“Is Jesus the only way?"

At the church where I serve we are in the middle of a sermon series entitled Skeptic. During this series we are spending our time looking at the eight common questions that skeptics pose as a challenge to the Christian faith. And as we go through this series, our hope and prayer is that we would address these eight common questions that skeptics pose to challenge Christianity in way that answers these questions and that equips us to have confidence and convictions about the nature and character of God and His activity in the world around us.

This week I would like for us to spend our time together addressing the third of these eight common questions skeptics pose as a challenge to Christianity. And that question is this: “Is Jesus the only way? In other words, “do Christians believe that there is only one way to God and that everyone who is not a Christian is condemned by God?”

For the person who asks this skeptical question, the objection to the idea that Jesus is the only way to experience a right relationship with God goes something like this: How can you believe that there is only one way to God and that everyone that is not a Christian is going to Hell because they do not adhere to their religious dogma? How narrow minded and judgmental is that? How can there be only one way to God? I mean, just look at all the different religions out there? Isn't it arrogant to claim that Christianity has the sole grasp on religious truth and a way to experience a relationship with God?”

And this is how Christianity is often perceived in our culture today. And unfortunately, sometimes much of this conversation rings true. Unfortunately, there are Christians who are judgmental, intolerant, close minded, bigoted, and mean spirited. And unfortunately, there have been times in history where Christianity has wrongly attempted to impose their views upon others by force.

In addition, in many ways, there is nothing more offensive to our modern, pluralistic ears than the Christian claim that Jesus Christ alone provides the way to God. And how Christians often articulate that claim often doesn't help, does it? Unfortunately, Christians also fail to represent Jesus well when they talk to others about Him. And these two factors often lead to several objections to the claim that Jesus is the only way to experience a relationship with God.

Today I would like for us to address the five most common objections to the claim that Jesus is the only way to experience a right relationship with God. The first objection to the claim that Jesus is the only way to God sounds something like this: Well Dave, who can know "the truth" about something so vast and mysterious as God? If God is so vast and mysterious as you say, isn't it better to simply understand that people are doing their best to grasp some aspect about the truth of God? Aren’t you being arrogant by claiming that you can know that there is only one way to God and that way is Jesus, if God is so vast and mysterious?

If that objection resonates in your mind, I just want to let you know that you are raising an interesting objection. And if we were having a conversation in the Courtyard coffeehouse, here would be my response: Isn’t is arrogant to claim that the truth about God is much greater than anyone can grasp?

To make the claim that the truth about God is beyond what anyone can grasp is actually an arrogant claim because they are claiming that they are the ones who can see more about God. You see, those who claim that the truth about God is greater than anyone can grasp are actually claiming that they have a knowledge about God that is superior to all others. Those who claim that the truth about God is greater than anyone can grasp are actually claiming that they know absolutely what everybody else only knows partially.

The second objection to the claim that Jesus is the only way to God also addresses the issue of arrogance. This objection sounds something like this: Well Dave, isn’t it arrogant to claim that Christianity has the sole grasp on religious truth and the way to experience a relationship with God? Isn’t it arrogant to say that Jesus is the only way?

If that objection resonates in your mind, here would be my response: The claim that Jesus is the only way to God is only arrogant if it is not true. You see, whether a claim is true or not makes the difference as to whether that claim is arrogant or not.

And intuitively we know this to be true, right? No one claims that someone is arrogant if they claim that water is wet? No one claims that someone is arrogant if they claim that 2 + 2 = 4. And while people can come off as arrogant by how they communicate what they claim to be true, which is wrong, the timeless reality is that whether a claim is true or not makes the difference as to whether that claim is arrogant or not. So the real question is this: is the message of Christianity true? Is the message of Christianity really distinctive from other religions and true as opposed to other religions?

Now this leads to a third objection to the claim that Jesus is the only way to God, which sounds something like this: Well Dave, aren't all religions basically the same? And isn't it more Christian to be humble about other religions and recognize that there may be many paths that lead to God and that ultimately all those paths eventually end up at the same destination, which is a relationship with God?

If that objection resonates in your mind, here would be my response: Anyone who follows any religious system does not believe that all religious systems believe and teach the same thing.  While there is some truth in most religions at a base level, the higher you go in learning the specifics about them, the more contrasts and differences you see in major foundational issues. For example, Muslims know that they differ significantly with Christians and Jews. Buddhists and Jews have a radically different view about the nature of God.

In addition, every religious system believes that they are exclusive. Even atheism, which is a religious system by the way, has a system of beliefs that must be trusted in as being true and right. And because two competing truth claims cannot be equally true; and because every religious system believes in its exclusive truth, then only one of two things can be true: either every religious system is wrong or one religious system is right.

Now that leads to a fourth objection to the claim that Jesus is the only way to God. This objection, when articulated, sounds something like this: Aren’t religious belief culturally conditioned? Shouldn't Christians realize they are Christians because they were brought up in Christian families in America? If they would have been brought up in Morocco, they would be Muslim. If they would have been brought up in India, they would be Hindus. Isn’t religion a result of culture and geography?

If that objection resonates in your mind, here would be my response: If what you are saying is actually true, then aren’t your claims about religion culturally conditioned? For example, pluralism, or the idea that there are many ways or paths to God, is a relatively new phenomenon and has not been popular historically in the world at large. So should someone who is a pluralist be a pluralist because that has not been a culturally evident reality until recently. How can one say that all claims about religion are historically and culturally conditioned except the one that they are making right now? The fact that someone claims to be a pluralist discredits the very claim that religion is culturally conditioned.

The fifth objection to the claim that Jesus is the only way to God sounds something like this: Well Dave, Not only is the Christian claim of the only way to God arrogant: it is also divisive. Isn't religion the cause of the deepest conflicts in the world today? Don't we need to find ways to unite people instead of dividing people? But instead of uniting people, Christians seem to do the opposite with their judgmental, intolerant, close minded bigoted views. And they can be so mean spirited. Can't we just coexist? What about being more tolerant?

If that objection resonates in your mind, here would be my response: When you are arguing for Christians to be tolerant, aren’t you making a claim of having absolute truth? You see, the reason that the argument for tolerance is actually a claim of absolute truth is due to the fact that the definition of tolerance has changed recently in our culture.

Historically, tolerance has been defined as having the right to be wrong. However, in the post-modern, pluralistic culture that we live in today, tolerance is defined as affirming that everyone is right and that nobody is wrong, no matter what they believe or do. So for the pluralist, for the person who believes that there are many ways or paths to God, to dismiss the Christian claim of truth under the banner of tolerance is to make their own claim to absolute truth. And for those who claim that there is no absolute truth, I have a simple question for you: do you believe that absolutely?

You see there is absolute truth. And everyone believes in absolute truths. Now, the problem with this definition of tolerance and the call not to judge is that two competing truths cannot both be true at the same time. For example, take gravity. Now one person could claim that gravity exists; another could claim that gravity does not exist. But both truths cannot be equally true: either gravity exists, or it does not exist.

You see, only in the moral or spiritual realm would anyone think to live life in a way that believes that two competing truths can be equally true. And because every religious system believes in its exclusive truth, then only one of two things can be true: either every religious system is wrong or one religious system is right.

And the timeless reality is that the message of Christianity is distinctive and unique from every other religious system because it is a message about a unique person-Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is unique in His activity in history that provides humanity the opportunity to experience a relationship with God. Jesus is unique in who He is as God in a bod. And Jesus is unique in that Jesus Himself is the personification of truth. We see this reality revealed for us in a section of an account of Jesus life in the Bible called the gospel of John.

Tomorrow we will look at this account together…