The Falsehood of Religious Equivalence

I finished reading Encounters With Jesus by Timothy Keller and truly enjoyed the book.  There were several great sections from the book that are worth reading over again.  One section, from the chapter, “The Courage of Mary,” dives into the falsehood of religious equivalence:

So you either have to say that Jesus Christ is, as the Bible claims, the unique Creator God who has come in the flesh, which makes Christianity a better revelation of God than other religions – or you have to say that he was wrong or lying, which makes him and his followers a worse revelation of God.  But Christianity can’t be a religion just like the rest.

Some years ago I was on a panel with a Muslim cleric, talking about our differences in front of a group of college students.  And one college student kept insisting, “Well, I listened to you both for twenty minutes, and I want you to know that I just don’t see any real difference between you.  I just don’t see any difference between religions.  It seem s like they’re basically saying God is love and we should love God and love one another.”  In our responses to the student the cleric and I were in complete agreement.  At first glance it looks tolerant to say “you are both alike,” but each of us argued gently that the student was not showing enough respect to listen to each religion’s distinctive voice.  Each faith had made unique claims that contradicted the deepest teachings of other faiths.  And so, we concluded, while each faith could certainly appreciate wisdom in the other, we couldn’t both be right at the deepest level.  The student maintained his position, saying that all religions are fundamentally alike.

Ironically, the young man was being every bit as dogmatic, superior, and ideological as any traditional religious adherent can be.  He was saying, in essence, “I have the true view of religion, and you don’t.  I can see that you are alike, but you can’t.  I am spiritually enlightened, and you aren’t.”  But as I spoke to him a bit afterward I concluded that he was motivated by an underlying fear.  If he granted that any religion made unique claims, then he would have to decide whether or not those claims were true.  He did not want the responsibility of having to ponder, weigh it all, and choose.  Among young secular adults it is common to adopt this belief that all religions are roughly the same.  Dare I say this is a form of emotional immaturity?  Life is filled with hard choices, and it is childish to think you can avoid them.  It may seem to get you out of a lot of hard work, but the idea of the equivalence of religions is simply a falsehood.  Every religion, even those that appear more inclusive, makes its own unique claim.  But Jesus’ claims are particularly unnerving, because if they are true, there is no alternative but to bow the knee to him.

Don’t All Religions Lead to God?

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Jill Carattini

We live in a context of spiritual longing. Many people are searching for that which will satisfy an inner craving for meaning and significance. The artist Damian Hirst recently said this: “Why do I feel so important when I’m not? Nothing is important and everything is important. I do not know why I am here but I am glad that I am. I’d rather be here than not. I am going to die and I want to live forever, I can’t escape that fact, and I can’t let go of that desire.”

But this does not always translate into people finding Christ and starting to follow him. There is a dizzying array of options when it comes to religion, and the culture around us says that they are all equally valid. It seems absolutely bizarre to people that someone would say, “This one way is the truth and the only truth.”  The poet Steve Turner describes brilliantly what many think when it comes to religion: “Jesus was a good man just like Buddha, Mohammed, and ourselves. We believe he was a good teacher of morals but we believe that his good morals are really bad. We believe that all religions are basically the same, at least the one we read was. They all believe in love and goodness, they only differ on matters of creation, sin, heaven, hell, God, and salvation.”

In my experience, there are usually two motivations for dismissing the idea that Christ is the only way to God, and we need to examine them both. The first objection is that it is arrogantto say that Jesus is the only way. How could Christians possibly be so arrogant as to say that all the other religions are wrong and Jesus is the only path to God? Often the parable of the elephant is used to illustrate the sheer arrogance of Christianity. It goes something like this: “Three blind scribes are touching different parts of an elephant. The one who is holding the tail says, “This is a rope.” Another holding the elephant’s leg says, “This is not a rope; you are wrong. It is a tree.” Still another who is holding the trunk of the elephant says, “You are both wrong. It is a snake!” The moral of the story is that all religions are like these men. They each touch a different part of ultimate reality and therefore any one of them is arrogant to say they have the whole truth.

But take a step back and think about what is being said here. Do you see the breathtaking claim that is being made? Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Moses, and Muhammad are all blind, but in fact, I can see! These leaders all had a small perspective, but I am the one who sees the full picture. Now who is being arrogant? It is just as arrogant to say that Buddha, Muhammad, and Jesus were all wrong in their exclusive claims as it is to say that Jesus is the only way. The issue is not about who is arrogant, but what is actually true and real.

The second motivation in dismissing Christ is often a question of exclusion. How can you exclude all of these religions? Jesus may have said he was the way to the Father, but how can I follow him and become an intolerant person who excludes others? Again, we need to think carefully about this view because the reality is that whatever position we hold will exclude something. Even the person who believes that all ways lead to God excludes the view that only some ways lead to God or that only one way leads to God. Every view excludes something. Again, the issue is not about who is excluding people, but what is actually true and real.

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except by me” (John 14:6). There are a number of possibilities here for why he might have said this, and exploring these possibilities is crucial. First, perhaps he was genuinely a good person but he was deluded.  He was sincere, but he was wrong; he believed that he was the Son of God, but he wasn’t. In other words, he was mentally imbalanced. Or second, perhaps Jesus knewhe wasn’t God but went around telling people that he was the only way to God regardless. In other words, he was a sinister character purposely telling lies. Or finally, perhaps Jesus was who he said he was. Perhaps he made these radical statements because they were true and real. In other words, he is indeed the way to God.

Amy Orr-Ewing is  is director of programmes for the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics and UK director for Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Oxford, England.

Truth, Exclusivity, and Christianity with Ravi Zacharias

“You know professor, I think the time has come for us in the Islamic world to stop asking if Jesus Christ died and to start asking why.”
(Top Shiite Cleric in Damascus, Syria) Sheikh Hussein in a conversation with Ravi Zacharias about Islam and Christianity.  

While responding to a question, “How do you know that Christianity is the one true worldview?” Ravi Zacharias discussed the cross of Christ, the resurrection, and revealed a conversation he had permission to tell from a top Islamic cleric.  The cleric turned to Ravi, admitted that the Muslim belief in the “swoon theory” (basically, Jesus passed out but did not die on the cross) didn’t hold water factually.  Sheikh Hussein’s comment, “You know professor, I think the time has come for us in the Islamic world to stop asking if Jesus Christ died and to start asking why,” is a demonstration of a man who is starting to seek “true truth” and not just “preferred truth.”

For the entire video and the context of the quote, check out the video:

 

Pontius Pilate Revisited

“What is truth?”  In the world today the response to Pontius Pilate’s question is often, “Well, it’s relative”.  What does the Bible say?  What is God’s view on truth?  The second installment of “One Way Jesus: A Call to Confidence in the Exclusivity of Christ” is a great message on truth and its absoluteness.  Check it out in UA Christian Assembly’s audio website entitled Pontius Pilate Revisited.

One Way Jesus – Dazed & Confused

A new sermon series, One Way Jesus: A Call to Confidence in the Exclusivity of Christ, done in class form is being produced.  I believe that the series is going to be around twenty sessions of 45 minutes to 1 hour long each.  The series is dealing with the exclusive claims of Christ and Christianity.

This first message, with cool intro music and everything, is posted at the media section of UA Christian Assembly’s website.  This first session is titled: One Way Jesus: Dazed and Confused in the 21st Century.

This first message is a great introduction to the topic.  The website describes this first message as “a diagnosis of the current confused state of Christianity concerning the uniqueness of Christ.”  It lays out three of the major views regarding the exclusive claims of Christ, helps debunk the thought that Christianity is the only “exclusive” worldview, and some strong cases for Christians holding to the exclusivity of Christ.