christians are blamphous when they speak of how God can personally talk to them. Hindu’s believe in millions of gods, and Jewish people completely reject the idea of a Jesus Messiah…
For you to say that God accepts all religions equally – you are creating a new religion. It’s actually a bigger leap of faith to claim this then to have faith in Christianity. Because that faith is subjective.

I’m way off track. Back to the question. How do we find truth.
Regardless if Christianity is true… Christianity does make the biggest claims about knowing what’s true. Other religions are based on men who dreamt God, or perhaps visited God for a brief period of time. But Christianity is the only major world religion that has God coming to us. As the Son of God, Jesus says he is from heaven, from God, and that he is eternal. Jesus declares the only way to get to God is through him.
These are huge statements. And if they are true, then they outweigh any other dreams/thoughts/visits to god, because those are subjectivity based. So if you get to Jesus, you get to God.
Now this means that if true, Jesus is the best way to get truth about God. Regardless of what other men or women say.

In closing… some of you won’t take the time to study the historical Jesus and I admit that scholars will debate Jesus’ exact words… but in our life practically we never reject peoples claims. If you need to interview someone for a job, and they say they are honest, hardworking, and punctual… its hard to believe them. You can check references and ask around, but you will never know if who they say they are is true until you make a committeement. This is faith. It’s a committement, and sometimes you have to step inside that commitment inorder to really figure if out if the employee is who they say they are.
Now faith is Jesus is alittle different, but you get the idea.

Next up (goal to post every wednesday night)
– Christians only believe because of their social setting (because their parents believed)
– Problem of Evil – how did bad things happen to good people and how can a loving God let evil occur?
– Does God Exist?
– Science/evolution
– Religion does more harm than good
– How can a loving God send someone to hell.

Isn’t Christianity the same morals as all religions?

“Christian morals, and beliefs are the same as all other faiths. All religions are the same”

… “so why do I need Christianity if it’s basically all the same anyways?”

For a culture that makes tolerance so important, the above answer is very intolerant. This is dismissing people’s beliefs without even considering what they are. Think about it, it’s like someone saying “All students at Waterloo are basically study freaks and unsocial anyways, I don’t need them, I’m going to Western instead.” Or maybe your old highschool friend would say “All kinesiology students are just going to become gym teachers, I don’t need that anyways”.

Logically, you cannot dismiss a faith on a generalization of all faiths.

Muslims and Jews think Jesus wasn’t God, Christians do. Buddhism believes you can have multiple re-incarnations and live many times, Christians believe in one physical life that needs to be born again by Jesus and not by man. Already, we can see there are many differences between beliefs – (the difference is almost always Jesus).

Logically, you cannot reject a faith on a generalization of truths.

Most of what I’m talking about in this misconception stems from a pluralist perspective; truth about Jesus is relative to each individual person. So whether or not Jesus is God – who cares? – whatever is good for you is good for you; we need to accept all perspectives. I apologize for being blunt, but isn’t this a bit stupid? Like if I told you a car is coming on the road and is about to hit you, would you say “that’s your perspective, whatever is good for you is good for you.” There’s a car. It’s real. And there’s a Jesus, he’s real. He drank wine 2000 years ago, was murdered and tortured, and then came back to life. Thats a truth you have to deal with (and not something to put off).

In Islam, it’s about what you do.
In Buddhism, it’s about how you feel.
In Christianity, it’s about who you are.

This is where morals are reconstructed. Perhaps you would say that as long as your living the same morals as Christians, your still okay. Your problem again is Jesus. Jesus spoke about morals a lot, but he repeatedly came back to where morals stem from – the heart. You see you can’t be a good person unless you have a purely good heart. This heart is not found in your own human will, it’s found in Jesus’ divine power. So in Christianity, we believe that God’s identity replaces our identity. Your will, your own morals, are not good enough. It is only when Jesus’ identity replaces our identity that we become Christian. Morals stem from Jesus. Humility, love, compassion, mercy, grace, and general goodness must start with Jesus, and continue with Jesus – because he is the centre of our faith.

So what I’ve said here, is that:
1. Religions are different, you gotta figure Jesus out
2. The truth about Jesus is based on truth, not perspective
3. Christian morals are completely different than other religions, because they start and are maintained in Jesus.

It’s at least something to talk about… right?