Jesus only. Yeah, I know. It seems narrow. And it’s certainly uncomfortable, even for many Christ-followers. But . . . should we always expect truth to be comfortable?
Some folks think the existence of evil and suffering proves that God doesn’t exist. Actually, if anything, it more likely proves He does.
If God is as Christians claim, loving and caring, then surely He won’t hold us accountable for believing correctly. Right?
Have you ever thought about the “counter claims” between “just one true religion” and “all religions have part of the truth but not all of it”?
President Obama’s recent decision to allow for stem cell research to expand to the human embryo is a big deal. So what are the issues at stake . . . or is it just tissue we’re talking about?
The question regarding human embryonic stem cells is not whether it’s human life. The secular scientists tell us that the human embryo is both living and distinctly human. The question then becomes, what is the nature and value of human life.
Some people think it’s not cool to talk about God in public debate/discourse. President Obama talks about “separating idealogy from the science.” Sounds okay . . . but there is human life involved here.
I don’t know if you’ve seen this really cool movie entitled “Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium”. While not a theistic or Judeo-Christian movie, it asks this really big question…is there more to life than what we see? Or, in the language of the movie, “Is it just a box?”
A lot of people are generally okay with Christianity but it’s the thing about “Jesus only” which is the big turn off. How can God be fair if there’s only one way to Him? Well, here’s a new take on Christ alone.
Talk about the ultimately uncomfortable topic! Hell is a myth, right? Nobody really believes this stuff, right? Well, think about this. Isn’t hell a subject so deadly serious that at least at some point in our lives we need to take a moment and think seriously about it?
A lot of people think God is a myth? Really? What are the odds of us having a universe to begin with, much less an ordered one?
For too long the church has just been “running the machinery”. We’ve forgotten about people, serving them, and going out of our way to winsomely share the message of Christ.
March 5th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
Raised as a Jew, the “Jesus only” belief was even more difficult to accept because in history there was so much persecution perpetrated against the Jewish people in the name of Christ. It was only after I read first hand in the New Testament what Jesus Himself taught about our relationships with God and each other that I realized the church and its adherents (so called Christians) had misrepresented Jesus. If they truly followed Jesus’ teachings, they would love all people including Jewish people. I also prayed regularly to the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob to show me whether Jesus was the Messiah and my Savior and, of course, He did. As a side note, in recent years I attended another Reformed Church – the Lutheran Church. In one of the classes I took there, I read in Luther’s small catechism that God does not hear the prayers of non-Christians. After the class I spoke to the Pastor and explained how I had prayed to God before becoming a Christian and that He certainly answered my prayers by revealing Jesus to me. The Pastor smiled and said, “Well, Luther didn’t get everything right.”
March 10th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
John, thanks so much for your comment. I have been thinking about how easily we get it backwards. Many think that “Jesus only” is narrow minded or, if true, that it makes God unfair. Yet, from one perspective a door is narrow, but the real truth is that the door is the way into a much wider world. Jesus said “I am the door” and the point is that many in our culture may need to rethink “Jesus only.” Maybe, rather than being a small or narrow thought, “Jesus only” is the beginning (the doorway) into the whole of the truth of God. Imagine coming to a doorway, walking through it, and finding on the other side a world far larger, more intense, and wondrous than you could imagine. I think faith in Christ is exactly like that. We bow before Him and suddenly we discover the enormity, grace, and power of God’s Kingdom. “Jesus only,” while it may be focused truth, is the entry way into the amazing reality of god the Father.
March 10th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
God is a myth. He does not exist.
March 10th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
Babner, thanks for your post. I used to think the same thing, was quite convinced of it actually. I grew up in a very bright family, went to one of the finest prep schools in the Midwest, and attended on the top public universitites in America. And then, something amazing happened. I had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ. Could “my encounter” have been a self-generated religious illusion? Surely. But here is what I know . . . before meeting Christ my life was empty and I was increasingly self-destructive. Since I have met (31 years ago now) my life took shape and focus. I found meaning, beauty, purpose, and moral strength. As John Newton wrote so long ago, “I once was lost, but now am found.” That’s my story . . . Christ is the defining truth of my life.
March 11th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
Right on pastor Nate! Hit the nail right on the head. Enough to leave one to want to ask ?’s w/out being abraisive. Keep up the good work! We’ve got your back fearless leader! one of your lambs
April 12th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
I was thinking on the way home from church this afternoon about Jesus’ teaching about Himself being the only way to God. While it may sound narrow, rather it is neither an exclusive nor an elitist statement when read in light of other Scriptures. In fact, it is very inclusive - the only “credentials” you need is to recognize your need for God. It really can’t be based on anything else. If it were based on merit, who could really measure up when comparing themselves to the perfection of the Creator? And He must be perfect otherwise I don’t believe His creation would have survived. I find that many people I have spoken to recently are mad at God because of a bad church experience, a childhood trauma, etc. But I think many of these people WANT to believe in God. I recently spoke to a woman during a business trip who had a bad experience in the Catholic Church (it could have been any church). She railed and railed about the hypocrisy, etc. And yet, before the plane took off, she “crossed” herself. Then we had a great conservation where she listened to my experience and that like her I had every reason to hold a grudge against the church (Historical and personal Anti-semitism and Anti-Jewish experiences). But as I explained to her, it was my examination of Jesus’ actual teachings that convinced me, a Jew, that He was the way to an intimate relationship with the God of Abraham. Isaac and Jacob. She was quiet for a while and then made a critical remark about women being treated like dirt in the days of Jesus. With this I responded, (and it had to be the Holy Spirit operating at this point) isn’t interesting that Jesus spent so much time with women and astounding that some of the very first witnesses to the Resurrection were women. I told her it sounded to me like the story of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection must be true. If fabricated, it seemed to me that the Gospel writer’s would never had written about the role of women in Jesus’ life much less as the first witnesses to His resurrection. After a short pause, the woman seemed to have a “V8 moment” and responded, “I never thought of that.” This was just an approximately one hour conversation that I had with this woman sitting on an airplane. As Pastor Nate and I discussed briefly after church one Sunday, it is in our conversations with others that the opportunities to the big questions in life can occur (Please correct me if I mis-quoted you). Not everyone will be open to such discussion (one woman I sat next to on an airplane slept the whole time), but some will.